Expectation is the mother of all frustration

 I scored some garage time this morning and expected to get the front brakes on the car finally.

I gathered the required parts (now nicely organized in my cabinets) and with tools at hand, I proceeded to install the steering arms, ball joints and caliper brackets.  Looks good, doesn't it?

 I mounted the passenger's side spindle because I can easily access it without moving the car.  The spindle went on without hassle and things were progressing nicely.  I pulled one of the Wilwood calipers out of its box and held it up near where it would be mounted.

This is when I started to wonder about this Airkewld kit.  There's about 3mm of space between the caliper and the rotor.  Not ideal but not the end of the world, right?

I just can't quite wrap my head around 'tight tolerance' on one side and 'a stack of hardware store washers' on the other side.

 Then we have a look at the back side...See the gap between the caliper and the bracket?  It's easily a 1/4" - 3/8" wide and intended to be filled with washers provided by Airkewld - which I didn't realize when I bought the kit because there are no instructions included in the box.  The instructions are online only, vague and reference blurry photos they posted on Facebook.  The instructions have reference numbers to photos that don't exist.

The bolts that are provided are to be mounted in such a way that washers are used to keep the bolt from being driven in too far (and striking the brake rotor).

I'm still thinking that this 'might' be okay.  We're talking about a braking system here and the fewer number of Mickey Mouse adjustments the better, in my opinion.

I'm irritated at this point...A $900 brake kit that's mounted with a handful of washers.  What the fuck?  If this was a $50 lesson, no shits would be given, but that's not the situation.

Ah, the coup de grace!

The hardware they provided doesn't fucking fit the brake caliper.  Yes, I can drill the holes out but that's not the point.  Why didn't they design the fucking thing to go together properly?

If you're going to sell a product for a premium price, make sure your shit works and all of the pieces fit together properly.

I'm really starting to wonder if I should simply exit this hobby.  Sell all of this shit off and go back to mountain biking.  I'm getting really tired of spending so much time accomplishing so little while enjoying nearly nothing in the process.

Distractions

After a few attempts at organizing the cabinets with the red bins I bought on eBay, I came to the conclusion that I'd need to buy more.  I didn't want to keep putting money into the cabinets with limited flexibility.  After some searching, I found myself buying a group of Vidmar bins on eBay after negotiations with the seller.  It went better than expected and I wound up with a hell of a deal.

I started grouping the parts by where they belong on the finished vehicle in an effort to comprehend what I've got and how many I've got.

This photo shows the 'front axle' parts in a drawer that's been cleaned up and organized.  There will be additional parts added to the drawer once I've gone through the others and organized properly.

I attempted to organize by part number but that didn't work because I'd have to buy another cabinet.  I realized that I needed a different method of organization so I approached organization by how I'd put the car back together.  Once the parts are organized in a way that makes sense, I'll label each drawer so that I can soothe my anal-retentive organization freak show side.

Some day, I'll get back to putting a car together...

In other news:  The whole family went out to California for a week.  I went to OCTO and the El Prado show and shine in lieu of the Classic.  I didn't find much in the way of parts...so little, in fact, that I didn't take any photos of the parts (4 pieces in total).  I also didn't take very many photos at the shows.  I spent my time conversing with fellow T3 owners at El Prado and, unfortunately, didn't have more time to hang out...seems like I leave a little bit too early each year and miss something.  Maybe next year, I can stick around longer.  There's always next year...maybe I'll have made some progress on Ferris or Nigel by that time.

A step in the right direction

 The small test batch from the new powder coater were picked up today.  Six steering arms, two sets of drum spindles and the three pieces of an early camber stop, the camber stop spring (not pictured) and the brackets for the disc brakes.

 A super early set of drum spindles (8mm bolts) and a 'regular' early set of drum spindles (10mm bolts).  The 10mm bolt spindles will be getting the disc brake brackets and find their way onto the car - hopefully right after I return from California.  This car being up on jack stands for so long is a bit nuts, especially since I bought it to drive while I finished Ferris.

The three 'rust red' pieces from the camber stop I bought used a couple of years ago.  I can finally put it back together and put it on a car!  The pieces turned out great-nice even coating and no drips or weird markings on them like the previous shop did (wrong).

Overall, I'm very happy with the results and I look forward to doing a little metal work and then dropping the parts off for a proper coating job.  Looks like I found the right place so it's time to start making progress.

 I negotiated with the seller of a hazard light kit that I plan to install on Nigel.  The knob is for a later model year but I think I can use this kit and simply swap the knob and escutcheon for the 66 model version on this switch.  If not, the knob isn't the end of the world.  I'd rather have functional (and easier to install) hazard lights.  I can get tangled up in the knob details later.

