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 matberry
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Go hard or go home
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| posted on April 2nd, 2010 at 09:27 AM |
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I always used rubber grease for most, the only time I wouldn't is if the car was going to see heaps of dust offroad.
Matt Berry Motorsports...air cooled advice, repairs and mods Ph 0408 704 662
OFF-ROAD,CIRCUIT,DRAG,STREET,ENDURANCE
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 OZ Towdster
A.k.a.: Andrew Westwood
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| posted on April 2nd, 2010 at 10:15 AM |
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Yep , well smiley better be using the graphite then as 5 rocks is certainly dusty
Don't let body work get in the way of real suspension travel
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Smiley
A.k.a.: Daniel Stephens
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| posted on April 2nd, 2010 at 04:59 PM |
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Thanks for the advice fellas. I'll use the graphite powder. Looks like I'll be putting spring plates in on Sunday.
More painting to do!!
Time for a big update. I got a lot done today.
First thing was to attack the scale and the last of the wirewheeling of the floorpan. And a last minute mod.
Borrowed a needle-gun from a mate at work. It made short work of the bit of scale inside the rear torsion housing. Gave it a quick clean out with the
wire buff, vacuum cleaner and air blower and it was looking sweet.
I was looking at the handbrake yesterday and realised that if I want to run turning brakes off it that the sides that stick out would be in the way
off the extra handles.
So out came the grinder once again and cut them off. Then I made up some little curved wedges to take the shape back and strengthen things up. I know
that how it is now is a lot weaker than what it was. Hopefully This won't become a problem down the track.
I also added the above-mentioned bolts for the diagonal arm pin locks. Thanks to Mattberry and Andrew for their input and explanation on this.
Tidied up the last bit of crustiness on the rear of the pan with the wirewheels and the pan was a bare canvas.
Weapon of choice here is POR15 Rust Preventative Paint. I bought a litre can of it a while back and some of you maybe remember me putting a coat on
the beam a long time ago. Thankfully it hadn't gone hard sitting around in the garage. I also bought a box of gloves cause it's a real pain to get
off otherwise.
First thing I did was paint every seam, hole and weld on the pan with a good coat to make sure any and all gaps were filled.
Happiest man alive!
Then I got stuck in with the larger brushes and put a full coat over everything. For this I enlisted the top painter in our household, my mum! Seems
like she'll do anything to get her carport back.
We flipped the pan and did both sides. Suspending it of the frontend bolts sticking out and the gearbox cradle bolts sticking out the back.
While waiting for the first coat to dry I got in and finished off the seat boxes. Drilled and tapped an 1/8 inch NPT pipe fitting for a plug into the
front of both boxes. This way I can take this out and spray fishoil in there every once in a while.
Then they were hung up ready for paint along with all the plates that go underneath.
This is the first coat dry. Only took a few hours!
Oops!! Missed a spot.
Painting the boxes, plates and frontend. Any colour so long as it's black!
This is the underside of the pan just before I started on the second coat. Surface finish comes up amazingly for a bush-on job.
This is the top side after the second coat.
I've put two coats on the whole pan at this stage. I'm going to put one more coat on the underside tomorrow morning for an extra bit of protection.
I also put a third coat on some areas of the top side. On the top of the framehead, where the seat boxes are going to sit and where I put my feet
while driving in the drivers footwell.
Before I put the final coat on the underside tomorrow I'm going to run the brakeline down beside the tunnel and probably paint over this once it's
mounted in place.
Plan for tomorrow is to get the final paint and brakeline down in the morning then get onto the bodywork on the car. With any luck I can start doing a
little assembly on the floorpan on Sunday/Monday.
Happy Easter everyone!!
Smiley 
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
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OZ Towdster
A.k.a.: Andrew Westwood
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| posted on April 2nd, 2010 at 09:53 PM |
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Well done mate , it's looking a treat and as you say now onto the body which with the skillls you've shown on the other parts of the build , will be
done in no time .
