Rust Bullet, attempt #1

After cleaning off the second set of spindles, I prepared the parts for Rust Bullet.  Rust Bullet is tricky to apply when it's cold. It is thicker than I expected and it starts to cure within minutes so it has to go on fast and completely cover the area without applying too much to the area.  The first coat was okay but I'm hoping that a second coat and then a final coat of Black Shell will yield the results I'm after (no rust).  This isn't the 'official' restoration so it doesn't have to be perfect just yet.

I'm going to take the pieces to work where they can cure in the warehouse during the week.  It's typically over 60°F so they should cure quicker.  I may take the second can of Rust Bullet with me to apply the second coat and the black shell to apply the third and final coat.  The warehouse is large enough that the fumes won't get crazy strong if I apply it outside and then bring the parts inside to cure.  If I can do that and then have them ready for next weekend's assembly-things will be on track, so to speak.

The lesson continues

The weather warmed to the upper 40°F range today so I took advantage of it and spent a couple of hours disassembling and cleaning the old front drum spindles with the goal of getting some RustBullet on them prior to assembling the front end and installing the Airkewld disc brake kit.

With perfect timing, I received the lower NOS LEMFÖRDER ball joints today so I now have a full set for the front end...ready to go.  Things are falling into place, I'm prepared, have all of the parts to reassemble the spindles and I'm optimistic.

Everything went as planned and the spindles are in the laundry room drying after degreaser with SuperClean, a wire wheel to remove stray paint residue and then a final bath in SuperClean. Then I located the bolts and planned to test fit the new bolts I bought.

 And this is where an important lesson was learned: Turns out there are two types of front drum spindles for the early Type 3.   The right spindle is the early version.

The early set isn't listed in the parts book - I found them in the Technical section on the 1500 Club website. The spindles that were on the car are technically from 63 - I guess I shouldn't be terribly surprised since I've found a few other things that are carried over from 63 on this car. The drum spindle I'm used to seeing uses an M10 x 1.5 x 40mm bolt for the ball joints. These newly cleaned spindles use an M8 x 1.25 x 40mm bolt (which I don't have).  I couldn't seem to find a properly shouldered 10.9 bolt in this dimension so...

Fortunately, I have another set of front drum spindles and they're now soaking in SuperClean to begin the process of being cleaned prior to paint. The weather is only allowing me two days to get this done - tomorrow is the last day it'll be over 32°F for quite a while so I'm going to try to get the other set cleaned and painted before the temperature drops. Once the paint cures, I can put the front end of the car back together, bleed the brakes and hopefully have it road ready.

Today's accomplishments were yesterday's impossibilities.

 Pulled the EMPI ball joint wide 5 disc kit today.  It didn't take as long as I'd anticipated-partly because I expected the worst and it went very smoothly.  This is the left side.

I forgot to pull a shock bolt before I pulled the spindle but it's good now.

 Passenger's side.  All in all, very clean and an easy job to pull them off.

I've got a little work before I can replace the front spindles and brakes but with the car up in the air, I've got reason to get it done.

 Pulling the front brakes turned out to be a good thing:  The only parts I hadn't yet replaced were the ball joints.  Three of the four were very wobbly and had torn boots.

Excellent time to replace them.

Also found a very slight leak in the brake master cylinder-which might be part of the problem with bleeding them.  I think I'm going to pull it and have it rebuilt so that it's checked off.

The EMPI kit pulled, drained of fluid, cleaned and ready for packing.

"The fight isn't over until you win"

Jim came by tonight and, finally, the car is running-carburetors are synchronized, idle is stable, backfiring is gone and it's ready to roll...not a moment too soon as it's supposed to snow on Saturday night.  I'm hoping to get the brakes another quick bleed and take the car for a spin on Saturday and have it back in the garage in advance of the snow in the evening.  Then I can remove the front brakes and plan the installation of the Airkewld kit over the Winter and, hopefully, the small section that will allow for the proper mounting of the dual reservoir.  I plan to practice my tubing bending skills in an effort to eliminate the adapter and run 8mm line from the reservoir to the master cylinder.  I don't like extra connections, janky fittings and things that are made more complex by not doing them the right way.

