So where am I with the restoration now?
Note: I've shifted
to small font size as this page is getting quite big, hope you can still
read….
12/9/97
Ok, from today on, I'll keep a "journal" of the project at this site. Quick updates of progress made.
I did order an new trailer a couple weeks ago.
The Plan: Once the panels are all in place, the body shell (incl. doors, hood, decklid, fenders, etc.) will be trailered up to Prep Rite for complete aluminum oxide blasting, inside and out, top and bottom (I was quoted around $500 for this). Then from there on the trailer to Tom's shop in Maynard, MA for etching primer coat (Try to trailer a shiny, stripped body in a snowy, salty New England winter? Yikes!), then back to my garage for some rough bodywork. There is a small hole ripped in the back end of the right heater channel above the jack point that needs to be patched. Then, back to Tom's. I'll pay him for the final prep work (still just a bare shell) and paint. Then back home to come to rest on the fresh chassis.
By August 1998.
We'll
see....
With
some "other" priorities now squared away and expectations for the use of
my "free" time properly set within the family, I'm on a full bore charge
to finish this car by the end of this summer. Here's where I am:
The hood seal retainers: I got 3 four foot lengths from Wolfsburg West and will use at least one of them on the right front quarter. This will keep me from having to "splice" the existing ones. The one on the left quarter is fine, as it is an NOS piece. "Wrapping" one around the front apron (they are straight lengths) will prove to be a challenge. I may practice on a junk apron first.
The carpet retainer strips: These are the right angle strips of sheetmetal that are spot welded along the top of the door sills. I have removed one of mine by drilling out the spotwelds and took a short section to a sheetmetal fab shop in my town to see if they can "repro" them. I will have 6- 12 of them made up, even though I only need 2.
Perfect is perfect.
I finished drilling the spot welds out of and removing the seal retainer lip along the upper right front quarter which if you have been following the pics, know is made up of two different panels. The butt weld on the outside visible section of the quarter has been grounded down nicely and will be virtually undetectable with little or no filler. I will be tacking on a whole new seal retainer strip (available from Wolfsburg West for $4 ea.) which will further the effort in making the "clip job" undetectable. I spent a couple of hours working the after market spare tire well "floor" panel to make it look like the original. The original well floor had a little sheet metal "bridge" at the bottom that the bottom of the tire rested on. The after market panel instead has a pressed hump at the bottom. Also, the drain holes on the original are two, front to back, under the little "bridge", where on the aftermarket/later version they are side to side on either side of the "hump".
So I salvaged the little bridge from then original panel, hammered it straight and welded it into the bottom of the aftermarket one, over the hump. I MIG'ed up the original drain holes, then ground them down flush. I will drill new holes in the original location. Lastly, I cut some of those little "wire holder" strips and tacked them along the lower edge. This is where the right head light and turn signal wires are routed.
(See the end of page 4 and page 5 of the resto pics for detail on this work)
Major Progress #1: I finished the modification of the tire well floor and fitted it into the nose with sheet metal screws.
Major Progress #2: I completed the grafting of the apron panel into an after market piece. This was something that I was going to have my friend Tom do for me. But after cutting and fitting the pieces together, I started fooling with the MIG and very soon was confident that my skills had progressed far enough to allow me to complete this task. After a LOT of welding, grinding, welding again, grinding again, and grinding some more, I had a pretty nice apron made up. And it was VERY straight.
The next challenge was attaching a new seal retainer strip. These things come in straight, 4 foot lengths and the steel is of a thickness thinner than the body panels, making it difficult to weld on. The other challenge is bending the strip along its plane to match the curve of the apron pressing. The one I pulled off of the JC Whitney apron was horrible. If you just tack and bend by pulling on the end of the strip after each weld, it bends pretty much only at the tacks and you get a "stepped" curve (like a series of short flat sides) instead of a smooth curve. This is what the Whitney one looked like. I never would have been able to put that on my car even if the stamping was correct.
So what
is left? (metal work)
Then
on the trailer to the sandblasting shop!!!
This progress is documented in page 6 of the resto series.
At this point there are just a few welds that need to be ground down around the tire well floor and then the apron can be fitted up. The apron is fitted last to allow easy access to the spare tire well area for welding and grinding.
I still have to find a shop that can fab the carpet retainer strips for me. Anyone with a 3 foot or larger sheet metal brake should be able to do this. I have a couple snapped off body to pan bolts that need to be extracted.
In observance of international "Drive Your VW to Work Day" on July 10th, I got the chassis out from under the body, rigged a steering wheel, brake fluid res and gas tank, and drove the chassis up may street. About 6 times. What a blast. I set the valve clearances before starting it up and found that some were "sticking" as I had to re-set them a few times afterward. I bled and adjusted the brakes, charged my 6 volt battery and now have a trusty "runner".
I tore it completely off and started again. As it turns out, the left quarter (NOS, whole quarter) and the right quarter (forward half, "donated" from a '56) are slightly different. The rounded, pressed area that gives clearance to the spare tire is slightly flatter, and longer top to bottom on the '56 panel. I took measurements, eyeballed it and even dragged the hood back down from the loft to make sure every thing was square. Then I welded it back on.
One evening I decided to leave the grinder alone and tackle the 8 snapped off bolts in the car. All four bumper bracket-to-body bolts in the rear, two body- to-pan bolts in the right heater channel and the two very rearmost fender bolts in the back by the apron were snapped off completely flush. I started trying the EZ-Out trick. Believe it or not, I did remove a bolt with one a few months ago. The first one in 346 tries. But I had bought 2 new sets I wanted to try. The first was a square wedge instead of a spiral cut, the second was the typical spiral but was a Vermont American set, supposedly a decent quality (not cheap).
First I tried the square kind, but it did nothing but twist (bend). Then I persisted with the spiral one until (anyone want to guess???), right, it snapped off flush. I got my bestest, tinyest, sharpest drill bit and tried to drill it. No #$&^ing way. Now I was frustrated. I jammed the square one back in another bolt that I had drilled out, got the MIG out and actually tried to weld the EZ- Out to the bolt top where it entered it. But I couldn't get a good weld. When I twisted it, it just broke free of the weld and left a couple small blobs there in the bolt shank. That's when I got this idea.
I cranked up the power in the MIG a notch and "pulsing" the trigger on the torch, built up a big blob on top of the snapped off bolt (after actually filling the hole I had drilled in it). Then I clamped a pair of vice grips really tight on the head of the blob and twisted. I swear I felt the bolt give just a bit, then the blob sheared off. So I MIG'ed another one on and tried again. After three tries I got the bolt out. And within an hour I had SEVEN of them out (the last one was under a board holding the body up, didn't feel like moving it last night)
A couple nights later I got the last and eighth one out.