Worst thing is how bad your making me look with the Towdster rebuild
Don't let body work get in the way of real suspension travel
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Smiley
A.k.a.: Daniel Stephens
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| posted on April 2nd, 2010 at 09:59 PM |
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| Quote: | Originally
posted by OZ Towdster
Well done mate , it's looking a treat and as you say now onto the body which with the skillls you've shown on the other parts of the build , will be
done in no time .
Worst thing is how bad your making me look with the Towdster rebuild
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I'll be down in the end of May if you need a hand? It would be great to see the Tow'd up close and see how it's different to a more conventional
buggy. Have you gotten much done on the Bus?
Smiley
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
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Smiley
A.k.a.: Daniel Stephens
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| posted on April 3rd, 2010 at 10:58 AM |
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Just ran the new brake line on the floorpan.
Earlier this week I bought a roll of new brake line. It got a little springy once I took the ties off it.
I borrowed a brake line flaring tool and a line bender off a mate from work. Thanks a million Ronnie!! Turns out the line was pliable enough to bend
into shape by hand, but I might use the bender to make some neat bends with the front and back lines.
I went down this morning and got new grommets from Repco. The line was a little loose in the one at the back so I'm going to sikiaflex all the holes
inside and out to make sure they won't leak at all.
Bent all the tabs over to hold it down and it looks great!!
It will get a coat of paint over it to help prevent rusting and hold it to the pan to prevent rattling
Well I didn't get anywhere near as much done today as I wanted. I spent a great deal of time cleaning grease off front end components and frigging
around at Big-W waiting in line to buy chocolate.
I wanted to get all the front trailing arms painted. This meant taking the torsion bars out of the ones that were still attached. I left them together
so I wouldn't lose the orientation of the bars. If you put them back the wrong way round they'll fail prematurely.
So what I decided to do was put the bars back into the beam now that it was all painted. I cleaned as much of the old grease out of the beam and off
the leaves as I could.
Fed the torsion leaves into the correct tube. A lot of people say that you need to put a cable tie or something similar around the leaves near the end
to help poke them through the square slot in the center piece. I thought I would try without doing this first and was surprised that they went through
quite quickly with a little jiggling. I suppose the grease in between the leaves was holding them together. It would be a lot harder to do with
everything dry.
Once they were through the center adjuster I undid and removed the torsion arm and slid them all the way to the middle ready to be bolted in place.
This was done with both sets of leaves.
These are the center adjusters that I welded into the beam earlier in the build. The long hex head bolt goes through the locknut and the little block
of aluminium, then screws into the thread on the center adjuster and pushes down hard against the torsion leaves holding them in place with a little
dimple that is drilled in them. The center adjuster piece is free to rotate up and down inside the beam. It has a little slot that limits the travel
(you can just see the bottom of the slot in the photo below, just under the alloy block).
This is where a second hex drive stud with a locknut comes into play. It screws into the bracket welded on the outside and bears against the aluminium
block.
The more you screw it in the further it pushes the block around, the more you rotate the center adjuster by.
Screw the bolt in as far as it goes until the block is at the top of the slot and you have maximum ride height because you are rotating the leaves and
moving the torsion arms further down.
Screw it back out and you drop the front of the car back down towards standard height.
These adjusters can be welded in place to give all raising, all lowering or a combination of both. When I welded might in I set them so the bottom of
the slot is a tiny bit above where standard height is. So with my adjusters on the lowest setting the frontend will sit a touch higher than standard,
and it can only go up from there!!
Please let me know if I missed anything in this brief explanation.
The ends of the torsion leaves sticking out of the beam.
I spent a good while cleaning gunk and old grease and mud off the front torsion arms, getting them back to bare metal ready for painting. This is them
taped and ready for paint.
And with a few coats of that lovely black.
Also put the final coat on the underside of the pan, which used up the very last of my POR15 paint. I'm going to have to buy another can next
week.
That's all I'm doing for today cause I have to wash Eleanor and get here ready for a local car meet that happens in Rockhampton first Saturday of
every month in the evening. Myself and a few other local dubs are going to go and show them Chevys who's boss!!
