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-   -   Dave's new 1969 mild GL build... (https://www.germanlook.net/forums/showthread.php?t=11987)

owdlvr March 21st 2020 14:11

Dave's new 1969 mild GL build...
 
GL Post

Oh gosh…not another car?!

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As my business, Classic Car Adventures, has continued to grow the success has been both a blessing and a curse. Now, when the Rally Bug, or ’58 Beetle, want an upgrade or suddenly need new parts, the months saving for funds have disappeared. The curse, however, is that I’m traveling far more than I used to…and my time for wrenching away on projects in the garage has shrunk significantly. I continue to plug away on my actual German look project when I can, but I’m beginning to realize that Dec/Jan might be my only months out of the year to really work on it.

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About a year ago my buddy posted a 1969 Beetle up for sale, at a price that was far too high to consider. A month or so ago, it was posted again…this time with a price drop. It was still priced far too high, but I started to look at it under a different light. As my orange German Look project continues to progress (albeit, very slowly), I’m starting to to get to the point where I’ll be able to prep the shell for paint. I’ve started pricing out paint jobs, and suddenly this 1969 Beetle doesn’t seem like such a horrible price to pay.

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And so, I found myself negotiating with my buddy Geoff in Vancouver over the car. While we were negotiating on price and details, I was actually hammering down the east coast of the USA in a Porsche 911 which I had borrowed for an event. Should I have been negotiating on a red ’69 beetle, while driving a red 911 and thinking of the German Look build? Probably not. But, thats what I was doing!

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And so, with mere weeks to go before the worldwide coronavirus shutdown, I put a hefty deposit down on this 1969 Beetle. Back in the 90’s it won a number of west coast shows as a cal-look beetle. The car won awards without ever having carpet installed, or the driver’s door panel, as even the inside of the doors were wet sanded and perfect. It was given a freshening up in-around the year 2000, and has been in storage since the end of 2001. The motor was pulled, but I bought the rest.

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The pan is basically perfect, though we’ll know for sure once I get it home and up on axle stands for a full check over. What I could see with the flashlight, makes me pretty happy. The body is 95% perfect. The paint is desperate for a cut polish, but being single-stage there is lots to work with. There is a pretty bad run in the paint next to the rear vents. Either this car was repainted when it was refreshed in 2000 (unsure) or show-winning standards back in the 90s were significantly lower! Either way, I can live with it. It does have one rust bubble that I could find, low on the front quarter, coming from one of the fender mounting bolts. It’s low enough that a repair can be blended and hidden, so I figure it is what it is.

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Interior wise, it’s all black. Stock seats, black covers. Black panels, black headliner. No carpets. Not exactly my favourite, but I can work with it. Car comes with an empi Hurst shifter, Formuling Steering wheel in great shape, a mix of VDO and Autometer gauges…and who knows what in the boxes.

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(The white is polishing compound dust.)

Now, anyone who knows me, knows I hate Cal-look style. I mean, I understand it. I appreciate the history. But the whole “you must do X, Y, Z” drives me insane. I swear I will never own a Cal-Look car. I also hate Fuch wheels on Beetles, and swore I would never own a car with them. Hilarously I passed on the car when it was first posted because of the wheels! Thinking about this car, however, and it dawned on me that the Cal-look modifications are a simple recipe to correct. It seems to me that with the wheels swapped, and a couple of other exterior changes, I’ve got myself a very nice mild German look car…very similar to my original 1969 build.

It just so happens I have a set of genuine 17” Porsche twist wheels in the shop, and a brand new set of Michelin tires to match. I have to do some research to see what will fit, but the chassis has a 3” narrowed beam and a narrowed IRS rear end…so I’m hopeful I can squeeze them in under the stock fenders. My pre-purchase plan was a set of Braid wheels for the car, but given that the covid-19 virus situation is crippling my company, I’ll be spending as little money as possible!

The chassis comes equipped with disc brakes all around, as well as what appear to be Koni shocks. Will need to do a full assessment once I get it home. The gearbox has been modified for drag racing, and gearsets and ratios are unknown. Fortunately my ’73 project has a refreshed box just waiting for another project, so I’ll be able to swap over into a useable box for highway use.

All the photos thus far are from my buddy Geoff who sold me the car. It's currently stored underground, and I arrived having flown in with both phones basically dead. As soon as I can move my '63 MG Midget out of the shop, and it's socially acceptable to leave the house again, I'll go and pick it up to start the light modifications and get it roadworthy.

Only problem is the engine...not really in the mood for dropping $6k to build a 2110cc given our current economic climate. I might be able to assemble most of a 1776cc out of parts kicking around the shop...we shall see.

H2OSB March 22nd 2020 21:27

Wow! What a gorgeous starting point.

