My new car ;D

Hey Mogar, Welcome!

First off do the low beams work?

Or better yet do the headlights open & lock in place?

On most GT2 headlight set-ups the high beams are activated by pulling the turn signal arm towards you. (you should here a click from a relay up front)

Best case scenario is both of your high beams are burned out try replacing one with a good bulb.

worst case scenario is there is a problem with the relay or worse the wiring.

Someone else on the board who is more electric savvy will chime in to help with that info.

You'll need wiring diagrams to help figure that out.

Rear directionals could be a problem with a ground wire, since it's a plastic car,

the ground has to come from the metal chassis.

Get under the drivers side rear fender and take some time to look things over

like do you see a ground wire coming from the chassis going to the lights?

Is your exhaust system rusty and toasty looking with holes and stuff?

Then it's probably better to replace whatever it needs the parts are available and not expensive.

If it's not rust and crumbling, maybe just the clamps holding the pieces together are loose

or muffler to engine exhaust pipe connections are loose or maybe a loose or broken bolt?

Front end maybe easier to got to a shop and have it checked out.

Floor pans? To get past inspection you could pop-rivet some aluminum patches,

usually inspectors don't want to see daylight coming thru the floors,

Maine winters will do that!

good luck & take your time with it,

t looks like a nice ride!

PS when you get some of the problems worked out, check out the discussions here about 'Butt-sag"

judging from the fit of the door, like many of us, you got it!

all the best

Mike Horen

OK the first pix looks pretty toasted, best advice is get a VW manual that covers how this all comes apart & what you need to either clean up or replace.

Next pix, someone's done some messing with the electrics, there are two switches on the gauge consul which should be controlling the headlight locking up & down

& on & off, you need the GT2 build manual do a search on this board for a thread on the CD for the GT2 from Jeff Troy he offers it for around $35.00 and study it

for the headlight wiring & electrics.

Your third pix shows a broken sway bar or stabilizer bar. A used one is not expensive and comparatively easy to replace,

some folks think it's OK to take it off completely but refer to a good VW repair manual.

Pix #4 try pushing the door button it's supposed to release that dog that's turned in, if that doesn't work try pulling on the latch on the inside of the door

if it seems stuck try spraying some liquid wrench and let it sit a while, or refer to the GT2 build manual.

Pix 5 I believe is a breather connected to the oil fill spout and really doesn't have anything more than a rubber tip to keep out dirt and moisture

check the VW repair manual on that, I'm not at home right now so I can't verify that.

If you live in Maine there's a guy in Vermont that deals in huge amounts of used VW air-cooled parts. Search this website for info parts etc. : www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/

Now you've got your homework so get busy!

Seriously there are a bunch of people on this board who know 100 times more than me and can give you good advice, I'm sure they'll chime in and help you

Well first of all WELCOME! You have entered the fun, and often frustrating, world of 30 year old kit cars!

To answer some of your questions....

1. You have an old rusty exhaust. Maybe your heater boxes are still good...maybe they are not. One of the problems with these old cars are the amount of rust (especially in the North East) that eat into components. Sometimes trying to get out of it the cheapest way possible is very frustrating. I would start the PB Blaster on the exhaust bolts (at the heads) now just in case. The start looking for an exhaust and be prepared for possible heater boxes.

2. The headlight lift design on these cars SUCK! They use a windshield wiper motor and two limit switches to make the headlight come up and down. What you have is a classic example of the limit switches being out of adjustment. A Bradley manual would help here. However adjusting the switches is not the answer. They will just get out of whack some night when you are driving home and your lights will pop up and down as you go down the street. Your real answer is a linear actuator. You can search the forums and see how they are installed.

3. You do have rear directionals. They are controlled by a "trailer converter" whcih is a small electrical box up under the dash. They are notoriously unreliable...especially the older ones. The GTII has a single, dual filament bulb on each side. The smaller (ie: dimmer) filament is for your parking brakes. The larger (ie: brighter) is for your brakes & turn signals. The problem arises when you step on the brakes AND try to use a turn signal. You only have one filament trying to do two jobs. The brake signal basically over rides the turn signal. So they created a converter which knows when the turn signal is applied and essentially blocks the brake signal to that side, allowing the blinker to flash. They are called "trailer" converters because they are used on things like boat trailers which have the same type of light set up as the Bradley. So you can dig around the wiring to see if it is done correctly and if so then you might need a trailer converter replacement. Fun times on your back await you!

