Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build

[owdlvr]

Hmmmm...I'm going to need to pick that issue up. I think I may know the car, if it's the one I'm thinking of it has the carbon dash I was supposed to get. Sigh.



Well, 3 of 4 fenders are mounted. Seriously, I never thought these would be so annoying. Trying to get the fender beading perfectly even, smashing my knuckles when the wrench slips...etc. I might just leave the big blood smear under the front fender! (kidding). It would have been four fenders, but I snapped off one of the fender nuts on the front driver's side. ARGGG!! I hadn't got more then 4 or 5 threads into it, put maybe 5lbs of force on it and snap! spinning away. We replaced any of the ones I snapped off removing the fenders, so this one must have been on it's last legs and/or had something in the threads. Getting the bolt out was a fun experience...





Once I was done free-handing the hacksaw blade, it was onto grinding and welding...mere millimeters from where the fresh visible paint would be. Welding that close to fresh paint is ultra scary...but it's done. Waiting for paint to dry so I can't mount up the fourth. Once the black POR15 dries, I'll paint on the silver.


Following Fenderama I tested the rally tire out back.







 I only have one of the 5.5" wide sport wheels at the moment, and it's the ET26 version. Porsche 914 wheels, which look identical, were 5.5 ET40. That will move me in a nice 14mm, which should still clear everything no problem and give me the clearance on the fenders I need. Thinner rally tires are also an option, but I own four of these (two are brand new) so if I can use them even better. Gravel will still destroy the lower few inches of the fender, but perhaps with mudflaps and a trick that a friend Bruce has for me...we might solve that problem. Well, for the rear at least.


The rear apron is currently a problem. The opening I have is 28" wide at the bottom. My rear apron? 30". Hmph, guess we bent things more then I thought! I'm going to wait until I have the rear bumper mounted. I anticipate that will stretch things out to the correct width and I can then see if I can get the Apron in.

Tomorrow it's off to do a parts run, and then I'll have more things to play with this coming week.

-Dave

[owdlvr]

Saturday started off as most seem to, on a parts run! This week it was off to AVR for a round of VW specific parts. Universal items like wiring or hardware I can usually pickup in town, but when it comes to items specific to the bug, or european, all my stuff comes from AVR. Is it bad that they have a shelf just for me? This is all worth mentioning, because Rob (the R in AVR) has been especially helpful in the build. Case in point, the oil cooler. I think he ordered in two different units, before I finally settled on the one I was going to get, and that was in October. Between then and now I think I've called or text messaged about 3 or 4 times for exact dimensions, bolt mounting measurements, etc. The sort of things you can't get online, or without the package in front of you. Even this past week he was pulling it off the rack yet again to triple check the thickness and confirm our numbers were correct. If Rob and I had been faxing blueprints back and forth, we couldn't have made it fit better!



While I was AVR I also took the time to look at another pedal cluster they had in stock. With it out of the car we confirmed that yes, something was wrong, and then quickly realized what it must be. After getting home I pulled my stop plate, and sure enough it was worn just-enough to cause the issue I'm having. 30 seconds with the grinder, and I got it exactly the way I want it. It's hard to see, but I've set it up so the clutch pedal is just a hair behind the brake pedal which will help me out when left-foot-braking. On the brakes side of things, I found a brake light switch (rear) was weeping just a tiny bit of fluid, I suspect this was the mystery air source, so I tightened it up, rechecked every fitting, and will bleed once again this week.


I then did some dishes! Well, not exactly dishes...more like oily and dirty used AN fittings and oil lines. It's probably better that we call them "dishes", since I used the kitchen sink! I will need to buy a tonne more oil fittings, but at least I can reuse the ones I've got from the last car.


One of my more dreaded jobs was the hood seal. On the '69, after the fresh paint, I must have chipped off half the paint on the hood seal channel. I was determined to not destroy this car, and while it took a long time, I did manage to get it installed without even a scratch. I do find the three 'nubs' on the aftermarket seals to be generally pretty poor. The driver's side on this one popped in no problem, but the passenger side just didn't want to stay in. Out came the high-strength weather-strip adhesive. Its basically super sticky contact cement. I'll need to clean up the bit you can see in the finished photo, and also figure out how to get some of the 'waves' out of the hood seal. Once I had done the top, the front apron section went in super quick...so now all I need is the Mexican style seal for the hood, and I'm laughing.


I did spend a while creating really nice Flextech wiring harnesses for the front turn signals, and even connect them...then I realized the early style lights I'm using, were wired totally different then the US-Spec big turn signals the car should have. Doh! I managed to redo one side, but will have to finish up the other tomorrow. With all four fenders now mounted, and the beading in place, it was starting to look a bit like a car. Now, however, it really looks like a car!  Amazing what a hood can do.



I think I've got the gap pretty even as well.


I cannot WAIT to drive this thing!

