Given that I haven't said much about MacBooks or Fedora recently you would be forgiven for thinking that I'd given up on them. The reality is that the good ol' MacBook (yeah, coming on for 7 months old now) is doing splendidly and my 'Fedora Project' is well underway. The Fedora thing went off in an unexpected direction though:
The plan, after buying a copy of "Run Your Own Web Server Using Linux & Apache" was to install Fedora Core 4 on an old desktop PC so I could familiarise myself with it before switching my online web server over to it. However, we then decided to move house, had a barrel of laughs when a burst pipe in the loft soaked the place (on the day we moved in), and in the meantime observed that Fedora is currently up to Core 6 with Core 7 on the horizon. Then the folks I hire my server from came up with what must be the stupidest special offer in the history of dedicated server leasing: "hire one, get one free". I mean, whose going to be able to make sensible use of an offer like that? Well, me actually.
The lease on my old server was due for renewal so I renewed it for just a couple of months and took up the special offer (so I currently have three servers). What I've done is to put three of my 'play' sites on one server while my 'important' sites are going on the other. At the moment I'm just concentrating on getting everything moved over before the contract ends on the old server but when I'm done I'll be able to use the 'play' server to try things and learn the ins and outs of the OS with no fear of accidentally taking the 'important' sites off-line if I mess up.
The reason I haven't blogged about this to date is that I don't anticipate that it would be a whole lot of use to anybody. I didn't actually have to install Core 6 because the servers were supplied with it already installed. They were locked down such that the only way in was through SSH so I've had to go in, open other ports, start httpd, sendmail, mysqld etc. Not a lot of point me documenting that here (I've made notes for my own future reference) because unless you, dear reader, were to hire exactly the same type of server from the same company the chances are you'd be looking at a (slightly) different list of things to check off your to-do list in order to get up an running.
I will be blogging about some of my endeavours with Fedora as and when I anticipate that it may be interesting and/or useful for others. For example I bought four books (two about Fedora Core 6 and two about Webmin) whose usefullness I will no doubt comment upon at some point. In the meantime I'm just quietly getting on with it.
Monday 30 April 2007
Sunday 29 April 2007
Beetle Electrics
Vol 9 and 10 of the Bug Me Video DVDs deal with wiring (you can see what's on each by visiting http://vw-diy.com). It has to be said that they are not the most exciting volumes in the series (Vol 3 Complete Engine Rebuild and Vol 6 Floorpan Repair & Replacement are much more inspiring) however Vol 9 & 10 have been an absolute blessing this weekend.
The points on which my bug would have failed an MOT (see previous blog entry) are:
1. Rust on the heater channel.
2. Horn not working.
3. Hazzard lights not working.
4. Beam headlights not working.
5. Windscreen washers not working.
Ignoring the rust problem for the time being I spent much of the weekend going back and forth between MacBook (on which I was playing the DVDs) and the wiring under the bonnet.
The problem with the horn was straghtforward: it's missing from the car. In its stead was a rather nasty sounding air horn operated by a switch that was kind of hidden away UNDER the dash. I removed it and will be ordering a normal one tomorrow which I'll connect up properly.
I can't say for sure what was wrong with the hazzard lights and the headlights, but they work now. There was a rather knackered looking radio cassette player (now removed) inserted into the dash but not wired up. My guess is that at some point there was another radio (that a previous owner wanted to keep) and, judging by the number of lengths of wire that ran nowhere at all, probably a few other 'gadgets' as well. By observing how things should be on the DVDs I was able to confidently remove all of the surplus wiring. This enabled me to realise that there was something odd going on with the 9th and 10th fuses because, amongst other things, there was an inline fuse connected across them at the back. I didn't even bother trying to figure that out. I just removed it and swapped the wires around so they were as per the DVDs and presto hey: working hazzard lights and beam headlights.
With regard to the window washers: after removing the pipes from the switch and blowing down them to ascertain that they were not blocked, I'm pretty certain that it's the pump mechanism in the switch that's kaput. I may or may not replace that because I've noticed that Volkspares sell an "Electric Washer Bottle" which sounds like a much better option to me. I'll give them a call tomorrow and get a few more details before deciding.