Steve C March 23rd 2020 01:32

nice score, cant wait to see more

owdlvr March 24th 2020 00:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by H2OSB (Post 91859)
Wow! What a gorgeous starting point.

No kidding eh? That's pretty much why I couldn't pass it up. Mind you, I wish I had waited...but oh well.

If the weather looks to improve, and we aren't going into Lockdown in Canada, I'll aim to pick it up after this coming weekend.

-D

Wally March 24th 2020 14:30

Nice score indeed!

owdlvr March 28th 2020 04:38

I managed to get the car home this week, while maintaining a proper and socially acceptable 6+ feet from anyone.
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Didn't snag any photos, but I'm pleased to say the car already has sway bars front and rear, and the undercarriage looks quite good. The rear brakes use the stamped caliper mount, but I'm pretty sure I have a pair of cast ones to swap out in my spare parts stash. Interestingly enough, the car came with all of the receipts since 1989. The holder on the right is all of the receipts, and the holder on the left is all of the 4x6 photos and all the negatives for the build of the car! I will have to scan some selections, because some of them are pretty interesting to have.
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After many years of storage, it definitely needs a cleaning! The rear seat padding is on the cusp of needing to be replaced. It's not breaking up like front seats usually do, but the springs have worked their way deep into the padding. I may try pulling the rear seat apart to see if I can save the padding by putting canvas over the springs first. Hoping I can get away with saving it, since the rear seat is used very infrequently for passengers. I typically just end up with gear or event supplies back there.
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Growing up, I always wanted a Formuling steering wheel. I either wanted the 4-spoke wheel in silver, or this wheel in black. Pretty crazy to finally own one in good shape, even if I did have to buy a whole car to get it. I think I will put this aside for use in my '75 Beetle, which has been in my family since I was 4. There is something about the collection of gauges which screams "80s" to me, but I can't place why. I mean, they aren't that far off from what I have in the Rally Bug. Alas, the dash pad is cracked and the vents are dry rotted. I wish I could remember if I put the "good" or "premium" dash cover into my white '69 Beetle. I'll have to order a dash pad for this one, it's really too bad Carbon Joe isn't around any longer ;)
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Okay...how did this thing win shows back in the day? And this was supposedly a professional installation!?! Geesh. Needless to say, it's coming out...
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Uh oh. Well, this explains why the brake reservoir is empty.
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The car has (apparently) never had a driver's side door panel installed. The original owner loved to show the car with no panel, to show how nice the paint was on the car. Included in the photos of the car displayed at a show, and yup! No door panel :P
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Started playing with wheels. My plan, even before purchase, was to use the silver twists I have...but to be honest, I'm not a big fan of them with the silver. I pulled out a set of twist copies I have, simply to see if the Anthracite grey was a better choice. Then for fun I leaned one of my 16" speedlines against it. Now I have NO idea what to do for wheels. Do I powdercoat the silver twists a different colour? Run the gold speedlines? The speedlines are a rather rare 5.5" wide 16" wheel, originally used for winter rallies with the SubaruUSA team. Either Higgins or Pastrana did at least a stage on these, so they have some scuffs and a storyline. After seeing them on the red car, however, I am tempted to re-drill the Rally Bug.
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Can't decide if I should do the single set of PIAA lights, like I had on my white '69, or perhaps this smaller set of PIAAs. Or, I could go without. Extra lights does seem to be a "thing" for me though. My Midget build last winter gave up the front bumper, just so I could mount two lights. I've made up some new brackets, and decided i would sleep on it before welding them to the bumper mounts.
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From there, I stripped out the interior and started pulling out anything on the car I won't be using. Went through my storage shed to see what parts I might have that could be of use, and tomorrow I'll go through the two mezzanines I built in my shop. I have the VW pedals with my modifications from the Rally Bug, and a few other parts that might be handy. I think this car will end up with a stereo and speakers, if I can figure out where I'm going to mount front speakers. I ordered door panels with pockets, so that creates a bit of difficulty. Tomorrow I should start on both the interior and the drivetrain.

-Dave

owdlvr March 30th 2020 03:25

Found the reason for the brake fluid loss. Seems whomever added the 2psi residual valve, didn't understand how brake line fittings are supposed to work. That is NOT a compression fitting!
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Worked on seat mounts today, had to tear down a set of stock '69 seats in order to get a good set of bases, and then work out how to adapt Porsche 911 seats to the mounts. This time around, I basically built the VW bases to allow for mounting anything down the road, and then build a set of adapters to go from the 911 seats to my bases. Welded them all in the car, with the base on the tracks, in hopes that they would still slide following the work. Great news, they still do! For mockup and mounting, I used a set of ratty 911 seats I have that were poorly recovered sometime in the 80's. My better set is at the upholstery shop, hopefully getting an OEM-ish look to them. As far as I know the guys are still working...so here's hoping!