-Dave

[owdlvr]

Wow, where has the week gone?! My best friend is back in town, after being gone for six months, so I haven't been getting as much work done on the car as I would like. A sacrifice I'm willing to make though :-)

I have got a bit of time in on the car, but not a lot of exciting work done. When I originally ran the speedometer sensor wires, I knew I was going to need to run a second run though to transmission area. I was able to make up the second harness I needed, and drop it in.


Almost immediately after running the wires through I realized I had forgotten one. Doh! I considered pulling out the harnesses and adding a few more wires to them, but then realized I would probably end up one wire short down the road anyhow. With that, I figured I would put a third set in, with three times as many wires as I anticipate needing. When in doubt, build for expansion!


Also worked on making some of the harnesses I will need to install. Oil cooler fan, oil fan thermostat and reverse light switch.


...and bought the bits I need to make the turn signals work in a late model. Should be back to regular work after the weekend!

-Dave

[owdlvr]

So far all of my 'untested' wiring has been working according to plan...without any trouble shooting. I did find one bad ground, which turned out to be corroded wire under the insulation, but I caught that before doing any testing. There was a pause for a while when I was diagnosing an errant circuit that was terribly confusing. Everything checked out from A to B, but the circuit wouldn't work. I tested, retested and retested again. Then I realized the kill switch was off. Oops!


The oil cooler and fan are now mounted for what I hope to be the last time. It will basically boil down to whether I can get the wrenches in on the AN fittings or not. With that, I wired in the relay for the oil cooler fan, and the two switches. There is a thermostatically controlled switch on the cooler outlet, and a manual 'on' switch at the dash. I actually ended up using the factory defrost switch for this feature. I also took the time to wire up the reverse-light switch and it's relay. Putting the car into reverse gives me a nice click at the relay, but without any taillight wiring I can't confirm it's 100% yet! Both of these circuits required fuses in the back seat area, which will be annoying to get to. I used ATO fuses, and bought the kind that light up when their blown. I figure this way I'll have a good visual indicator of the circuit. Quite hard to photograph, but the LED announcing a blown fuse is quite bright! (not that you can really tell in the photo below!)


I bought a set of EMPI front turn signals for the car, since the North American '71 sized units aren't accurate for the replica. Rob warned me the quality on the lights left a lot to be desired, but I really only need these to last while I find a good set of original ones. I had used them on my '69...for the black-out look, but w-o-w are these ones bad! Ill fitting rubber, ill fitting plastic...ahhh the joy. Got them all installed and sorted so they looked okay, and then realized I had a big brain fart. '71 wiring is quite different, and these would need to be modified. I had to cut the original bulb housings out, replace them with 1157 bulb housings, rewire for 3 wires (not two) and then reinstall them in the car. Between running around buying parts and actually doing the work, this wasn't a quick project. Pretty silly for something i might pull off the car next week!






-Dave

[owdlvr]

Wiring, done properly, takes forever

Managed to get the front headlights and horn wiring finished. Also got the rally light wires 90% finished and tested. I'll need to mount the Lights to the bumper before I can finalize it. Due the changes I've made to the factory headlight tubes aren't an option, and small town Canada doesn't have a whole lot of options for grommets!



...but after a while, the wiring is done and looking clean. Driver's side sure is a lot busier with all the rally light grounds too!


For some reason I can only find one headlight bucket that's not rotten, so I need to wait until I get another next week. Just need to do the fuel tank breather lines, install a trunk release and I am done on the front trunk...whew!

I also spent some time tracking down my brake fluid leak. I was losing a small amount of fluid up front, and thought I had solved it last weekend with the brake switch. Made me quite annoyed to find more fluid under the car this morning! It would appear its leaking at the rear inlet, between the white plastic bit and the rubber. I might get lucky, and it might just be the way I had the lines ziptied. When I cut the ties the lines moved and it seemed to relax things a little. Couldn't find any fluid after a half hour, cross my fingers!

-Dave

[owdlvr]

That's a good tip...too bad I'm done! hahaha. Ended up doing a shorter day in the garage, but managed to finish off the electrical system and test everything. There are a few outstanding items, like my gauges which haven't yet arrived from Stewart Warner, but all circuits are ready for plug and play, and everything has been tested.

Here's what my rear taillight harnesses look like. You can see the grommet on the left hasn't yet been sealed, but the one in the fender has a pretty good seal on the fender grommet. The headlight grommets are done the same, and of course I've done both the body and fender side at all four corners.


I'm not a big fan of grounding through light housings, at least not on a freshly painted car, so I chose to add ground wires that connect to a fender bolt on each side. The fender bolt nuts were all cleaned out with a tap, so I'm confident they're going to ground quite well.




And with that...it's time to move on to the next big phase of the project! (well, tomorrow at least )

-Dave

[owdlvr]

Couldn't help myself, and after a break ended up back in the garage mocking up various parts of the oil system. I may have run into a problem with my oil temp sender though. My plan has always been to run three sensors: One in the engine replacing the pressure relief valve, one in the tank and one at the outlet of the oil cooler. The theory being that I can then see engine oil temp at the engine, engine oil temp at the tank (required for warmup), and what the temp of the oil going into the engine is. I want this third sensor as it gives me more info on what's going on, and will allow me to diagnose any issues with the oil system, cooler size, etc down the road. This third sensor, though, is going to be a problem!

