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

[owdlvr]

So tonight started out really well. I began by finishing the assembly on the rear suspension (putting my double-shear plates back on) and then while I was in the wheel-wells installed the rear mudflaps and O2 sensors. The bungs are placed for great readings, but are a little bit exposed. I suspect I might go through a couple of sensors! haha.


I was going to hook up the accusump to the oil system, but before doing so though I'd check the oil level in the tank. My night pretty much went to crap right at the point where I turned the flashlight on. The oil was right up there, but I couldn't see the screen that helps remove air bubbles. Um, what? It took a second to register, but the oil was full of microscopic glitter particles.



Even now, three hours after discovery I don't know how to put the feeling into words.

I ran a clean magnet thorugh the oil and picked up nothing, which means it's more then likely aluminum from somewhere. I pulled the drain plug, which is magnetic, and it had virtually nothing stuck to it...just a bit of black particles that are so small they're virtually grease. I've seen more in regular oil changes then this.


One option was to flush the motor and oil system twice with some cheap 5wt30, and then refill with my usual oil. Run it until it was good and hot, and then see if there are any particles. That's a big risk. I have to believe that whatever is causing this problem is only going to be more expensive the longer I leave it. I made the call to pull the motor, knowing that tearing it down means I'm very likely to miss the Spring Thaw event we run. By midnight I had the motor ready to come out, just the four mounting bolts are holding it in now. Since the oil was cold, though, it's taking a long time to drain out. I'll leave it until after work tomorrow as that should make the whole job a lot cleaner and more enjoyable.


I did learn a couple of things that give me some hope that it may not be too catastrophic. The oil in the 3/4 head is clean and I can't see a single particle with a naked eye and bright light. The oil draining out of any of the post-filter lines that I've pulled is perfectly clean without a single particle that can be seen with a naked eye and bright light. So far I have only found nasty oil in the dry sump tank, and the engine sump. This could mean that the vital engine bits were actually receiving clean filtered oil...at the very least, I know that the oil line going into the engine had clean oil in it. So from a "find the problem" perspective i simply need to follow the oil passages from start to finish until I find a bad part. Then, figure out what else it damaged down the line.


The Spring Thaw, my car's debut event, is April 27th-29th. I'm so hooped. I've blown engines before (even did one on the Thaw!) but I co-organize the event, I can't not make it! It's not the damaged engine, it's not the time, it's not the teardown and rebuild. If there is anything this thread could prove it's that I'm not scared to do the work! It's a bit of stress over the time crunch, but really it's the knowledge that I've really stretched the financial lines getting the last assembly stuff finished. There is just no more room to squeeze.

Getting the engine ready to pull was good, gave me a way to spend time and not think about anything but dis-assembly steps, bagging and tagging. I have this funny feeling tomorrow at work is going to be a really tough day to get through.

-Dave

[buddy boy]

good luck buddy,.. hope it all works out!!

[Chris W]

I was in the same place with my project a few times, you will get it figured out and it will be badass in the end!

[buggy1]

Good nights sleep and a clear head will help to sort it out. It will probably prove to be miniscule in the end but better safe than sorry.

[owdlvr]

Well, that was anti-climatic.

Before you look at the detail photos keep in mind this engine has somewhere between 50,000 and 75,000 miles on it. Hasn't been opened in all that time. I didn't start tearing the engine down until about 930 tonight, but once you get going it tends to go pretty quick. Pulling the heads off revealed nothing but a lot of carbon. The engine was definitely running rich on the kadrons! Pistons, cylinder heads and related items were all in perfect condition. The rings look great, the skirts have some wear and light scoring but the cylinder walls still have complete cross-hatching on each of them with no signs of wear. The piston-pin bushings in each rod still have cross-hatching in them. So far, things were looking good!



I pulled the oil pump, and each of the additional stages looks perfect and brand new. The "inside the case" portion shows some chatter marks under one of the gears, and the hole for the drive shaft shows some strange scoring and marks. It's possible the metal came from here, but it's just as possible that metal from elsewhere is what caused the damage. I'm going to try and refurb the housing with lapping compound, etc. If not I'll have to get a new housing for this section.

After the pump I pulled case apart, and discovered that I apparently use "lube-a-lobe" lifters! I've read so much about how bad they are, but thankfully each of mine look fantastic.


The cam bearings, however, have seen better days. I'm now starting to understand why some of the chips in the oil clearly looked silvery and aluminum-like, while others had a distinct yellowish color. I thought that I was going to find the timing gear bad, but instead it could have been copper sparkles.


The cam surface shows some matching wear, but definitely no where near as bad as the cam bearings:


Rod bearings all look perfectly good, and the main bearings show even less wear.


So at this point, I don't really have a smoking gun. At the same time, however, I have a relatively easy fix on my hands. I suspect that this is a combination of some swarf left in the tank after drilling and welding in two bungs, the oil pump chatter and the worn cam bearings. Can't really be anything else...?

