Day 77

Today, I actually have to work...or travel to work but was still able to get some stuff done.

First, I removed the last of the pesky Philips screws on the door post and vent window.  These were the ones that had been sitting in the "tray", so whenever it rained the screws stayed wet and rusted.  I actually got some out with my portable drill, had a bit more torque than I could use with a manual screw driver.  For two of the remaining screws I had to weld another bolt (too small of an area to use the nut trick) to the screw in order to get leverage and remove it.  The screws were already rusted and then stripped, so welding worked and didn't ruin anything that hadn't already been trashed.

The doors are in decent shape.  Nothing that can't be easily fixed.  One of them has some rust on the bottom edge.  In some areas it does go through, but it is a simple bend and an easy cut and weld.  I thought they would be much worse!

These are all my parts waiting to be cleaned.  Once I know what needs replacing I'll start getting my next big order ready.

I also took the vinyl and padding off my seats (except the driver, so I can still roll around the neighborhood!).  The covers were not original.  The padding underneath was and I found some cool, old, little slips of paper with dates and names on them.  Very cool.  The padding has seen its better days, so I snapped some pics and put that in the trash.  Original style padding is available.

And finally, here is the living room (with Paul's stuff too) starting to look like another bug parts den!  These parts are all going off to get media blasted.  I plan on doing an inventory to keep track and also note the original color so I can make sure to repaint them properly.

Off to work for a couple days, when I get back I'll hopefully finish up the plumbing for my compressed air system.  I can start cleaning those parts above and also coordinating when I'm going to do the media blasting.

Day 76 - Organizing

Today I spent the entire day organizing my interior parts.  Much like I did with the pan when I was getting ready to tackle that.

I organized all my bolts, nuts, screws, parts, and pieces that need cleaning and refinishing.

I also disassembled both doors and got those pieces ready to go.  I actually have a bit more left to do as some of the screws were very stubborn.  They are soaking overnight and if that doesn't work, I'll break out the welder and get some head and a solid nut on top to remove them.

I have a pile that is ready to go to media blasting of small interior parts and larger body panels.

Slowly but surely!

Paint and Body Prep -- Air Dryer Install

Well, with the car driving now I'm starting to focus my attention on getting ready for the paint and body work.  I am also looking towards interior finishing and I've started getting quotes and will be sending out my speedometer and steering wheel to get refinished by professionals.

I plan on painting the car myself, so I need not only enough air (I have plenty of that with my super duper compressor) but also clean and dry air.  I have a water separator/regulator at the compressor outlet.  I am working on a ~20' copper tubing run that will go to a manifold to separate air into tools and paint equipment.  The copper will also act as a heat sink which will help condense the water.  I have drains on the copper tubes.

This manifold will allow draining of moisture and also allow multiple tools at once.  The "branches" are angled up and over the supply line because water can't go up :)

For the paint air, I also bought an electric air dryer which will lower the temperature of the air to right above freezing which will help the water condense.  And finally I have another regulator, water separator, and coalescent filter which would remove any residual water and oil in the air.  I may even run a ball type air dryer on the air line right before my paint gun.  All of this combined with the Vegas lack of humidity and I hope to have dry and clean air for good painting.

Here you can see the electric air dryer and final filter for the paint.

I also got a package from New Zealand.  I have been looking for these pop outs for almost a year now.  They go in the rear passenger windows to help air flow.  They are not original to MY car, but are original accessories available back in the day.  There are plenty available online but they usually are in poor shape, the glass has scratches, or the chrome has pitting.  These were New Old Stock (NOS) parts that a guy had installed on his car for a very short time.  They have little to no wear.  I basically got a brand new set of pop out windows for just a bit more than I would pay for a shotty pair.  These were a great find.

Remember when I built my work bench?  Back in November.  Well, ever since then I've had an annoying splinter in my left hand thumb.  It healed around the splinter but it was straight into my finger.  I tried everything to get it out.  Soaked it, picked at it, used a baking soda blend to exfoliate the skin around it.  I recently used a "drawing salve" that was a sticky petroleum based product that is supposed to draw out splinters.  Or so said the internet.