Here's the temp sensor. Sorting out how to put this at the end of the oil cooler is the trick.


Russell Performance has part #670350 which is a -8AN fitting with a 1/8NPT take-off, normally used for fuel pressure...I figured I'd see if it might be helpful. Now, I should note that I ordered this before I actually looked at the oil temp sender ;-)


Obviously it's not going to work just threaded in...


So, through a series of insanely complicated adapters...one can make it work. But this isn't ideal. It's heavy, has five sets of threads that could leak...and, lets be honest, ugly!


But, it does get me thinking. With the sensor so far out of the oil stream I also have to consider whether or not the data collected will be worth anything. Russell Performance has this fitting, which I might be able to modify on the lathe to make work:


I'll have to call tomorrow and find out the I.D. and wall thickness of the part, to see if it's thick enough to cut down and thread for the sensor. Otherwise, I might have to eliminate this one from the system.

-Dave

[owdlvr]

Tonight it was back to work, and to start off with...back to the lathe.


What I ended up making was a temperature sender bung and dipstick tube for the dry-sump tank. Hopefully I can convince my buddy Gord to TIG weld them into the tank tomorrow, and then I can pop that back into the car.


From there it was onto the car, and the next major phase of construction. I finally got the metric Nutserts that I ordered in. They took three weeks to get here, but when they finally did the counter guy at Acklands-Grainger actually drove them 45min North to my house! The nutserts allow me to mount things where I can't reach the backside for a traditional nut, and where I don't want to wreck the paint with welding. So, at this point that probably means the whole car! The ones I order are shown to the left. With the serrations I've never had one spin out me, but always match material (steel to steel, aluminum to aluminum) so that if I ever did have one spin, I could probably tack-weld it to solve a problem. On the off chance you haven't installed these before, and decide to get some, don't buy the "special tool". The next size up nut (so the bolt passes through) and two washers is all you need to install them.


With the Nutserts in, and the swaf vacuumed up I was able to mount the Accusump for the final time.


With that mounted, it was time to start thinking about the lines and Accusump valve. I wanted something a little more accessible this time round, but also something that would remind me about valve #2 which will be the oil-tank cut-off valve. CanNOT forget that one! Here's where I think its going to go. With the valve in the closed position (as in the photo) the handle totally interferes with the parking brake and is definitely annoying/noticeable. When in the open position, however, it will lie down flat against the tunnel and be completely out of the way.


In order to continue the Accusump lines, and then make the mounts/tie downs for the valve, I need to know where the Oil Cooler Thermostat is going to go. The Accusump line will Tee into the outlet, which goes to the engine, so I have know where that will line up so I can put the bulkhead fitting in. Making oil lines like this is one part being able to think in 3D, and two parts having a tonne of fittings on hand. You want to be able to try different degree fittings, and then switch it all up and re organize. The problem, of course, is that as you start building lines you start eating into you stash of fittings! Fortunately I had enough to figure out that the combination of a 45 and 90 will allow me to get the lines right into the thermostat without binding up the lines. Even though this is all well hidden under the car, at least I know it will be neat and orderly!


I was going to keep going, but realized that I'm missing one fitting I need, so I might as well wait until tomorrow...

-Dave

[owdlvr]

Alrighty, so I mounted up the valve for the Accusump. In hindsight I wish I had mounted the Accusump in front of the driver's or passenger seat, thus allowing for only one line and the valve right at the sump. The problem with that, however, is that I need the leg room for long trips and I usually mount the fire extinguisher in front of the passenger seat. Oops! Oh well. The valve mount is a little "industrial" compared to the rest of the build, but I'd need to turn up some mounts on a CNC mill to improve it. That's out of the budget, so this will have to suffice! The E-Brake needs to be applied to close the Accusump, but if I tweak the handle just a little on the valve it will clear regardless. Closed and Open:


The long line is growing on me, especially since I was able to make it match the tunnel lines. It hasn't been anchored down yet, but will be once I have the line to the engine run as well.


In order to do the line from the valve to the engine, I needed to mount up the oil cooler and thermostat, to see where the line was going. I made and attached most of the lines outside of the car, which made them a lot easier to get properly torqued down.


Without a temp sender solution, I did the next best thing. I've got the adapter fitting installed, and simply capped off the hole with an NPT plug. If I sort out a temp sender, I can simply add it in. And if not, I only put in one extra fitting for no reason ;-)


And the maze begins! The "third line" going up and over is the Accusump to Engine line. This one is short, as it's only going from the bulkhead fitting to the tee.