I decided to mount the amp in this car under the passenger seat. Made a mount so that it is up off the floor, and out of the way of any water that might come in. I've got a compact sub and amp combination from a pickup-truck we had a few years back, but I haven't decided where to mount it. Definitely don't want to put it under the driver's seat, so that will be a project for another day.

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-Dave

Bogara_ZO March 31st 2020 06:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by owdlvr (Post 92039)

Started playing with wheels. My plan, even before purchase, was to use the silver twists I have...but to be honest, I'm not a big fan of them with the silver. I pulled out a set of twist copies I have, simply to see if the Anthracite grey was a better choice. Then for fun I leaned one of my 16" speedlines against it. Now I have NO idea what to do for wheels. Do I powdercoat the silver twists a different colour? Run the gold speedlines? The speedlines are a rather rare 5.5" wide 16" wheel, originally used for winter rallies with the SubaruUSA team. Either Higgins or Pastrana did at least a stage on these, so they have some scuffs and a storyline. After seeing them on the red car, however, I am tempted to re-drill the Rally Bug.

-Dave

Nice one Dave, I am curious to see how this project ends!

As for the wheels, I would go with the speedlines and leave the Rally Bug unmolested. Thats an unusual choice of wheels and would give a great rally machine character to the bug! Furthermore 16" is the best size for our cars I guess and gold works very well on red cars. (I might be a bit balanced though :rolleyes: http://sleepair.blogspot.com/2015/09...ngaroring.html)

If you choose to stay with the twists, powdercoat them in black as well the bumpers, bonnet, decklid etc. so you have a "rot-shwarzer-renner" (a GSR with a TWIST :D).

owdlvr March 31st 2020 15:17

I do _love_ your car. I think you'll be happy when my seats come back from the upholstery shop...which could be this week!

I've never been one to follow the "traditional" way of doing things, but I'm tempted to put the silver twists on the car since Porsche wheels are such an iconic GL item. Plus, I own them and have brand new michelin tires to fit them. This does, of course, assume I can fit 225/45/17's under the front fenders. But I think I agree with you, the 16" of the speedlines would be a much better ride. They're also significantly lighter. Plus, the gold really pops.

Bumpers, brackets and headlight rings are already at the powdercoaters. He's so backed up from everyone bringing in their projects (gee, I guess lots of people are spending time at home!), I didn't want to bog him down with the wheels just yet.

You definitely have me thinking about a GSR look though...

Bogara_ZO April 3rd 2020 14:22

Thanks Dave! Now I'm looking forward to see your seats asap.. I have been following all of your builds so I know that you are liking doing things on your own way, hence I recommended the Speedlines. If you stay with the twists the black-red combo should work I think, especially that you are already done with the mirrors, door handles etc...whatever you decide I'm sure it will turn out well, like all your other projects so far. Keep up the good work! (I am trying to find picutres for your from a particular german race car in the same color scheme, hope will find it sooner or later)
Zoltan

wouter1303 April 6th 2020 03:36

I would choose the Speedlines, because they are different than the other more used twists...just to be different ;)

Wally April 6th 2020 12:33

I would agree on the Speedlines as well ;-)

owdlvr April 7th 2020 03:20

Well, I won't lie. The opinions of my GL forum friends, are opinions I well respect. I've been working out what it will take to get the Speedlines on the car. I think we're going there, but not just yet...budget needs to be spent first on getting it to move before swapping over the whole wheel setup to Subaru bolt pattern.

My first parts order for the car arrived just in time for the weekend, so I went about stripping the body shell down to a spot where I could start. Pulled the interior, and started sorting out the wiring. The car is getting a full six channel stereo system, repairing the wiring for the gauges in the dash, adding a wideband gauge, and putting in a circuit breaker for the entire car. I had a 100A circuit breaker kicking around, and the starter isn't on the circuit breaker, but may need to up to a 150 or 200A unit...we'll see if it trips under normal use or not. By the end of the weekend, I had laid down so many circuits I’ve actually lost count.