At the very least I need to swap out the cam bearings. I'm going to do the crank and rod bearings as well, since I'm already in here. Otherwise I'm going to clean it, button it up and make sure I flush the tank and lines extremely well. I'll run some cheap oil for a day to flush the system, and then replace it with my usual 5w40 synthetic.

-Dave

[Bruce]

..... I apparently use "lube-a-lobe" lifters! I've read so much about how bad they are, but thankfully each of mine look fantastic.

I disagree.  The one second from the top is about to start flaking off, like Scat lifters eventually do.  I highly recommend you replace them.

What is your cam?  Springs?

You must use double thrust cam bearings when you put it together.  If you are re-using the cam, check it for straightness.  I suspect it may be bent.  Do you have access to a lathe?

[owdlvr]

...that should be intake #3. I'll pull it out and take another photo for discussion sake. Cam is Engle W100, I have access to a lathe and based on the bearing wear I had already thought to check that it's straight. I'd have to check with Darren what I'm using for springs, he set the heads up for me.

-------

The day started off early, loading the bug onto the trailer with my friend Gord. Gord is shop foreman at Rocket Rally, and a wizard when it comes to fabricating. Long ago I roped Gord into 'helping' me do the lower shock mounts...which is to say he works, and I watch



After discussing the options and taking into account the things I thought were important, Gord went to work on cutting off the lower shock mounts and starting fresh. While he was working on suspension, I took advantage of the rally shop's automated parts washer, and prepped all the engine bits for reassembly. A couple of hours later and I had clean engine bits...and a bug with an finished rear suspension setup. We even managed to sort out the limit straps as well. I'll need to lathe up some spacers to go on either side of the rear shock, but that will be a super quick job I can leave for another time. Gord did have another design done up which wasn't a complete box, the lower section was closer in, and then they opened up on an angle. Definitely looked better, but swapping springs was similar to the stock mounts which required much manipulation of the suspension arm, shock and some swearing. With these mounts the springs are super quick and easy to change....so I went with the more useable design. I'll get photos with the springs installed soon.







One of the lathe jobs I wasn't going to tackle on my own, was the starter. Swinging one of these around in a lathe is not for the faint at heart! We took a total of .125" off the mounting face of the starter. It could be a bit thin, but then it's a $40 starter from Autozone. If the ear snaps off I'll know to to do just .100" next time


The plan for the evening was to assemble the engine. Rob actually opened AVR on a holiday to get me the bits I needed to do this. Amazing. I think I was laying the crank in the case when I realized that this job takes a whole lot longer then I remember with all the measuring and checking! I readjusted my plan to become "assemble the long block" before bed. Had an issue with the cam thrust bearing, but that was just a matter of polishing down the thrust portion on some glass. After mating the case halves I discovered two of the main studs needed some cleaning up on the threads. This was done very carefully with the engine all protected in plastic and paper towel. After spending the time doing that, I was highly considering just getting the short block done! I snugged the cam-plug bolts down okay, and grabbed the torque wrench. I now know why the cam plug leaked on this engine for the past year. I didn't make it 14ft-lbs before the stud stripped out of the right-side case half.

Un.

Freaking.

Believable.

The engine is now disassembled once again, and tomorrow I'll have to get a helicoil kit and set a coil into the case half. Then, after cleaning out all the swarf and crap, I can return to the job I was doing earlier this evening! Here is the stud, and next do it are the nice threads that should still be a part of the case!


-Dave

[Jord63]

What doesnt kill you just makes you stronger Dave.  Ive been there more times than I care to remember.  Keep up the great work on a killer car. Cant wait to see this machine in person.

[OUTKAST]

Speechless your tenacity and talent is amazing wish you were my neighbour would love to give you a hand and then maybe with your help : ) my bus might see some progress. LOL I really have no excuses now I need to make some progress . By the end you will know that car inside out GO DAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[owdlvr]

Thanks guys! Definitely feeling more positive after today.

I gotta say though, it's a good thing I'm a bit of a pack-rat for parts and had a spare case kicking around. I had to pull out one of the main studs to drill the helicoil...wouldn't you know it, the threads galled up on main stud! Had I not had a spare case, I'd have been down another day while I found one.

Well, I'm bagged after a full day of work in the garage. Engine is rebuilt and ready to go in. This included the helicoil, swapping out two main studs, blue-printing the dry-sump pump and all the usual engine build items (endplay, checking deckheight, etc. etc.). New shock mounts are now sitting in wet paint...so things are looking up again. Can't wait to find out what the next disaster is! hahaha.

-Dave

[Loadedagain]

shame about the engine issue. i'm sure it'll be sorted soon though... the rest of the car looks fabulous. good work dave!

[owdlvr]

Well, I've been hiding a bunch of updates on Airspeed as I wanted to surprise the club at our monthly meeting. Now that its over...time to catch up!