By the time I had reached this point, I had pricked my hands with stainless steel needles enough for one night! Back at it tomorrow

-Dave

[josh]

nice job Dave!

running this shit is fun


I have an accusump for my oval.....trying to find a home for it to hide...... will probably go under rear seat. I'm gonna set mine up on a pressure switch and soleniod I think?

not trying to criticize but if I were you id switch those 90 degree fittings out on the cooler to straights (or 45's) and straight hose ends....you will be able to get the angle into the t-stat and flow a hell of a lot better!!! hard 90's like that are super restrictive (not sure exact # in -8 but probably equivalent to 25-30 feet of hose per fitting?)

[owdlvr]

nice job Dave!

running this shit is fun


I have an accusump for my oval.....trying to find a home for it to hide...... will probably go under rear seat. I'm gonna set mine up on a pressure switch and soleniod I think?

not trying to criticize but if I were you id switch those 90 degree fittings out on the cooler to straights (or 45's) and straight hose ends....you will be able to get the angle into the t-stat and flow a hell of a lot better!!! hard 90's like that are super restrictive (not sure exact # in -8 but probably equivalent to 25-30 feet of hose per fitting?)

A signficant point of posting a build thread is to have people save me from stupid mistakes before they become permanent! Trust me, I appreciate the thoughts. For the oil cooler, the 90degree fittings are 1/2" (Basically -10) which neck down to -8. Somewhere (I suspect in a Carrol Smith book) I had read that a hard -8AN fitting is equivalent to about 7.5' of hose...and figured I'd be "basically okay" with the up sized 90.

Thoughts?

I can switch it out for straight nipples and full-flow hose ends, but that does create a packaging concern for me. It will push the thermostat valve over by about 6-7 inches...which means the oil hoses are going to begin interfering with the electrical. A solve-able problem, but one which boils down to the whether the larger 90's are "good enough".

Regarding your Accusump, are you aware of the negative aspects of the electric solenoids? They are slower then a manual valve to empty, and significantly slower to fill. The solenoids are recommended for applications where the Accusump is intended for pre-startup-oiling only...though you have to read through the lines on Canton's site to determine that. I did speak at length with Canton before ordering mine and he did specifically tell me that on the phone.

Ironic really, since I just talked myself into the fact that _I_ should be using an electric valve...now that I have a dry sump setup.   Josh I have the remote cable kit: https://www.cantonracingproducts.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=24-506 which I won't be using on this bug. Let me know if you want to borrow it for mock-ups. I'd want it back, for future projects, but you could use it for mocking up if you choose to go for a manual valve.

-Dave

[Bruce]

hard 90's like that are super restrictive (not sure exact # in -8 but probably equivalent to 25-30 feet of hose per fitting?)

the 90degree fittings are 1/2" (Basically -10) which neck down to -8. Somewhere (I suspect in a Carrol Smith book) I had read that a hard -8AN fitting is equivalent to about 7.5' of hose...and figured I'd be "basically okay" with the up sized 90.

Thoughts?

I recall in Smokey's writings that he once measured a 5psi loss through one 90º fitting.
Whatever loss you have is dependant on the flow rate.  The greater the flow, the greater the loss.  So if it's in a place where you're trying to jamb a lot of flow through, you'll have higher losses.

[owdlvr]

...why do I get the feeling I'm going to be rebuilding half my oil lines?


Progress for today seems small, but these things take a while! I got the Accusump line from valve to bulkhead and from bulkhead to thermostat finished. Then I moved onto the feed line from tank to bulkhead, and mounted the oil-filter mount. This mount will get swapped out for a freshie, but for now it will serve well to setup the hoses. More lines tomorrow!

-Dave

[josh]

I don't think ive ever looked up actual AN fitting losses, just relating to my trade stuff (HVAC) gas, refrigerant, air etc. nothing likes turning hard 90 very much....... on the cooler you will be flowing through most of time, id want it unrestricted.

looking at this pic again seems if you put straight fittings in and switched top hose to a 45 end and spun both 180 from where bottom one is pointing now.....you would still be able to flex hose into stat? maybe put the fan switch onto stat?

I realize solenoids are very restrictive, I was looking into a full flow version but cant find one in DCV. really I was more concerned about dry starts and really like the idea of auto operation cause sure as shit id forget to operate ball valve thanks for the offer on the remote kit, I may end up going that route......if I do I'd probably make my own with an oval hood release .....hey new idea use choke knob in factory hole in dash.....or since i'm not using heater knob behind ebrake thanks for getting the hamsters going in my head

[owdlvr]

While I have to admit I really wasn't feeling pulling the oil cooler again, it's better to do things right vs. getting them done. My bigger problem was the fact that I've drilled and mounted two bulkhead fittings that rely on the thermostat being in the same place. So, first job was to make a "pattern" of the setup:


And after a bunch of time playing with fittings, hose and more then a little colourful language...I got it all setup in a relatively close fashion. Flow through this setup should be significantly better I would think.


It was quite close to not working out...this is the hose I had to make for the oil filter return. 4 more millimeters and it wouldn't be going together!