Kick panels and front speakers.
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Turns out I most of a "baja" carpet kit in my parts stash, but with no wheel well covers. Saved what the car had, trimmed up the baja kit to fit, and finished off the rear luggage area. The speaker deck was originally in my white beetle, and has been in storage since I sold it to pay for paint on the Rally Bug. Planning on it being permanent, so it's bolted into the firewall and luggage tray with riv-nuts. I machined up the aluminum legs to take up as little luggage space as possible.
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Dry-rotted bits replaced. Gauges cleaned up, red lighting added, and reinstalled. Had to paint the Autometer wideband trim ring to match, and repainted the tachometer as well. Also installed a new dash pad, and filled my shop with many a four-letter word for a few hours. I bought the mid-grade made in the USA version...definitely should have paid the money for the "premium" version.
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Recovered the rear seat...really hoping those wrinkles come out after it sits in the sun for a while. Even with putting the covers in the dryer, until they were warm to the touch...ugh. I have another set, I may need to try again. Such a waste of material.
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Anyone remember these from my white beetle? I'm digging deep into the parts archives, for sure!
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A 3D printer was a new purchase this year, and it’s been coming in handy. Whipped up a horn button that will actually work with steering wheel quick release. It won’t be “quick” anymore, but it will technically be removable.
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And, since it’s late and I think they look awesome…might as well spoil the surprise...

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-Dave

wouter1303 April 7th 2020 05:04

Killer combo, the black and the red tartan details:cool:

Bogara_ZO April 9th 2020 13:55

You were right Dave, I dig the tartan interior, well done! 👍 Also like the c/f shifter, it still looks great. Keep up the good work and pics coming!
Zoltan

Wally April 13th 2020 03:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by wouter1303 (Post 92050)
Killer combo, the black and the red tartan details:cool:

Oooohhh! I agree there: That is indeed extremely sexy interior combo.
Nice job! looks Singer :cool:

owdlvr April 13th 2020 03:40

Well I was buttoning up the rear end on the car, half the Porsche studs I ordered had come in so I thought I’d setup the one side of the car to see the Porsche twists on it to make my final wheel decision. I got to thinking again about the Subaru wheels, and I really do think they’d be wonderful on the car. Swapping over to them is just a matter of buying four new brake rotors…or is it?

Buried in my vast collection of things I’ve collected for these cars, would be a subarugears rear brake adaption kit. Oh! Maybe I’ll put the Subaru brakes on the rear, and then I only have to buy front rotors…Hmm, it would appear I bought the subarugears brake kit to match my donor car (5x100), not the wheels I acquired later (5x114.3). But by the time I got this far, I was thinking about how bloody wimpy the standard beetle discs are going to be behind any wheels. Hmmm…What do I have kicking around that would suit the rest of the car?

The orange ’73 project wasn’t originally going to keep the Porsche setup, so if I steal the setup for this car…that would be okay, right? Well…down the rabbit hole we go. I took the narrowed rear end out of the car, to be sold at some point to some cal-look enthusiast who will appreciate a set of original Tweddle arms. And in went a set of steel 944 rear arms, standard length axles and I started prepping for the 944/Boxster rear brakes I have. I mocked them up to discover the width is perfect, but forgot that ’69 Beetles need longer parking brake cables so the rear will have to wait until my next parts order arrives.

The fronts, it would appear, are going to be a lot more challenging. The ’73 super has aluminum mounts which mount directly to the drum-brake spindle, and I figured it couldn’t be [/I]that[/I] hard to adapt them to my drop spindles?! Hahaha. Oie.

Okay so after a fair bit of thread and forum searching I now know that CB Performance drop spindles are cast slightly differently, and allow for mounting of Boxster callipers with the use of an adapter (which you need to make yourself). I Also understand why the fresh, new, CB castings make this a lot easier. It helps that a friend of mine did Rene’s adapters on his car, using the same caliper (on CB spindles), and was able to send me a photo of the rear of the adapter. I have two options, order CB spindles, or see if I can make mine work. Worst case I have to order CB spindles anyhow…so here we go!

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First up, enough modelling on the computer that I could understand the bolt spacing, and generally where everything needed to go. I’ve mocked up enough information on the Super Beetle setup (Which was working), my current spindles, the 944 turbo setup (so I could see how it was done) and then the Boxster caliper. I worked until I couldn’t “see” it in my head in 3D any longer and built brake adapter #1. Have I mentioned I love my 3D printer? That adapter was printed, and then cut up in the garage until it couldn’t be modified any further.

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I realized pretty quickly that if I moved one of the mounting holes, this would work out a whole lot easier, so built a quick drilling jig to put a small hole through the spindle, and then it’s a simple matter of clamping it down on my milling machine against the flat surface to drill and tap the hole from the other side.

I then modelled up adapter version 2, took it out to the garage and cut it up until it was close to fitting. Repeat for adapter 3, and finally by adapter #4 it was fitting with only minor modifications. These photos are of adapter #3, and you can see that I have to clock the caliper pretty low on the rotor. With the Boxster callipers, and drop spindles, it’s just not possible to do it any other way.