Victory is very, very close and I'm hoping that I can achieve the second of my three 4th quarter 2014 goals.  The first one has been achieved, the second is 'in the bag' in 5 weeks and this, the third goal, is so close I can smell it.

In other, slightly related, news:  I swapped a T5 fixture for an LED fixture that I got an irresistible deal on.

This is a photo of the T5 fixture from about six feet away.  The light is adequate but slow to illuminate in cold weather, which is about half of the calendar year.  Total energy use is 58 watts for the fixture.  I thought about installing can lights and then using LED bulbs but figured there had to be a less involved method to get better light.

This photo shows the LED fixture installed without the final wiring being completed.  The internal reflector and light cover are not installed here.  I decided to turn the fixture 90 degrees for better light spread and prevent an opportunity to hit it with the cabinet doors.  I have to come back and extend the conduit in the attic by about 12" so that I can finish the installation this weekend.  I think the output will be slightly brighter once the internal reflector and the light cover are installed.  Total energy for this fixture is 50 watts, so there's not much savings in this particular fixture since the T5 is not High Output like the main garage.

I would like to replace the T5 HO fixtures in the main garage but will likely wait for LED prices to come down slightly before doing the conversion.  In the main garage, each bulb uses 54 watts, or a total of 108 watts per fixture x 4 fixtures = 432 watts.  If I use this same fixture and replace the T5HO fixtures, I'll save 58 watts per fixture x 4 fixtures equaling 232 watts.  In addition to this-I'd like to install motion sensors to turn the lights off in the event I forget to do it, which I'll admit, has happened a few times.

...and the saga continues

Jim came by and attempted to sync the carbs although after a few short minutes it became apparent that something else was wrong.  The left choke was very hot to the touch and wouldn't sync with the right carb.  After a few adjustments, it was discovered that one of the linkage bits (can't figure out what the hell its technical name is) was sticking and not allowing the carb to settle back to idle - it was also the source of the backfiring.  When the car was able to idle, however, it was nice and smooth.  The engine sounds very strong.

I found a spare carburetor and pulled the top off of it-it's going to soak overnight to get cleaned up and then we're going to swap it out with the one on the car-hoping that this is the last real issue with regard to the engine.  My parts hoarding comes to the rescue once again.  I had extra parts and a gasket kit at the ready for the re-installation.

At some point in the near future I'm going to pull the front brakes off the car and swap in the Airkewld kit I bought last year.  I made the decision to help out a guy I've never met fix up his 65 Variant S by selling the brakes to him.  It'll be good for both of us; he will get parts he needs and I'll get rid of parts I don't need.  I decided that this is also when I'll swap out the speedo cable for the correct/shorter version and fix the speedometer so that it'll stay put in the dash hole (it moves around freely right now).

I started cleaning the spindles but only managed to get one done before Jim arrived.  I'll have to wait until next weekend before I can get back into them again.

I also discovered some oddities with the under dash wiring so it feels like I'm going to have to find some heat shrink to cover the exposed spade connectors.  I could swear I heard a wire sizzle but I didn't see anything upon inspection.  Maybe this can be a Winter project and I'll swap the fuse panel for a 12 pole while I've got it all apart.  I can also properly install the headlight relay and pull the random wire I've got in place for the push button assembly that's no longer being used.  I'm hoping that there's a limit to the under dash electrical gremlins

It's supposed to snow tomorrow  soon...so the car likely won't make it back outside until next year which is kind of a bummer.

The windscreen improvement project

Not much has happened with the car recently.  Most everything is on hold until I get past my certification this week.  Nearly everything I have is going toward making sure I obtain that certification.