There was one additional advantage to changing the setup, I was able to move the Accusump return T to the bottom of the thermostat. This will give me more clearance between the fitting and the panel, which I'm glad to see. On the left is the old setup, and on the right is the new setup.


Finished up the rest of the oil lines inside the car, except for the oil tank breather. I haven't decided what to do about the breather setup yet, so I'll deal with that one a little down the road.


...and just in case you're wondering how I'll change the filter...


Geoff has already commented on the risk of mounting the filter in the car, and subsequent oil-showers, but I always use Bosch, Mann or Mahle filters and have never had an issue with failures. Might have to box it in just be sure though!

-Dave

[josh]

that looks 100% better!    (sorry for causing more work for ya)

You do some killer work man.....car is bad ass!!!!!!

[owdlvr]

Thanks! Glad to get it fixed and done right

Well, not a lot of work being done on the car this week. Had a bit of an accident on Sunday pulling the engine out of the car. As I was pulling it back to clear the transmission it started to slip off the jack, and I lunged forward to get it. Possibly saved the motor, but slammed my forehead into the back of the car. Still not sure what I hit. I remember cleaning the knocked-over brake fluid off the floor, but then I'm standing in my upstairs bathroom wiping the blood off my forehead. No idea how much time passed.

Will be taking at least another day off before I go back to it.

-Dave

[owdlvr]

Was back to the garage for a bit this evening. Started off with a bit of painting.


Following that I moved onto a project which I started on Sunday, but didn't get the chance to complete. It began with some cutting carving of a fan shroud...


In hindsight, I wish I had started with a fan shroud that was in better shape. It wasn't until I removed all the paint that I discovered this one has more waves then the ocean during a tropical storm. From the get-go I figured it was a 'test piece' to figure out exactly how I wanted to do this...but in many ways it's ended up close enough to be useable, but just far enough gone that I don't think I can. The photographs I have from the original Salzburg cars shows that they were likely quick workshop jobs and not meticulously tig welded items of beauty. BUT, while mine may be appropriately 'period', it's not exactly matching of the rest of my work.







I'll cut the filler down tomorrow and give it a coat of primer to see how bad it really is. Maybe its useable...maybe it was a practice piece!

-Dave

[70's Looker]

that looks fun, but refresh us whats the snorkles for? pumping air to your helmets? 

[DarrenE]

This is so cool Dave.  I'm enjoying all your posts.  Keep up the good work!  )

[owdlvr]

Grrr! Photos would have been AWESOME!

Did another parts run yesterday, so today was a productive garage session. Started off with a relatively easy job, and popped the headlights into the car. I'm using an original Hella bucket on the one side, and mounting it took less then two minutes including polishing the headlight ring. On the other side, however, the original unit was far too rusty. I gather only the Taiwanese versions are available on their own. Now, in fairness I wanted to order something without lens/reflector/bulb since I already have H4 Eurolights...but had I ordered with these parts I could have got an original Hella part. But I went cheap...and wow is it cheap! The headlight is in, true, but if I need to change the bulb you have to pull the WHOLE bucket, not just the reflector/lens.


With the fan shroud in primer, the flaws become a lot clearer. Left side has a bunch of issues which are 300% better then they were..but still terrible. The right side, though, is where I created the disasters in metal (big holes). Thankfully its looking not too bad! The factory cars needed the shrouds cut this way to clear the Porsche 904 carbs...I'm just doing it to look authentic ;-)


And a splash of red...


Of course, I got all the way to this point before I realized just how painfully obvious the left side weld is. Um, was I grinding with a concussion...how do you miss that!?! Sigh. I had a good idea for hiding/covering some of front issues...but that won't help here.


With the fan shroud drying, it was on to a more interesting custom project. A few weeks back Geoff had mentioned that VW had a little-known accessory for protecting the inside of the rear fenders from gravel. Turns out Bruce owns a set and after a few emails back and forth they're now mine. The fender liners snap into the rear fenders, and are a little challenging to remove. This particular set is for an early car with the towel bumpers. The dark strips on both are from the tire spray, and the black marker marks are from where Bruce was going to need to cut them to fit a 73+ rear fender set. At first I was going to just going to snap them into my car, but I think the real value in these is the ability to use them as a pattern and not to destroy them with just one car. I also wanted to make a few changes to them, which would permanently wreck them...and, well, they're green. ;-)


So, I started to get my arts and crafts on with bristol board and some 1/8" LDHP plastic. I had the sheet left over from my last rally car project, so it was rather convenient!


After a bit I had test pattern number one. The slot was my plan for installing it with the taillight wires already installed...but later decided it was just easier/cleaner to remove the wires and pop them back in.


Pattern one test fit, you can see it's not pressed up tight against the fender at the top, which means it will be sucking in a lot of sand/gravel and road crap:


So made a few changes to make it sit tighter, added a couple of features, and the final piece is right here:


Inside the three holes I installed some bolts so that the ends are facing out towards the inside of the fender. I'm going to use these bolts to install short urethane mudflaps so that they hang down below the lip of the fender. That should protect the fender from the usual sandblasting that destroys the bottom lip. The final one I made here is tight...so tight it took me probably 10 minutes to wrestle it into the fender. I'm not sure I could get it out of the fender, but since it's finished I guess it doesn't matter...until I need to clean the crap out from behind it! Whoops!