In the meantime I'll be refreshing myself on what Vol 7 has to say about replacing heater channels.
The points on which my bug would have failed an MOT (see previous blog entry) are:
1. Rust on the heater channel.
2. Horn not working.
3. Hazzard lights not working.
4. Beam headlights not working.
5. Windscreen washers not working.
Ignoring the rust problem for the time being I spent much of the weekend going back and forth between MacBook (on which I was playing the DVDs) and the wiring under the bonnet.
The problem with the horn was straghtforward: it's missing from the car. In its stead was a rather nasty sounding air horn operated by a switch that was kind of hidden away UNDER the dash. I removed it and will be ordering a normal one tomorrow which I'll connect up properly.
I can't say for sure what was wrong with the hazzard lights and the headlights, but they work now. There was a rather knackered looking radio cassette player (now removed) inserted into the dash but not wired up. My guess is that at some point there was another radio (that a previous owner wanted to keep) and, judging by the number of lengths of wire that ran nowhere at all, probably a few other 'gadgets' as well. By observing how things should be on the DVDs I was able to confidently remove all of the surplus wiring. This enabled me to realise that there was something odd going on with the 9th and 10th fuses because, amongst other things, there was an inline fuse connected across them at the back. I didn't even bother trying to figure that out. I just removed it and swapped the wires around so they were as per the DVDs and presto hey: working hazzard lights and beam headlights.
With regard to the window washers: after removing the pipes from the switch and blowing down them to ascertain that they were not blocked, I'm pretty certain that it's the pump mechanism in the switch that's kaput. I may or may not replace that because I've noticed that Volkspares sell an "Electric Washer Bottle" which sounds like a much better option to me. I'll give them a call tomorrow and get a few more details before deciding.
In the meantime I'll be refreshing myself on what Vol 7 has to say about replacing heater channels.
Friday 27 April 2007
MOT - Reconnaissance
After some discussion on the VZi forum, where most folks seem to swear by the tools from the Halford's professional range, I did a trip over to the superstore in Norwich and had a good ol' spend. I came back with a 150 piece pro set (that's on special offer at the moment), plus a breaker bar, a compression tester, a 3 tonne trolley jack (nice big 'cup' on it that'll go right around the oil strainer cover plate for when I want to take the engine out), and a couple of 3-tonne axle stands (they were out of stock of the 2 tonne ones). I also bought a MIG welder and a compressor with air hammer and cut-off tools. Looks like I'm going to need them all too:
I took her round to the local garage yesterday and got them to run through the MOT checklist and tell me what'll need doing in order to get her through the real MOT; due at the end of May. I'm pleased to say there were no surprises as I already knew that the horn and window washers aren't working and I was pretty certain that the nearside heater channel was going to need replacing. Actually the garage said she needed welding on the door sill and floorpan but having seen one of these things in pieces (on the Bug Me Video DVDs) I know it's the heater channel.
The first job however is to create a place to work. The driveway at the side of our house is gravel so there's no way I can start jacking up a car on that. I'm in the process of pricing up concrete slabs.
I took her round to the local garage yesterday and got them to run through the MOT checklist and tell me what'll need doing in order to get her through the real MOT; due at the end of May. I'm pleased to say there were no surprises as I already knew that the horn and window washers aren't working and I was pretty certain that the nearside heater channel was going to need replacing. Actually the garage said she needed welding on the door sill and floorpan but having seen one of these things in pieces (on the Bug Me Video DVDs) I know it's the heater channel.
The first job however is to create a place to work. The driveway at the side of our house is gravel so there's no way I can start jacking up a car on that. I'm in the process of pricing up concrete slabs.
Saturday 21 April 2007
How to become a VW Beetle expert in 2 easy steps
Step 1: Go to http://www.vw-diy.com/ and buy all of the "Bug Me Video" DVDs.
Step 2: Watch them.
Seriously, these DVDs are the business.
At the beginning of this month I knew next to zip about cars but needed to learn fast because my old car was failing and I wanted to buy a Beetle.
