"Just keep swimming..."

 

The second hose arrived today - quick fit has proven out that I've likely figured out how to measure the hoses correctly.

I also received a Fast Fab oil filter housing that I completely forgot that I'd ordered.  The thought was that I could plug that into this location and see if I can use these hoses to make the connections and get the engine ready to fire up but the mount holes are M8 and the bracket has M6 holes.  I'm not 100% sure about the oil cooler yet so I haven't committed to removing the bracket and enlarging the mount holes.  As far as the oil cooler is concerned - I'm in no rush to get it installed because it's highly unlikely that I'll need it for a while.  I'm a few electrical connections and an exhaust away from being able to turn the key and fire up the engine so that's my main focus...get it running.

I ordered the new parking brake cables and should see those at the end of next week.  I ordered new brackets to hold the parking brake cables on the IRS trailing arms and a few other miscellaneous VW specific parts while I was paying for shipping.  A few new fittings to get from the thermostat to the oil cooler are also on order...I was hoping to have this all together for this weekend but I don't have enough information to be able to do that but I should be in great shape for mid - next week.

The starter stud was installed but I will have to swap it out at some point because it's on the edge of being too short - the aftermarket starter has a thicker mounting flange that I didn't account for when I ordered the new stud.  I'll order new studs with the next round of hardware now that I've found a local supplier that has what I need in stock.

I'm very close to being able to get the engine going in the car - the weather just needs to hold out for another week or so.

UPDATE: I returned the FastFab oil filter mount.  There were some quality issues that I wasn't okay with, the piece was extremely heavy, the passages were small and they don't come with fittings.  The Jaycee version of this piece looks to be better made and comes with fittings.  I listed and quickly sold the random AN -8 fittings that I bought two years ago - thinking I'd make my own hoses.  

I worked out a decent way of getting the hoses from the thermostat to the oil cooler by using fittings.  Given the relatively expensive nature of stainless hoses, I'm waiting until I have the fittings to figure out if I like the way it'll fit together, check it again for hose length and then I'll order the hoses.  Maybe next weekend is the money shot...lots of parts coming in for what seems like it'll be the 'last push' to get this car running.

“Do not let all the mundane concatenations in this world be for naught"

 

Pedal assembly installed - needs a little tweaking to be perfect.  One more thing to take off the list.

The stainless braided hose with fire sleeve I bought after taking a chance and ordering it - hoping I'd measured correctly.  Good news is that I know how to use a tape measure and the hose fit.

So, I took a chance and ordered up the second hose - when that one comes in, and if I'm victorious again, I'll work out the last two hoses and keep moving forward. 

The goal here is to get a couple of things done each day - so far, I'm on track.

"You wake up every day and you solve it again.”

Looks like I'm nearly back in business, yeah?  Well, the truth is much less 'real' - the right rear trailing arm is not installed, yet.  I built the trailing arms for both sides, installed the left side and as I was installing the right side, two of the bolts for the cover plate went on just fine until about halfway and then I felt a 'pop' and half the threads and the bolt came out of the hole.

Here are the offending bolts - so close.  I ordered a time-sert kit so I can, hopefully, fix the trashed threads and continue working on getting the car back together.  I have a pedal stop to get painted tomorrow and then I can install the pedal assembly.  I'll move on to the gauges and dash bits soon.  I'm going to keep moving forward on other things until I can resolve the stripped threads.

I have some wiring to connect and an oil change to complete - put gear oil in the transmission, get oil filter lines, etc.  Still marching forward.

The company that made the parking brake cables has been contacted about making up a set for IRS - I should be able to get a trial piece to check for fit in the next two weeks.  Parking brakes would be a big next step.

Moderate steps in the right direction

One more time I spent more effort and time on something that should have been simple.  Should have been easy. Should have been the shortest part of what I had to get done. 

But it wasn't - I spent 30 minutes trying to get the rear transmission mounts to fit without modifying them in any way.  It took some figuring out but I did prevail.

Transmission & clutch installed!

The last piece of this puzzle - I got the engine installed as well.  I have a couple of things to work out but it's going pretty well.

One change I decided to make - temporarily eliminate the oil cooler - I'm going to install a remote oil filter but I am not going to screw around with the oil cooler.  Once I get through the bulk of the other things and I have some time left, I'll circle back on the oil cooler...the short term target is to get the car running, test fit some random shit and then next Spring, I'll clean it up.  This test fit process will help determine the future of some of the things I'm planning.
 

This problem will take care of itself

 

In my haste to get the pan mounted, the seal got screwed up and I wasn't able to get the upper bolts for the front beam installed.  I had to remove the bolts to the pan, pull it up, reseat the seal and mount it back to the body while making sure the front beam mounts lined up.

The weather has been good the last week or so and I had some spare time so I got back on getting the car back together while I can.

I quickly recalled tonight that I really fucking hate the shift coupler cover - it took longer to sort of get it installed than it did to install the transmission and subframe.  Dumbest fucking design ever...it's not water tight, the seal (even when installed properly) is mediocre at best.  I decided to be okay with the way this came together and move on.  When I've got more time and patience, I'll circle back and fix this clusterfuck.