There were 3 areas where there was true "rot" rust damage on the car, complete perforation. The first was up in the front bulkhead, right in front of where the left heater channel ended. The other two were in back, on either sides of the engine bay, on the inner quarter, just inside the bumper bracket mounts. I tackled the one in front (see page 7 of the resto pages) first and ended up having a terrible time of it. The MIG just wouldn't "take" on the metal for some reason. I ended up brazing the patch in.
What
is left:
And
then it is off to the sandblasting shop!!!
Last night, in 90 degree 95% humidity, I got all the "unboltables" down from the loft. Tonight they go into a trailer and tomorrow morning up to Tewksbury, MA for sandblasting. The body goes early next week. But first my buddy Tom will come over and do some "overhead" welding on the bottom of the heater channel where I put a patch in behind the jacking point on the right side.
After years of painstaking metal work, now it is time to do something else painstaking: spend money. This is not a budget restoration. I'm not rich by any means, but there is truly nothing that I didn't, or won't do for cost reasons. I have carefully parlayed some "basement" businesses and negotiations with the household financial officer and the money looks to be there. I have kept up a cost spreadsheet that will show up here one day.
I called my body shop-owner/friend last night to let him know that some VW metal was coming his way. The sandblasted stuff must be primered almost immediately after sandblasting. He asked me if the fenders, doors and lids needed work. I said "No, they are fine" but really hadn't touched them in 3 years or so (except the front stuff I brought down to fit up). So last night I looked everything over real close. The doors are perfect. The decklid had apparently suffered a minor rear ender. A horizontal area about American car bumper height had been hammered out and the outside bondoed. Done pretty well, but it will all get blasted off and Tom will dolly it out better and apply filler if needed. There is also bondo on the front lower of the right rear fender. I think this car was bumped around a bit. But all in all, the panels are nice. I have ordered all of the body to pan seals from Wolfsburg West. I am really looking forward to putting this car back together after fresh paint. Stay tuned.....
Last week, I picked up 3 of the fenders, the decklids and the gas tank. Tom had called and told me "I primered everything, and painted the underside of the decklid and the gas tank". I said "Oh. Well that's great and all, but the gas tank isn't supposed to be the body color...". We'll take care of that later. But it was GREAT to see new paint, L412, "Diamond green metallic". This an "Anniversary" color that VW used in 1955 to paint the one millionth Beetle made. Anyway, the fenders and deck lid were painted with etching primer then "HS" or high solids primer and block sanded with 600 grit. Prior to final painting, they will be sanded with 800 grit.
I was struggling with what to do with undercoating. Tom's paint supplier, Spies-Hecker (German, pronounced "speeez hecker"), has a paintable undercoating. He showed it to me on a 280-ZX where it was used on the front apron below the bumper. It was overpainted a metallic, deep blue. The surface is bumpy, but not terribly so. Kind of reminded me of the "rough" surfaces they use in the bottom of fiberglass bath tubs and pools. Up until recently, I had wanted to undercoat all of the "bottom" of the body; underneath the heater channels, underneath the rear parcel shelf, front of the forward firewall and inner wheel arches. But I suddenly decided that I didn't want to do that. Mostly because of all of the really nice show cars that I have seen, clean enough to eat off of underneath. That and the fact that I have spent so much time and effort getting everything straight and smooth, I don't want to "cover" up anything. (also the underside of the pan is just paint) So I told Tom and he suggested that we undercoat the undersides of the fenders, leave them black, and just paint the body. This will give a nice contrast when looking under the fenders. So he has already undercoated the 3 fenders and undercoated the rolled lip of the wheel arch. The undercoating there will be sprayed body color.
You may know that I had a second "W" decklid sandblasted. It needs a bit of dolly work, but after seeing all the time Tom put into the "good" lid from my '57, I decided to just have him etch-primer it, and I'll keep it like that for now. Up until recently, I had it on my "Swap Space" page for sale. I paid $100 for it at the Harwinton, CT show this past summer. I sunk another $35 in it to have it sandblasted, plus Tom's efforts to primer it. I was offered $175 for it via e-mail, but I turned it down. I am a bit paranoid about having "spares" for my '57. I will drive this car on shiny, clean days. But the thought of getting popped in the rear, and then being at the mercy of the market trying to scare up another decklid years after I "let one go" bothers me. So I'll just stash this one. Tom thinks it needs about another 6 hours of labor to be up to snuff.
So what is the hold up right now? Tom's basic business is not auto restoration, it is collision repair, and he does a brisk business at that. He doesn't really like slow, time consuming can't-just-buy-new-panels restoration work, but is genuinely interested in doing my car for me and touting it as a reference. But for the last 2-3 months, he has had one of his 3 bays tied up with a '68 Jaguar V12 convertible that the owner is up to about 14 grand on so far in Tom's time and materials. He has told me that he can't take my car until the Jag is gone as he can't tie up 2 of his 3 bays with "long term" cars. Not that he expects to spend 3 months on my car, but he has to keep the business flowing. The Jag is supposedly within a week of completion. This is why I had him do the work on my fenders and such while he could and it wouldn't tie up space in his shop.
So I am still hopeful to have the car painted very soon and have the winter to re-assemble it. Remember that the chassis, and all of the mechanical work, is already done. I have to get it done soon as I can't trailer a bare metal shell in nasty weather and it is already turning cold....
Believe it or not, all 4 fenders, both doors and both lids are still in the guest room at home. They will have to be taken back to Tom's shop as the bodywork on the shell progresses. I'll post the whole "painting strategy" here next time, it is a bit complicated, definitely not a "one shot" deal.
Three things remain for me to do that I am a little apprehensive about. One is getting the carpet retainers back on, they are being fabbed at a sheet metal shop now, but the guy didn't give me a great deal of confidence that he could do it.
Then there are the seat belt mounts. I'm going to have to hack up and weld the inside a bit before it gets painted. I'll do this at Tom's shop. I have discovered that the mid sixities Beetles had the lower, outside seatbelt mount in the floor, not the lower B pillar. While that configuration may be closest to being correct, fact is that they didn't put seat belt mounts in until '62, so nothing I do will be correct. Given that, I will do what ever is most practical. I want retractable, 3 point belts. I'll remove them once at shows.
Then there is the louvered panel that goes under the slotted vents in the back. I have removed it by drilling out all the spot welds, had it sandblasted and painted. Now we have to figure out how paint the area behind the slots, then re-attach the panel (securely as it supports the decklid hinges), paint the engine compartment, then paint the outside surfaces. All without messing up paint previously sprayed.....!
Stay tuned......
Last Saturday, I spent some time with the seatbelt mounting points. Most urgent, were the rear, center mounting points, as they are the only ones that are part of surfaces that must be painted or undercoated. The outside, rear mounts are welded into the inner quarter flange (the metal that the rear quarter interior panels snap into), the front mounts go into the heater channel (lower) and B-pillar (upper). I do plan on getting al of the mounts done before the final paint, but as the first step after primer is to undercoat the underside, it was important to get the rear center mounts done first.