Smiley
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
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71-BEETLE-SEDAN
Custom Title Time!
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| posted on April 4th, 2010 at 08:09 AM |
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Ive just stripped a beam back and am trying to clean it up but i havent got a wire wheel at home so its been with a wwire brush. Not fun. When you did
the beam how did you make sure all the mounting points styed put and central/
Cheers And its looking good.
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Smiley
A.k.a.: Daniel Stephens
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| posted on April 4th, 2010 at 09:42 AM |
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| Quote: | Originally
posted by 71-BEETLE-SEDAN
Ive just stripped a beam back and am trying to clean it up but i havent got a wire wheel at home so its been with a wwire brush. Not fun. When you did
the beam how did you make sure all the mounting points styed put and central/
Cheers And its looking good.
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If you look back earlier in this thread it shows me doing the beam.
I basically just cut the beam one tube at a time and put the adjuster in. That way there was one whole tube holding everything together at all times.
It did pull a little bit out of shape so I straightened it in a press at work.
Smiley
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
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Scarab
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| posted on April 4th, 2010 at 09:51 AM |
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Nice work Smiley! I can't believe how nice it comes out using a brush....that POR15 must be amazing stuff!! (Love your drying rack too!! )
On side note, I didn't realise that you were so close to Rocky.....you might have seen my nephew's car in Rocky....
Its a custom metal flake blue Lexus GS300 sitting on its guts on 20" chrome rims, with number plates BGPMPN (big pimpin' ) it seems to be pretty well known up there.
Paul
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Smiley
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| posted on April 4th, 2010 at 10:13 AM |
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| Quote: | Originally
posted by Scarab
Nice work Smiley! I can't believe how nice it comes out using a brush....that POR15 must be amazing stuff!! (Love your drying rack too!!)
On side note, I didn't realise that you were so close to Rocky.....you might have seen my nephew's car in Rocky....
Its a custom metal flake blue Lexus GS300 sitting on its guts on 20" chrome rims, with number plates BGPMPN (big pimpin' ) it seems to be pretty well known up there.
Paul
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Yeppoon is only about 20 minutes drive away, I work in Rocky so drive up everyday. Can't say that I've seen that Lexus but I will keep an eye
out.
The custom drying rack is the cage out of the buggy. It's useless as a cage now cause it's rusty and parts are made out of box section (WTF?) so
it's been getting put to good use.
I'm about to head out and do some more. I'm starting assembly of the pan now. This is the bit I love. Brand new seals and rubbers on a brand
new(ish) pan with lovely clean and painted components.
Smiley
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
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Scarab
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| posted on April 4th, 2010 at 04:22 PM |
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Dont bother keeping an eye out...its back in Adelaide now....just thought you might have seen it....he was up there for the last couple of years. he
worked at BSC Bearings.
All the best for your work today mate.
Paul
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Smiley
A.k.a.: Daniel Stephens
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| posted on April 4th, 2010 at 07:33 PM |
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First thing is morning I rolled the pan over so it was right way up. It was a bit of an effort by myself but I manage without dropping it on the floor
and scratching the new paintjob.
Next thin I wanted to get the front trailing arms on the beam so i could mount it to the pan. I found it easier to loosen the center screw and slide
the leaves out so i could put the arm on. Then I slide them back into the tube. Don't forget the new rubber seal that goes between the arm and the
beam. I did and had to pull the first arm back out again. Once all the arms were in I made sure all the leaves were centralised and tightened all the
grub screws and there locknuts. I also set the center adjusters on the lowest suspension setting, this will make putting the spindles on easier when I
get to in.
Before putting the beam on I decided to bolt up the brake master cylinder. I put the flaring tool I borrowed to work and put a fitting on the main
line that runs to the rear. Looks a treat!
Then I nailed the beam in place. 40ft/lbs all round.