The driver's side has been made, I just have to pick up the hardware and pop it into the fender tomorrow. On Monday I'll pass by the rally shop and see if they have any sheet urethane

-Dave

[70's Looker]

ohhh so the snorkles will still allow for the heater boxes duhh, guess i should have thought about that one a little bit more, sorry

[owdlvr]

Didn't accomplish too much yesterday. I got the other fender liner in, but it doesn't fit as tightly as the first one. Can't decide if I should leave it removable for now or make another one that is so tight I can't remove it...


I was having an issue bleeding the brakes, and couldn't get the rears to stop sucking air in. Eventually found the problem with a grommet on the Master. Rob instantly offered a no-charge replacement, which was quite unexpected. I had painted the case with POR15, so I wasn't expecting a replacement, this was a nice bonus for sure! With the new master swapped over and a bleed done one-man, I already have more pedal then I did before. The pedal rod is adjusted correctly, as is the pedal stop, but I still have a fair bit of movement before any pedal pressure. Probably 2" worth. Will need to bed the pads in and two-man bleed it to make sure it's ready to go.

Finally got around to swapping the carbon fiber so it matches the shift knob...


And cleaned up the shop a bit (for which you don't need photos )

Tonight will be a night off, and then back at it on Tuesday.

-Dave

[owdlvr]

Dry Sump tank is back from welding, and back in the car for the final time. Other then that, I spent some time on Warwick's Mini and didn't accomplish much else!  I did spend most of the time I would normally spend in the garage working on confirming all the needed parts to finish the car. The goal is to have the car ready for alignment in two weekends, which means having the engine installed, rear suspension mounts finished and all the other stuff needed to get it trailer worthy and running weight.

I am going to have a few issues moving forward though. One of the required items is a BMD serpentine pulley system. So far its the only system I have found which keeps the correct ratio between the crank pulley and the alternator pulley. The dry sump pump requires a 5.25" or smaller crank pulley, which then requires a much smaller alternator pulley if you want to have the same fan speed and cooling as a stock setup. Lots of lower crank pulleys available, but only the BMD system includes a well sized upper pulley. Problem? BMD isn't going to be building any for about three weeks.



The current plan is to purchase the BMD kit when it's available, but I do need to come up with a solution in case they are delayed. The first event I have to run is April 27-29, and I'd like to get some shakedown done beforehand! I've called everyone who makes, or carries, a dry sump sized pulley on their website. Finally found a CB performance one which can arrive on Friday. That really hurt since Rob at AVR called me yesterday and asked I might need anything from CB performance...I said no! The CB pulley is a V-Belt style pulley, which does lead to the next problem: Pulley ratio.

I'll save you all the math and figures, and state it simply: 
Stock alternator pulley diameter: 4.25"
Required pulley diameter to keep the proper fan speed: 3.30"
Required pulley diameter to keep the ratio I was using: 2.94"

Available pulley's in 3.3" or 3"? Zero.

The Porsche 356 pulley, which is a straight bolt on, is 3.75", which at least gets me closer. I'm also going to consider putting my current serp-belt upper pulley in the lathe to cut it down into a pulley with a v-shape grove. It's currently 3.75", and I think it has enough meat on it to get me down to 3.5" and shaped for a V-Belt. The only problem with that idea, is I have no way to tension the belt. I wonder if ghetto-rigging the serpentine belt tensioner to press against the back side of the v-belt is an option. Not pretty, but at this stage I'm looking for emergency-situation functional!


One of the advantages of the CB pulley is the fact that its an aluminum pulley bolted to a steel center section. In theory I could have a serp-belt pulley machined and setup to bolt onto the center section. I could quickly turn down the upper serpentine belt pulley that I have now, and end up with a ratio that is almost dead-on the stock one. Problem is I suspect that having a crank pulley machined up quickly is going to be overly cost prohibitive, and I won't be able to maintain the serp-belt groves in the upper pulley.

Come to think of it...I could just run the event with a standard oil pump. Geesh, why didn't I think of that this afternoon?

-Dave

[owdlvr]

Hey dave...

So I use both the CB dry sump pulley 5.25" and the 356 and my cooling is doing fine... so if you really needed to in a Pinch it does work just fine.

Chris.

Well that's good news!  Today was a bit of a crazy day on the dry sump side of things, I was looking into how I would cut a proper V-Belt groove into a pulley...should I need to make one on a lathe, when I stumbled upon something far cooler. I found the tooling bit used to cut serpentine belt grooves into pulleys, and a bunch of the engineering info regarding minimum radius, minimum tolerances, etc. required for the pulley design. I was stuck on making the keyways on a lathe, but sure enough one of my books had simple directions on how do that. Technically I could make my own serpentine belt setup, an idea I was heavily considering until I got an email.