Anyway, it got to the point where it was painful to turn knobs, or squeeze things, or put pressure on it if I hit the splinter the right way.  So, I made a point of doing some more digging with a needle, tweezers, and nail clippers.  I got this splinter out and it was a full 1/8" long!  No wonder it hurt so much it was in the meat of my finger.  Glad to have it out!

I'm waiting for a special solder to arrive before I can solder the copper pipes together.  It has a special blend of metals for high pressure air.  So, once that is complete I am going to start looking at scheduling my media blasting, draping plastic in the garage, and buying primer!

Day 75 -- IT DRIVES!

Today was another good day for progress.  Shorter than some other days, which isn't so bad.

I got up and trouble shot my bad chassis ground.  I determined the problem was two washers on a bolt.  The washers had been clear coated and that was preventing a good ground for the entire chassis.  Fixed it in less than 5 minutes.

I then turned my attention to the distributor.  I figured out my problem what my problem was; timing!  I didn't line it up correctly so it wouldn't fire.  Well, I knew the engine would run because I had it on the other distributor.  I tried again with my original restored one, and it fired right up.  Glad to have that done!

The powder coat on my intake manifold chipped a bit where the hot exhaust gases pass up to heat the intake manifold.  This prevents carb icing.  I originally was going to take it off, but figured a little high temp paint and not worry about it.  There will be more bumps and bruises on the car so I can't get caught up in the super little details.  Also, this is my backup engine so I'll make sure to do it right on the original one.

At that point, I went inside and had lunch but I wasn't done quite yet.  I decided to get it all ready for a test drive!  I secured the battery with the original cover and strap.  I zip tied the brake master cylinder reservoir so it wouldn't tip over.  I then installed the seat and mocked up the steering wheel.  I made a mount out of 2x4 wood and some random pieces to support it.  Started up and drove around the neighborhood probably 10 times.  It's only a 1/4 mile or so, it was still a lot of fun.  All gears shifted smoothly, even made it into 3rd with a quick check of 4th.

Only issue, which I knew about before, is that sometimes after coming off the throttle the engine idles higher than normal .  Once I blip the throttle it goes back to the proper amount.  I determined it had to do with the manual choke, which I think is because it isn't hooked up right now.  Once it is in the car, it will be hooked up and this problem should go away.  So now, sometimes when I come to a stop I have to blip the throttle like a Harley driver.  VROOM!

Very happy to be at this point, the next step now is to get ready for paint, particularly primer.  I need to get my air system tuned up, ready to go.  Thinking about buying an air dryer to make sure my compressed air is completely dry.  Already dry in the desert here, but still want to make doubly sure.  Once that is complete, I can then send everything off to to get media blasted.  I may take a day or two off as well :)

FREE RIDES TO ANYONE THAT WANTS ONE!!!!

Day 71-74 -- IT'S ALIVE!

Well it certainly has been a whirlwind the past few days.  My flying buddy Paul came over and helped me get the new engine off the stand and put the original one back on to be worked on some other day.

I made a wood mount for the engine to slide on easily so that I could maneuver it around on my floor jack.  It even had a cutout for the circular piece on the floor jack and restraining straps to prevent it from tipping over.  If I remember I'll try and grab more pictures.

Flywheel mounted!

One issue I had was with the cooling flap cross bar.  Once I installed the oil cooler exhaust tin, it was rubbing on the cross bar.  A couple taps of the hammer and re-orienting the washers I am back in business with clearance.

The next day I installed the clutch and pressure plate.  And then, mounted the engine!

The rest of the day I spent dealing with wiring and starting issues.  I ran all the wires to my start box (shown in an earlier post).  I cranked until I had oil pressure.  I was getting fuel, but no spark.  I left it for the night and this is how it sat.

Today I chased the spark issues again, ultimately putting in a restored distributor I saved from this engine.  My new one has some issues and will need to be looked at.  I also have a chassis grounding problem which I will need to look at, I ran a cable to a transaxle bolt in the meantime.