-----

Not much point in posting photos at this stage, since I've now been here at least twice before! Engine is back in and assembled completely. Rear apron and deck lid have been reattached. I managed to remember the 3M clear-tape, so hopefully the decklid won't wear through the paint at the corners. I did the very nerve-wracking oil-system priming last night, which always feels like it's taking forever. Really hoping the assembly lube does it's job!

I didn't get the oil system primed until 12:30am, so after setting up the fuel pressure double checking the floats and doing a few other jobs, I opted not to wake up the neighbors.

I need to torque down the CV joint bolts, install the crush-panel (for lack of better term) to the front frame head, install some running boards and the car can come off the axle stands. The running boards are probably going to need a bit of work, AVRparts.com gave them to me a few weeks ago. Apparently they were returned due to "not fitting", but I don't know anyone who buys non-VW running boards and expects them to fit perfect! Good for me though, they were free

...then it's onto the interior, where I need to finish the heating system, install seat belts, seats, the carpet portions I'm going to use and sort out what the plan on the floor is. I was going to leave it bare, but getting in and out of the car when your shoes are wet is like trying to walk across a skim of wheel-bearing grease! I might cut my new carpet kit, or cut a set of OE rubber mounts. All I know is that I don't want to cover the transmission tunnel at this stage.

The thread-extending gnome did make a visit to the garage last night, however. I was in the trunk fixing *something*, when I decided to fill the washer fluid system. A few moments after pressurizing it there was washer fluid spraying everywhere! Turns out one of you jokers put a couple of pinholes in my washer fluid line...but it was a quick, if not wet, fix.

-Dave

[owdlvr]

AUGH!! Don’t you just hate when you write a whole post and then hit the wrong button and close the window? DANGIT!

Alrighty…well, I guess I must have started with yesterday evening. I began by torquing down the axle CV joints, and finishing up the wiring for both of the Oxygen sensors. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to see a difference between the left and right bank, but it appears that there is enough gas flow past the sensors that they aren’t reading a mix between sides.

For the past week it feels like I haven’t stopped. The monthly meeting for the VW club is tomorrow night, and I’ve been going hard-at-it to try and make sure the car is ready for a “launch” at the meeting. It was going to be smooth sailing until I found all that metal in the motor…from then on, it’s been a serious touch-and-go mission. It seems that each day I start with a text to my friend Geoff saying “dude, not going to make it” only to follow up at about 3 in the morning with “well, maybe!”

I did get the car fired up last night, but I’m still not happy with the noise level. The valves sound too noisy, which is not good because I’m sure I adjusted them to loose-zero while the motor was on the stand. 100% positive this time! I had a couple of buddies listen to the car and they think it’s fine. I’ll check the valves again tomorrow morning (car has been running today) and go from there.  While the car was running my friend Scott stopped by to see it. He’s a side-draft weber guru, so I figured having him do the initial tune was better then me! He dialed in the idle by ear, which should be enough to get me in the ballpark. He also noted that the return springs that come with the kit bind near the end of their travel, I’ll need to move the springs to actually pull the plates fully closed every time.


With the engine running and the final details mostly taken care of underneath, I was really tempted to take the car out for a burn around the block! But there are no seatbelts and from the very beginning I wanted to drive a car into my Garage in September, and then drive a finished car out of my garage when it was done. As much as the driver in me said “go”, the responsible part of me said start bolting more parts on.

I had bought an EMPI carpet kit for the car, and figured it was time to go about fitting it. Some people are going to cringe when they see that brand name, but I’ve found their cheap carpet to be quite durable…and I needed something that I could buy and cut up into pieces right away. After some careful cutting I managed to install all the carpet I intend on using (for now) and did so without making too many errors. The errors I did make are big ones though! No one will ever see or care about #1, but #2 behind the pedals shows up in photos. Doh! The carpet over the heaterchannel on the right side fits perfect and I’m really stoked on it. The left side, however, fits weird. I haven’t sorted out whether it’s the heater channel or the carpet, but these pieces aren’t glued in so I can fix it later.


Astute viewers of the above photo will also notice I now have seats and a proper steering wheel installed in the car. Turns out I need to swap the oil pressure and volt meter gauge (they’re to the right of the tach). I can see the alternator is charging while driving, but can’t see the oil pressure!


The seats and belts are killing me. I have long ago over-extended the budget and passed what was “affordable”. I must reuse the seats and belts from my old rally car, and they look incredibly tired…not to mention out-of-date. They’ll work for now, but will definitely be a “replace me” item as soon as I can afford it.


I finished up the interior with door panels, reminding myself just how much I dislike mounting new door panels. Dear producers of new door panels: this isn’t rocket science…is it really that hard to punch holes in the correct location!?!


I finished my evening (which, at this point was well into the early morning) by mounting up the running boards.


The driver’s side fit like a glove and I was really quite happy until I absolutely gouged the @#!$!@ out of my front fender. Chalk that up to working on the car while tired, and pushing too hard to get it done. It’s just visible in this shot…but goes right down to the metal.