My dry sump pump isn't finished in production yet, so it won't ship for my weekend parts pickup. At first I was a bit demoralized. I've been going hell-bent-for-leather on this car, and making sure I don't take any short cuts or "have to go back to fix that" before the car hits the road. But then I started to think about a new car, a mandatory event at the end of April, and (in the words of Eric Bana) the fact that "a new race car never feels good out of the workshop." Suddenly I realized this was a good thing.

The stress is gone! I can focus on getting the car ready to run the Spring Thaw, and then pull it back into the garage to do the final engine setup.

...problem is, I couldn't do much else besides think tonight. I've run out of parts, or jobs to do until I get parts. It's going to be hard waiting until Saturday night!

-Dave

[Hansk]

have You seen this? 

http://www.offroadvw.net/tech/wes/fan.html


btw awesome project

[70's Looker]

still killin it on your project dave, great work alot of thought sure is going into this car, and that is SUCH a change, sure hope you can keep it clean enough for when the magazine cameras are around!! they will also have alot of build shots to include too just to prove how well thought out this car is!

[owdlvr]

Thanks Kev! It's definitely come a long way, eh?



The most fun I've had with this car so far though, was at GCVW 2011. More then a few forum members here looked at me real strange when they found out the '71 super with the saggy back end and really bad respray was mine. And why the #@$! was it actually IN a club tent...yet alone entered in the show!?! I knew exactly what it was destined to become, and it was totally worth getting the odd looks and polite questions about the car. At that stage I think there were only three people who had any idea of what I was thinking of doing with the car.

The only reason I hadn't stripped it down was because I needed a stock motor for the SMC, and the morning of the show I realized it would be pretty funny down the road if I entered the car and parked it like it was something worth looking at.

-----------

Today was a good day! After finishing the headliner a few weeks back, and commenting on here that I might have to rip the headliner out and start over, Gary sent me an email. "Don't rip the whole headliner out, that's totally fixable." Really!?!

It took a few weeks before Gary was able to come up, but he arrived this morning to work some magic. He took a walk around the car, mentioned that it really wasn't that bad and easy to fix. For the most part I did an alright job, except for one rather funny error. You know the door post pieces? Yeah, totally put the plastic bit in backwards. No wonder the door pillars looked nothing like my '69!



Gary pulled down about half of the headliner, and tore out both door pillar pieces. Some of the back section was pulled up in places...and then he got to work. The results are awesome.

Before:


After:


Before: (A-Pillar hiding creases)


After:


Before:


After:


So, as you can see...totally worth getting an expert in! 

Thanks Gary!

-Dave

[owdlvr]

So the Motorsport CV-Boots came in this weekend, which meant some fun installing. The units I used are made by GKN, part number MSJ6002. They do require some modifications to use, but not nearly as much as I initially thought. The bolt circle is about 1-2mm smaller then the VW units, so to use them you will need to open up the six bolt holes slightly to to have them fit. The CV bolt plates will also need to be modified. Otherwise, they fit no problem



In my case, however, the first one was almost a 3 hour affair. I knew the bolt circle was wrong when I ordered them, but by the time they arrived I had totally forgotten. I pulled the axle, swapped teh boots and proceeded to reinstall. Everything was going quickly right up to the point where I started putting bolts into the new boot. I could get the first couple in, but then they just wouldn't go in. Took a few tries/minutes before I remembered the bolt circle problem.  Pull the boot back, drill the holes out (with a step-drill so they are still round), clean out the chips, regrease, and try again. This time I could get three bolts in, but then they still wouldn't fit. I was sure I was going to strip the bolts. WTF!?!  For the next try I slid the boot up the axle and started putting bolts in without the boot. Again I could only get three bolts in. Obviously it's not the boot...but what!?! The axle was already installed in the car and I eliminated the only new part in the equation. Hmmmm. Took a break, had a coffee, and still couldn't think of it. I was working on figuring out whether it was the same three holes I was having issues with, or if they were moving around when it dawned on me...

I bought six new CV Bolts as I could only find three for this last joint. The stub axles have been painted with POR15, and thus there must be some paint in the threads. After running a tap through all six holes, it all slid together like butter. Three HOURS to deal with one boot!

Modifications required to the bolt plates:


The second boot was done in mere minutes, since I knew all the tricks...and the clearance between these and a regular CV boot is pretty incredible.





With that done...I moved onto other items. Had the heater going in the shop so figured I would lay some plasti-dip while it was warm. Before and after on my rear-view mirror. I just couldn't leave the dry-rot on the plastic as it was, eh?!



And FINALLY the gauges needed to finish the dash! Well, most of the gauges. Still no air-fuel gauge, and still no LED light bulbs...but at least all the holes are filled! I'm missing half the photos for the moment, so on a later post I'll explain how I get the lighting color I love without the LED bulbs. The beauty of my system is you can get any gauge to light up any colour you want, without LEDs, even the factory VW or Porsche gauges.