I got both rear mounts done and am quite pleased. I made up "scab" plates be welding nuts to the back side of a drilled, 3x3" piece of 10 gauge steel plate. I basically drilled about a 1" hole in the body sheetmetal at the mounting points and welded the plates to the backside of the panel, with the threaded hole in the plate centered in the 1" hole in the panel. I had Tom do the welding and it looks great.
The other big progress was in the area of the carpet retainer strips. The metal shop wasn't able to make the slight bend on the edge of the strip where it curves down to meet the carpet, so I just asked them to make the 90 degree bend and I would try to do the rest myself. I had them make up 3 pairs of strips ($15). This past weekend, I make up a bending jig out of some angle iron and steel stock. It sorta worked, I tried to bend one piece. It is usable, if I can't do any better, I would be happy with it and will use it. But my little jig needs some modifications to work better. I won't try to describe it here, but might have a pic up on one of the resto pages soon.
Tom proceeded to work out the quarter panels. First he used little panel puller machine called the "Eagle". It is very cool. It actually welds itself temporarily to bare metal, a lever is used to pull it and then it gets popped off. Another little electrode on it can shrink the little metal "pimples" that the puller makes. And it never gets the panel too hot to touch. I have some pics, look for them on the next page of the resto series. Then he "skimmed" the panels with filler. Yes, "Bondo" folks. One thing I have learned, is that filler is used in virtually all repair, even some where new panels are used. But it is how it applied, it's limited thickness and how it is sanded that makes a difference. The stuff he uses is actually called "Rage" and is made by Evercoat. It can be sanded 20-30 minutes. But it is only applied to about 1/8" thickness at the most. Tom's sanding almost looks random, but when he is done, the panel is as flat and uniform as it has ever been. The surrounding bare metal is then primed with etching primer, then the whole car is primed with sandable, "HS" (high solids) primer, and sanded.
There was some difficult to fix damage to the rear apron, I'm still not sure how it even got there. Some how, one corner of the apron was pushed up, enough so that the line made by the decklid retainer seal (the "plane" that the decklid edges make when closed) was bent. We used the Eagle, a hydraulic ram, a sledge hammer and lots of pulling and eventually got it straightened out. After I left, Tom primered all but the roof of the car with etching primer.
Why no the roof? Because, as we were DA'ing it out, we found that it had probably a dozen small, very shallow dents in it, mostly in the back above the back window. The kind of dents that you can't really see, the kind you can only feel if you slide you hand over them (but I'm sure you could see them if you went ahead and painted the car without fixing them). When Tome felt them, he flopped his head own into his arms on the roof and said "This whole roof will have to be done, it will take a whole day by itself!". Oh well. At least I know it will be done right. It's just money.
So I'm going to stop off there after work tomorrow and see how it looks in primer. I'll take some pictures and start on the next page of the resto series.
The areas to be "jambed" (an industry term referring to non-exterior areas that are painted) are ready. The whole trunk area (I hand sanded the BACK of the dashboard), the door jambs, under the dash, the dash, the overhead windshield frame and the engine bay are ready. The sandblasted-bare metal was hand sanded, sprayed with etching primer, sprayed with high solids (HS) primer and hand sanded again with 220 grit. The challenge in the back is that area behind the air intakes. See, I drilled out spotwelds and REMOVED that louvered panel. It has already been painted. The challenge is how to 1) paint that area behind the vents 2) re-attach the PAINTED louvered panel (remember it supports the decklid hinges, will require some welding) then 3) be able to paint the outside of the slotted vents without messing up the paint inside the cavity.
We think we have a way to do it. 1) is easy. 2) will involve some careful heat sinked MIG welding, an auto epoxy and maybe some touch up paint, 3) will involve stuffing the cavity behind the slots from the side accesses with crumpled paper (can't mask it from the inside, will not allow the paint to meet the edge properly without being ripped off when the tape is removed. Paper can then be pulled out).
So I have got myself into quite a challenge at the expense of having the "space" behind the vents PERFECT. Shiny as all the rest of the car. I'm only doing this once, dammit.
But before that challenge can be tackled and the jambing done, the roof has to be worked out. I have to rely on Tom (the bodyshop owner) for the working out/filling of a dozen or so, very shallow, golfball sized dents on the back end of the roof. Yesterday, I "DA'ed" the roof with 36 grit and Tom "skimmed" it. Once he works it down, the body will be brought into the spray booth, the roof and other areas primed, then the inner areas will be jambed with L412.
And speaking of that, here's a lesson learned: Make sure all of the metal work is done before any paint (primer included) is sprayed. I have created many headaches for Tom by going back onto primered areas to "fix" stuff that I had overlooked. Mostly (MIG) spot welds not ground down enough but also a snapped off fender bolt (heated area using MIG to extract it), a running board mounting hole missing when I placed a patch of metal in the heater channel and on the carpet retainer strips, some of the MIG weld popped loose when I tried to open up the gap for the carpet a bit. We had to re-drill them and re-MIG them. In those cases, we took etching and HS primered area back down to bare metal. The whole area then has to be re-shot with etching and HS again. And, I was straightening up some panel joints under the rear apron with a pick hammer when I struck the backside of the apron where some filler and body work had been done on the outside. The filler cracked and the whole area will have to be ground down and re-done.
The point is, if you want to be picky, spend months crawling all over and under you car with the hammers, grinder and vice grips to straighten stuff before you get it near the paintbooth. I spent time straightening stuff that no one will ever see, only because this body is up on a high lift and I have easy, "stand up" access to the whole underside. Panel edges, seal channel lips, panel to panel flanges, all get bent up over the years. Relentless patience with tools, and time, can very easily make all these things "right" again.
The underside will be sprayed with "red-brown", a corrosion resistant, etching primer and will then be undercoated using Spies-Hecker's "Stone Guard" undercoating after the "jambing" is done.
I spent some time yesterday "wet sanding" the quarters on the body. First a "guide coat" is applied, that is simply a feathering of "Bumper Black" spray paint over the white HS primer. This helps you see what areas you have sanded and to what depth. You must sand until all of the black is gone and the red etching primer is starting to show in some areas. You use 600 grit paper and bucket of water (another good reason not to do rework after primer and have bare metal exposed). For panels with no filler, you use the palm (not the fingers) of your hand. For areas with filler underneath, you use a rubber block sander. Those sanded areas will be then resprayed with HS primer and wet sanded again with 600, then 800 grit sandpaper.
The fenders,
lids and doors have all been worked and primed and are ready for 600-800
grit sanding and final coat (they are all in my guest room at home). The
doors will be attached to the car for painting but the fenders and lids
will not. This is because the doors make up a significant body "plane",
whereas the fenders and lids are either their own planes or jut out from
the body at hard angles. Has to do with aberrations in the base coat as
the gun moves over vs. the fact that panels are easier painted off the
car. The undersides of the fenders have already been undercoated.
