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  #61  
Old June 3rd 2020, 02:09
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Hows this for "made in america" quality?! Car hasn't been parked outside for more than 45min and the dash is already cracking!

Quote:
Originally Posted by DORIGTT View Post
Owdlvr,

When you say you machined the ends of the upper tube, does that mean you shortened the tube to 'suck the upper arms in' which increases the amount of available negative camber?

If so, how much shorter did you make it, and how much negative camber are you able to get compared to the standard beam?
Okay, so car went in for it's second alignment today, and they were able to get the whole car within the spec that I asked for. Only problem is I arrived right at closing to pick it up, so I don't know how much camber we actually have in the front until morning. My instructions were that I need a minimum of 1.5deg negative, but would prefer to see 2deg with a maximum of 3deg. As the passenger side is the problem, I suggested they find the maximum it will do, and if it's within my spec simply make the driver's side match. I'll post up the numbers when I get them.

When the car left the first alignment both wheels were set at 0deg (as per the printout). The passenger side was at it's maximum adjustment, and the driver's side had room. I swapped out the eccentrics, and could measure 3.5deg of max negative camber on the driver's side using my digital angle finder (not a precise way of doing it!). I pulled out the beam, upper spring pack, and flipped the pack so I could redimple it. I put the passenger side dimple in 3mm from where the original dimple was. I then machined 1mm off the end of the housing. I could get a max of 2deg negative on my gauge, pulled the pack a second time and this time used my grinder (gasp!) to take off roughly 0.5mm off the end of the housing as I wasn't fully into my new dimple. Now I could measure a max of neg 3 deg, and figured it wasn't worth pushing any further.




Mounted the front spoiler, which involved trimming it to clear the oil cooler fittings and drilling two holes to pass the oil lines through. I've mounted it with six aluminum button head bolts. It's definitely more rigid than the Rally Bug's setup, but I may want to put some supports out to the fenders on each end. Lots of debate on my social media about whether I should go body colour with it, the front end does look very 'heavy' now, but I definitely prefer the ease of maintenance with the black. Rally Bug spoiler simply gets a fresh coat of spray-bomb every now and again.

With the carb tune relatively dialled, and the alignment set, tonight the car got it's first extended run. Only about 100km, but good for a first run! The car is excellent. All of the power of the Rally Bug, the handling is solid, and I could actually talk on the phone through the bluetooth while cruising! The suspension is definitely stiffer than my other cars, so less weight transfer into the corners, but stickier tires compensate. An excellent first impression though.

Good thing it was only 100km, I had some light leaks from the oil cooler fittings and it seems both inner CV joints have puked out a bunch of grease. I wonder if I missed the "check CV torque" item on the list :P


Tire rub is an issue on the driver's side. If CSP would actually get back to me with a shipping quote, I might bite the bullet and get some 4cm wider fenders. The other option is to mill down my spacers from 18mm to 13mm to see if that will do it.

Funny enough, I actually miss the 5spd from the Rally Bug way more than I thought I would. My 5th gear is the same as a stock beetle 4th, so it's not about highway cruising...I miss the options in the mountain corners! This car is also lacking any cupholder, which needs to be changed asap. All of the "VW" options from our parts suppliers suck, so I need to fabricate something I'm happy with. Lastly? I really miss the Rally Bug shifter. Mark Hargett isn't making any of the Porsche units I modified...so we may just need to reverse engineer one for this car...
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  #62  
Old June 3rd 2020, 15:21
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Bogara_ZO Bogara_ZO is offline
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Congrats Dave, car looks superb, well done!

Concerning the front spoiler I would avoid color matching as it would make the front end optically higher and narrower which is no good on a - already narrow - standard. A friend of mine did it on his silver car and it looked awful (I am trying to post pics later). After he went back to black and the car looked ok again. If you wish to highlight it somehow I would rather put some solid red stripe (a la GTI) on it or just a KAMEI sticker wich contains red as well.

Hope you solve the rubbing issue soon. Check your PMs
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  #63  
Old July 11th 2020, 00:33
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I haven't had much to post for a month, because I've been driving the German Looker as much as possible, and broke my whole shop down to do an epoxy floor treatment. Emptied the bigger half of my shop into the single-bay side. Cleaned the floor, ground the floor, primed the floor, epoxied the floor and then top-coated it. My concrete is in poorer shape than I had hoped, but overall the floor is so much better than it was. Sweeping actually brings a smile to my face. Without everything in the shop, there is so much room for activities!!







Almost 4,000km of testing done on the German Looker. Took it camping in Ucluelet this weekend, which is on the very western edge of Vancouver Island, and the western edge of Canada. It's a twisty, remote, 100km highway betwen Ucluelet and my house and I had a surprisingly open highway on the way back. I've been running with a self imposed 5,500rpm limit for break-in purposes, and finally decided to open it up to 6,000rpm. The cam, with 1.25 rockers, should still be making power to 6300 so I was curious to see if it would keep pulling. It sounded GREAT...and then it didn't.

The bolt holding the end of the rockershaft on the #2 exhaust end backed out, and was set free to roam around the inside of the valve cover somewhere between 5,500 and 6,000 rpm. I found the bolt, the rocker shaft end, a shim, and two lash caps floating around when I pulled the cover. One of the pushrods and tubes was quite badly damaged. The pushrod was significantly more banana'd, but this is after some work trying to straighten it on the side of the road so I could limp home. I, probably wisely, decided that it was far smarter to tow the car home instead of limping it with a badly bent pushrod.

While waiting, I got to figure out pulling the front spoiler on the side of the road (requires removing the oil lines).



And, just as I finished, the flat-deck arrived for my ride of shame back home. 



