Thursday, May 17, 2018

Swedish reflectors

The Swedish reflectors arrived - just in time - as the moving truck is showing up on Monday!

They are in very nice condition and after a good cleaning - they should be very presentable.
 The posts are straight and complete - always a nice thing to see on vintage reflectors.  Part number is stamped on the back side and the spacer rings are awesome.
The spacers are clear plastic rings.  For some reason, I always thought they were rubber...happy to see that these are in really nice condition.

I don't have any plans for them other than to clean them up and add them to the collection.

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Churn and turn

 NOS VW factory rebuilt pump - I knew if I was patient and waited long enough that I'd find one.

All of that waiting paid off!  Sure, I had to buy a bunch of other stuff to get it (and the window cranks) but it will be worth it in the end...
 The NOS window cranks - one is very nice - the other one is 'ok' due to scratches on the arm.  I have the third window crank and I think it'll make a good replacement for the final fitment.
 Found two sets (4 pieces) of these on German eBay but the seller won't ship to the US so I asked a contact in Germany to help me out (which he did).  They'll get shipped over with the next package.

Overall, I've been content with the rate of sell through of the parts that I have up for sale.  I'll be much happier once they're all sold and I can return focus to my car but, for now, things are going okay - I should be able to recover what I've spent this time around.

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Subculture

An exercise in 'how strong is my OCD?'

The left is the hand written tag - tags I bought specifically for the cabinets that store the parts to the car.  The second iteration are P-Touch labels that I simply slipped into the slot.  A little calculation showed that it could be fairly expensive to print them all out and slip them inside the holders.  So, the third iteration was born.  I spent about 15 minutes in Excel and created a template for the bin locations and got to printing them out.  The worst part is having to cut each tag on the paper cutter - and, all told, it's not that bad.  I'm about done after approximately 3 hours of listening to music and putting tags on the bins.

I sold a bunch of parts yesterday, which is good news for both 'right-sizing' my level of parts and for the things I have yet to purchase for this car.  I know...how the hell can there be a part I don't have yet?  There are - although their numbers are dwindling rapidly.  People are getting out of the hobby and that means that parts are becoming available, very, very slowly.  Patience is key.  Then I'll sell my used/excess parts to those who don't have patience.  Circle of life or something like that...all I know is that it's all very slowly working out in my favor.  Finally.

Monday, May 7, 2018

Nigel made it to Illinois (and NOS parts)

Got a call late today that Nigel is safely tucked away in the garage in the house in Illinois.  Nice to have that taken care of so quickly!
Scored myself a shit ton of NOS parts.  I really only wanted the fuel pump and the window cranks but this was an 'all or nothing' deal so I went for it after some negotiating.

I should see this stuff by the end of next week.  The nice part is that I can also sell off some of the 'close but no cigar' parts I've been hoarding - thinking I'd never find the parts.  I will do a late 'evaluation' of parts and offer up the rest of it for sale.

Saturday, May 5, 2018

Road trip

I received an email very early this morning about the possibility of having the car picked up today.  A few hours passed and I got a call from the driver.  Fortunately, I was ready to go so I agreed to transport today after making arrangements on the other side of the trip with Jim - a friend of mine who shares interest in these old cars.
Sharing the trailer to Illinois is this stupid clean '68 Shelby Mustang.  It is VERY clean and absolutely amazing to see in person.
Getting the truck turned around on the skinny streets of this subdivision was a challenge that Mike (the driver) was well prepared for and he managed it with ease.  His equipment was all very new and in excellent condition.
The second, and final, shipment of NOS pan boots arrived today.  They're in super nice condition.  I think that a leather punch will open up the early version's clutch bowden tube holes - the odds of finding an original small diameter bowden tube are slim to none at this point.
I got another NOS rear hatch hinge stay - and immediately noticed that it wasn't the same as the others...well, shit.  The others are obviously suited to later model cars (even though the part number didn't change).  I'm not 100% sure what the extra holes are for but non-matching is a deal breaker for me.  Looks like I'll have some more parts for sale soon.
This is the set of the super nice Swedish reflectors I bought from a seller in the UK - they appear to be in very nice condition.  I just hope he sends the box on its way very soon so it gets here before we move!
I'll some day find a nice set of French reflectors and put them all on display.  Seems like a weird thing to collect and display but I can be sure there aren't many others collecting the same thing.