He uses a 2 stage paint by Spies-Hecker. The first stage is the color coat. It is uniform in color but is very "flat" in luster. Once that is dry (he can do a wet on wet with this paint) he sprays a "clear" coat that gives the paint a very deep shine.
So at this point he has "jambed" the trunk area with both stages, as well as the door openings, the dash and the engine bay. Seeing that nose all done with paint is very gratifying. I really had no idea how it would come out, how undetectable that clip (butt weld) on the right quarter and all the other piecing together would look. It looks better than new.
After spraying the area behind the vents under the rear window, Tom glued the louvered panel (already painted last year) in with "Fusor" auto body epoxy. It is a 2 part epoxy that has been tested and outperforms welds when used correctly. Once set, the panel will be MIG'ed in a couple of places, carefully, as not to mar the paint. Then the cavity behind the vents will be stuffed with crumpled paper so overyspray from painting the outside of the vents doesn't mess up the surfaces behind.
Lastly,
Tom sprayed the underside with "red-brown" corrosion resistant primer and
then undercoated with Spies-Hecker's "Stone Guard". It is a flat black,
paintable undercoating. I will leave it black.
Rims are being prepped for paint. I will have 10 rims sandblasted and painted. 5 will be shod with 5.60x15 Firestone Wide whitewalls, 4 of those tires I already have. These will be the "show" wheels. Another 4 will be wrapped with a decent radial for everyday driving. I am trying to find a shop that can mount and balance tires on the 5 lug rims. An adapter plate is needed as the hole in the rim is huge and not round. Years ago, every shop had these adapter plates, today, they are impossible to find. Depending on the mounting and balancing machines, a 5 lug drum can sometimes be used.
The chassis is on some home built dollies that hold it very close to the floor. The theory was to roll it under the body from one side. This actually worked but first required that I remove the shifter (stuck up too high, remember I drove this chassis last summer). Then as I rolled it under I noticed that the brake and clutch pedals were too high too. Rather than unbolt them, I lifted the front higher with the floor jack until the pedals cleared. Once the chassis was under, I was able to carefully lower the front end down (removing the buckets) peeking down through the mounting holes over the beam (behind the spare tire area) to insure things were lined up.
Then I brought the jack to the back, raised the rear end (long 2x6 under the engine bay), removed the buckets and lowered it. I had to make sure my new rectangular body to chassis pads were in place first. On this day, I only attached the two bigger bolts under the rear seat to secure things. I will have to raise the whole car up quite a bit to get the many pan to body bolts in that run along the sides.
A week later, an attempt was made to put the rear and front windshield in with the help of my friend Bill. I had read about the “cord” method many times, and eve helped my brother put a windshield in a ’68 that he later sold me (we cracked two windshields that day, before finally succeeding on the third). We started with the back window, as I thought it would be a piece of cake (an oval window is quite small). It wasn't. After 2+ hours, we gave up. I was very apprehensive about using water and/or soap as I didn't want my flawless felt headliner to soak up any. Eventually we tried K-Y jelly, and on a later attempt had the stuff smeared everywhere. But we could never get the window to “pop in”. If we got the bottom edge in, the top was way out, and vice versa. We gave up with that smaller window, thinking maybe a larger one would be easier and went to the front.
We spent what seemed like a good ½ just getting the new rubber seal around the glass. It was very difficult and kept slipping off. I had given away the original windshield that was in my car with a ’54 I sold (had a broken windshield) because I had bought a new one a few years back with a bunch of other parts. When I retrieved it from the box in the loft, I noticed that it was stamped “Brasilia” and was not German. Also, it looked much thicker than I had remembered the original being, almost ¼”. Then, as we were using some mineral spirits to clean adhesive goo from around the edges, we noticed some of it “seeping” into the edge of the glass, between laminates. At that point, I knew I wouldn't have been happy with that glass anyway. To make along story short, we tried for about ½ an hour to get it in and I ended up cracking it along the upper corner. I actually wasn't that upset, the soapy water we were using was starting to seep in from the top edge and was visible ¾” fro the edge. At 11:00pm, I just said, “Ok, I know when to quit”.
I also spent some time putting other stuff on. After I had the fenders on I started going through my boxes of new parts. The anal side of me had a plan and normally stifled "random part attaching rages". It had a plan; doors first, then lights, then body moldings, etc. But after I got the fenders on, I thought "Look, the damn car is finally painted, there is no reason not to put anything on now, let's just have some fun". So I put on bumper grommets, rear view mirrors, engine seals and anything else that was easy.
One problem I am having that worries me a bit is just finding stuff. Parts that I took off over the last 7years. I thought I had been pretty good about this, I had one set of shelves in the garage that I tried to put everything on, in boxes, labeled. But it is mixed up with used stuff that I will replace, stuff that I collected in the years since, stuff I started cleaning up, etc. Then I have this box labeled "Mystery '57 Parts". Parts I found floating around (mostly small bolts and stuff) over the years that I at least thought went to the car; I just tossed them in there. Most troubling though is the fact that I can't find the very nice door handles that I saved from the '54 I had for a while. I remember specifically wrapping and boxing them, and putting them somewhere "safe".
Sure
they are safe, but now I can't find them.....
Other
things causing loss of sleep:
Oh
well, one step at a time.....
Let me
update my "worry" list above:
Speaking
of a "worry" list, I spent some time the other day just writing down everything
that still needed to be done to finish the car. I have noticed that this
helps reduce stress tremendously for me. While 10 or 12 tasks just floating
around in my head may seem like 100, I find that if I just write them down,
it usually doesn't look half as bad. This also helps me decide what stuff
needs to be done before other things...
The car has basically been under cover for the last few weeks while I locate lost parts (lost in my house somewhere) and go through all of those boxes parts. It is a bit of a chore now to uncover the car and roll it out, and since I am spraying in the garage often, I prefer to just leave it covered up until I can do some major work on it. It is gratifying to actually consolidate stuff and get some storage space back. Problem is that everything must be cleaned up. I can't put anything even remotely cruddy back on the car. Almost everything painted was stripped, primed and re-painted. For example last night I spent almost an hour just cleaning up fender bolts and washers with the wire wheel on the bench grinder (somebody had sprayed undercoating and they were barely recognizable). I did this because I still have at least half of the 14mm head fender bolts and washers and want to use them (correct size washers are hard to find too). Then I "resto'ed" my 6 volt Hella horn. Took it apart, ground down the face "grill", primed and repainted, then spent a half hour cleaning some undercoating off the back of the housing with mineral spirits.
