Friday, March 31, 2017

I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy

 The box from France arrived and the only reason I knew it was here was due to the seller sharing the information.  The USPS in Georgia is, so far, mediocre.  I wound up driving across town to retrieve the box because the letter carrier couldn't be bothered to deliver it to my house.  All of the parts look just like they do in the pictures posted by the seller.  A nice treat was looking at the side markers and realizing they're 'sided' - there's a left and a right lens.
I sold my NOS set of reflector seals to a guy in Australia - he might try to reproduce them.  Or he might just say 'screw it' and put them on his car.  I don't have a car that uses them so I sold them.
I shipped this speaker wire and connector to a Type 3 owner up in Canada after posting about it on Facebook.  I was going to just chuck the whole thing in the trash (see the following photo) but decided to ask if anyone wanted parts off of it.
This is, more or less, what the radio looks like.  I managed to get the rear mount and the faceplate off of it - the rest of it is toast but another Type 3 owner has asked for me to ship it to him so it's going to California tomorrow.
 This is the braided stainless brake line that was made for the front calipers to eliminate the adapter on the left end of the rubber hose.
The rear braided stainless hose to replace the stock rubber hose.
The braided stainless hose to replace the two pieces of hose/line that came in the CSP kit.
 Unfortunately, I'm shit with measurements and the hose is about an inch too short!  So I will have to go next week and have two more hoses made that are longer.  I hope they have the fittings in stock this time and it's a 'one visit' situation.
 This shows the routing of the hose from the banjo fitting on the caliper to the stock connection point.  Using this braided hose eliminates a connection point and a bracket.
Here's a slightly better view of hose routing and how I just missed getting the length correct.
 I got sidetracked in my frustration with the brake lines and pulled the pedal assembly.  I anticipated needing to pull it to install the new master cylinder but, once again, got distracted with other things to address.

I used the heim link clutch cable and it 'hangs' on something in the tunnel so I pulled the whole thing with the intent of replacing the heim link system with another clutch cable lever that shouldn't hang up on anything in the tunnel.
Another distraction - I pulled the fuel tank so that I can properly orient the steering wheel and do the alignment...and since the tank is out, it'll be easier to connect all of the brake lines.

Now I just have to find enough time to get all of these 'little' tasks done...

Friday, March 24, 2017

The road to creativity passes so close to the madhouse and often detours or ends there.

I was able to finally get to the hose shop and collect the completed hoses for the brakes - although I have yet to have the time to get it all put back together.  Something about all of the other stuff going on that's kept me from getting back to the car.

The only thing holding me back now is having the time to get it all installed and get the lines bled properly...I might wind up doing it a little at a time until it's done.

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Inbound parts is what's going on

 Made a few deals via Facebook groups over the last week...deals I couldn't pass up.

NOS Hella 3 bolt headlamps with city lights.  Negotiated a good price for fast payment.
 Good condition bumper guards with rubber bits.  The chrome bits will need to be rechromed but they're in good condition overall.  I prefer these to the full towel bar set up.  The really old school version is more preferred but they rarely come up for sale.

I was able to negotiate a good price for buying more than one item.
 Super nice original Gossen tach.  Not NOS but original and nowhere near as expensive as the NOS tach I bought a while back.

I may drop this one in the Variant and reserve the NOS unit for the restoration debut.
Side markers with NOS lenses.  The mounting screws are not stock but they should make stealing them a bit harder.  These are the early/correct housings - I'll sell off a set of my later stamped housings once these arrive and I can inspect them.  I'm, surprisingly enough, trying to get down to the parts that I need for the restoration - with a few spares of hard to find parts - then sell off everything else.

Since I sold my NOS red/white lenses last week - these will replace them.  I may sell the lenses since I prefer clear or yellow for turn indicators.  The red/white version is a parking light.

For the purpose of documenting stasis:  I went to the hose shop last Friday and waited for 20 minutes only to learn that they'd run out of the more standard fitting for the brakes.  They had to be ordered and I should be able to pick them up tomorrow...which is good because I've got a friend coming over on Sunday to work on the car.