Got the riv-nuts installed for the oil cooler - studs are ordered and should arrive soon.  For now, it's mounted in a way that'll allow me to proceed.

The entire front end is installed, brakes, front beam, brake line, steering box, etc.  A few tweaks and it'll be properly dialed in...I can quickly finish this up and get the front end on tires and on the ground.

The plan for the rear end is to send the spring plates out for replating - I'll use the first set that I fucked up for fit and make sure there aren't any other obstacles.  I really want to get the engine installed and started up before the frost hits long-term.  There's a chance I might be able to make that happen.  One step at a time.

"It is through humility that hope enters in"

One picture per post going forward - I'll try to make them good.

Today - I got the seal adhered to the pan and then got all of that stuck to the body.  The left front curve of the body/pan somehow shifted the seal partially out of place during the installation - the rest of it went in as expected.

I've tried to stay focused on getting this 4 wheeled boat (as in it's just costing me money) put back together and mobile so I'm not going to fuck with trying to get the seal perfect.

I'll focus on dry fitting things in the back - ordering what needs to be bought and send out things for work - then swap over to getting the front end dialed in since I have all of those parts and it's a matter of putting it back together while I wait for the other shit to happen.

Once I finished the subframe and transmission install - I spent a few minutes staring at it all - trying to figure out if I could fast track the engine installation and fire it up but there's no clear path to getting that done without screwing up a bunch of other things and I've cut enough corners already.  I'll stay the course and see what I can get done.

"There always comes a time when one must choose between contemplation and action"

Let's get one thing out there - the new Blogger layout blows chunks.  I can go on for 20 minutes about all of the things that I don't like about it - and maybe, just maybe, some of it is me 'growing old' and not adapting to new technology but holy shit is it way too fucking hard to get pictures to post in a specific order...used to be as simple as 'click on the pictures in the order you want them to appear' - that shit was too easy and now it doesn't work.

I had a nice deck of pictures for this post but I've fucked around with this post for a solid ten minutes and I'm over it.

Back to the subject at hand: I got the pan holes painted and today - expecting an absolute hassle, I was able to get the main brake line installed in what felt like 5 minutes.  The front lines are installed and I need to fiddle with the rears a bit - the brackets on the trailing arms and the pan don't align (one is swing axle, one is IRS) so I need to figure out what I'm going to do there.  The goal is to get the pan back in the car tomorrow and then fuck around with the other 50 things that need to be done to get it running.  I mean, at this point, I'd be happy to get it back on tires.  I should be able to get the pan back on tomorrow - barring any other weird shit from getting in the way.  It's the last warm weekend before Fall storms in and kills off any work that requires above 60°F temps.  Overall, the condition isn't up to my standards but I've had to get over that to get this car back together.  It's about getting it back together so it can sit all Winter in the garage.  I would like to drive it before snow falls but there's a lot to do to get to that point so I'm not getting my hopes up.

“All that is transitory is but a metaphor.”

Got my shit together enough to get the pan outside, cleaned off and a coat of paint on the area that I hogged out around the holes.

I haven't done the underside yet but the plan is to let this dry for a couple of days then flip it over and do the underside.  Once that's done, I'll mock it up and see if I can get this thing mated back to the body.  

Still fighting with the expanding list of things to get done on the house so this is going slower than hell...so slow, in fact, that if I were actively trying to make it take longer, it wouldn't take this long.

The goal here is simple: get the car back together and functional as quickly as possible.

“The absurd is lucid reason noting its limits.”

With a minor delay - the newly housed transmission has returned.  I don't have the slightest fucking clue when I'll have the time/energy to put the car back together.  I do know that I'm running out of time if I need to do any painting to the pan - the weather is cooling rapidly and paint days will be gone soon.

This is a wide angle shot of my garage at the moment - a collection of the way too long list of things I have to do in the near future.  The bathroom project continues on and remnants of that creep into every void in the house, taking up space and reminding me that it's not done yet.

The transmission is currently sitting on a shelf that's normally used to store the two saws that are out of frame - intermittently used to cut framing, trim pieces, PVC pipe for the bathroom projects.

It goes without saying that I've got far too many things to get done and not nearly enough time to get it all done.  This mess will reach a peak soon and I'll spend several hours putting all of this shit back where it belongs - only to be pulled out again next weekend when I try to get something done on my ever-growing list of shit to do.

The one real realization I've had lately - there'd be a lot less shit on the floor if the car was put back together.  I was originally hoping for restoration but I've lowered my expectations to getting the car back together and running.  I need to find the time/energy to get something done and soon...

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."

The latest version of the filter bracket arrived today - and after a very minor modification, it's a good fit.

There's a good balance of space between the exhaust pipe and the thermostat end.  The exhaust pipe will be wrapped to reduce thermal influence with the thermostat.  I'll have to test it out for a while to know if it's successful but I think this is a good place to start.