On the Passenger side I’ve got bigger issues. I had to trim some of the inside lip to get the running board to sit low enough, and once I had the front hole wasn’t going to line up. Not that it really matters, there is almost a 1” gap front-to-rear so even if the holes did line up they weren’t going to go together anyways! Eventually I’ll solve this with a new running board, but for a Spring-Thaw fix I might end up putting a bit of the black vinyl on the bottom of each fender and then hiding the gap with some rubber. Photograph the driver’s side please!


With the details done, this morning it was time for the part we’ve all been waiting for…a test drive! Rather then do a short once-around-the-block, followed by a check over on the car…I figured I’d just dive in and drive to work in Whistler. Ha! Like that was going to happen.

First stop was a trip to the insurance broker, to increase my coverage from “lowest you have” to “um, please replace my whole car if something happens”. On the way over to the broker the oil tank burped a bit of oil out the dipstick hole. Hmmm, that’s a bit odd, maybe I need to put an o-ring or something in it. After dealing with the insurance, and an unpaid speeding fine (oops!) I walked out to the car to find a small puddle of 5w40 underneath the car. A quick check showed no loose lines, but the breather tank drain was dripping.  I combined issue one (burped tank) with issue two (draining breather) and quickly realized I had forgot to multiple the heat-expansion factor of the oil. Checked the tank and what do you know, almost at the top! I pulled back into the house, sucked 1 full liter out of the tank and made attempt number two.

I got to the edge of town with no further oil problems, before I decided to head back to home. The air-fuel gauge was registering stoich for both the ½ and ¾ sides, but was showing a little on the lean side as well. I’m running narrow band sensors, and once they heat up tend to fluxuate across such a small range on the gauge it’s often hard to tell exactly what the reading is (vs. a fuel injected car which is constantly bouncing rich/lean, rich/lean). Not wanting to melt down a motor, I whipped the car back home. Tonight I’ll take it out and adjust the air/fuel mix to see if I’m getting a change on the gauge and pull some plugs to compare gauge to real-world measurement. Once I get it dialed in, the narrow band are great for seeing a problem or a change…narrow band for tuning, though, not so much!



Having driven the car for a good 35min today I did learn a few things. First off, the car is far more “race” then I initially planned. It’s bloody loud, harsh in the rear end and requires some lightning precision to shift the 5-speed well. It sounds funny, terrible at times and there are noises I don’t recognize that shouldn’t be there. In the words of Eric Bana “a new race car never feels good straight out of the workshop.”

So my current list of complaints are…

• There is a bad bearing in the Porsche trans. When I lift off the throttle you can hear it, and it goes away as soon as you’re on the throttle. Type-1 trans do that as well, and go for years just making noise. Will have to research the Porsche boxes and hope they are the same! For now, I will just keep my foot in it

• The oil tank isn’t fully sealed, and the inside of the car smells like hot oil. Now, this one could simply be due to having the cap open a number of times…or it could be I have to add an o-ring to my dipstick. I think I saw oil vapour wisping from the cap at one point, but I didn’t look too closely. Sealing this up will be a priority.  Either that, or I need find a woman who thinks Eau-de-synthetic is the best cologne you can get.

• No 5th point on the seatbelts. I hate four point belts (and their dangerous). I haven’t welded in the plate for the 5th point yet, and will have to do so asap. I can’t handle driving the car without the Anti-submarine strap. Heck, you can’t even tighten the seatbelts!  Very annoying.

But on the other hand, I actually drove the car more then onto a trailer! I have officially entered the “debugging” stage, vs. the “building” stage!

...oh, and I missed the best part. With the new motor setup, 165-series tires and the stiff rear suspension, the car is just dying to slide the rear-end around in the dry. It's going to be a total handful in the wet, I'm sure, but should be a lot of fun while I slowly dial in the sanity!

-Dave

[owdlvr]

I got home from work last night, warmed the car up and took it for a cruise. I got the idle jets sorted out, and then confirmed that it's a bit lean on the mains. After consulting with my buddy Geoff, I hand-drilled the mains and popped back out for a test. Exhaust tips are darkening up, and I think I'm good to drive it some distance now. I can at least get it to the club meeting!

Now, I could drive it down as-is...but that's not really finished is it? I fired up the Vinyl machine, and about 10min later fried the motherboard. AHHH!! A couple of hours were spent troubleshooting before I determined it was terminal, and came up with an other solution. I hand cut the stripes, which is why they're a bit off on the white! Once my machine is up and running I'll have to redo the stripes. Based on the photos I have of the factory cars, the decals were laid by the guy who swept the floor...with one eye closed. So I've taken some artistic liberties with them!








The rear engine lid stripe got a bit too much heat, and will definitely need redoing.










Took me until about 2:30am to get it done...but I can't believe I OWN ONE!! (even if it's not quite genuine!)