That was yesterday. Not being one to wait around, today I drained the oil, pulled the motor, and tore it down to get a full list of parts I'll need to put it back in service. There was nothing suspect in the oil, filter, or sump plate. All lifters ride their bores smoothly, and without any damage. Dodged a bullet on this one! New pushrods, new pushrod tubes, and it should be good to go. I'm picking up new rocker assemblies as well, but might end up putting the same ones back into service.



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'71 Type 1 - Rally Project
'58 Type 1 - I bought an early!?!
'73 Type 1 - Proper Germanlook project
'68 Type 1 - Interm German 'look' project
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  #64  
Old July 11th 2020, 04:11
H2OSB H2OSB is offline
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Bummer. Coulda been worse, so count your blessings.
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  #65  
Old July 11th 2020, 05:31
effvee effvee is offline
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Isn't the push rod bent? What caused it?
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  #66  
Old July 12th 2020, 12:54
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push rod is very bent. That photo is after I worked to straighten it enough to limp home, but decided otherwise.

Bolt on the end of the rockershaft backed out, and went bouncing around the valve cover. Rocker moved off the lash cap, it too went flying around. Total damage is one push rod, one push rod tube, one valve keeper and a nick on the rocker I need to file/stone out today before reassembly.
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'71 Type 1 - Rally Project
'58 Type 1 - I bought an early!?!
'73 Type 1 - Proper Germanlook project
'68 Type 1 - Interm German 'look' project
'75 Type 1 - Family Heirloom
'93 Chevy 3500 pickup - Cummins Swap
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  #67  
Old July 12th 2020, 13:08
H2OSB H2OSB is offline
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But hey, Dave, the garage floor looks nice
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  #68  
Old July 13th 2020, 02:29
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Haha, the floor is awesome. I seriously don't know how I lived with it before.



Engine is reassembled and back in the car. I need to remount the front spoiler, and then fill it with oil for a fire up. Here's hoping we're good!

-Dave
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'71 Type 1 - Rally Project
'58 Type 1 - I bought an early!?!
'73 Type 1 - Proper Germanlook project
'68 Type 1 - Interm German 'look' project
'75 Type 1 - Family Heirloom
'93 Chevy 3500 pickup - Cummins Swap
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  #69  
Old July 13th 2020, 06:41
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Concerning your garage floor, what kind of coating did you use?
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  #70  
Old July 13th 2020, 18:02
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ArmorPoxy Ultra, with the military top coat.
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'71 Type 1 - Rally Project
'58 Type 1 - I bought an early!?!
'73 Type 1 - Proper Germanlook project
'68 Type 1 - Interm German 'look' project
'75 Type 1 - Family Heirloom
'93 Chevy 3500 pickup - Cummins Swap
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  #71  
Old July 15th 2020, 06:07
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Thank you
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  #72  
Old July 31st 2020, 21:17
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So, after suffering a valve-train issue, and newly installing the engine into the car...what would be the best way to ensure it's strong and ready for use? Why, a 5,148km road trip...right?!

The trip was needed to create the rough notes which will become the route books of four different Classic Car Adventures events. I can't post exactly where I went, as my routes are usually kept a secret until the event, but I did make it all the way out to Calgary and up the Banff corridor for an upcoming Hagerty Touring Series event which I am producing. The engine performed on the entire trip flawlessly, using only a litre of oil for the entire run. Most of that litre is either under the motor, or on the inside of the engine lid as I didn't realize until day two or three the oil pressure sender was leaking from the threads! Whoops.

The starter, however, was giving me fits for the entire first half of the trip. When I built the car, I used a brand new "rebuilt" AC-Delco starter. Back when I was machining the front face of the starters to fit the Rally Bug and 901 trans swap I was using AC-Delco rebuilt units as they were cheaper. Failure rate was about 1 a year, so I was sure with the starter being less than two months old it must be the ignition switch. First I wired a hot-start relay, then I wired an all-new ignition switch, and then I wired a 60amp pushbutton direct between the battery and starter. Even that failed to engage the starter reliably.

Mid trip, I stopped at my best friend's house and pulled the starter out. At that point, I discovered the solenoid was faulty...and would both jam, and/or heat soak. Fortunately Concept-1 in Calgary was only a day away...and Ken fixed me up with a new WOSP high-torque starter, and thanks to some mutual friends I managed to borrow a hoist to install it instead of doing it in the Concept-1 parking lot! Once the new starter was in, the whole trip was perfectly flawless.























Now I have to figure out how to get 9 days of bug guts off the front of the car...
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'71 Type 1 - Rally Project
'58 Type 1 - I bought an early!?!
'73 Type 1 - Proper Germanlook project
'68 Type 1 - Interm German 'look' project
'75 Type 1 - Family Heirloom
'93 Chevy 3500 pickup - Cummins Swap
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  #73  
Old August 2nd 2020, 07:48
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Amazing scenary! Thanks for sharing. Car must be in top shape to make such a journey without problems, so well done!!
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  #74  
Old August 3rd 2020, 19:16
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DORIGTT DORIGTT is offline
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Dave,
Do you have any issues with tires rubbing / contact under bumps and such?
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  #75  
Old August 5th 2020, 13:23
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DORIGTT View Post
Dave,
Do you have any issues with tires rubbing / contact under bumps and such?
hahahahahahaha. Do I?!



Short version, yes I do. But in order to solve the problem I either need to narrow the wheels, or fly to Germany to get the CSP fenders I want. One of which I will do over the winter months.
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'71 Type 1 - Rally Project
'58 Type 1 - I bought an early!?!
'73 Type 1 - Proper Germanlook project
'68 Type 1 - Interm German 'look' project
'75 Type 1 - Family Heirloom
'93 Chevy 3500 pickup - Cummins Swap
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