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Adapter #5 is coming out of the printer momentarily, and includes both a left and right version. It *should* be the one that bolts right up without any modifications…at least on the left side. We’ll see how close we are on the right. The welded drop spindles mean some clearances can be different. I’ve modelled them in a way that will allow my buddy to CNC them on his 3 axis mill, keeping in mind the tooling that he has at home. Once I have the adapters fitting perfectly out of the printer without modification, I’ll look to see what tool paths I can add to shrink the weight. Some of the mounting areas are pretty small, so these will have to be steel and not alloy.

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As we’re now waiting on parts or printing, I tackled a bunch of minor items on the list; installing the starter, swapping the brake master, and setting up to flush the fuel tank. The motor bits are all at the balancing shop, and should ship at the end of the week. Powdercoating might be finished tomorrow or Tuesday. It does appear as though I’ll be using the Porsche twists for some time now, so I may look to get those powder coated as well.

I did make a huge error this weekend though. One of the first things I did for the car was buy new window regulators. I pulled the doors apart, got the old window regulators out and then got to thinking about how genuine VW ones are always better than the reproductions. The glass was super stiff in the seals, not the regulators, and things started sliding okay once I sprayed silicone in the seals. So I cleaned out the original regulators, re-greased them, put them back into the doors and then sealed everything up with two layers of plastic. I popped on the new door panels (with plaid pockets!) and replaced the handle trim. It was at that moment, that I remembered why i bought two new regulators as the first thing on my list. I've got an early 67 regulator in the driver's door, and a later 68 regulator in the passenger door. They use different style window cranks. Sigh. Well, this car is getting the Scat 80's style window handles because I am NOT redoing all of that work again. It's going to drive me nuts...for years. Maybe I can paint them black?

Wally April 15th 2020 14:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by owdlvr (Post 92055)

These photos are of adapter #3, and you can see that I have to clock the caliper pretty low on the rotor. With the Boxster callipers, and drop spindles, it’s just not possible to do it any other way.

I can relate: the fronts on a type 3 have the same 'issue': there's hardly any room to use radial to axial adapters unless you clock them more downward.

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owdlvr April 20th 2020 19:14

With my parts stash drying up, and the next order not yet on it’s way…progress on the ’68 beetle has slowed up a little. I did manage to pickup the parts from powder coating, which was pretty funny. Poor guy is overloaded with work now that everyone is stuck at home. “All the projects are being torn down, I can’t work fast enough!” Apparently I should have inspected my bumpers a little closer before dropping them off. There are two light dents I didn’t see when they were in chrome, ah well.

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With the rally lights mounted, I finished up the wiring. Being the smart man that I am, I recycled all my cardboard before making a template for a trunk lining. Gotta wait for the next big order of parts to have some material to work with! I must be getting lazy in my old-age. Using the PIAA relay instead of building my own relay panel.

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I’ve planned for a front mount oil-cooler on this car, but haven’t worked out the mounts yet (cooler has yet to arrive). Normally I would run the lines through the Tunnel or the interior, but I think on this one I might just run them below the car like subaru-swaps do with the coolant lines. If it was a body-off resto, I would have prepared the pan to run the two oil lines through the tunnel…but oh well.

Brake mounts are currently being cut by my buddy on his CNC machine. Should have those mid week, as well as my next order of parts. Will allow me to finish the brakes, and the rest of the car minus the motor…no idea when that order of parts will arrive.

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owdlvr April 24th 2020 14:49

Rolled the car out of the shop to see it in the sunlight. I'm pretty happy.

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I still have some wires to run for bits that haven't yet arrived, so I haven't glued in the last piece of carpet. The chrome door hardware is probably going to drive me nuts for the next ten years. Ugh. I do not want to tear the doors apart again!
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My guess for suspension height is just about right...too bad I don't have an engine in the car! I sense a re-indexing in my future :P
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Brakes are all bled and feel pretty good in the driveway. Still have a number of things to button up, but I STILL don't have word that my engine parts have shipped (sigh). Lots of time to get to it, but at this stage I'm probably going to take a pause and go back to working on the '63 MG Midget project. The final parts that I need for that have arrived. I've requested a quote on the wheels I want to run on this car, we'll see how painful that comes in at...and whether or not I can stomach it, or just run the twists :P

Wally April 25th 2020 09:01

Thats a proper german style car!

H2OSB April 25th 2020 11:38

Wow! Now that is a nice looking car.

H2OSB

owdlvr April 25th 2020 13:11

haha, affirmation by peers who matter!

Still thinking about Gold wheels. I have requested a quote from Braid wheels on some 16's. We'll see how that works out.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...dac26c2f_z.jpg

H2OSB April 25th 2020 13:35

It's hard to even suggest taking away your German look. That is the epitome of a well sorted German Look car as it sits. The gold wheels say "race car" to me. If that were my car, I'd have a set of autocross tire mounted on them, and swap wheels/tires at the autocross venue. That said, I do love the red on gold style so you can't go wrong either way, however, I wouldn't call the car German Look with those wheels.