-Dave

[owdlvr]

So I definitely have some spring tuning to do. With the 300 lb springs and no damping my car sunk through most of it's travel. Even with the preload cranked I'm not sure I could get it up to ride height...though I admit to not trying it. The 550's hold the car at right height with just a slight touch of preload, but I will admit they are too stiff. You can feel the rear end wanting to go on dry tarmac, but it's fully predictable and I haven't actually slid it yet...in the dry. When the road is wet, however, it's a complete handful. Like, Porsche 930-widowmaker, handful. I'll be honest...it's a tonne of fun, until you suddenly find yourself looping it on a Vancouver city street without even trying...in traffic. Yeah, not my proudest moment  

My brain was screaming "don't lift!!!" ...but my foot had already started coming off the pedal.
 
Now, keep in mind I'm on an older pair of 165 series tires, so that definitely adds to the problem. Bump compliance in corners isn't great though, so I do need to soften the springs a little. I'm going to try 450s next, and then from there move to progressive setup with tender & main. I probably should put the 300's back in and crank up the preload to see if it will support the car. Would certainly make it far closer to the front springs which are rather soft right now.

-Dave

[Jord63]

  Awesome job Dave! Car looks excellent. Are you running single wire or heated three wire O2 sensors?

[Jeremy]

 Hells yah Dave. Nice job. Car looks great and done in timely fashion too.

[Randy]

Bravo, well done Dave.
I've enjoyed and envied this thread and car.
Now we hope to hear about the great adventures you take it on!
 

[owdlvr]

Fear not! I haven't abandoned this thread...I just merely took some time off the car to do some coaching and get the Spring Thaw ready!

There is much to be done still, and I have a couple of deadlines looming that require some fast hard work...but I figured for a few days I would enjoy it. At about the 500km mark I noticed I had a slight leak of oil out the front of the engine case. The cam seal always leaked on this engine, so I was less concerned then perhaps I should have been. At 700km I noticed a slight oil smell coming from the car when I stopped at a light, by 750km it was dripping oil consistently. Hmmm. Drove it back home (trailers are for wimps) and by the time I got there she was smoking oil off the muffler. Hard to see in this photo, but the 'fogginess' of the lower half of the photo is caused by oil smoke.


By now I knew that it wasn't the cam seal, but rather the flywheel seal. I have 5w40 all over the bottom of the car, or as I like to think of it "rust protection"   Regardless, the motor needed to come out...so last night I popped it out. Took me two hours from the time I drove into the garage, which is long by bug standards but pretty short considering all the stuff I have to deal with. A good bit of that time was spent finding tools i have yet to put away properly!


Hmmm, yes, it would seem we've found the problem.


When I called my local parts store to see if they could get me a seal for the morning, she was surprised to find they not only stocked them...but she has sold one or two per year for the past few years. Doing some mental math, that pretty much sums up my engine pulls/flywheel seal sagas exactly. Thats when it hit me, I always install the first seal "flush with the case", and end up having a leak. I go back, put a new seal in to the step and it solves all my problems. Maybe this note will stay for next time?


All buttoned up by 12:30am and ready to go. I have a few other items I need to take care of while it's in the garage...but I could have driven it to work today if I wasn't working from home.


-Dave

[Jeremy]

Dave, your a machine. Engines out, fixed, and back in in two hours. 12:30 nights. Thats what you call gettin' er done.

[Bruce]

Hmmm, yes, it would seem we've found the problem.

Is that rustyness on the splines?
If it is, next time the engine's out, you should hit it with your wire toothbrush to clean away as much of the rust as possible.  Then smear grease all over the splines.  This will help gearchanging a lot.

[owdlvr]

Indeed!  I had to clean out a fair bit of rust on the splines due to the trans sitting for a long time. Install #1 used powdered graphite for lubrication but I switched up to the tiniest amount of corrosionX lube I could use.

-Dave

[owdlvr]

Well, 300km on the new seal and holding fine (knocks on wood).

Drove the car down to a Vancouver Swap meet this weekend. Before heading down I needed to mount up the club badge onto the car:


I had planned on just hanging out at the swap for a couple of hours, keeping my wallet firmly in my pocket. Sadly, that didn't last long. Geoff found me a 1302s badge, which I paid way too much (in my mind) for. Hard to negotiate when you so obviously have the car that needs it parked 100ft away! I'm such a cheapskate that $20 for a much needed badge seems like the worst spend I've had on the whole build. Forget the ridiculous spending I did on the wiring harness...this one hurts! haha.