In the odd moments when I cannot commit to studying at work, I dig around for a random part or two.  Most of the time I find nothing as my range of 'needs' is narrowing more and more.  I'm exercising far more restraint lately in an effort to buy only what I need to finish the two cars-less of the 'buying and selling' piece as it's very time-consuming.  I have many other sands that fill the voids left by the larger rocks of responsibility.

Blah, blah, blah.

All I've found recently is the VWOA wiper arms for the 64S that use the pinch clamp vs. the set screw in the original design that strips out against the wiper shaft.  I also have a right side clamp in NOS condition...just have to find a left side (they're marked on the arm) and I will let go of my NOS original wiper arms.

Older and wiser voices can help you find the right path, if you are only willing to listen.

After repeatedly bashing my head into the wall of my own failures, I decided to contact Jim, the guy who rebuilt my 1500S engine and ask for help.  I was seriously stumped as to where to go or what to do next.  I knew the 'fix' was going to be something simple that I'd overlooked in my haste to get the car put back together under a constricted timeline.  Between my dissatisfaction with my certification progress and the constant wall of 'issues', it wasn't in the cards for this car to do anything but continue collecting dust for the rest of the year.

Fortunately, part of that changed today when Jim arrived...we did a 'once over' and I explained everything that led up to this point.  Every part that's been changed, every adjustment, every obstacle.

Remember that part about how I knew it would be something simple?  When I pulled the distributor and replaced it with an adjusted NOS ZV/JCU 4R3 distributor, I apparently didn't seat the drive lug into the shaft on the engine.

Rookie mistake #1.  Yes, there are more.

So now, the car would fire but not start...review of the chokes showed that they needed adjustment.  The weather is cold enough that the carbs need them now.  So they were adjusted.  Again.

Rookie mistake #2.  I'll continue.

Car starts but the carbs are out of adjustment so it is kind of pissed off until it warms up a little.  It's going to need some additional adjustment to get them just right.  I may 'hire' Jim to come back and do that since I know jack shit about carburetor adjustment and will probably find a way to set myself on fire while attempting to do it.

While we were discussing the distributor issue, I mentioned the brakes...he takes a look and can't find any leaks anywhere.  Pedal test and his assessment is that the plunger rod is too tight-preventing the master cylinder from allowing enough fluid in to sustain pressure.  In the interest of not wasting his time, I tell him that I'll adjust it later (I did) and let him know how it turns out.  The brakes will need to be bled again but they should be good after that...in theory.  This will have to wait for another day because I don't have time to do it tonight.  But-I am motivated to try it and see if I can get a proper pedal out of it.

I tested out the 12 volt light bulbs once I got things cleaned up a bit and it turns out that everything functions exactly as I hoped it would and I retained all of the functions as they were on the 6 volt set up, while using one less wire in the process.

I still need to address the tachometer issue and figure out why the speedometer won't sit right in the dash (I think the tangs are too short) but that's a simple fix for a later day.

As a wrap up to the night, I installed the rear seat from the 65S (Icarus) since it was in substantially better condition than the one that was in the car (the seat bottom was sticky and whatever it was refused to be removed by any means).

I spent far more than I'd hoped and it took a lot longer than it should have because I tried to fit the fix into an impossible time line...lesson learned.

I didn't get to drive the car because it's not quite right and the brakes are still not up to the task of stopping the car...I'm hoping that I can do that at least once before it snows.

Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal

Minor update today.  I swapped the distributor with a NOS ZV JCU 4R3 with properly adjusted points.  The ignition wires are new, spark plugs are gapped properly, timing is set properly.  Battery is fully charged, fuel is flowing to the carburetors.

Car won't start.

I'm rather frustrated with this car.

So now I'm going to have to start from scratch:  Change the rotor, attempt to start, change the condenser, attempt to start, check the plugs and timing, attempt to start, check the wires, attempt to start, ad nauseum.  Eventually, I'll get it to start but I know it's going to be time consuming. 

In other news: I found most of the parts I need to begin to the process of changing out all of the brake lines/parts.  I should have the last pieces in the next week or two...then I just have to figure out when to make it happen.

