Saturday, April 30, 2016

It's the little things

The bolts I found to potentially replace the OE door bolts wound up being too small.  Everything is good except the head size.  I may swap over to a flanged bolt if I can't find proper button head bolts - the hex head would be easier to remove and they're hidden by caps anyway.
 I replaced the original shocks on the rear today - these things were shot.  No resistance at all.  I checked the fronts and found that they're in decent shape still - meaning that they've been replaced at some point.  I'm guessing they've got maybe a few years left before they need to be replaced.  Let's hope they last until the restoration.

I completed the assembly of the rear right side brake and replaced the drum.  I haven't dropped the car on the ground just yet.

In addition to this - I swapped the electronic flasher unit back into the car in anticipation of LED front turn lamps that I received on Thursday.  Those turned out to be rather disappointing - not very bright at all.  I ordered  a set from AliExpress - I've been rather satisfied with my purchases so far - so let's hope that continues.
 I pulled out some of the carburetor linkage that went to RediStrip - just to see what I've got and what can be used.
 I discovered that I have two sets of early non adjustable linkage.  I checked them and, with the exception of one that's slightly bent, they're all within spec.

Getting the broken ball out should be fun someday.
 This piece has an ingenious 'fix' that had to take a steady hand and a nutty amount of time.  This looks like a 'I'm stuck on the side of the road and need a fast fix' kind of thing.
 These parts wound up in the scrap bin - corroded, bent and cannot be fixed.
I'm a rather vocal critic of ISP West - given that they're supposed to be focused on Type 3 restorations/parts and I've largely been let down by what they offer and/or what I've received vs. what I expected to receive.

Yesterday, their repop carb linkage showed up and I have to say: I'm pleasantly surprised to find that the left side linkage piece is preset to the factory spec length!  Should make tuning the carburetors a little easier.

Thursday, April 28, 2016

The saga of the right rear wheel

 A small miracle lead up to this point...I hope that miracle carried over to the brakes - since I had to disconnect the wheel cylinder.  I'll crack the bleeder once it's all back together again.

The large o-ring that's supposed to be between the bearing and the backing plate was missing and the smaller o-ring was flat - two very likely reasons I had a leak on this side.
 Getting this thing out wound up being a lot easier than I expected.  I went into this task expecting it to be a giant pain in the ass.

I took a Dremel and flattened the area where it broke off - I was thinking that I'd have to go the typical route of drilling into the broken bolt and using a left handed drill bit or removal tool.

I used the Dremel to make a cross on the surface to center the drill bit and as I started drilling, the piece started to rotate...so I got a slotted screwdriver and, basically, unscrewed it from the hole - slowly and carefully.
This is where things ended for the night - not yet done but pretty darn close.

I received another set of spreader bars but I think they're too long because, once again, I can't get the drum back on until I put the old ones back on.  New parts aren't the same unfortunately.

Perseverance is stubbornness with a purpose

The bolts for the rear bearing cover came in yesterday - I didn't get enough time to drill out the broken bolt but I plan to do that today after work.  I will be replacing all 8 bolts as a precautionary measure - who knows what's up with the seven that remain...

A well known Type 3 source contacted me this morning with photos of a group of parts he'd decided to put up for sale.
A fellow Type 3 owner hooked me up with a part that we've both been looking to find for several years.  I now have two complete sets of these to finish both cars!

The funny part is that they're coming from the same guy who's got the door levers (notice the wood pattern).

In other news, I'm helping out a guy in New Zealand obtain parts - which had led to me buying some of the parts I need to acquire myself.  All told, there are about 7 boxes of parts from 5 sources coming in the next week or so.

I sourced some suitable replacement bolts for the door hinges from a local hardware company, McMaster Carr, and they'll arrive in a few days.  If they work, it'll be a fantastic find - they're $7 for two sets.  I'll know soon enough.







Saturday, April 23, 2016

More of the good stuff!

One of the now many inbound boxes showed up today.

I ordered this at the last minute - not really thinking that it would come in looking decent.  I'll be damned if I wasn't totally wrong - it's almost 100% perfect.
Scored two more bolt on generator belt covers - I'm now up to 5 for one car.  It might be time to let a couple of them go, huh?














Steering box plugs - something super simple that turned out to be quite hard to find.

In addition to these, I also found the adjusting screws (311 415 263) and the smaller oil seal (311 415 277).  I'm thinking that the next trip to RediStrip will include the pile of steering boxes that I have - I'll see if I can get them cleaned up and rebuild a couple of them for spares.  It can't be that hard, right?  :)
These have been sought out for quite some time now...I was able to find the left sides rather easily for a few years - the right sides disappeared for a while but I found two - one to finish out my collection and, potentially, one for a fellow Type 3 owner.