I was picking up a set of 4.5" wheels from Rob, but then one of the guys rolled into the swap with a full set of 5.5" sport rims and tires in his stash. Two of the tires are dated 1980, and while all four have the molding nubs still installed they aren't exactly a set I would trust to drive on! A deal was made, and I soon found myself trying to figure out how to stack 4 rims with tires and 4 bare rims into a car which will has no storage space or room. Out came the passenger seat, in went the gear, and then I layed the passenger seat on top. Thankfully I still have my ratty old seats, so fear of dirt is non-existent! One more tire and wheel combo, and two rims are still go be loaded in:


I've managed to find time to mount up the rally intercom, into the only spot available in the car. Without the belts on I can easily reach the volume knob, but once strapped in the location is useless. Sort of a pain, but there is no room on the trans tunnel which is reachable, and I'd have to extend the wires by quite a bit to mount it under the dashboard. This will just have to do. I trimmed out the wire length and resoldered on the ends for a clean installation. Also wired in an output line for interior video, and and input line for the iPod. When cruising and not racing I can listen to tunes (mono, in one ear only), or while shooting video the camera gets a feed of what's being spoken between the two seats. (hopefully not "OH &^$%!!!!!" ) Last thing to do for the intercom system is repair/replace my headsets. The Peltor intercom requires dynamic microphones, and I have passive ones currently.


I keep tossing the GoPro in my laptop back to shoot some video, and then promptly forget that I have it until I'm down the road strapped in and unable to move. Speaking of which, I also welded in anti-submarine belt mounts this weekend. There was much debate over whether I should put my mounts to the floor or mounts to the seat mounts. The proper way to do it is with plates welded to the floor, and a bolt going through the floor and plate. But that assumes that you also have your seats properly mounted to the cage / floor. I've got my seats mounted to factory sliders...so, it's a bit of a grey area. Technically if the seat breaks free the belts should hold me and the seat in place. Eventually I decided that I'm in a '71 Volkswagen Beetle with just a 4pt roll bar. If I've managed to hit something hard enough that my seat mounts have broken free, I'm in a whole world-of-hurt that makes the anti-submarine strap mounting far less of a concern. With that, a 1" seamless tube was welded across the bottom of the seat mounts and the straps are now mounted to that.

Even though the tires are old, and likely unsafe, I couldn't resist mounting up the wide sport rims to check out the look. They've got 205/70/15's on the back and 165/15s on the front. It's a terrible combo that rakes the front end of the car and just looks...wrong.


So I'm in tire juggling mode between now and my Spring Thaw departure on Thursday. The 165's I had on 4" wide hub-cap rims are being mounted to the 4.5" sport-style rims today. They'll go onto the car tomorrow morning, and should have that "narrow period" look that match the rest of the car. The wide sport rims will have the 80's cal-look tire set removed and my 205/60/15 track tires will be mounted. Not 100% sure these are going to fit on the front of the car, but tomorrow night late I'll mount them up to see. They'll totally ruin the period look of the car, and it's probably far too sky-high for wide track meats (no adjustable suspension on the front yet)...but they will be safer and more fun for 1200km of pavement rally/touring. If I'm not sold on the look, the narrow sport-style wheels will get coat of poor-mans-chrome (silver spray paint) and get remounted on Thursday morning.

Sleep, who needs sleep?

-Dave

[70's Looker]

so dave, did you and your new big girl make it to the thaw? i know you like photos so please fill us all in!

[owdlvr]

Wow,

What a few weeks it has been.  I'm sorry I haven't been updating the thread as frequently, but the moment the bug was "ready" I had to go into emergency car-prep and organizer mode for our Annual "Hagerty Spring Thaw Classic Car Adventure".  This year Warwick, my business partner, and I were pushing the limits a little too closely. First up was the Bug, a whole brand new build which required three unplanned motor pulls and the unplanned tear down to replace the bearings. That set me back by at least a week, which meant helping Warwick out was becoming a problem. On Warwick's side we had his '66 Alfa Romeo Duetto which needed rear brake work. The left rear caliper was locking up so I tore it off and rebuilt it. Oddly enough the same problem continued. Alfas are famous for needing a flex line replaced to solve rear axle lock up, but the strange part was it was only the left side that was a problem. Never-the-less, the car was put up on axle stands again so I could do the rear flex line. Following that the brakes released properly (odd) but it had to come in a third time for a full brake bleed. I guess once we free'd up the rear the air in the front became apparent!



With the Alfa ready to go, we focused on Warwick's '66 Austin Mini. With just three days to go before our event it still had no interior, a new motor puking oil, no brakes, no doors, no hood and no engine lid. First up was fixing the motor. When the engine was built one of the oil-galley plugs was pulled to clean out the block from any machining. The galley was threaded and a bolt installed with gasket and sealant. Unfortunately the 75psi of break-in oil pressure was pushing oil past the threads at an alarming rate. Different sealants were tried, and then finally as a last-ditch effort before pulling the motor I pulled out the tubes of Permatex Cold Weld (JB-Weld's competitor). I hate to use cold-weld on a new motor, but with the event fast approaching we were running out of time. 12 hours later, Warwick and I both crossed our fingers as he hit the starter. Sweet! No oil leak!  I then made him a temporary gauge holder to house an oil pressure gauge, Audi Voltmeter and coolant temperature gauge. A spare Stewart Warner tach was popped onto the dash so he could monitor his break-in and ensure he was running at different RPMs on the way to the start. Warwick was working on the car 18 hours a day. His buddy Martin was putting in daytime hours and I was working evenings. All along the two of us were pausing to do last-minute event items such as hotel changes, meal confirmations, cancellations and wait-list entries. It was a crazy blur!