H2OSB

owdlvr April 25th 2020 13:40

It is a big problem. The 16" wheels will be soooo much better for performance and comfort, but the 17 twists really finish the car as a German Look. The twists need to be refinished, so I have to decide on a colour. But, like you suggested, I'm thinking of keeping them. Thing is, how often will I switch the wheels out?

DORIGTT April 26th 2020 16:13

How will the 16's be better performance-wise?

owdlvr April 26th 2020 16:23

Significantly lighter, larger range of tire options available. But ultimately, the lower rotating mass will be significant.

owdlvr April 27th 2020 01:48

Started thinking about oil-cooler placement. For whatever reason, I decided I was going to do a front-mount oil cooler on this car. Cost wise, simply due to lines, I wish I hadn't decided to go this way but once my mind is made up...well, best to not fight it.

Hmmm…there isn’t a whole lot of room with a standard…
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...352e6e3d_z.jpg

Decided to tuck it deeper into the bumper, with the fittings in the bumper.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f05efab0_z.jpg

Was admiring my work, when a buddy (over text…social distancing) asked me “so, I guess you won’t be parking forward in any parking spots eh?” Hmmm, that is a very valid point. Now, the cooler doesn’t hang any lower than the front spoiler on the Rally Bug, but I can think of two times I’ve kissed a parking stone with it in the last 6 years. A little different with a piece of fiberglass vs the oil cooler.

So, my backup bumper was mounted…some measurements were made…and:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e6b046d0_z.jpg

And here’s some fittings and some silver mesh so it’s a little easier to see:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...95591e18_z.jpg

I’ve ordered some banjo fittings to give the lines better ground clearance, and I’ll have to sort out how they pass through the front spoiler, but overall I have to figure this is a much better solution.

owdlvr April 28th 2020 02:45

Was going to put an Accusump into this car, but wasn't able to obtain one easily due to the Covid-19 virus...so Moroso oil accumulator it is! This is the 1.5L version, which is the same size (roughly) as Canton's 2L Accusump. Hmph. Interesting. I decided for this car I would mount it behind the driver's seat. My '69 had it in the luggage area, and ran the remote valve handle, but I honestly prefer having the luggage space vs the accumulator hidden. I don't plan to put people in the back seat of this car anyways (you wouldn't fit with my seat where it is) so the loss of foot room isn't a big deal.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a2dec735_z.jpg

Milled up some brackets...
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...45fca7da_z.jpg

And installed the sump. All of my AN fittings that I keep "in stock" are red/blue for the Rally Bug, so I'll need to order some black ones for this car. I managed to sit down and plan out the oil system today, and then put in a very large Vibrant order. It will be a few weeks before that arrives, sigh. Even in lockdown I'm terribly impatient :P

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ca8bb6ca_z.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ecfc34fd_z.jpg

Wally April 28th 2020 04:11

Hey Dave, I never quit understood how these exactly function. Can you elaborate a little how this one is plumbed?

wouter1303 April 28th 2020 06:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by owdlvr (Post 92076)
haha, affirmation by peers who matter!

Still thinking about Gold wheels. I have requested a quote from Braid wheels on some 16's. We'll see how that works out.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...dac26c2f_z.jpg

Still the gold ones :D

Question about the window frames in the doors, did you spray paint them black or did you buy them in black? Or were they already on the car this way?:rolleyes:

owdlvr April 28th 2020 14:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by wouter1303 (Post 92085)
Still the gold ones :D

Question about the window frames in the doors, did you spray paint them black or did you buy them in black? Or were they already on the car this way?:rolleyes:

They were already black when I got the car, having been spray painted way back in the day. I considered removing them to redo them when I had the doors apart for the window regulators, but decided instead I will tape and spray them. Not sure if I'm going to go with a black spray can, or plastidip. They are in pretty rough shape when you're up close, but everything fits well. I didn't want to risk having the fit change by pulling them out and back in.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...889af127_b.jpg

The one vent window rubber is cracking, and I should probably yank it out to replace it...but even the west coast metric rubber I used on the rally bug, which isn't stored outdoors, is cracking after 6 years. I'm not convinced replacing it will be all that much better down the road.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...99ce0ea4_b.jpg

owdlvr April 28th 2020 14:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wally (Post 92084)
Hey Dave, I never quit understood how these exactly function. Can you elaborate a little how this one is plumbed?