If I have to modify this - the filter will have to go 'up' to increase the space between the pipe and the thermostat - which means a new bracket design - so I'm hoping that's not necessary!

 I'm using a super thin button head screw but it's rubbing on the engine tin - I figure I'll drill two holes in the engine tin, use a spacer of some sort between the bracket and the tin and mount the filter housing through the tin.  This will prevent the tin from rattling and rubbing against the bracket and it'll make it easier to remove the oil filter bracket if I need to do that.

There's a good amount of space between the exhaust and the filter -and the filter hangs in a good place relative to the bottom of the engine, valve cover and tire on the car.  It's a good first pass and I'm hopeful that it'll work long-term.

I've had discussion of maybe tearing the car apart to get it painted but I'm still on the fence about that right now.  It'd solve the problem of 'what do to with the car' while the garage expansion is going on...but it's an expensive solution.  Time will tell.

The transmission is underway - new rhino case - should be on its way back next week or so.  I like having a very knowledgeable dude working on my stuff - it's going to be nice to see it when it comes back!

In any event - it's nice to finally have a 'win' with this car - it's long overdue.

"I have often marveled at the thin line which separates success from failure."

So I found this thing wadded up in a bin today...I laid it out to check out its condition - it's slightly flat but whole (minus one ripped area) and original.  There's some overspray from when the car was repainted back in the 80's.

I remembered back a few years when I was reading about how some random dude cleaned old rubber with Goop hand cleaner - the cheap stuff you find at the hardware store on the bottom shelf - it's about $3 for a tub and it cleans hands very well - no matter what's on them - they're clean when you're done.

For shits and grins (and so I could say I 'did something' with the car today), I wiped some on the small corner of the pan seal that ripped - figuring that if I screwed something up, it'd only be a corner piece and not the whole thing.  If you think about it for a minute - you'll quickly realize that my logic makes zero sense.

This was the first pass - I cleaned the corner piece and then mated it up to the tear...not bad!  The rubber is soft and clean.  All of the dirt, adhesive and weird crap came right off with very little effort.

Here are those two pieces mated up again once I cleaned the other piece.

Not bad!

I may use this when I mate the body and pan with an adhesive - who knows how long it'll be there before I split them again to restore the car (maybe two years from now, maybe never).

So, yeah...I accomplished something small today - but it may have saved me a ton of time later.

"Fortune always favors the brave, and never helps a man who does not help himself."

Got the pan out with very little fanfare and got to work on it.  One immediate distraction was the rear brake line to the "T".  I fiddled around with it for a bit trying to decide if I was going to relocate the mount (I've decided to leave it the fuck alone) and then I tried to figure out how to get a new line both into the two holes and not mangle the shit out of it in the process (I failed at this part).  Once I felt like I'd had enough, I moved on to the real reason I took this apart.

My paint pen markings were, for the most part, spot on and I only had to put the pan back once to validate fit.  I got all but three of the pan bolts into the pan with the pan washer/U boat things.  Both sides at the front are going to require some sort of modification to the washers to get them to work.  I haven't worked out which modification I'm going to try first.

I stared at the rear seat kick panel good and hard - debating about whether I should remove the mismatched one and put the new one in...and then I got a fucking grip and realized that chasing that rabbit would inexplicably add another year to getting this car running and I let that nonsense go.  It just fucking bothers me that I'm putting all of this effort into this car and it's not going to be complete or correct.  My expectations are my own worst enemy.

I might get back to this tomorrow - if not, I'll carry on next weekend.  I'd like to get the pan done and check it off the list.

"Over every mountain there is a path, though it may not be seen from the valley."

I started the process of removing the pan but wound up stopping short of completing the task - I had a work emergency that had to be addressed and it took up a large part of my day because of a difficult customer.  Each of the three times I attempted to get back into working on the car, my work phone rang and I had to stop.  When the third call came at 7pm, I threw in the towel and gave up for the day.  If I hadn't spent so much time on the phone and going to my office - I'd have removed the pan and probably opened up half of the pan holes.

I figured out how to use two 'normal' jack stands and use those two giant jack stands that I bought - using hockey pucks to act as a buffer - to support the body while allowing the pan to drop down from underneath.  The car is at a good height but not as stable as I'd like because of the way the large stands are made.  It'll be fine for what I need.

I bought two new furniture dollies for the pan so I can slide it out without dragging it on the ground.

The transmission made it back to California - now it's just a waiting game to get it done and sent back to me.  I'm on the fence about sending the brake parts out for coating - simply due to the cost - I have to figure out what I'm going to do fairly soon because of how long it takes to get the work done.  My new target is to get the car back together by September - if I do something every week, that should be plenty of time...unless my new job takes over my free time.

The revised oil thermostat bracket should be coming to a close in the next several weeks.  It'll be nice to get that resolved and maybe figure out where to put that oil cooler.  I've got to cross some items off of my 'to do' list on the car and get closer to a driver.