Friday, May 4, 2018

T-minus 19

 Yesterday was fairly productive.  I put the door panels back on the doors (windows are still semi-inoperable due to felt trim) and put the horn bar back on the steering wheel.  The horn does not work but that won't cause me any issues with it sitting in a trailer on the way to Illinois.  The interior almost looks correct again.
 The hardest part of getting this door back together was the top plastic trim - I think I lost a handful of clips into the door because they kept popping off.  The clamping part of them is wearing out so the clips don't hold on like they should.
 I attempted to install the ISP repops of the finger cups.  A second look at them will reveal that the mold used to make them is of questionable quality - the edges are not uniform - and to top it off - they don't fit.  The front tip is too wide to fit into the trim and the bottom is too thick to get under the trim as designed.

I tossed these back in the cabinet and re-used the broken originals.
 In 'parts' news - I've come across the fuel pump I've been looking for and, barring any odd circumstances, I should be able to buy it next week along with a few other parts.  Closing this chapter would be a nice win.
A NOS set of window cranks!  I have one that I bought a while back but to find a pair is pretty awesome.  This would allow me to sell a couple of pair of used sets that I've kept in the event I didn't find NOS parts.

There are also some wheel trim rings and a pair of NOS rear amber top light lenses.

I've also found a set of Swedish reflectors that I may buy simply for the 'cool/rare' factor.  They're not super common and would be a good display piece.

While the little dude was playing with the hose, I used some 2000 grit sandpaper and hit up the rear hatch from Icarus to see if I could get the paint to clean up a little.  There's not much left of the paint but it did clean up quite well.

After a bit of serious frustration, I feel like I've hit a nice stride in accomplishing some wins on the car.

I have decided to leave the current carb tune alone - the car starts and runs decently well - I can tweak it more once all of our stuff is in one place again.

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

T-minus 22

Yesterday, I attempted to improve my carburetor adjustments by leaning them out slightly using the information from Aircooled.net.  I was initially successful but that went to shit real fast when I leaned them out and the car decided it didn't want to start.  I ran out of time so I pushed the car into the garage for the day.

Today, I put the carbs back to what I remembered for their idle mixture settings and the car roughly started up and I did some fine tuning from there by ear to smooth it out a tad.  The carbs are no longer in sync but the car runs fine.  I dug around the 'net a bit and found an article by RedlineWeber that talks about how to set up 40 IDFs, sync them and lean them out so I'm going to try that one tomorrow.  The 'end goal' here is to make them better, not worse...I am learning how to tune them so all isn't lost.  There's a lot of trial and error involved.

I cleaned the door panels in preparation for replacement in the car tomorrow.  It's time to start wrapping up these projects because the car could ship as early as Monday of next week - which means it needs to be 'ready' by Friday night since weekends are reserved for my 4 year old.  I should be able to get the door panels cleaned and installed early tomorrow and then I'll have time to see if I can both sync and tune the carburetors.

...and because I don't seem to have enough going on - I bought this bare Koln column for a future project to rebuild.  All I need to find now is the connection plate for the rear.  I'm going to use my collection of NOS parts to fill the column in until it's functional.
All I need to find now is the connection plate for the rear.  I'm going to use my collection of NOS parts to fill the column in until it's functional.  I have a feeling that this is a project that won't see the light of day for quite some time.

Additionally, I found a nice parts stash that I may or may not buy for my collection.  It'll simply prod me to sell off more of the stuff I don't need to make space for the new parts.

The second round of parts is due on Friday - then I can work on determining what to keep and what to sell.