My first purchase was a copy of "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot" by John Muir. This is regarded by many as the bible for Beetle maintenance and I would not argue with the suggestion that every Beetle owner should have a copy. Let's face it, the author died 30 years ago and the book is still selling and is currently in its 19th edition; how could it be anything other than a masterpiece?
As a total auto-dunce however, and without a Beetle in front of me to refer to, I found it hard to get into. (That's the beauty of the DVDs: you can see exactly what they are talking about). I am finding Mr Muir's book much more accessible now that the DVDs have shown me what's what and I actually have a bug parked outside so I can go out and look at the bit that's being described.
Another thing that should be taken into consideration about the book is that the cars were not nearly so old when it was written and this has consequences. For example, the section on how to assess a vehicle that you're thinking of buying makes no specific mention of the heater channels, an area that any current advice will draw great attention to. I guess when the book was written they were mostly in decent condition and Mr Muir would have simply walked away from a bugs with less serious problems in other areas on the grounds that there were plenty more to choose from. These days if you find a bug with good solid heater channels it's most probably because they've been replaced already. Similarly, unless the owner has gone out of their way to keep it original, you'll probably find that your average bug contains parts that were not available when the book was written.
My second acquisition (we'll get to the DVD's soon enough) was about 90 back issues of Volks World magazine that I found on eBay as a job lot. They date from about 1996 up to about 2001 so the adverts are out of date but pretty much all of the other information is still relevant. I found them particularly helpful, as I said in an earlier blog entry, in deciding what kind of Beetle I wanted. Now that I've bought the bug I dare say that they'll come in useful in the future as, with 90 issues to go at, there are articles on pretty much any aspect of maintenance and modifying that you can think of. It would have been difficult to use them for my initial learning however because the pieces of the puzzle would be presented in no particular order; whereas the DVDs start with the simple stuff and progress in a logical sequence.
Of course 90 back issues of Volks World (for 42.50) is also something of a lucky find however if you pay a quick visit to their website at http://www.volksworld.com/ you'll see that it's possible to buy books of articles and indeed, I bought "All practical articles on customising and restoring Beetles from 2000 to 2003." I have to say that I was disappointed when it arrived to find that it was a collection of not particularly nicely bound black and white photocopies of what were previously colour articles. In fairness though, the pictures are quite adequate even in black and white and while it doesn't look like fifteen quids worth of book it can't be denied that the information in those articles is probably worth an awful lot more.
So, finally, the DVDs:
I discovered them via a copy of Practical Classics magazine that I picked up at Tesco. They looked good from the video clips on the website at http://www.vw-diy.com/ but at 15 quid each I wasn't about to jump right in so I bought Vol 1 and 6 to check them out. They arrived a couple of days later, I watched them both the same day, and immediately placed an order for Vol 2, 3, 4, 7, 9 and 10 i.e. I skipped the ones about Type 4 engines.
I think they are superb but the results kind of speak for themselves because by the time I went shopping for my bug (about a week later) I'd watched the whole lot and was in a position to confidently examine the car and negotiate a better price. In fact I reckon I knew a heck of a lot more about the car than the seller and after I pointed out the various bits that would need attention we agreed a reduction in the price equivalent to double what I paid for the DVDs. Thus it is fair to say that they've already paid for themselves and by the time I've done the work that needs doing, work that I now feel entirely confident that I can do myself, they'll have paid for themselves many times over.
No doubt I'll be mentioning them on a regular basis as I document my progress and may even do a bit of a write up. In the meantime, all of the information you need is on the website at http://www.vw-diy.com/, and if you are still not sure, do what I did and buy a couple to check them out. My bet is you'll end up buying the whole lot.
Step 2: Watch them.
Seriously, these DVDs are the business.
At the beginning of this month I knew next to zip about cars but needed to learn fast because my old car was failing and I wanted to buy a Beetle.
My first purchase was a copy of "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot" by John Muir. This is regarded by many as the bible for Beetle maintenance and I would not argue with the suggestion that every Beetle owner should have a copy. Let's face it, the author died 30 years ago and the book is still selling and is currently in its 19th edition; how could it be anything other than a masterpiece?