My hope is that this weekend, and especially the 4th of July weekend when I will have several days, to uncover the car and install a bunch of newly cleaned up and painted parts.
Particularly
significant progress made:
I started with the rearmost bolts on each fender, although I had one bolt in the upper center position to "hang" the fender. I'd put in about 3 bolts, then cut and fit the fender beading and start fitting it as I went. I'd position bolts about 3 ahead of where I was fitting the beading, and tighten them fully about 3 bolts behind of where I was fitting but only after the beading was seated properly. Seating the beading just right takes some time. You have to push it down from the top sometimes, and sometimes push the bottom edge of it up from inside the fenderwell to get it just right. You want it to follow the contour of the fender/body seam perfectly. When it is done right it looks awesome.
It may seem like a good idea to loosely bolt up all the fender bolts and then slip the fender beading it. This didn't work for me for a couple reasons. One, even with all the bolts as loose as they could be, in some places the fender was held hard against the body and it was difficult, if not impossible, to slip the beading down in. It was very convenient to have the fender unbolted ahead of where I was working so I could just pull it back to open up the gap. Another reason was that I could slip the beading down in the gap and from underneath, "nick" the beading with a pair or wire cutters through the bolt hole in the fender, then pull it back out and see exactly where the next notch needed to be cut. The notches by the way were cut into the beading about 3/4 of the width of the plastic. The last reason to do it this way was that to get all the bolt holes lined up it was actually easier to go one at a time from one end (vs. one at either end, one in the middle, then "fill in" the ones in between).
The fenders
on the Beetle can get bent enough to distort the curvature of the bolt
up flange, and not actually look bent. As I had replaced the whole front
left quarter and was re-installing a fender that had been previously bolted
up to a wrinkled quarter, things were a little out of whack. I started
from the back end, working my way up, fitting beading, tightening bolts.
At the top, things were fine, then all of a sudden the next bolt hole was
totally out of whack. I wrenched and pulled and pried the fender as much
as I dared, but it wasn't even close. Then I tried a neat trick. I loosed
all of the bolts that were in place and facing the front of the car, with
the butt palm of my hand, I hit the top edge of the headlight bucket. This
shifted the whole fender back, sort of rotated it back and down along its
curve. Lo and behold the holes lined up perfectly then. Lesson is look
a the size of the bolt holes in the fenders in comparison to the bolt shank
size. There is lots of room for movement. If you tighten as you go along
and things start to not line up, loosen everything and try to shift the
whole fender.
I also
put on the stainless steel body moldings from Wolfsburg West. These are
very nice. The aluminum ones are available but I can see why the folks
at Wolfsburg West recommend these. The shine is very nice and they won't
ever dull. That and they are very strong, the aluminum ones are very easy
to bend when installing. Here's a few tips I have for installing these
new moldings:
First I re-assembled the driver's seat. I loop-stitched the seams where they are pulled down to form a bit of a "dish" on the seat surface with some coat thread and a heavy needle, a few had rotted out over the years. But I am committed to using the original vinyl upholstery in this car, it is in remarkable shape. The disaster was trying to fit the seatback part back over the pivots on the bottom frame. I scratched the crap out of the newly painted frame and had to sand it down and re-paint. Lesson learned: Lay an old blanket down on the floor, tape the lower portion of the bottom frame to avoid scratching it, lay the seat on it's side, take your time.
I finally found the hood crest mounting plate that I had ordered from Wolfsburg West. I have been going through these "panic" patterns where I can't find some part that I know I ordered or kept. I freak out, but then just go on and do something else and eventually the missing part turns up. This has happened with 5-6 parts so far. One, a door check rod, was actually hiding in the door. Another trick learned with the front hood molding. It actually overlaps the flare on the hood crest plate by a good 1/2" or more down by the handle, but overlapping it made it stick out, off the hood surface. Try to scoot it back and "up" the hood, and the lowest molding clip would have no lip under the molding to snap into. Lesson learned: Cut or file a "relief" in the end of the molding, from underneath, about 1/2" up. This allows it to lay flat against the hood and still overlap the crest plate nicely. Difficult to describe in words, I'll try to take a picture later (scan the resto pages). I used a Dremel tool and a carbide disk, but a fine file and lots of patience would work too. I was concerned that this wasn't the way it was supposed to go, I went up in the loft and checked out the original molding but it wasn't modified. The original crest plate however, had been hammered flat at the top. But Tony Moore at Wolfsburg West later confirmed that the factory ones were notched and that the mod was needed.
I wired up most of the electrical switches (there are really only 3) after cleaning them up a bit. I wanted to shine up the inside of the "barrels" that the wires slip into before the screws are tightened down. Lesson learned: A 5/32" narrow stone bit for the Dremel that is made specifically for sharpening chainsaw chains (and works very well for that) is the perfect size to slip into most all of these bores and shine them up for good conduction. Use a slow speed, I use a cheap battery operated "Dremel knockoff" tool that I have for this, although the slowest speed on my variable speed unit would work well too.
The "lesson learned" about seat re-assembly detailed above, was put into practice when re-asssembling the passenger seat, and things went well without any scratched paint. Pictures of this "technique" are on Page 16 of the resto series.
With the help of folks at the newsgroup and at Wolfsburg West, the list of missing parts is shrinking. I still need a pop out latch part, but that is about it.
I made my "worry list", a list of everything that I could think of that needed to be done to finish the '57 (don't have it here, else I would have pasted it). Funny how this works. For me, I can have, say, 10 tasks to do. Since my mind can't really assimilate all 10 of them at once (not like just 2 or 3), it seems like hundreds. And it creates stress and anxiety. The list helps. I printed it an keep it on my workbench. I think this is a good idea, I wished I had done it sooner. I keep a red felt tipped pen handy and cross stuff off when it gets done. Who needs that "Project Management" class....
But from
memory, at a high level, here's what is left:
Hmmm,
I guess that is pretty "low level". I have my "real" list at home, I may
edit it with this one and keep track of the remaining tasks this way.
Last night, I got most of the electricals working and tested them all out. There was something magical about seeing turnsignals flashing and those sparkling emerald taillights. Taking those little plastic diffusers out of the taillights to make them brighter was a great idea, I highly recommend it. I really sweated getting the turnsignals working as my SWF flasher didn't have the number designations on the terminals that were on all of the wiring diagrams I had. I just guessed. Headlights, brake lights, taillights and those cool "city" lights in the headlight assemblies behind my cool euro lenses all work.
Here's a tip: don't risk frying you wires if you are checking out circuits. Use a 6 volt battery charger for a supply (mine limited to 6 amps and has an ammeter gauge on it so I can instantly see how much is being drawn) while checking things out. This worked for all things except the turnsignal. Seems that the "dirty", ripply (EE-speak) power that the charger supplies just makes the flasher buzz. Check this out with the battery. Of course the charger couldn't supply enough juice for the headlights either.
