Tuesday, December 19, 2017

A couple of new parts but not much else

Speaking of purchases - here are a few things that arrived today:

311 953 173 - seal for turn indicator housing

I'm currently rocking the super early 2 piece seals on my car.  The timing is good to receive these as mine are pretty much gone.  I'll keep two and install two.
In addition to the above, I found the early version of the shift coupler cover plate.

(L) 311 705 445 - Cover, shift coupler
(R) 311 705 445 A - Cover, shift coupler
The nice part about the early version (if I'm lucky it'll fit) is that it's missing the rear part that's bent 'up' - the part that makes it a giant pain in the ass to install.
 A little easier to see the differences on the back of the two.
Notice the 'lip' is missing on the earlier one (left).  I am convinced that the super early cover will only work with the early coupler (round version) vs. the later 'cage' style.  I could try it if I find myself pulling the cover plate again.

Sunday, December 17, 2017

Vent window update

In a somewhat surprising development - I've managed to find both right and left vent window frames in NOS condition.  They're complete with felt and vent window seals.  The glass will have to either be moved from my existing frames or I'll source NOS glass/frames.

I guess it's one way to ensure that the felt pieces are correct without the supreme frustration of using shit quality parts several times...I am still planning on buying some of the WW parts to make sure I give them a shot before exclaiming that there are no decent repop parts out there.

I think I'll still build up the doors from the 65 - for both the practice and the right side mirror.  Seems like I'm going to have time on my hands for a while so I am going to need something to keep myself busy.













Sunday, December 10, 2017

6" of snow in Atlanta

We got 6-7" of snow Friday into Saturday and they closed the little dude's school on Monday due to power outages (not here, fortunately) and potentially slick roads.  So, we are going to go do what we can tomorrow to stay entertained.  None of that will involve working on the Volkswagen and I've scrapped my plans to take the car to the shop until after the holidays.

And, given that the garage is not heated, I have pretty much avoided it the last week.  I don't have the new felt pieces yet and, short of selling parts, haven't wanted to do anything with the car.  I've sold off a few thousand in parts so far and I may go a little further.

Short of posting up some parts that I might buy in the coming weeks it'll be pretty quiet for a bit.

Thursday, December 7, 2017

The dead weight of time

I haven't done a whole hell of a lot in the last few days to the car.  I lost a bit of motivation but attempted a few minor things - some more successful than others.

Button head screws to replace the socket head cap screws so the outer fasteners don't deform the filter media.  Easy win.
 The early window felt from ISP fit the channel pretty well.  I spent 20 minutes cleaning the old sealant out and preparing it for this seal.  Seal went in easily and the matching red stitching was a nice touch.

Once the other pieces were installed - the window provided a very similar result to the driver's side window.  I sprayed the felt with silicone lubricant and, while it helped, it didn't solve the problem.  Still requires both hands and a solid grip to pull the window up - so no chance the window regulator is going to survive that situation.
 This picture shows the result of installation of the outer trim and the ISP inner scraper.  The gap is approximately 18mm between the seals - the glass is 5mm wide - meaning that there's 13mm of 'space' that will be between the glass and the scraper...not, uh, scraping.

Why is it so fucking hard to get decent parts?
 I was given the option to buy this dash a few days ago - looked good and the price was attractive.  Being skeptical, I asked for more pictures.  It was described as NOS.
The metal under the dash grab handle is deformed - one of the clues I used to determine that I wasn't going to buy it.
 Looks pretty good so far - but the mounting locations are depressed which means that this dash is not NOS and has been mounted to a car.
 This was the potential deal breaker: the right side of the dash is cracked - hard to tell how bad from this photo so I asked for a few more pictures.
Upon receipt of this picture, I decided to pass.  There are multiple cracks on the edge.  Once these dashes start to crack - the cracks just keep growing.

I decided to hang on to my money and wait for the next one to come up.  I don't need it but I did want it.

I've sold a decent chunk of my stashed parts with more parts on the way out the door...might be a slippery slope but that's where this is going.

Not sure I'll be doing a whole lot with the car over the next few days/weeks.  I'm kind of done installing shit quality parts only to pull it all apart again and throw it away.

Friday, December 1, 2017

...

Once the engine is running more consistently I'm going to get this exhaust thing worked out.  It's too close to the left bumper guard - which is now turning black.  It's adjusted to the right as far as I can get it and it's still off by at least an inch.  I'd like to lengthen the pipe by about 4 inches to get to the edge of the rear bumper.

I spent about an hour today trying to figure out the source of the groaning in the rear end.  I was able to get it narrowed down to originating from the right rear.  And I figured out that it might be related to the axle nut - after checking every other nut/bolt on the rear end, I pulled the cotter pin and tightened the axle nut to 250 lb/ft on the torque wrench.  After installing a new cotter pin, I took it out for a one mile test drive where I did some 'granny donuts' in the parking lot for the pool.  All quiet except for one very faint groan upon exiting the parking lot.  I may pull the left side cotter pin and crank that one down as well to make sure it's tight and eliminate it as the source of the sound.

I also called the local aircooled VW shop (it's 45 minutes away) and made an appointment to have them check out the jetting and carburetor settings since I can't quite get it figured out.  I'm going to drive the car over on Tuesday and hope to pick it up on Wednesday.  EDIT: Actually, I'm not going to do that since it's supposed to rain both Tuesday and Wednesday. Fuck.  Perhaps I can do it the following...yeah, no - already too much shit going on that week.  Huh, I might wind up with those vent felt pieces before this carb thing gets worked out.