4. Your sway bar doesn't look broken to me. I do see some grease leakage around the lower trailing arms. There is a seal where the arm goes into the torsion spring tube. Maybe the inspector saw that grease and thought it was "loose". If the arm is loose then there is a grub screw that can be tightened. I bet it was just the grease he saw though. Seals are cheap and relatively easy to replace.

5. The part that you think should be connected to something is just a vent tube for the engine case. It is supposed to be vented to the atmosphere. As previously stated there is a little seal that goes on it but its no big deal to run without it.

Likely due to butt sag. Do you have evidence of it in the doors?

Before you consider any exhaust I would post a link here. You will save yourself alot of frustration getting opinions on what works and what doesn't.

My order of preference would be the second one, followed by the third one, followed by the first one.

Although it has been years (15 as a matter of fact!) since I built the GT2 so I would certainly take someone's advice who currently has one.

Since you likely have adapters on your wheels (converting from a 4 or 5 bolt VW to likely a Chevy pattern) you will probably need to replace the adapter. There are two styles.

For the 4 bolt:
www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ACC%2DC10%2D6706

For the VW 5 bolt:
www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ACC%2DC10%2D6705

Whether you have 4 bolt VW or 5 bolt VW will depend on the year of your chassis. You can just take the wheel off to see as well. If you have broken a stud I think you need a new adapter. I don't think you can press a new stud in.

You can also look at The Samba for used adapters:
www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1681938

To get Jeff Troy's CD, his contact information is on the following link.
bradleygt.proboards.com/user/58

It is very good.
.

So I decided to clean up the passenger door lock because it's missing a rod from the handle to the mechanism. I took a before and after picture.

Ill be getting some new hardware for it as well; stainless steel. I was wondering if I should put any anti-corrosion coating on it and what kind? Also the alternator pulley belt was loose and i watched a u-tube video and then went out and did it myself. I am amazed at the simplicity and quickness i was able to adjust the belt. It took less than 4 mins.

I used a (glass) bead blaster to remove all the junk, However, While vacuuming the carpet i flipped it up and saw some rust ( I wasn't surprised it was there) but it was a lot more than I was expecting. I took pictures, of course, of the damage. As I saw more rust I decided to remove the seat and fold up the carpet. I'm surprised to see what looks like a brake line running right under my seat and carpet.



Looks like they coated it in some kind of plastic 


I also noticed that someone got a little excited with the drill

The black rubber (bottom of the picture) is actually hiding a piece of sheet steel but i haven't yet lifted that up.

So fella's and ladies (if present) Do you see anything out of the ordinary?

Looks like a body off restoration is in order.

Door Lock with new hardware

I do have a problem, the fiberglass where the latch bolts to has been sheared a bit. No matter how hard I pull that latch it wont snap the unlock because its loose.

I cleaned up the top window seal, someone had put thingying onto the seal. The fiberglass itself is pretty wavy

And I took off the 4 to 5 lug bolt conversion because I needed to fix one of the lugs, however,
WTH is this!!  I have no idea where i'm going to find another one and of course this is the broken lug.

As far as exhaust I have the third one on my gt ll.

Could you take a picture of what it looks like on your bradley? Also i'm planning on getting a Baja Rear bumper and using that to fix my butt sag woes. Im worried that the exhaust might hit the baja bumper. Does anyone know of instances of this happening?


www.appletreeauto.com/BAJA-REAR-SHOCK-MOUNT-BUMPER-5520/?gclid=CLby97ughMECFajm7Aod91YAsg

I have headlights. Starting from the column which wires do I trace? Color..

Looks like 5 and 6

www.bradleygt2.com/man/electricalE2a.php3

Of course they can be really anything depending on how many adult beverages the original builder was having at the time. And by looking at that wiring job I would say he had quite a few!