The experience of old age strikes back

This quote that I think is from a movie (which I cannot remember) goes through my head every time something goes really wrong after something goes really 'right'.

"In order to win big, we've got to be willing to do what?"
"Lose big!"
"What are we doing now?!"
"Losing big!"

I started the morning out by checking on that noise in the right rear wheel - I suspected that the parking brake cable had snapped and the end was floating around in the drum - tearing shit up.



I was pleasantly surprised when I removed the drum and found that the cable end had simply come off of the hook.  I'm suspecting that the shop did some adjustment to the parking brake and it got too loose, allowing the end to slip off.

It was nice to find an 'easy fix', so I reconnected it and set about checking the bearing cover bolts to make sure they were torqued on properly.  I'd had an issue with this side, specifically, so I wanted to be 100% sure they were torqued properly.


And just when I was mentally ready to move on to the next thing on the list, the top right bolt snapped.















Now, I'm off to get a drill bit so that I can, hopefully, drill this out and clean it up.

I'm also pretty sure I don't have another bolt - so the car will wind up sitting until it arrives.  That sucks because the weather is supposed to be super nice for a drive.









Removed a one year old, 40 miles traveled, Brazilian CoFap steering damper that was hissing/leaking.

It's been replaced, temporarily, by a Chinese manufactured unit.  I know where to find German units, so it looks like they're going into a shopping basket.  I don't expect much more out of the Chinese one, to be honest.



 I took another look at the fan shrouds that came back from RediStrip and found that two of the three rear halves are cracked all the way through.

This one is for a 6 volt generator and it's cracked all the way around.  The stud is bent and stripped.

It's headed for recycling.  I'm not going to fix this one.
This is a 12 volt version - it is cracked in the same place.  The stud was good so I removed it along with the brass bushings for the thermostat flap rod.

This one is also headed for the recycling bin.

Friday, April 22, 2016

Nigel stretches his legs

Dropped the car off at 7am, called at 12 noon to let them know that there are some extra parts if they needed them and the owner tells me that the car is done.  I picked Nigel up at 5pm and drove home.  Brakes are nice and firm and the car tracks much better.  I've technically got too much air in the front tires so I may take more out to see if I can get the front end to track a bit better - I know that a considerable amount of the jittery-ness is due to the steering damper going bad.

 There's something goofy on the right rear - I think in the drum, so I'm going to pull the rear drum tomorrow morning to check it out.  I'm now really happy that I bought that giant torque wrench - it's going to come in handy a lot.

I put the front beauty rings on with recently re-chromed hubcaps:

I think it looks pretty good.  The bumper needs to be cleaned but it's not bad overall.

So, I've got an oil change, a clutch tweak (I think the cable it a tad too tight), and replacing the front steering damper (it's leaking) on the list of things to do along with the inspecting the odd noise at the right rear.




Thursday, April 21, 2016

Make measurable progress in reasonable time

Tomorrow, Nigel is off to a local auto repair shop for alignment, brake bleed and a good once over...he's being dropped off at 7am and I will be picking him up at the end of the day - that should get everything in line, allowing me to take him on a proper drive this weekend.  There are a few outstanding issues to resolve but the majority of them are taken care of and things are looking up.

Next up, after the alignment and brake bleed is an oil change - I'm planning on doing that this weekend before I get out and drive much.

I've been able to make far more progress in restoring the photos than I initially thought.  It looks like I should have it all back to normal within another week or so.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

One by one, the house will be rebuilt

Did some additional digging and found that all of the photos are in a Picasa Web Album - all of them - the link to them from this blog is simply broken.  I can't find an easy way to link them back up, so I'm going back and, one at a time, linking them back up to their respective posts.  Late yesterday, I was about ready to just shut this whole thing down, photo-wise.

I did delete a few inconsequential posts - thinking that I'd probably never find the photos...frustrating because I don't really have a lot of time to go back and rebuild this thing.  And I'll now have three copies of some photos - not knowing which one is linked to the blog, so all three will have to remain.

Ferris's blog is up to date and corrected - I'm now focused on fixing this one to its original state.

Tomorrow is 'new phone' day.  New SD card and case for the new phone will arrive tomorrow.


Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Detour in the blog

I've gone back and looked at fixing both this blog (for the second time in 2 years) and fixing Ferris's blog (4th time in 6 years)...it's going to take a long time to fix the photos and I don't know how long it'll take Google to fuck it up - the elimination of Google+ photos and Picasa (it's now just Google Photos) has ultimately played a role in some of the failures in this blog.  Part of the fault is my phone and the sync between it and Google's back up to the cloud.  A week ago - before this issue popped up, I had one version of every photo in my Google Photos, now I have two versions - neither of which link to the blog images.  Going back through my photos and deleting the duplicates is one issue, fixing the blog images is entirely another

While I'm making progress on Nigel - I'm very discouraged at having documented so many things only to have them come apart on this blog.  I'm going to fix a couple of images but the majority of them won't get fixed - I simply don't have time to go back and search for the photo and re-link them all...only to wonder when Google will make some change that blows it all up again.

The price of 'free' is that this is all at the mercy of someone else.  I'm not going to create a build thread on TheSamba.com for two cars - one because it's not the right platform and two because it's not the audience I want.

I may look into my own domain to host the blogs but that's not really on the horizon right now.  Until I get the photo situation worked out or I get my own domain, the updates will be text only going forward.

Monday, April 18, 2016

The downside to being 'connected'

Well...looks like my phone's issues have reached full tilt and fucked over the blog...most of the photos that I used on this blog were linked from my phone - supposedly backed up by Google (apparently not).  The SD card that housed all of my photos on my phone is supposed to back up hourly.  A couple of days ago it unceremoniously died.  In the event that you're considering Lexar memory, I'd recommend you choose another brand.

I was wondering if Google's axing of Picasa was partly to blame but it appears that only the photos linked from my phone are to blame here and on the Ferris blog.  The photos are online but not linked to Blogger because I went 'through' the phone.  I won't be doing that anymore...

Looks like I'll have to go back and restore the photos if I can remember what they were.

Jim came by today and tweaked the carbs - the car is running more smoothly now.  Alignment and brake bleed is last on the list before the car can be put back together and driven out of the subdivision on a real road trip around town.  It's time for Nigel to stretch his legs a bit.

For obvious reasons, no photo for this post...

Friday, April 15, 2016

Time to buy a new phone


I took this video on my phone - which decided about five months ago that it no longer wanted to 'auto rotate' so I can only take photos and video in portrait mode.  After spending the better part of an hour online - looking for a way to rotate the video and then doing it (via YouTube), I present the annoying sound of my voice, a peek at my DD (Volvo V60 R Design), and Nigel, idling a bit high after the first start in over a year.

The carb whisperer will be over on Monday to help sort that out - meanwhile, Nigel needs an oil change.

Super productive day off pays off

A wonderfully productive day off of work today!  The weather was super nice at about 75°F and sunny.  The beginning of the day is detailed on Ferris's blog since that's where most of the action took place.

Once we finished with Ferris, Craig and I spent some time working to bleed the brakes on Nigel, who has been sitting in the garage for the better part of a year, waiting for his turn at life.  The brakes were bled well enough to stop the car, we did a once over on the front suspension, making sure bolts were tight.  Wound up pulling the third fuel pump out of the car today while attempting to start it for the first time this year.  It's the second one to pull the fuel inlet tube.  I also got to taste Summer blend 87 octane fuel.  Twice.  Listerine didn't help, Gatorade didn't help.  Sour Patch Kids helped a lot, oddly enough.

The fuel pump in the car now is a NOS Pierburg.  Once the fuel made it to the carb bowls, the car fired right up.
I put the choke wire connector covers on today - turns out that 40 year old plastic isn't terribly flexible - this one broke with little effort on my part.  Fortunately, I've got tons of random spares.

Since we were making good progress, we continued.  Hooked up the clutch cable, accelerator cable, fixed a couple of odd wires, repaired the speedometer cable grommet, replaced a bad relay, checked the lights, corrected the steering wheel gap, checked interior lights and after firing the car up and tinkering a bit, we drove the car around the neighborhood for ten or fifteen minutes.

When we got back, I swapped the stock shifter for the Hurst that's been in the garage for three years - I prefer the more precise shifting of the Hurst.

A local VW carb whisperer is coming by on Monday after work to tweak the carbs slightly - the car runs but it's not quite right.

Once that's done, I'll set up an appointment and get the alignment done and have the brakes checked by someone more skilled.  A few cosmetic tweaks and a couple of new seals and Nigel should be good for a while.  It'll be nice to drive the car around this Summer - I just have to figure out how to get my son's car seat into the back because he's already asking if he can 'come too'.