The accusump is essentially a hard-anodized aluminum tube, with a piston inside dividing it into two halves. You have an oil chamber, and an air chamber. You set the pressure of the air chamber to the oil-pressure that you would like the accusump to become active at. On my cars I set the air chamber pressure at 20-25psi, but for this example let's assume I've set it for 10psi. (more on that later)

When the engine is running, anytime the engine oil pressure is higher than the air chamber setting, it will fill the Accusump with oil. In this case, with 1.5L of oil, if the engine is running at a pressure higher than 10psi. As the oil pressure builds, so does the oil pressure / air pressure in the accusump. So at full RPM, when the oil pressure gauge on the dash reads 50psi, the oil in the accusump is at 50psi, and the air chamber gauge will match (since you have the oil side of the piston pushing towards the air chamber at 50psi). As the oil pressure in the system lowers, so does the oil pressure in the accusump. But if the oil pump is providing anything over 10psi (in my example) and you will have 1.5L of oil waiting to be used.

When you corner the Beetle hard enough to starve the pickup tube, the oil in the accumulator will be used automatically to make up for the loss of pressurized oil from the oil pump.. So essentially, your engine sees no loss in oil pressure as long as the reason for oil starvation is solved before the full 1.5L of oil is used up. Now, keep in mind in my example the pressure has to drop below 10psi...which may not be desirable in a cornering situation. Typically if I'm starving the car for oil in corners, I'm turning a higher rpm and oil pressure than 10psi. So this is why I set my cars for 20-25psi. The trade off, though, is that at idle I have an EXTRA 1.5L of oil sloshing around in the crankcase, which increases the aeration of the oil. Not an issue in the dry sump car, can be an issue in the wet-sump cars. So, for typical street driving on a wet-sump car I set the air chamber at 10-15psi. If I go for a track day, or I know I'm going to be driving spiritedly through the mountains, I'll bump it up to 20-25psi knowing that I'm not likely to spend a lot of time at idle.

Before shutting the car off, I rev the motor up to get 40+ psi of oil pressure, and close the manual valve. Now I have 1.5L of oil stored at 40psi, so the next time I go to start the car I can open the valve, pressurize the bearings with oil, and then start the engine.

Determining the proper oil level is a bit of a guessing game. I typically start by overfilling the engine by 1/2L, fire it up, open the valve at idle. Close the valve, check the oil level, add another 1/2L and repeat. Once I've got it close, I then warm the car up, do the 40psi shut off and check the oil level, topping up as though the Accusump didn't exist.

This diagram shows how the system will be plumbed in the red car. The check valve is important, as it ensures the engine is filled with pressurized oil in a starvation situation, as opposed to wasting oil filling the oil cooler.

https://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/atta...p_plumbing.jpg

wouter1303 April 29th 2020 05:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by owdlvr (Post 92090)
They were already black when I got the car, ...

Ok, looks like they sprayed over the chrome.
Mine will come apart eventually :D a lot of sanding before painting i guess

Steve C April 30th 2020 01:17

Hi

There were special edition Beetles in Europe that had blacked window trims and door handles.

I used to have blacked out window trims in my old 1302 but I found that would eventually look a bit chipped and faded so on my 1303 I've stuck with polished ones, so much easier to look after.

Steve

Wally May 2nd 2020 07:13

Tnx Dave, that was very informative!

Clatter May 4th 2020 10:03

Wow. Another great build.

Looks like you were miles ahead by buying one that didn't need all of the finishing work.
After recently doing paint/body, It's real hard to not try and get out of ever doing it again..

And,
Another vote here for gold wheels..

owdlvr May 4th 2020 20:45

Oil accumulator is plumbed in...it's important to colour coordinate your visible fittings?

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...82d9bc47_z.jpg

I managed to install the battery and test the electrical system. The initial check found a number of systems or items not working, which was to be anticipated since I repaired what was there and made a lot of new additions without having the ability to test any of it. But it was a good start, there were no sparks and no flames! A few hours in the shop working down the list, and I managed to get everything working properly. The only two circuits I haven't tested are the brake lights and seat heaters. I'd say everything else working is a big win! The wipers gave me a tonne of trouble, as it seems I have a later model wiper assembly in a car that doesn't match the '68, '69 or '70 wiring diagram. But it's all right Joel has enough posts on the interwebs that I was able to figure it out!