Now that the front end is on I decided it was looking a little naked and needed bits hanging off the ends of it. So I dug the front spindle assemblies
out off the car I crashed. These got new seals, bearings and machined drums about a month before i rolled the car. Lay them out ready for a good
degreasing. While I was at it I grabbed the transaxle so I could clean it off too.
The gearbox mounts are being replaced so I thought I'd pull the old one off before cleaning. It was a little worse for wear.
While I was undoing it one of the studs started spinning in the mashed rubber. So I ripping the top of the mount off to expose the stud and put a pair
of vicegrips on it.
Everything was given a good soaking in degreaser.
And then hosed off.
I had no idea it was so blue!!! Since I bought it the transaxle's been covered in a good layer of mud and gunk. I always though it was the colour in
the picture above. Now it's so bright!! It's fantastic!
While the gearbox was drying I decided to give it something to bolt to on the pan. So I gathered all the bits I needed. Rear springplates, splined
torsion bars, new springplate rubbers, springplate cover, new bolts, graphite powder, antiseize, trolley jack and a length of chain with a
D-shackle.
Antiseize was applied to both splines then the bar was slid into the springplate. As with the front end be sure to mark everything when you pull it
apart so you get the torsion bars back on the correct sides. After this the rubber donuts were liberally coating in graphite powder and slid onto both
sides on the springplate. Then the whole lot could be put into the torsion housing.
I'm setting the ride height to standard. With 30" rear tyres there's plenty enough clearance for mild offroading. The trick to setting it to
standard without all the fancy measuring tools etc is to set the torsion bar into the inner spline so the springplate covers half the lower rear
springplate cover bolt. This is around standard ride height. I referred to Craig Hughes' 'Dollars and Sense' article in Issue 12 (Nov '06-Jan
'07). I can highly recommend this article for those that are looking to put rear suspension back on their car, it was very helpful.
I then put the cover on (after putting some more graphite powder inside it) and started the three bolts with threads that aren't covered.
Now get you trolley jack and place it under the rear of the springplate. Then get some chain and run it under the front axle of the jack and over the
rear shock tower. This is very important. If you have no chain all you are going to do is lift the whole floorpan up, you want to compress the
springplate without the pan moving. I found it a bit easier when I got my old man to sit on the rear of the floor on the side I was lifting. This
helped give a little more weight to stop things sliding off the jack stands or the jack.
You have to jack the springplate up until it's above the bottom stop on the end of the torsion housing. It's kind of hard to explain and I forgot to
get a picture. Once it's up high enough you evenly screw the bolts in with a criss-cross pattern and pull the springplate into position above the
stop. Do then all down tight and you should be able to release the jack and the springplate will drop down and rest on the stop.
If you are doing any work on rear suspension, (especially removing it) always be sure to act safely. The springplate is full of stored spring energy
when it's rest on top of the stop. You don't want to release this energy into a hand or foot.
This is the springplate in place all finished. The other side is exactly the same.
Back to the gearbox now that it's dried.
A few weeks before I crashed the old car I went to change the transaxle oil because I assumed it hadn't been done in a while. Only to find that the
rear sump plug (17mm allen head) was rounded out. So all I did was top it up.
I decided to replace this while the box was out, with a magnetic one.
First thing I did was got a center punch and peened the outside edges of the plug back in. Then I got a punch to give it a wack in the middle to help
loosen things up. Unfortunately it just punched a hole straight through
So then I got my butane soldering iron and heated to plug a little with the flame. Then grabbed my 17mm key and hammered it into the plug, with a
little gentle pressure it screwed straight out without rounding the plug again. Then I installed my replacement one. The gearbox with definitely be
getting new oil now as most has leaked out of the torn axle boots whilst it's been sitting around.
I also installed the new front gearbox mount. I Loctited to nuts in place because I always used to have trouble with them working free every few
months.
Last thing on the gearbox was the replacement of the snapped clutch return arm spring.
I got back onto the pedal assembly. Welded a new accelerator pedal return stop on one of the plates as the old one snapped off. Gave the last few
parts a good clean up and hung them ready for paint.