One delay came when I found that my 10 rims needed a bit more than a "light sanding" prior to painting. I had had them all sandblasted, sprayed them with etching primer, then "VHS" primer/surfacer. But many of them were badly pitted in some areas. I had to sand them all heavily and re-spray them again with VHS, heavily. I picked out the 5 best for use with the "show" whitewalls that I have, 4 more will be wrapped with Dunlop SP-20 radials (for "daily" driving) and one will be a spare. Addressing bad pitting with high solids primer is not ideal. They should have been skimmed with filler when they were bare metal. I am wet sanding with 220 grit and 320 grit ("red") ScotchBrite pads. I hope to do the final sand in the next day or two and then get them to the shop.
I had Tom, my bodyshop owner friend, come over a week ago to make a second attempt at getting the windshield and back window in. Tom does some windshield installation in his shop, but mostly farms the work out to a glass company that comes to his shop to do the work. My first attempt with another friend do install these windows resulted in a broken windshield. But in hindsight, I think that was divine intervention as we hadn't put the chrome molding in the seal (I thought I went in after the windshield was installed) and the "new" windshield I had was suffering from lamination separation around the edges. I never would have been happy with it.
New windshields are available from CA vendors for $50, but the extra packing is $25 and shipping is another $25. So I had a local shop cut me a new one using the cracked one as a template (the '57 and earlier windows are perfectly flat, can be cut from flat auto grade stock). It cost me $78.
Tom and I spent over an hour just getting the new seal on the glass and the molding in. Even after a call to Wolfsburg West for advice, we still couldn't get the seal to sit right. Our first attempt to get the glass in the car failed in a couple minutes and we gave up. Days later I called the glass shop and asked him to make a house call. The guy has been in the business for 30 years and says he has done many Beetles. He will come over next week and for $75 will do both windows. I can't wait to see how it is done... (Yes, I know all about the string trick, slapping the glass, etc. It just didn't work)
I made my own engine bay tarboards out of roofing materials and am quite pleased with the look. First I glued two layers of 30lb roofing "felt" together, then cut them to size using the originals as templates. Then I cut 3 more pieces out of some rolled roofing but about 3/8" smaller all the way around. Then I glued it "gravel side" down to the felt (would have loved to have found rolled roofing without the gravel but am convinced it doesn't exist. If anybody knows of a source, e-mail me, I'll go into business). I used DAP Weldwood contact cement for all. I took pics and will put them up on a page soon. The pieces are very similar to the originals on look, thickness and weight.
On vacation
last week, I painted on of my license plates and it looks great.
I installed the thermostat on the engine and fixed the heater box rod. Turns out the rod on one of them (that connects the lever to the flap) was about 1/2" too short. At first I thought it was because I re-welded the rear housing to the J pipe in the wrong position (it had come loose), but after examining it I found that the wrong rod was installed. Both ends were bent the same way (like a really tall, squared "C") instead of in opposite sides (like a tall, square "Z") and of course it was 1/2" too short. I verified this by checking it against an NOS one I have. Maybe the rod came from a 40 horse box. This whole engine had been rebuilt when I bought the car but never installed and run. I set the cooling ring in its proper position and "tested" it using a heat gun. Very cool little mechanism.
I did the glass to frame seal on the second pop out window, took me only 2.5 hours this time. Will have pics and details of that effort soon too. I was all set to install the engine until I realized that the muffler to heater box "donut" gaskets that I have are of the wrong size (later years, bigger kind). So I had to call Wolfsburg West and will wait (again).
Lastly, I have completed the driver's side door. I had to get creative and replicate the tarboard strips inside the door(s). There are two strips of tarboard, about 3.5" wide, glued in an "X" fashion to the inside of the door (actually 3 strips, as the second strip is cut apart where is "crosses" the first). These provide sound and vibration deadening, and make the door close with a nice sold "thunk". At first I thought I would just use a piece of the rolled roofing, but I didn't like the thought of the "gravel" side glued to the inside metal of the door. So I ended up making a "sheet" of tarboard by gluing six layers of the 30 lb roofing felt together and then cutting strips from it. The thickness is probably close to 3mm. I glued the strips into the door with the 3M "Super 90" spray adhesive (Home Depot just started carrying this stuff, for around $10 a can). Then, even though the early Beetles didn't have them from the factory, I glued some heavy sheeting over the opening that the panel covers, then I installed the panel with new clips. Look for details and pics on my "panel resto" on the other '57 resto pages soon.
I have used 2 cans of 3M 90 and over 2 quarts of contact cement so far.
So
to address the "worry" list above, here's what has been done:
The interior is virtually done. All carpet is installed, interior panels are done and installed, handles in place. Haven't slid the front seats in yet, still need ready access to get the back window in. The guy from the glass shop came over last night, he was there about an hour. We spent the whole time trying to fit the seal to the window, and get the molding it. Now I had been successful at that most of the way before. Problem seems to be getting the seal to STAY on the edge all the way around. We tried a bit of 3M glue, but it kept slipping back off, mostly along the bottom edge where it bows inward, and across the top. The more I think about it, it seems the whole trick is to get the whole seal well seated on the glass edge before attempting anything. One possible complication is that the glass is 6mm thick, whereas the stock glass was 5mm. But the folks a Wolfsburg West didn't think that would be a problem.
So "Alan the glass guy" ended up taking to the glass, seals and moldings for the front and back windows back to his shop to try and seat the seals there, then he'll come back. He is going to try a super stick auto motive tape along the seal, one piece on both sides of the glass, so it can be put in the car while the tape is on, then the tape removed.
So the
"worry" list has been pared down to:
4 days
ago, I put the engine in the car, 2 days ago, I started it up! While sitting
in the driver's seat, fully assembled dash, working choke knob and ignition
switch and all!! Very exciting.
First I spent some time on the fuel lines. As I mention in my Fuel Path article, I flushed out the main metal line with acetone. The line wasn't plugged, but I could barely blow through it. To do this I used one of the tin can "tanks" I made up when I drove the bare chassis last year. These are simply tin cans with 1/4" pipe nipples inserted into a hole in the bottom and soldered in place. I put 2 feet of fuel line on either end. The piece down back I let dangle over a jar, the piece up front I attached to the tin can. I used clamps everywhere a rubber line was attached to a metal one.
I first ran about 10 oz. of acetone through. Since I had to hold the tin can up high under the hood, I couldn't see the jar underneath. But it eventually all drained out. Then I went down back and looked at the jar. The acetone was as black as German coffee. I ran another 10 oz through, it came out almost as black. I filtered it with a couple paint strainers stacked one on tip of the other, and ran it through 3 more times. Then I rubber-banded a rag over the end in the back and blew about 30psi of compressed air through.