As a total auto-dunce however, and without a Beetle in front of me to refer to, I found it hard to get into. (That's the beauty of the DVDs: you can see exactly what they are talking about). I am finding Mr Muir's book much more accessible now that the DVDs have shown me what's what and I actually have a bug parked outside so I can go out and look at the bit that's being described.
Another thing that should be taken into consideration about the book is that the cars were not nearly so old when it was written and this has consequences. For example, the section on how to assess a vehicle that you're thinking of buying makes no specific mention of the heater channels, an area that any current advice will draw great attention to. I guess when the book was written they were mostly in decent condition and Mr Muir would have simply walked away from a bugs with less serious problems in other areas on the grounds that there were plenty more to choose from. These days if you find a bug with good solid heater channels it's most probably because they've been replaced already. Similarly, unless the owner has gone out of their way to keep it original, you'll probably find that your average bug contains parts that were not available when the book was written.
My second acquisition (we'll get to the DVD's soon enough) was about 90 back issues of Volks World magazine that I found on eBay as a job lot. They date from about 1996 up to about 2001 so the adverts are out of date but pretty much all of the other information is still relevant. I found them particularly helpful, as I said in an earlier blog entry, in deciding what kind of Beetle I wanted. Now that I've bought the bug I dare say that they'll come in useful in the future as, with 90 issues to go at, there are articles on pretty much any aspect of maintenance and modifying that you can think of. It would have been difficult to use them for my initial learning however because the pieces of the puzzle would be presented in no particular order; whereas the DVDs start with the simple stuff and progress in a logical sequence.
Of course 90 back issues of Volks World (for 42.50) is also something of a lucky find however if you pay a quick visit to their website at http://www.volksworld.com/ you'll see that it's possible to buy books of articles and indeed, I bought "All practical articles on customising and restoring Beetles from 2000 to 2003." I have to say that I was disappointed when it arrived to find that it was a collection of not particularly nicely bound black and white photocopies of what were previously colour articles. In fairness though, the pictures are quite adequate even in black and white and while it doesn't look like fifteen quids worth of book it can't be denied that the information in those articles is probably worth an awful lot more.
So, finally, the DVDs:
I discovered them via a copy of Practical Classics magazine that I picked up at Tesco. They looked good from the video clips on the website at http://www.vw-diy.com/ but at 15 quid each I wasn't about to jump right in so I bought Vol 1 and 6 to check them out. They arrived a couple of days later, I watched them both the same day, and immediately placed an order for Vol 2, 3, 4, 7, 9 and 10 i.e. I skipped the ones about Type 4 engines.
I think they are superb but the results kind of speak for themselves because by the time I went shopping for my bug (about a week later) I'd watched the whole lot and was in a position to confidently examine the car and negotiate a better price. In fact I reckon I knew a heck of a lot more about the car than the seller and after I pointed out the various bits that would need attention we agreed a reduction in the price equivalent to double what I paid for the DVDs. Thus it is fair to say that they've already paid for themselves and by the time I've done the work that needs doing, work that I now feel entirely confident that I can do myself, they'll have paid for themselves many times over.
No doubt I'll be mentioning them on a regular basis as I document my progress and may even do a bit of a write up. In the meantime, all of the information you need is on the website at http://www.vw-diy.com/, and if you are still not sure, do what I did and buy a couple to check them out. My bet is you'll end up buying the whole lot.
Friday 20 April 2007
My New 'Toy'
And here she is:I've had her for two days now and she seems to be behaving herself which is kinda what I expected considering that the engine was rebuilt about 7000 miles ago.
Unfortunately the garden is not quite so rosey in other areas. She's going to need some welding and I feel pretty sure that some of it will need to be done in order to get her through the MOT at the end of May. However, I've learned so much in the last few weeks that I now feel entirely confident that I'll be able to do it myself. I also used that knowledge to get her at what I hope will turn out to be a very reasonable price (650 quid), although only time will tell on that one.
Thursday 19 April 2007
Counting The Days
On my old Diary of a Mac Virgin Blog I implemented a 'counter' to show how long since I became a Mac user. That's kind of old hat now however, as I bought a VW Beetle yesterday, and hired a server running Fedora Core 6 about a week ago, I figured that I'd recreate the counters here (in the right hand column along with the links and stuff).