That's all I've gotten done so far today, I'm going to head back out now and do a little more and have a tidy up.
Thanks for reading!
Smiley
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
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Scarab
Wolfsburg Wizard
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| posted on April 4th, 2010 at 08:37 PM |
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Glad you didnt forget your Cat safety boots mate!!
Well done on the plug removal...when you punched through the centre, you didn't lose a piece of plug into the box did you?...hope not.
Well done mate....you are really flying!!!
Paul
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Smiley
A.k.a.: Daniel Stephens
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| posted on April 4th, 2010 at 10:04 PM |
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| Quote: | Originally
posted by Scarab
Glad you didnt forget your Cat safety boots mate!!
Well done on the plug removal...when you punched through the centre, you didn't lose a piece of plug into the box did you?...hope not.
Well done mate....you are really flying!!!
Paul
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Yeah I wasn't grinding or welding today (just the one little bit) so I thought I could get away with wearing something a little more cool. I should
have been wearing my gloves though cause I just put a seal pick into the end of my thumb.
With regards to the plug. I'm not sure if it punched a piece out or just pushed the metal to the side. It's only a tiny piece if it is. Hopefully
the new (read pulled out of an old gearbox) super dooper magnetic one will grab it as it rattles past with all the bits of teeth.
You should have smelt the gearbox once I took the plug out. Burnt gear oil. Definitely been running low. Hopefully I won't run into any dramas. I've
always got half a dozen other swingaxle boxes here. That or I could put a fast track on the IRS swap.
Smiley
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
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Scarab
Wolfsburg Wizard
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| posted on April 4th, 2010 at 11:41 PM |
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HAHAHA....gotta love that smell of burnt trans oil !!  
Paul
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Smiley
A.k.a.: Daniel Stephens
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| posted on April 5th, 2010 at 12:01 AM |
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I laid some more lovely black down on the last of the pedal assembly parts in the late afternoon.
Ran the accelerator cable, and started feeding the clutch cable in. Make sure you use plenty of grease!
The easy way to do your clutch cable, even with the body on. Feed the cable almost all the way in and have just a little bit left poking out. Grab
your pedal assembly (here's one I prepared earlier) and hook the cable onto the hook. Make sure you keep the pedal rotated towards the front of the
car so the hook doesn't fall off. Then get a friend (or father) to pull on the gearbox end of the cable to keep it locked in against the hook whilst
you slide the pedals into the tunnel. Easy peasy! Just be sure to keep the clutch pedal rotated towards to front of the car until you get the pedal
stop in place to stop it flopping back and having the loop jump off the hook.
Accelerator pedal plate bolted on.
Accelerator linkage attached and cover plate and pedals bolted down.
Pedal assembly mounted, pedal stop bolted down and just need to get a need seal for the plate that bolts on this side of the tunnel. And where did
that brake pushrod and accelerator pivot pin end up?
Grabbed the front drums and knocked all the link pins out, they were a little stiff after sitting in the weather for 6 months. Gave them a good polish
off. A couple were a little worn, have to add new link pins to the list of things that will need attention down the track. Sprayed them with heaps of
Lanolin and now they are silky smooth in the holes.
Went to slot them into the torsion arms but the holes didn't line up. Because of the slight extra preload in my frontend the holes are further apart.
I ended up just slotting the bottom one in the arm, standing on the floorpan and lifting against the spring tension and slotting the top pin in.
Wasn't too bad as it was only an inch or so.
Next two pictures show them all bolted in and link pins rotated around correctly.
At this point I ran (yes ran!) and grabbed wheels and wheelnuts and bolted them on.
No smoke and mirrors here people!! The floorpan is rolling (the front half anyway). I feel immensely satisfied with the work I got done today and
it's really great to have the thing standing up on it's own.
Unfortunately the downside is I can't put the transaxle and rear wheels on until Tuesday. I used the brand new rear gearbox mounts I bought for the
Baja on Eleanor a few months back and must have forgotten to buy replacements.