The instructions sheet for Type 3 is included.  Should make wiring it up super simple.

I have a Jokon kit for Ferris and a spare single pole switch if I decide to go that route on one of the cars.

...and who gets the job pushing the knobs?

I located another reputable powder coating operation in the semi-local area.  I established contact and have dropped off the front brake parts for Nigel and the camber compensator parts for Ferris as a first go.  If these parts come back in good condition, I'll send more work his way until I'm able to have a garage full of correctly powder coated, ready to install parts.  I'm now on the hunt to find a paint shop that can correct the fubar'd paint job on the pan for Ferris.  I'd like to get that pan painted and start putting it back together soon.  There are a lot of parts just waiting for assembly and I'm itching to put something together.

I received the parts book that I found on eBay - it's in very nice condition.  It appears to be a first print.  It's not as robust as the others and there are no supplements past #3.  I have yet to find any gaps in the page count.  The cover will be cleaned soon but it's in very nice condition overall.

(UPDATE: Photo of the book now that it's clean)

The rear reflectors/housings from Italy arrived and they're in great shape, although they don't match.  One is SWF manufactured and the other is a Hella.  I wonder what the odds are of finding another SWF to complete the pair...

I'm hoping to get the first round of powder coated parts back before the trip to California...and I'm real hopeful that they're done correctly so that I can get the brakes back on Nigel right when we return from California.

bits and pieces

 I was put in touch with a seller in North Carolina via a contact in Germany about a right side NOS pop out window frame.  Some time had passed and I didn't think that the frame would be available...but I got in contact with the seller today and discovered that it was still for sale.  So I bought it.

I also found another Type 3 parts book.  The cover is dirty but the pages were clean and the dividers appear to be in good shape...it's getting close to time to sell off one of my other books (or at least some of the pages).

Still have the brakes to put back together before Nigel can come out for the summer but I feel like it's do-able and that I'll be able to drive him around a bit before he goes into storage for the winter.  I'm looking forward to driving the old guy around finally!

Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting.

Made a deal today on a complete set of NOS rear reflector assemblies.  What I was really after are the reflectors themselves but I wound up buying the complete assemblies once the price was negotiated.  It became too good to pass up.  They're coming from Italy so it's likely to be a while before they show up.  Hopefully, they arrive before I go to California.

In addition to this buy; I found NOS screws for the front turn signal lenses from another source.

I'm convinced that if I wait long enough, I can find just about anything.

NOS Left side pop out frame

Left side NOS pop out frame.  Now the search is on for the right side.

I think that if I can find a complete pair, I'll be able to sell off/recycle the giant pile of spares I've collected in the garage.  I may also drop them off at the local plating shop and see if they can do anything with them prior to bailing out on them.  I'll have to dig them out and oil the screws to see if I can get them apart (the hardest part).

Sometimes the stories are better than the discoveries

I went on a bit of a parts discovery in the East Coast earlier this week.  I had four destinations on my mental itinerary when I arrived.  The first destination turned out to be a very nice place to stop.  My wife and I spent over two hours with the owner of a little VW shop, trading stories and learning about the local interests.  I found a few nice parts during the stop and later shipped them back home.  The journey was definitely the best part of the experience...I would have been just as happy to have departed with the stories and the interactions and no parts in hand.  They were the bonus to the experience.

The second stop was somewhat of a local legend but it turns out that the owner had passed away two years ago (information traveled too slowly to me apparently) and most of his stuff was sold at auction last year - right around the time I'd originally planned to make this trip.  Terrible timing on my part.  So that destination quickly evaporated - which was VERY unfortunate because I also heard that he had a LOT of Type 3 parts.

The third stop was physically present but the owner was not.  I couldn't get in touch with him so I had to forgo that destination as well.  Frustrating.

The fourth stop didn't happen for various reasons.

A lot of these spots where people have parts stashed away are evaporating and the owners of the remaining parts are more and more unwilling to entertain buyers.  I get it.  It's intrusive, people can be really unpleasant and some transactions just aren't all that worthwhile.  I don't know that I'd entertain someone wanting to dig around in what I've got after I'd spent years amassing my collection.

So, what did I actually buy?

Not pictured:  VGC ivory hood release cable/knob, NOS tail pipe mounting kit, NOS right side heater box (it's in a box on its way home right now) and the stuff shown below.

NOS ATE dual circuit Master Cylinder.

 NOS glow plug for the gas heater.  Not many people need these but not many of these exist.  Very hard to find.

 NOS seat cams.  I now have enough to rebuild two complete seats with NOS cams.  I'm still searching for two more to get a second complete set.

