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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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'.
The Koln column from Belgium arrived last week. It's in about the same condition that I expected - so it was nice to not be unpleasantly surprised.
The contact plate is in okay shape but I think I'm going to replace it anyway since I'll have to take it apart to sand it down for paint.
The spring is missing from the contact plate but that'll get addressed by being replaced completely.
The clip that holds the turn signal arm to the body was missing (I knew this in advance) but I've sourced another one.
There is physical damage to the turn signal arm itself (I didn't know this in advance) but since it needs to be replaced, not really a big deal.
Then we come to the 'fun' part: The spring and end cap pieces are missing - not a big deal since I have spares.
In other news - I'm now without ads in the classifieds because I took them all down. One less distraction.
I have other parts inbound and after they arrive, there won't be much coming in for a while as I sort through what I've got and where the projects need attention.
There's one more trip to chrome and possibly one or two more trips to powder coating before I can safely consider it 'mostly done' - it'll be 'completely done' when both cars are complete and the list of 'things to do' is blank.
The carburetors from Volkzbitz.com came in the mail today. They look really nice. It's going to be kind of a shame that 90% of these things won't be seen once installed.
The other three sets of tie rod ends came in and they're in near perfect condition. The cotter pins are missing from three or four of the tie rod ends but I can simply replace them when the time comes.
Powder coating will, hopefully, be finished next weekend. If I get lucky, it'll be ready to be picked up on my way back from a business trip to Indiana at the end of the week. I haven't accomplished much in the way of getting the engine for Ferris put back together but it's at least on my 'radar' for something that needs to be finished "soon-ish".
I'm working on ordering the CSP disc brake kit for the front - along with some other parts that I've been trying to find and not having much luck.
I haven't yet confirmed if the NOS seat bases that I found are correct because the seller won't send photos.
Yeah, send me money and I'll send you a mystery package that might be what you wanted/paid for. I'll probably do it...I've done dumber things that have worked out. I think this spot has the second pair of interior levers as well - if not, I'll get a (new) chrome guy to quote the job and just refurbish a current set.
I placed two small orders with ISP West to replace both the front hood seal and the rear hatch seals, the rubber grommet for the warm air tubes on Ferris and a rubber cargo mat to quiet the engine noise.
The next few purchases are going to be fewer in number but greater in cost.
Found a used but functional Koln column on eBay Germany. It didn't sell at the listed price. I contacted the seller and he sent more photos, including 2 videos that show the ignition functioning.
My plan is to take it apart, sand it, paint it and put it back together. I will likely install it in Nigel to run it until the restoration is underway, keeping the NOS Koln column as a spare.
Bakelite looks really good - no melted parts, no cracks/damage - let's hope it arrives in the same condition.
Only missing the clip to hold the turn signal arm to the housing. I should have a spare in my cabinet.
True to form old school lock tumbler, only one key.
In my 2016 quest to 'clean up and clear out' excess parts, I've started digging into the bins that hold various assortments of parts - bins that were slowly taking over every horizontal surface in the garage. I continue to remain focused on getting squirreled away parts either rebuilt/refurbished or moved on to another home.
This pile is most of the carburetor parts that I dug out of one bin and five trays in my parts cabinets.
This matched pair (VW 5-1 and VW 6-2) of carburetors will be rebuilt as a spare pair.
It's all headed out the door in 24 hours.
I've regained four trays in the parts cabinet - the bin will be used to store the spare carburetors when they return.
This is the pile of spare pieces that will be sent in as core pieces.
I don't need more than one spare pair of carbs so it's time they found a new place to live.
While going through the bin of carbs and parts, I noticed this spare top with an odd bottom piece that's not like the others.
I don't know what this is but I kept it so that I can find out if it's unique.