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...524181ff_z.jpg

Because the oil pressure warning light has been replaced by a tiny dim LED that is partially blocked by my steering wheel, I've added the "you cannot miss this warning" light. The wideband O2 sensor wiring came in, and now the interior and all carpet has been installed for what I believe is the final time.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0ffd2297_z.jpg

With that, I moved on to solving various problems I hadn't quite figured out yet. One of which was the question of whether I should carry a spare tire or not. In the last 15 years I've had two flats. One was on an Audi, running very questionable tires without date codes, and the other was with a beetle on a gravel road. I haven't experienced a flat on any of our classic car events, and the move to Porsche bolt pattern creates spare-tire problems. The problem, though, is I run these events so if I get a flat, I can't exactly wait around for a tow truck. The organizer has to make it to dinner! I have this Porsche spare, from model unknown, and did measure to see if it would fit. It was darned close, but not close enough. An hour of heat and body hammer, and it now slides into the slot. It's tight. Tight enough to scratch the paint on the car and rim if you're not careful...but it fits!

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...696e82ff_z.jpg

It had some rust, and covid-19 budget constraints means I'm going to be running the twists longer than I had hoped, so I figured this wheel would be a good one to experiment with paint colours. I want the twists to be darker, but not super dark. So, enter "graphite". Here's what it looks like in gloss with two coats.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a47db474_z.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b895c713_z.jpg

And with two light coats of matte clear, so I can get a semi-gloss look. Looks perfect in person, still too glossy in the photo.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...1ecd9e6d_z.jpg

wouter1303 May 5th 2020 06:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by owdlvr (Post 92102)

nice color indeed :thumbsup:

owdlvr May 11th 2020 16:42

Well, some aspects of the project are stuck in "waiting on parts" mode, while others are taking a lot longer than anticipated. While waiting for parts, I figured I better tackle the curb-rash on the wheels. Normally I would Powdercoat, but we have reached the limit for the project budget. Rattle-can colour change it is! I used the Dupli-colour wheel paint system, and didn't read the instructions until after the first coat. Normally it's colour base, wait 12-24hrs and then clear coat. Nope! Clear coat 1hr after base OR wait for 48hrs to clear. Well, crap. By the time I had ground, sanded and prepped, it was already late. Oops. Finished the final coat of clear at 3am. Fortunately it has been hot and sunny, which helps bake the finish the day after spraying. I'll wait until the last minute to have tires mounted, in hopes that the paint hardens up enough that the tire shop doesn't completely destroy the work done.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d05d4154_b.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...83dee2fd_b.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2340b4d2_b.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d479f7d3_b.jpg

On Thursday the engine parts finally arrived, after a 28 day delay at the balancing shop. Frustratingly, it seems they balanced the crank from pulley to pressure plate, but may not have touched the pistons or connecting rods(!?!). Pistons with pins were 1.5g off out of the box, but by swapping out piston pins, I was able to get them to zero out...at least to a half gram, which is the best my digital scale can do. I have no way to confirm the rods are balanced outside of total weight, but the set did zero out so...I can hope? Engine internals and heads are all AA Performance, and I used their balance shop in California as I was told it could all be turned around within a week or two. My usual balance shop was closed due to Covid-19, and CB suggested the order (had I gone through them) would about a month. In the end it took 4wks for AA to ship, but I did save roughly $1k over buying a CB setup. Setup has taken me a fair bit longer than I planned. Apparently in my various box of goodies I have a timing gear for the crank that is off by about 1/2 to 2/3rds of a tooth, and carries no timing dots. I didn't really clue into the problem until the crank was assembled and in the case, and I couldn't get the distributor to "sit right" while setting everything to TDC. Had to find a stock gear, make a timing gear puller, and head backwards on the setup. Having a milling machine and the lathe has been a godsend, as I had to pull material off the rocker stands and shorten the studs.

I have also forgotten how long it takes to build up a motor from scratch, vs. rebuilding a motor I already have. "Hmmm, why is the pulley tin piece not in the box of tin pieces?", "Why do I keep 4 oil coolers I would never reuse, but don't store the one I would reuse with them?" etc. etc. Not to mention the time to carefully measure, inspect, and confirm everything is fitting right! Didn't get nearly as far as I had hoped this weekend, but I am at least at completed long block stage. I'd have the motor all the way to installing the fanshroud stage, but for the life of me I cannot find a good lower pulley tin piece in my collection. I'll have a new one tomorrow (which has to be modified to clear the oil fittings) and then will hopefully finish up the engine build. At this stage, I'm now pulling out used bits to finish it. For tin I've pulled out some of the powder coated blue tin from my '69 build years ago, and it's getting spray painted semi-gloss black instead of re-powdercoating. The exhaust? I'll be putting on one of the back-up units from the Rally Bug, which has been rallied and beat up. But hey, better to be driving it than waiting around for the world to re-start!

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6426a6e7_b.jpg

I think I'm going to have to order a second set of pushrods for this motor. The oiling hole I added could definitely be closer to the tip, I was being a little too conservative with where I placed it. As it stands it only clears into the head in the top 20% of the pushrod travel. Drat!
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...814fa2a1_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e2ae837b_b.jpg

-Dave


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