Tomorrow I still have plenty of other things to occupy my time. All that bodywork I've been putting off. Plus I can put the shifter rod in, steering
box tie rods and everything else up front, finish off the last of the pedal stuff and make up front brake lines and connect it all up.
Until then, goodnight!
Smiley
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
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BlueV2
A.k.a.: Mark
Seriously Crusin Dubber
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| posted on April 5th, 2010 at 08:40 AM |
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All good stuff. Keep up the good work. Should be finished by Anzac day !! :-)
Sharpbuilt V2, EJ25, Subaru 5 Speed, Falcon rear discs, Heater & A/C, Rack Steering
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Smiley
A.k.a.: Daniel Stephens
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| posted on April 5th, 2010 at 09:20 AM |
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| Quote: | Originally
posted by BlueV2
All good stuff. Keep up the good work. Should be finished by Anzac day !! :-)
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The plan is ASAP! I want it finished to drive down to TAFE in Brisbane next month.
Smiley
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
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11CAB
Compulsive Aussie Vee Dubber
If ya got it....Baja it
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| posted on April 5th, 2010 at 09:27 AM |
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Looking good, but I'm surprised you didnt upgrade to a dual master cylinder & disc brakes...
65 Meyers Manx
68 Country Buggy (KO 367)
68 Country Buggy (KO 669)
68 Country Buggy (KO 789)
68 Country Buggy (KO 815)
68 Baja Bug
76 Baja Kombi Twincab
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71-BEETLE-SEDAN
Custom Title Time!
AKA Josh
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| posted on April 5th, 2010 at 09:54 AM |
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Wow busy day, making the most of the 25 hour day.
What degreaser are you using cause i wanna get some.
Cheers
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Smiley
A.k.a.: Daniel Stephens
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| posted on April 5th, 2010 at 03:30 PM |
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| Quote: | Originally
posted by 11CAB
Looking good, but I'm surprised you didnt upgrade to a dual master cylinder & disc brakes...
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Don't really have the time/$1000 at the moment. It's a plan for down the track.
Just another thing on the list at the moment.
| Quote: | Originally
posted by 71-BEETLE-SEDAN
What degreaser are you using cause i wanna get some.
Cheers
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I bought a 20L drum of Motogard Heavy Duty Degreaser.
I just pour some out into a large spray bottle and use that. It works very well. Great for getting oil stains out of cement.
I didn't get quite as much done of the Baja today as I would have liked. Spent the morning doing the valves and a few other things on maroon car.
Dug the shifter rod for the superbug out. It was looking a little worse for wear.
Much better.
New shifter rod bushing was installed in the cradle. Make sure you use plenty of grease so the rod slides through easily (minds out of the gutter
people)
Rod was fed into the tunnel and I had no trouble sliding it all the way through.
Went a found a linkage and gave it a good clean up. Will have to get new rubber blocks for it tomorrow.
I got a couple of people to come and stand on the front of the floorpan to load the suspension up. Then I knocked the new urethane snubbers into
place. They went on surprisingly easily.
Bolted the gearbox cradle into place.
Made up new front brake hardlines and bolted them into place.
That's really all I got done on the pan. Then I moved onto the body and have started welding up chrome trim holes and screw holes and the millions of
holes that seem to have been drilled under the dash. Not really worth posting any pictures of.
I'll hopefully be able to get the new rear transaxle mounts and sector shaft seal tomorrow and get the backend rolling too.
Smiley
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
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Scarab
Wolfsburg Wizard
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| posted on April 5th, 2010 at 07:48 PM |
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Is that all you got done??....PATHETIC!!
Just jokes mate....you got heaps done in my opinion, well done!!
Rock on!!
Paul
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Smiley
A.k.a.: Daniel Stephens
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| posted on April 5th, 2010 at 07:48 PM |
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| Quote: | Originally
posted by Scarab
Is that all you got done??....PATHETIC!!
Just jokes mate....you got heaps done in my opinion, well done!!
Rock on!!