My intention to switch to Fedora and to buy a bug were a major part of the reason for my switch to this blog - because I want to document my endeavours with those in the same way I did on the old blog for my introduction to the Mac. I'll say more about both in the near future but for now I just wanted to implement the 'counters'.
My intention to switch to Fedora and to buy a bug were a major part of the reason for my switch to this blog - because I want to document my endeavours with those in the same way I did on the old blog for my introduction to the Mac. I'll say more about both in the near future but for now I just wanted to implement the 'counters'.
Friday 6 April 2007
Looking For a Beetle
I mentioned previously that one of my goals for this year is to fulfil my 25 year ambition to obtain an old VW Beetle to 'play' with. Well I'm now looking.
Up to about a fortnight ago I knew next to zip about cars however I started reading up and I now know what a distributor and a carburetor do (although taking them apart would still be beyond me).
I have in fact been forced to step up the pace on looking for a bug. I really wish I had longer to research but my current ride (a 16 year old Proton) is failing fast. In the past fortnight she's been at the garage three times at a cost of 200 quid and she's still acting like she'll die at any moment. Hopefully she'll hold on long enough for me to find a Beetle, but I seriously doubt it.
Thus far I've bought a number of books and back issues of relevant magazines and joined the forum over at http://www.volkszone.com. I'll say more about those things and how useful they've been at a later date but for now I would like to comment briefly on just one, or rather the 90 back issues of Volks World Magazine that I picked up on eBay.
At the moment I'm kinda skimming through them reading the articles that appear most relevant to my current situation or that catch my eye. Perhaps the thing that has been most useful so far is that they've helped me to identify what it is that I like about Beetles.
At a first glance you might think all VW Beetles are all the same but if you look just a little more closely there are a plethora of variations. These are not just differences in the way they looked when they rolled off the production line, but include the numerous modifications that people have made to them since. If you'd asked me a couple of weeks ago I wouldn't have been able to consciously identify the difference between a vehicle that makes me say "Yeah, it's a Beetle, so what?" and one that leaves me unable to speak because I'm drooling too much. It turns out that what I like is a cross between the 'Cal look' and the 'German look' although it's fair to say that I drool more over the really custom jobs than over definitive examples of either style. If those terms mean nothing to you, and you'd like them to, then you should do some research or return to this blog at a later date when, hopefully, you'll be able to see what I mean.
Up to about a fortnight ago I knew next to zip about cars however I started reading up and I now know what a distributor and a carburetor do (although taking them apart would still be beyond me).
I have in fact been forced to step up the pace on looking for a bug. I really wish I had longer to research but my current ride (a 16 year old Proton) is failing fast. In the past fortnight she's been at the garage three times at a cost of 200 quid and she's still acting like she'll die at any moment. Hopefully she'll hold on long enough for me to find a Beetle, but I seriously doubt it.
Thus far I've bought a number of books and back issues of relevant magazines and joined the forum over at http://www.volkszone.com. I'll say more about those things and how useful they've been at a later date but for now I would like to comment briefly on just one, or rather the 90 back issues of Volks World Magazine that I picked up on eBay.
At the moment I'm kinda skimming through them reading the articles that appear most relevant to my current situation or that catch my eye. Perhaps the thing that has been most useful so far is that they've helped me to identify what it is that I like about Beetles.
At a first glance you might think all VW Beetles are all the same but if you look just a little more closely there are a plethora of variations. These are not just differences in the way they looked when they rolled off the production line, but include the numerous modifications that people have made to them since. If you'd asked me a couple of weeks ago I wouldn't have been able to consciously identify the difference between a vehicle that makes me say "Yeah, it's a Beetle, so what?" and one that leaves me unable to speak because I'm drooling too much. It turns out that what I like is a cross between the 'Cal look' and the 'German look' although it's fair to say that I drool more over the really custom jobs than over definitive examples of either style. If those terms mean nothing to you, and you'd like them to, then you should do some research or return to this blog at a later date when, hopefully, you'll be able to see what I mean.
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