The first start went well.  I tuned the carb after, changed the oil, and adjusted the valves.  I got the generator working with a new voltage regulator and polarized the generator.  It is now charging.  I had some leaks at the valve covers, fixed those.  Also had a leak by the fitting for my oil filter near the engine case.  Used loctite instead of thread sealant and fixed that problem.

So I need to chase the bad chassis ground, fix the distributor, and take it out for a spin!

Day 70

Well, I got my tins back from powdercoat and over the past couple of days have finalized the assembly of the engine.

The air cleaner had to be installed in reverse because it wouldn't fit the other way!  I don't know if this is going to bug me or if I'll find a different replacement.  I'm going to use it for now, it is an original piece, but not original to this type of engine...which is where my problem comes in.

The next step is to get it off the engine stand and install the flywheel, clutch disc, and pressure plate.  I also need to finish wrenching down the intake manifold bolts.  If you look closely you can see they rear facing nuts are very difficult to get at.  Waiting for some help with the heavy lifting and should be started soon!

Intake manifold is the grey piece, if you look at the larger pipe the nut is very hard to get at.

Day 67-69

The past few days I have been working on restoring an original oil bath air cleaner for the car.  The original style was a bit small for the larger capacity engine I am putting in the car so I sourced a larger and still original VW part from a 1966 Bug that will work with my bigger engine and still look factory.  The engine really is starting to turn into an amalgamation of different parts.  Should be fun for people to try and guess what it really is!

Just a reference picture.  Note the arm and associated holes. 

I'll have more pictures of the air cleaner later, but I basically painted it black on the outside and kept the original black on the inside.  I did modify the snout a bit so that a flapper valve and intake port (which I wasn't going to use) aren't there and I won't see any open holes.  Should look slick.  The original one looks like this.  As you can see, similar but to a purist a noticeable difference.

Today I received the original VW branded windshield I had shipped from Indiana.  There was an inspection sticker on it from 1979 and it had the VIN of the car.  After doing some research, car # 5563962 built in April 1963 donated its fairly good shape windshield to my project.  It has typical pitting and some rock chips but it is original.  I paid $90 shipped which is cheaper than a new one and has the original character (logo and pitting) that is what I'm after.  I'm more interested in original parts than brand new parts.

As you can see, it does have some fading around the edges where the laminate between the two pieces of glass is yellowing.  There are some chips and dings...but all is well!

The ever elusive VW logo!  DeLog was a VW subcontractor

I've literally had an ad out for an original windshield since I started this whole project, so I was happy to find an original in good shape.  I'll still keep looking in case I find a better one, but for now this one is good.

Still waiting for my powder coated tins to be finished.  After that, engine final assembly and starting!

Day 66

I spent the last few days getting the engine tin fitted to the engine.  I wanted to make sure it all fit and make any size adjustments before I send it out to powdercoat.  Specifically I worked on the fan shroud to modify it to accept stock cooling flaps.

I ended up cleaning this part up a bit more so it appeared more stock and less hacked together :)

I did have to modify the control arm for the flaps to clear the oil cooler.  I may not have had to do this if the arm was the right size.  I ended up having to rework the bends so it would reach the two pivot points.  When I did that, however, it made the arm closer to the cooler so I had to cut some away and then welded on another piece of metal below it to maintain the look and of course integrity of the part.

Taaaaa-dahhhhhhhhhh

 Here are the cooling flaps installed at the bottom of the shroud.  In order to make these work I had to drill holes to mount them and also cut notches so those 4 little arms could stick out.  These flaps are normally closed and when the engine warms up with a bellows type thermostat it pushes them open.  This is a very simple engine warm up device that helps the engine reach operating temperature quicker.  Modern cars have the same thing with their radiators so you don't cool the water before the engine is up to temperature.

Off to powdercoat, getting some odds and ends for the engine, and then waiting!  I have a few little things I can tinker on meanwhile.