NOS 12v choke.  Last year while tuning the engine for Nigel, the left side choke got stupidly hot and subsequently removed.  I bought this one to replace it.












I've also scored a left side NOS pop out window frame and some other small parts for Nigel.

EMPI Camber Compensator

 NOS Camber Compensator with the tags still wrapped around it.

Amazing condition for its age!

This one will be used on Nigel and the other one will be restored and used on Ferris.

 The original box...which went into the recycle bin.

 Label on the end of the box.

Now I have an original for paint matching on the used unit I bought last year.

Change is constant, satisfaction is not

I have only spent a few hours in the garage putting things in order recently.  I have come to the conclusion that I need to continue the purge in order to get the car bits to a manageable level.  The 'up' side to all of this organization of parts is that I'm finding a bunch of parts I didn't realize I'd kept because many of them had been squirreled away for various reasons.  It's high time I got rid of them.  So, when I get back from Japan, I'm going to post the shit out of free or nearly free common parts that I don't need/want.  Some other parts will be very cheap just to move them along...and some other, not so fortunate parts will be trashed/recycled or scrapped.

This may or may not be due to the fact that I've watched way too many episodes of hoarders.

2015 brings organization but not much progress

Not a whole heck of a lot has been going on with regard to the cars or parts other than my purchase of two cabinets.

I decided to buy a couple of industrial parts cabinets in order to better organize and consolidate the many small things that seem to migrate around the garage and the house.  The cabinets are in good used condition and I got a hell of a deal on them.  Once it warms up enough to use the power washer, I'll pull the drawer rails and clean the bearings and re-grease them.  I ordered new handle end caps, paper labels and plastic covers.  When the organization is complete-I'll label the drawers for quick identification.

I spent about a day pulling everything down, going through it and determining if I was going to keep/use it in the future.  I bought bins and am now in the process of organizing parts into some sort of logical system that will allow me to view/inventory what I've got for the car restoration.

In addition to parts for the car, 1/2 of one cabinet is now my toolbox.  I was running into space issues with the Craftsman I bought a few months ago.  I wanted to replace it with something that I couldn't outgrow when new tools are added to the box.

The process of transferring parts from multiple locations into this one centralized place has been, dare I say, enjoyable.  I've emptied five small plastic drawer bins (like the one on the floor in the bottom right of the photo above), all 25 of the cardboard bins and most of a 2 door cabinet, a Craftsman toolbox and a couple of large Akro Bins of parts into these two cabinets.  I've still got three empty drawers.  

A small selection of NOS parts will remain indoors but the rest of it will consolidate into these two cabinets and one 2 door cabinet.

As a result of all of this consolidation and organization, I'll be able to put up more classified ads to sell off parts I know I'll never use.  Most of the progress has been made after things calm down at night and I've got an hour or two to get something done.  It's been bitter cold so an hour or two is about all I can stay in the garage without heat.

It'll be nice to have most everything in one place.

First inbound parts of 2015

Found an early bumper bracket set among a few other miscellaneous parts while I was looking for parts to start making some progress on the cars.  I seem to have quite a bit of luck finding rare-ish parts that I don't need but near no luck when I'm looking for more common parts.

311 707 133
Bracket - Bumper (front)
up to Chassis No, 64 915

311 707 339
Bracket - Bumper (rear)
up to Chassis No, 64 915

Type 3 door hinges

Thanks to a few other Type 3 people, I was able to locate and make sense of the odd lot of hinge configurations I've seen floating around.

The "A" hinge is an original 3 bolt door hinge.  This covers all Notchbacks and Variant up to early 1966.  These hinges are 'corner specific'-meaning that there's a unique hinge for each corner of the car.

The "B" hinge is a conversion hinge which allows the later 2 bolt door hinges to be used on the platforms listed above.

The "C" hinge is an original 2 bolt door hinge.  Covers Variant/Squreback and Fastback from 66 until the end of production.

The "D" hinge is a conversion hinge that allows the use of an early door on a later car.  This hinge would be used on an early 66 and earlier Variant door or a Notchback door on a 66 and later Variant/Squareback or Fastback.  Like the "A" hinge, these are 'corner specific' with four different part numbers (one for each corner).

It's a little more complex than it needs to be because Volkswagen often updated/changed parts mid-production vs. waiting for a new production year.  Very common on 66 and earlier cars actually.

I'm left to wonder why they didn't just keep the door hinge design the same and eliminate 50% of these designs.

The full story can be found here: http://www.neil.us/type3/doors/

A quick search in the classifieds turns up quite a few of the "D" hinges.