The rag was to make sure acetone didn't spray anywhere. If you do this, be very careful with acetone, it will eat paint instantly. I ran the acetone through the other metal line, the one that runs past cylinder #3 to the fuel pump. Then I put new fuel line between the 2 metal lines, with a fuel filter in between. This put the fuel filter up under the car, next to the tranny. In the early Beetles, all of the engine compartment lines are metal. I knew that there would be a screen in the tank, and there is one in the fuel pump too. But I wanted some extra protection, at least until I had run the car for a while. I attached a small plastic gas tank yanked from my leaf blower to the front of the line and set it up in the luggage area. I thought I was all ready to go. I cranked for a while, then went back to see if I could smell gas in the carb. I couldn't. I took a quick look under the car where the rubber line and filter was, and I saw a small puddle of gas and saw drips hitting it. There was a leak in the short metal line right where it passed through the rear tin.
I removed it and verified the leak. I bent it at that point and it snapped very easily. I shuddered at the thought of what might have been had I not discovered this. The drip was right over the #3 cylinder exhaust manifold. I went down to my local auto parts store, they sell lengths of steel tubing, flared at both ends and with fittings for God-knows-what kind of car. I found a 4 foot length of 1/4" outside diameter, it seemed exactly like size of the old one which I had brought with me. I figured I would just cut what I needed, it was only $5. I have flaring tool too.
At home I discovered a few things. The original line is not flared where it meets the fuel pump, it is a "barrel" type connection with a small barrel shaped piece that slips over the end of the line. I also found out that the 1/4" line wasn't exactly the diameter of the original line. It must have been just shade over (I bet the old line was 6mm and 1/4" is 6.35mm). I ground down the end of the new line with the dremel a bit and was able to tap the barrel on. I also got to use a little tubing bender tool that I had bought a while ago and never used (buy tools first, then find uses for them!) to make the line look nice and "factory". I hooked it all back up (used a rubber grommet where it passed through the tin) and checked for leaks. There were none.
I sprayed
a bit of starter fluid into the carb and hit the key, and the old 36 horse
fired right up!
Later, I dug out the old can of gas tank sealer I had bought years ago, and went about the task of sealing the gas tank. I dropped a few lengths of heavy chain in the tank and "sloshed" it all around and upside down until my arms couldn't take any more. Then I dumped the chains out and with a thin nozzle, vacuumed out the tank as best I could. When I dumped the sealer stuff in and started rolling the tank around to coat the whole inside, I discovered another surprise: a hole in the tank. Not at the bottom, but just under the flange that mates the two halves. Very severe rust pitting there. Good thing the tank wasn't fully painted yet. It has been undercoated with Stonegaurd on the bottom, and has yet to receive its black paint on top. I will have to grind off the Stonegaurd, braze the area to seal up the hole, then re-spray the undercoat, re-seal the inside and then paint the top.
If you
use this sealer (mine was methyl Ethyl Ketone based), be careful, it too
eats paint.
I completely finished the interior. All the seats, rubber mats are in. Battery is installed and strapped down. I was apprehensive about installing the rear seat bottom as I thought I would be needing to have access to the battery to charge it often. The seat bottom is real bear to get in; more difficult because the rear seatbelt mounts on the sides that I installed interfere a bit, and that cross member that supports the front edge has been meticulously painted and it scratches very easily. Then I figured out that I can easily charge the battery via the engine bay. There is a direct, heavy wire connection right from the battery positive post to the big lug on the regulator atop the generator. I will remove the battery for winter storage though.
One other thing worth mentioning; I spent a good three hours just messing with the decklid and getting it to close and align correctly. I ended up modifying the slotted holes in the bracket where they bolt to the body a bit to get more degrees of freedom for adjustment. This is very tedious. I did scratch paint a bit, in spite of the fact that I put masking tape across the top edge of the lid and the bottom edge of the opening while I was adjusting. First I got it all lined up without the spring in place, the spring makes adjusting it difficult. I tightened the bracket bolts down good, marked the position of the bolts in the lid hinges and installed the spring. Put everything back, tightened it down, and it didn't line up. Lesson: align the lid with the spring in place, it affects how it closes. The trick is to get a nice uniform "fit" of the lid when closed; a uniform gap across the top, evenly centered side to side, and no interference between the top edges when opening and closing. I had it soooo close and just couldn't get it right. I ended up cutting a small rectangular shim out of 22 gauge steel and inserting it between the bracket and the body on the right side to get it just right. You must have patience doing this.
Only
3 major things left:
That,
and finish painting the license plates and get all the legal stuff done,
and I'm on the road!!!
The rims are sanded and in the paint shop, all 10 of them. Turns out that the L87 Pearl White that is used on the center section of the rims is not available in the Spies "293" 2 stage line. It is available as a single stage paint however. This means that the center sections will be painted alone first, baked, then the outside section painted L412. Then the whole rim will be sprayed with clear.
I have some concerns about getting the hubcap clips on. I made a support tool for hammering the rivets on. At the time of this edit, there is a pic of this tool here. It was made from the end of a watercooled CV axle and a piece of a swingaxle spring plate. My first attempt was successful, but subsequent attempts to get other rivets in place were not. And hammering on newly painted rims doesn't make me feel good (I had to get these rims in the shop, ideally I should have installed the clips long before now). So the other night I spied a super heavy arbor press I bought at a yard sale a few years ago for $15 under my workbench. I dragged it out and tested it to see if it could crush a rivet. It did. The thing looks like it came from an old machine shop and must weight 75 lbs. So my plan is to get this thing up on the workbench and build a rig around it to hold the rims. The rivets are crushed from the back side of the rim. So I will have to build a rig to support the face of the rim without scratching it. I will also have to shorten my support tool as it is too tall to fit in the throat of the press with the rim on it.
Some
"finish up stuff" I did recently:
After I get the rims back, I have to get the clips on (without scratching paint), pop new valve stems in then find a place that can mount and balance tires on the 5 lug rims.
I just bought a set of 4 "Euro Metric" 165R15 tires at Pep Boys. These will be my "everyday" tires. I did a little research at Deja News on Pep Boys in the aircooled VW Newsgroup, and word is they are good tires for the money. I paid $128 for the set of 4 black walls. Conversely, I paid $105 for one of the Firestone wide whitewalls.
So now the critical path is the windshield/rear window installation.
What
is left? (I know there are some things here that I didn't list earlier,
it always happens that way...)
First of all, I got the tires all mounted and balanced. The shop actually had concerns about trying to balance the wide whitewall wheels and suggested that I try them with no balancing first, or "static" balance them. I took their suggestion, I have wanted to try building my own bubble level static balancer myself anyway. The radials are balanced and mounted. The shop charged me $100 for their services (9 mounts, 4 balances).