Paul
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I'm doing a whole lot of list making at the moment too.
Starting to get sick of lists!
Some of the holes that I've welded up on the rear quarter and under the bonnet.
These are what remained of the heater tubes where they run though the body. I cut them off at an earlier date.
I cut around the tubes on the inside of the car and the whole piece fell off on the outside. Now i just have to make up some patches to fill the
gaps.
Smiley
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
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Scarab
Wolfsburg Wizard
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| posted on April 6th, 2010 at 09:50 PM |
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What??....no update tonight?? Disappointing 
Looking forward to the next installment mate!! 
Paul
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Smiley
A.k.a.: Daniel Stephens
Veteran Volks Folk
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| posted on April 6th, 2010 at 10:35 PM |
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There is. Seem to be getting less and less sleep lately. I wonder why?
I'm going to be running the dash the same as it was set up on the old car. I made an alloy plate up with holes for the oil pressure and oil
temperature gauges. This means cutting out the dash underneath, so out came the die grinder.
From this.
To this.
When I was welding up the trim holes yesterday one of the holes on the front quarter was giving my some trouble. So I decided that welding in a patch
would be easier. It's a piece I cut out of one of the old superbugs lying around. Had to be reshaped a touch but ended up fitting very well.
Still need to order a few seals and things before the transaxle and the rest of the rear suspension goes on the pan. I'm thinking I might try the
body on the pan tomorrow to see how it fits.
Also spent almost an hour going through boxes of parts off the old Baja and the new one. Lots of bolts in labeled bags and tangles of wiring. Trying
to dig out bolts that I will be needing soon so I can order new ones.
Smiley
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
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Scarab
Wolfsburg Wizard
Posts: 646
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| posted on April 7th, 2010 at 07:37 AM |
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Whoops....am I bad??  I spoke too soon
eh??!!
Looking good mate. You are powering on as usual. You seem to be gaining some awesome bodywork skills too mate!
Paul
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Smiley
A.k.a.: Daniel Stephens
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| posted on April 7th, 2010 at 07:24 PM |
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Dropped the body on the pan this afternoon to see how it would fit. Unfortunately....it didn't.
Anyone else see light here?
The problem is being caused by the early rear body mounts being too low for the higher shock towers of the later model pan.
See here - http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?tid=8392
Fortunately it's a relatively easy fix. Lifted the body back off the pan and cut both mounts off with the grinder.
With these cut off the body slipped straight down into place. Was a little tight in between the tops of the shock towers right next to where I cut the
mounts off. The body is sort of jammed down in between the sides of the towers. will have to dimple the body slightly to prevent rubbing and allow
slight movement for aligning the boltholes.
Aside from that little drama everything seems to fit quite well. And amazingly (given that I drilled most of them) the bolt holes all seem to line up
quite well!!
I have some new body mount rubbers showing up tomorrow so I'll be able to set my gap and weld the mounting plates on higher than they were. I don't
foresee any problems after that.
Here's a couple more shots of it sitting on there!
I also have the dust boot for the transaxle nosecone showing up tomorrow so that will be going in and we might have a fully rolling pan!! Although it
wheelbarrows quite nicely if you have someone to steer the front wheels for you.
Hoping for a big update tomorrow!
Until then.
Smiley
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
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Scarab
Wolfsburg Wizard
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| posted on April 7th, 2010 at 11:48 PM |
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Good job mate....man, I would have been stressing out!!! At least its a pretty easy fix.
Its starting to look like a car again....well done!!
Paul
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Smiley
A.k.a.: Daniel Stephens
Veteran Volks Folk
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| posted on April 9th, 2010 at 08:59 PM |
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First thing I got onto after work this afternoon was mounting the transaxle.
Dust boot in place on the floorpan.
Dad gave me a hand so sit it in place. I put some rags down on the framehorns just in case it slipped. And the jack was underneath the diff
housing.
New front mount was bolted and Loctited in place. The engine earth wire is run from the nosecone of the gearbox to the LHS stud on the front gearbox
mount.