With the oil-temp gauge came the oil-temp sender I needed for the oil tank. Installed and wired up!


Below is the "available in Australia only" VDO temperature sender. I searched high and wide for this, including calling VDO North America, but couldn't find one anywhere. One of the Germanlook Beetle forum members in Australia, Steve, checked with his shop and sure enough they could get one down-under. A huge thanks to Steve who took the time to pick one up and mail it out to me. This one is going in the feed line to the motor so I can see the temp of the oil going in (post filter and cooler). Sits one-thread into the oil passage, so I figure that's probably okay.




Would have gone further on the car tonight, but it's Supercross and my living room is packed with buddies. Bumpers tomorrow morning!

-Dave

[owdlvr]

Amazing how many hours I spent in the garage today to feel like nothing was accomplished! haha. Just one of those days I suppose. Got some stuff sorted out, some stuff half sorted out, and then hit a major decision I've got to make about the car. First, some successes...

Started on the rear quarter window, for the passenger side. Initially I was hoping to do popouts on both sides, but I realized that replacing the glass with lexan wouldn't allow the popout to pull closed. So, lexan and fixed for the first side! I opted for 3/16" lexan, which is a little heavier weight then I would normally use for racing, but this particular window needs to be pretty rigid. On my last rally car we used 3/32"! Hmmm...that hole isn't stock?


Neither is this one...


But the shape and size are right, and fit the seal! But man, was that ever a pain in the butt to get in there.


On the first go for installation we didn't get very far, maybe about 1/2 the way around before there was just no hope of going further. The only other windows I've ever installed (of this style) were the old quarters in my '69. I was reusing the old seals, and they just popped right in. Did I make the lexan too big (even though it's dead-nuts the same size as the glass)? A few texts to Rob over and AVR and I knew the secret. Why I didn't think to soap and lubricate the seal...I have no idea. Once we added a bit of soap and water it popped in fairly easily. Not like butter, but easily enough.

The "fuel" cap is actually going to be the filler for the oil-tank as getting into the back seat is going to be a pain. I'll be swapping out the standard cap for a locking one, but otherwise that's the plan. The NACA duct will deliver moving air to the oil cooler, but I still have to box that in. The black lip around the NACA duct hides the cutout in the window, but I haven't decided if its going to stay. It's plasti-dip, which means it's removable if I choose to down the road.


One issue I did have, is that this all fit with no problems while flat on the bench. Installed in the car, though, and it appears the window is a touch 'too big' and flexing in towards the interior. The odd part, however, is that against the factory glass I couldn't have gotten the size any closer. Not sure why it's bowing in like this.


Tossed a quick seal into it for now, and will probably re-adjust and play with it later to get it all fitting perfectly.


While i had the plasti-dip out, I decided I'd take care of the pop-out window that I'll be using on the Driver's side of the car. Yes, I'm fully aware that I'm going to have completely mis-matching windows Left to right...but the airflow provided by the pop outs is just too good to give up. And, I challenge you to look at both sides of the car at once! ;-) The popouts do, however, have a wide aluminum frame that just won't go with the rest of the car.


So with a bit of plasti-dip, we eliminate the silver aluminum in a non-permanent manner! It still needs to cure some before I can install it, but I much prefer the look over the original. Might have to plasti-dip the aluminum trim around the door windows as well.


And with that, it's onto the decision making part of the build. Before I had even started the car, I acquired these four Bosch 220 rally lights. In a lot of ways these were the ultimate starting point for the car. They're great rally lights, justify all the Bosch sponsor logos on the car and they're pretty close to period correct. The problem, however, is they aren't *quite* right. The factory cars used Bosch Knick 180's, not the larger 220s. The size difference is significant. I've seen cars with both the 180s and the 220's, and while both look good, the 180's are definitely more proportional to the car. You can fit four 'inside' the headlights, while four 220's require overlapping of the headlights ever-so-slightly. And then there is the mounting. Factory lights were drilled through the front bumper, take a look at the mount for the 220's (off a Mitsubishi Colt Rally car). That's some serious mounting to keep them from vibrating!




In the shop, between my roomate Warwick and I, we have three Bosch 220s, one Bosch 220 case without lens, three Hella 4000's (same size dimensions as the 220 but with way better mounting setup), and 6+ Piaa 510(?) series of lights. The Piaa lights are the same diameter as the Knick 180's were. Here's the back of a 220 and the back of a Piaa 510 for size comparison:


There are so many reasons to run the Piaa's over the Bosch lights. In addition to the ease of fitting them, they're lighter, will shake less, I can decide on the beam patterns I want, and when I break them, parts are readily available. I own a vinyl machine, so with the right covers I could very easily make them "Bosch" lights. This should be a no brainer. Hell, the rest of the car sure isn't a "replica"! But a hard choice to make when the Bosch lights are right there...

In the meantime, I started working on the mounts for the rally lights. I won't need to decide which lights I'm going with until tomorrow night when the tabs get welded on.

-Dave