At some point I managed to have my buddy Gord swap the 165-series tires from my hubcap style rims over to the late-model super rims. Still 4.5" wide, but more in the style I prefer. There were plans to refinish them before the Spring Thaw event, but those were quickly shelved with all the other crazyness going on.



Thursday afternoon (April 26th) came, and while I worked on final changes with our entrants Warwick hit the road in the Mini to break it in on the way to our start location. He made it about 40min down the highway before calling me to say the car had died. Diagnosis procedures were relayed over the phone and via text as I loaded the car and raced down to help him out. In the rush to leave I managed to completely forget any tools, and thus planned to do the 1200km driving adventure with no jack, no wheel wrench, and no tools or spares!  I did have a clutch cable, but that was going to be pretty useless without any way to install it By the time I had arrived Warwick had diagnosed the problem as the coil, and soon after a fellow Mini buddy dropped by with a spare. Off we went to prep the start!  Well, actually I went to the hotel and started drinking beer with some of our Entrants while Warwick hit a buddies shop for a late night alignment, fuel pump repair and the manufacture of rear wheel spacers to stop the rubbing. Nothing like finishing the car at 11:30pm the night before!



With the morning came 73 classic cars, 148 people and the start of what has turned into the fall event of the Pacific Northwest. Our Fourth Annual Spring Thaw started in Hope BC, travelled to Sun Peaks on night one, from Sun Peaks to Penticton BC on night two and then back to Hope for the finish. The event attracts everything from cars you wonder if they'll make it, all the way to very expensive and rare european machinery. Amazingly all entered vehicles managed to make it to the first night's hotel stop...which is a first for the event. The bug was running flawlessly, though I will admit to driving it much easier then I have in previous years. I decided that I really didn't want to be the "Hard Luck Award" winner, which is given to the team which has a catastrophic failure during the event. Much of the first day was spent playing on the roads with a friend's 356. Dave recently installed a new motor and was also "being easy" on the car with a self-imposed 4500rpm rev limit. By the end of the day it was clear both of us had to flip our mirrors if we were the one leading...the car in the back was clearly pushing the rev limits higher and higher!

My co-driver had bailed for the Thaw with relatively short notice, and with the craziness of the weeks before I never got around to inviting a new one. So, Ernie jumped in the right seat to take care of map duties for the weekend. He was pretty quiet the whole time, but I have to say he was about as accurate and useful with the directions as my regular co-driver!


Day two was a day of swapping cars between myself and Duncan's TR7. I've always wanted one, as dad had a project TR7 when I was a kid, but have never had the opportunity to drive one. At first I realized you should never drive the cars you dream about...coming from the bug the TR felt like it was floating all over the road...but soon settled into reviewing the car on it's own, instead of comparing it, and came to enjoy it quite a bit! Duncan and I also worked on tuning the dampening for the rear suspension on the beetle. Having a second set of eyes to see what the car was doing and comparing it to what I was feeling inside was a huge help. We've dialed out much of the widowmaker handling and the car is becoming quite predictable under throttle and when sliding.


Day two also saw our first catastrophic failures. Warwick's Alfa blew out it's centre driveshaft bearing while his mom was driving, and was the only fully-terminal issue for the whole event. The car was towed to a local town, where one of our entrants offered the use of their enclosed garage for as long as required. Tucked away safely, Sue and Lorrie began jumping into the back seats of whatever classic cars they could. On the Spring Thaw, no one is left behind! Gerry Frose, who painted my bug, also had a big failure on day two. His 1980 Rabbit decided that the inner CV balls would look far better bouncing down the highway as opposed to inside the joint where they could be useful. Parts and tools were acquired from 2 hours away, and while rather sunburned, they managed to get it together and even beat me to the hotel (via a shortcut) for night #2.




Day three for me was rather short. Someone on the organizing team had to skip ahead to greet guests at the finish, and since I haven't done it on the other three years it was my turn!  I left 15-30min before the first cars were out, but that didn't keep me from watching my rear view mirror the entire time on the first road. I always warn guests on the day three driver's meeting that the brake pedal is going to be a little longer today, and my car was no exception. Going deep into the corners had double meaning on this run! Ultimately, however, the car performed flawlessly and it was a short while later that my co-driver and I were able to enjoy our first meal of the weekend. It didn't last long though, like all my other meals on the weekend it was quickly interrupted by organizing duties. Cold food taken in bites over a period of hours...that's the eating habits of an organizer!


Following the Thaw the week has been a whirlwind. I wrote down a 34-point list of things I needed to prep by Friday night. Connor spent much of the week crossing the items off the list with me each evening...and the local Rally Shop, Rocket Rally, filled in the blanks during the day for me. I think we un-mounted and mounted the equivalent of 20 tires over a three day period! Some of the major highlights of the week:

Rally Tire rims painted, Pirelli tires mounted.