New rear rubbers bolted in place. Everything lined up easily and slid into place.
Axles bolted to the springplates with the snubber mount on the top bolt. New rubber snubbers fitted. I will still have to adjust the rear toe in later
on once all the weight is on the car.
Shifter rod linkage fitted with new rubbers. I also installed a new selector shaft seal on the gearbox before in went in.
I stripped the old gearstick out of the crashed Baja down ready to be reused. I was fitted with a short shift kit which I'll be reusing.
While I was waiting for the paint on the gearstick parts to dry I had a look at the handbrake.
I want to run an early model handbrake because I want the option of adding steering brakes later on. I sat the handbrake in place and it's obviously
way too long. Definitely going to hit on the gearstick. This is because on the later pans the gearstick hole is further back and they use a shorter
handbrake handle to accommodate this.
The other problem I'm seeing is that the handbrake cables are too short to work with the early model handle. I could probably give them the length
required by cutting the tubes down where they go into the floorpan at the back. This would allow more cable to poke through. The only problem with
doing that is when I do convert to IRS the tubes are going to be shorter. Can anyone suggest a remedy for this? Should I cut the tubes and just have
some spacers machined up later on when I go IRS?
On the plus side I went and grabbed some skinnies and bolted them on the back.
WE HAVE A ROLLING PAN PEOPLE!!!
Went ahead with finishing off the pedal assembly.
Found another brake pushrod (still can't find the first one I cleaned up) and put it in place. I screwed it most of the way in for starters. I'll
have to set the brake pedal freeplay once there is pressure in the system.
Also found a pivot pin and mounted the loud pedal in place! All connected now, just needs something at the other end to make some noise.
The paint had dried on my gearstick parts at this point so I greased everything up and put it in place...........but it didn't fit.
The earlier model gearstick I'm using has a pin sticking out of the ball. This pin is there to locate the gearstick in the and stop it from spinning.
Because the earlier model gearsticks were mounted further forward on the tunnel they were curved so they were easier to reach. You don't want a
curved gearstick spinning, hence the locating pin.
Whereas on the later year models (ie, my pan) the gearstick is mounted further towards the rear of the car. No need for a bent gearstick so no need
for a pin to stop it spinning. The shifter rod in the tunnel has no cutout for the pin to go down into so the early 'stick won't fit.
I dug out the superbug gearstick and it is presently drying its new coat of paint. I'll be able to reuse everything else, including the shortshift
kit. The only problem with the superbug gearstick is that the knob on it is an ugly blob of plastic. I'm sure I can change this with something
cooler. Any suggestions?
The new straight superbug 'stick in primer.
I cut the old axle boots off while I was waiting for paint to dry. One was on correctly (the one I changed when I first bought the car) and one was on
incorrectly.
New ones will go on tomorrow when I work out how to get enough weight on the pan to get the axles sitting down horizontal.
Take two of the gearstick install.
Everything fitting together very nicely.
Seems I can get all 4 forward gears if I hunt around a little. Can't seem to get reverse. The gearstick is very stiff to change and you can't really
'feel' where the gears are.
I don't know that the Superbug gearstick and shift rod are playing nicely with the short shift kit.
I might take the spacer out and see how it goes normally.
Does anyone have a short shift kit on a superbug? What's it like?
By the way, you can see what i mean by the ugly gear knob in the above picture.
Anyone got any suggestions?
I'm off to bed, lots to get done starting early tomorrow!
Smiley
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
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OZ Towdster
A.k.a.: Andrew Westwood
Custom Title Time!
Keen to finish some projects
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| posted on April 10th, 2010 at 03:37 PM |
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As always , iv've got another bit of backtracking for you to think about hehehehe!!!!!
Those bolts you used to fit the ends of the axles to the spring plates , are they a fine threaded bolt ,as if not they will continually undo
themselves due to the pitch of the thread and the constant vibration of the unsprung area of which there a part of .
Andrew
Don't let body work get in the way of real suspension travel
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