The little movie in my head plays a race between two apathetic turtles in a foot race: one is named "the car runs!", the other is named "the car stops".  Neither one is terribly interested in running the race or crossing the finish line so they just stand there and look at one another.

It might be over for the year unless I can find some time in the next couple of weeks.

“It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.”

I queried a couple of other VW people to see if there is a consensus about what I should do next with this car given the issue of the brake system failing to maintain a pedal.

As suspected, the consensus-and my decision-is that I will pull all of the brake lines and replace them with new parts.  Hard lines and soft lines will all be replaced.  Otherwise, I will spend days/weeks/months chasing problems like the monkey around the Mulberry bush.  To that end, I placed a few orders last night/today to ensure that I have all of the pieces I need to replace the entire braking system.  I found the proper front and rear pan grommets for the main line from front to rear today.

All that remains is finding the location where 'desire' and 'time' intersect.

“Never confuse movement with action.”

I've always heard that you have to take the good with the bad and just roll with it.

JB came over and we jumped right into the open issues.  After some thought the past few days, I decided to pull the Mexican VW rubber coupler from the steering system and replace it with one of the newer square Febi rag joints.  CB Performance used to sell the Mexican VW rag joint couplers (I bought two) and then they disappeared from their offering.  They appeared to be a quality part so I didn't readily understand why they were discontinued.  The Mexican VW rag joints are defective and the mounting holes don't line up properly-in addition, they warp themselves-creating the irritating gap.  Turns out that the the gap in the steering wheel and the angle issues at the coupler are largely gone now that JB replaced the Mexican VW part with the Febi part.  Problem solved.  Easy win.

While JB worked on the coupler issue, I rewired the headlights with the new bulb holders and replaced the bulbs. (broken one on the left/newer design, sturdy one on the right/old design)  Easy win.

In addition, I pulled the wiper system and replaced the grommets with the correct size-they went right back in and everything looks just as it should.  I replaced the ashtray, glove box and cable controls and knobs.  Another easy win.

Pulled the side marker lights to fix what appeared to be bad bulb contacts.  I discovered crunchy seals that basically shattered into a dozen pieces when I pulled them off the car.  Replaced them with NOS seals and fixed the bulb contact issue.  The photo shows one of what remains of one seal.   Another easy win.

Next on the list was the brakes.  Took a stab at them as they couldn't be avoided much longer...I pulled the pedal cluster and then pulled the old master cylinder and replaced it with the one that was in the car when it arrived in Illinois.  JB and I bled the brakes.  Lots of air, no leaks.  Firm pedal 1/2 way which is good enough for a test drive.  But once again, 20 minutes later, the pedal went to the floor.  No leaks, everything is tight...reservoir level doesn't change.  Bled the brakes two more times and now have 1/4 pedal.  Not great but not a total failure...far from acceptable though.  We didn't swap the front discs as there wasn't going to be enough time with all of the other things to get done.  That decision turned out to be a good one...

Next we installed the fuel tank and put 2 gallons of fuel in the tank.  No leaks.

Then I tried to start the car.  Nothing.  Cranked it a few times.  Smelled what seemed to be burned wire.  The two wires to the tach were super warm...I REALLY hope I didn't fry the tach.  JB pulled the tach wires and we tried again.  Nothing.

Tested for spark at the wires and found nothing.  So I pulled a few plug wires at the distributor and found that they were not completely inserted into the cap.  Swapped the wires with new Bosch wires anyway.  Nothing.  We have fuel and air but seemed to be missing spark.

I pulled the distributor cap to check the rotor and discovered a burnt smell and noticed that the points had fried themselves to a black plastic blob (wire sheathing).  Swapped the points with new parts but ran out of time before adjusting them to spec...so the car went back into the corner until I can find time to work on it again.

I'm probably going to put a different ZV JCU 4R3 distributor in the car since this one probably has a fried condenser as well.  They're kind of difficult to work on while they're in the car.