Hand Brake lever handle completed by my buddy Scott.


Spare tire strap was sewn, and finally installed.


I fixed the stripe on the engine lid. It took 4 tries to lay without bubbles or tears...but then promptly split the next morning!


And the big one was seats and belts. I needed a non-ratty set for the weekend, and time was running short to work out some options. I ended up calling another ralliest in town, Brandon, and asked to borrow his seats and belts. Took two nights to modify my seat mounts to fit the wider seats...but the interior is looking far better. Sorry the photo is so dark, meant to take another in the morning and forgot.


With that, I packed the car and prepared myself for waking up at 3am...

[owdlvr]

My alarm went off at 3:00am this morning. It took until 3:30 before I finally shut snooze off for good, and by 4:00 I was on the highway south of my hometown. Crossing the US border was shockingly easy this time around. The guard didn't even open my passport, simply asking "do you race this thing!?!"  I replied with a "not yet, but after the photos are done I will be."  She didn't even ask me where I was going, or for how long, just a "have fun" and I was in the U.S. The drive down was through the rain, and when I arrived in Lynnwood it was off to find a do-it-yourself coin wash to clean the car for the second time in 13 hours.

Now, I suppose I should pause for a moment to explain that "washing the car" to me usually means some dish soap, a sponge and the hose...and done as quickly as possible. About a year ago I switched to proper car washing soap, only because it was on sale, but drying to me has always been either air-dry or with a beach towel. Quite frankly I've never owned a vehicle with a finish nice enough to care.

But here I was, bringing my car to Northwest Auto Salon, a buddy Blake's detailing shop. NWAS is regularly voted Washington's top detailing shop, and every time I'm there its jammed with Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Porsches and Classics. Blake's shop, especially the back storage shops, and his neighbour Cat Exotics are the places to be to find the weird, rare and wonderful. LM002? Two colors to choose from. Diablo? pick your model, flavour and color...they are all here. Countach? Do you prefer early no-wings, or late crazy 80's style? It doesn't really matter, as they are all represented in multiple choices. That's just the Lambo selection!  Anyways, you can imagine that bringing the lowly beetle is a bit humbling. Not to mention that any vehicle I've ever driven there has been embarrassing...at least on Blake's scale. Now, he did start off with cheap Audi 4000's and rust bucket Audi-90's, so he's paid his dues. But take his Riviera for instance, you can't find a flaw on the entire car...and trust me, I tried!


Before Blake arrived I washed the car, polished the bumpers and tail pipes, cleaned the wheel-wells and swapped the street tires over for the rally tires.




When Blake did arrive, he was quite impressed with the build...which, for me, is like getting approval from someone like Jay Leno. To have Blake, who deals with insane cars on a daily basis, check the car out and show genuine enthusiasm was pretty rad. My wash job was even determined to be acceptable, though apparently the Chamois I used is no longer "in style" and I need to switch to microfibre cloths for drying. My windows, however, were a complete and utter failure.

I own seven different metric wrench sets, but seem to think that blue-shop-towels are all you need for detailing a car. Blake whipped me through window-detailing 101 and taught me the techniques for crystal clear windows, right to the edge of the rubber. I had no idea that one would need three cloths, special steel wool and the eyes of a hawk to do the job right...but after seeing the finished product I'm totally sold. There was no time to move onto other lessons, so Blake matte-waxed the hood and engine lid to remove water spots, and I vacuumed out the inside of the car.

Another friend, Andrew Holliday, showed up...and the car was rolled back into Northwest Auto Salon's photo studio. Blake gave the car one final check under the lights...


...the curtains were closed and Andrew went to work.


The rest of today's story will need to be told at a later date, but the important part for now is that "the studio shots" have been done. I no longer need to worry about stone chips, thus the gravel tires will be used this week! Not quite sure where yet, but I am definitely getting out for some testing :-)  For now, however, I'm completely bagged. 17 hours after I left this morning, I am back home. Almost fell asleep on the highway, had to pull off and sleep at a Starbucks for an hour. Following the nap I had a double shot of Espresso followed by a double-shot Mocha while driving. Needless to say, it's sleepy time.

-Dave

[buddy boy]

nice work!!

i love to detail also,.. next time i'm up let me at her !

[silas]

right on dave!! kudos and congrats on completing a great build. what an accomplishment!!

and now that the shoot is done...go get sideways and beat the piss out of it (oh yeah, and i'll pre "pics or it didnt happen" that statement right now!)

[rekka]

Looks like you made it out the other side, glad it's going to get dirty again. I didn't see you between Penticton and Keremeos but saw a lot of the other Spring Thaw cars drive by our school bus whilst we were on a garage tour. A lot of models I haven't seen since I left the UK. Stoked to see a Renault 16. By the time we got to the end of Green Mountain Rd, the pads on the rear disc brakes on the bus were actually on fire.

[slammedbus]

I have been lurking on this thread for a long time now. . . . . . speechless.......wow man! Incredible!