I painted my gas tank myself, and it came out very nice. I installed the new petcock I got at the Terryville show and put the tank in the car. Once I got the wheels back I drove the car for the first time on August 28, 1999. No windshield, no back window, it didn't matter, I had to drive the car down the street. It was a real thrill (and Breezy). But two fairly major problems were evident. The gas tank petcock had slow dripping leak, and the clutch was slipping. It seemed like it was adjusted too tight, yet the nut was barely holding on to the end of the cable by just a thread or two.
I tinkered with the rare 80 mph resettable trip odometer speedometer and, using the parts from a few spares, got it working. I installed it in the car. I finished painting the second plate, got the signed appraisal, got a policy written on the car and made an attempt at getting it registered at the DMV. After a 3 hour wait, I was told "No, you don't have the necessary paperwork". Long disappointing day, I will document all the details on a page here soon. But that evening, I collected a huge victory. My friend Bill came over, and we managed to get the front and rear windows in. The front one we got in on the first try, it was amazing! I have written up the whole trial and errors of that effort, check out the '57 Resto index for details.
On labor
day weekend, I compiled a list of all the things that I knew needed
to be done to be able to say the car was done. Here's what I had:
First
and foremost, were the leaking tank and clutch problem. On an amazingly
productive day, I fixed those things and many others. The tank leak turned
out to be a rock hard rubber disk seal in the back of the petcock. 42 year
old OS is great, but don't expect rubber parts to be fresh. Stupid of me
to even expect that. Luckily, I had ordered a rebuild kit from Wolfsburg
West some time ago, it came with a fresh new disk seal. I replaced
it, partially filled the tank with gas, left it out overnight to verify
that it didn't leak. It didn't. Unfortunately however, I didn't test it
to see if it passed gas (no comments, please) too. It didn't. I discovered
only after I had fully installed it in the car that I had put one part
in upside down, and NO gas was getting through. Fixed that and it was fine.
The clutch turned out to be that it in fact was too tight. The fix was to loosen the throw out arm lever that the cable connects to (through) at the throwout arm pivot, and let it slip a little. There are no splines on the '57, but the bolt passage is shouldered through the end of the shaft a bit. There is probably a few degrees of "play" there if you loosen the bolt. As it turns out, it was set at the extreme opposite of the position where it would given them most cable play. Removing the arm, re-installing it and getting the spring back on while under the car was a bit of a chore. I really didn't have to remove it to make this adjustment, but that wasn't evident until I had it all apart. The clutch is real nice now, smooth pedal action, hooks up nicely and I am amazed at how little effort it takes to depress it.
I set the valves and found that all of them on the cyl 1/2 head were waaayy too far open. I set them to .006". Then I did a toe alignment using a cheapy alignment tool that I bought from JC Whitney. As I suspected, they were waaay off too. I took the car out for a spin again, what a huge difference. The engine sounds like it should. Just like a smooth fresh 36 hp engine with the right amount of fweem in the exhaust note. And the track was now straight and true. I noted where the "dead ahead" steering wheel position was and when I got back, put my "good" steering wheel on in the right position. the car drives very nice.
This may seem a bit weird, but the interior rear view mirror I put in does something strange. It acts like a time machine, and looks back 40 years. See, the mirror backing is old and faded and has a few "cracks" running through it. When you sit in the seat and look back through that small oval window via that mirror, it is like looking back in time. I know it sounds corny, but that image you see "looks" old. It is yellowed, a bit fuzzy and has a few aberrations in it, like an old movie film. I like it that way....
The bare spots under the channels were carefully masked off and sprayed first with corrosion resistant Spies Hecker "red-brown" etching primer, then after a quick dry, were sprayed with Eastwoods rubberized undercoating. That stuff seems ok, but it is very hard to control it coming out of the can. It comes out fast and hard. I touched up some other bare areas with some brush on undercoating, also from Eastwood.
Believe it or not, I snapped my Craftsman 1/2" flex breaker bar trying to tighten the axle nuts. Yes, I was using a big 5 foot pipe on it. I went to Sears the next day to get a new one. The guy looked in their "refurbished" drawer for another one (new policy at Sears?) and didn't seem to be having any luck finding one. I said "you know, I think I am just going to buy one of those huge 3/4" drive ones anyway, couldn't I just get a new half inch one too?". He said "sure". So I got a new 1/2" flex handle and a massive 3/4" drive breaker bar for $26. I had bought a 3/4" drive 36mm socket years ago, found it when I got home.
I'm not sure if the heater box to body pipes I had were original or not, but I think they were. They are just some sections of that flex exhaust pipe stuff, 2 1/2" diameter I think. It was real bear getting them on. You can compress those pieces by whacking them with a mallet on end, but getting them to expand again once you get them up in there is a real mother. Lesson learned: fit them in next time you re-install the engine when you are about 3/4" away from bolting it up. Then trying to hook up the control cables to the heat exchangers, I discovered something else. The two cables that run from the heater control knob are different lengths. Yes, remember that the heads are staggered a bit front to back. This means that one heater box is slightly farther from the front of the car than the other. And since there is no such thing as a 50-50 chance, I had put them in switched when I arbitrarily selected the tubes for the cables when I put them in some time ago. In this case, one is too long, and one seems to fall short by a couple inches. I think I was just lucky to have thought about differing lengths, that one had the potential to torment me for hours.
Another lesson learned: If you want to paint the bezel of the horn button, assemble it first, then mask off the button face and chrome trim ring, then paint. Paint the bezel with it all apart, and your are almost guaranteed to scratch the bezel trying to get the chrome ring tabs to slip in. I ended up painting my bezel two more times after I figured this out. I kept having to take it apart again to get the spring in right, then to get the button and chrome ring "notch" lines up so the button would depress freely. If you have never taken one of these apart, you will see what I mean when you do. Not rocket science, but if you get in a hurry and overlook the obvious, you will have to re-do everything.
Lastly, that mystery red wire (a loose wire in the harness behind the dash that I had neglected to hook up for some reason) and the non-working interior light were related as it turns out. Yes, the red wire was the power feed for the interior light. As soon as I hooked it up, it worked perfectly. I was thinking I would have to go scraping paint for grounds up at the light and the door switches, but it worked first time, no scraping needed. I turned off the lights in the garage and marveled at the dimly lit olive green interior. Cool.
So today, Labor Day 1999 (Sept 6th), I am calling the car done. It is 100% mechanically, it drives very nice, everything works properly. Yes there a few tweaks left (Have to install the front seatbelts, the horn is really sick sounding {probably won't pass inspection} and the right wiper arm doesn't lay right, it needs to be bent and re-painted), but I am willing to say that it is now DONE. I have been trying to contact the guy I bought it from 8 years ago to get the notarized letter that I need to register it. I even drove to his house this morning (get an answering machine on the phone), looks like someone is living there, the DMV still showed him there. Anyway, rest assured I will pursue that....
So far
I have logged 8 miles just running up and down my street.........