Just for the hell of it, I have a Bosch 12 volt coil on its way in to swap out with the one that's in the car.  I don't know if it's fried but I'd like to have a back up in any case.

Solved a few problems and found a few more to take their place.

The car was pushed back to its side of the garage while I work out what I'm going to do next.  If history is any indication, swapping the distributor to correct the points issue is only going to bring another challenge.

I don't know when I'm going to have time to work on it again so it may be a while before anything notable happens.  I've never had a car fight so hard to stay in the garage.

If you can accept losing, you can't win.

JB came over last Sunday for a couple of hours to help make some progress on the car.

We attempted to solve two issues:

1. Bleed the brakes via every known method.
2. Eliminate the gap between the steering wheel and turn signal arm and fix the 'warp' at the steering coupler.

TL;DR:  We did not accomplish our goal.

The brake bleed started off on the right foot.  We did a bench bleed-removed air from the system, gained about 2/3 pedal which was fairly firm.  20 minutes later, the same pedal went to the floor...no pressure.  There are no leaks at the wheel cylinders, hard lines or at the master.  There's no brake fluid inside the car (rubber mat is out) and the fluid level in the reservoir is not changing-which would indicate a leak somewhere.  There's just no pedal.

We switched off to the steering column and trying to resolve the issue of the gap between the column and the steering wheel.  The system isn't terribly complicated but the only thing we managed to do was make the gap larger.

So, victory, for now, belongs squarely to the car.

Friday we are going to start from scratch and go over every little detail to ensure that all bases are covered.  We have a lot more time so I'm hoping that we will prevail in at least one area.  The plan is to pull the 'new' master cylinder and replace it with the one that was in the car to determine if the issue is with the master cylinder or if it's somewhere else.  We are going to replace the four outer hard lines and if necessary, replace the inner line as well.  The front disc conversion is going to be replaced by an Airkewld disc brake kit with Wilwood pistons.  I'll likely put the EMPI kit in the classifieds as I don't plan to use it on a future car.

Redesign #58 has been executed on the garage work space.  I put the cabinets up on a stand that was built mostly from reclaimed/random wood scraps and better utilized the space.  I found a few additional parts that I will post up for sale in the classifieds.

Loose screws

Turns out I installed the wrong grommets for the wiper assembly-which is why it was such a bitch to install.  I now have the proper grommets and the wiper bearing covers as well.  They're not easy to find-I've been looking for quite a while.  One set for now and two pair for the finished restorations.

There were quite a few other parts in the box as well but the screws and the wiper parts are what will get me closer to where I want to be.

You are the ocean and I'm good at drowning

I spent some time in the garage yesterday in an effort to accomplish...something.  Since I tend to be overly ambitious when I plan out my 'list', I decided to not plan anything and just go with it.  I got the generator, NOS chokes, turn signal relay and headlight relays installed and then I did some light cleaning before stopping a couple of hours later.

Haven't touched the brakes.

I figured out, later, that I didn't quite install the wiper shaft seals correctly so I'm going to have to go back and do that part over-good thing I didn't put the glove box, vent controls, etc. back in the dash.  I want to make sure everything works before I install the rest of it.

I bought some Gates Barricade fuel hose and have to install that, buy a battery, and figure out the brake situation before I can drive the car.  I'm getting close-one tiny task at a time.

So now, the updated list:

Tail light bulbs
License plate bulb
Hatch cargo light bulb
Chokes
Generator, strap and seal
12 volt outer fan shroud
Coil
Starter with 6 volt teeth
Voltage regulator
67 only 12volt wiper motor
Horn
Electronic signal flasher
Headlight relay
Battery
Dash bulbs
Sidemarker bulbs
Headlight bulbs
Turn indicator bulbs

In theory, I'm a battery and a brake bleed away from driving the car again.  I should be more excited than I am about the relative 'closeness' of being able to drive the car...but I'm just...not.

Then there's the issue of Ferris...