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.

Early breather

The early super rare breather without the pipe inlet from the oil bath air filter.

This is the part that should have come in three weeks ago.

They're both now on their way to their new owner in California.

Like two ships passing in the night

It dawned on me last night during an email exchange that Nigel and Ferris have yet to be in the same place at the same time...Nigel is in the garage and there are pieces of Ferris here but the two cars have not been assembled and adjacent.  It's a lot like trying to get Dave Grohl and Courtney Love together for a photoshoot.

Once I rectify the issues with the pan for Ferris, I'll be looking to start bolting things together.  I'm itching to start putting that pan together.

One more shipment arrived today - again most parts for fellow Type 3 people.

 311 405 615B
A set of NOS front drums for the 64/65 model year.

 A set of NOS drum hub caps.

 311 405 341
Deka 10k bolts for the front drum brake spindles (short version).

 311 405 343
Deka 10k bolts for the front drum brake spindles (long version).

 311 255 149 A
Protection plate for heater box

A mystery hinge that's supposed to fit a Type 3.  The part number indicates that it's for the lower right but this picture of my spare door says that's not quite right.

I posted up a thread on TheSamba.com and so far the answer is that the new hinge is a conversion hinge for the later doors.  It makes sense but doesn't really solve my issue.  So I'll keep looking.

Rust bullet failure

The weather warmed up today and I was hoping to scuff up the surface on the first coat of Rust Bullet that I put on the spindles and steering arms a while back.  Once they were scuffed up, I planned to add a second coat today and then apply the final coat of Black Shell tomorrow since the weather is supposed to remain warmer than normal.

The whole plan fell apart when the Rust Bullet started coming off in flakes while lightly sanding the caliper brackets...and then it happened on the steering arms and on most of the flat surfaces of the spindles.  I either didn't properly mix the coating or it was applied too thick (due to the cold probably).  In any case, I wound up removing it all from the steering arms and one of the spindles before deciding that I wasn't making progress.  So I've opted for a 'Plan B'.

Plan B is to drop the stuff off for media blasting and powder coating along with a few other items and pick it all up and then assemble as time allows.  There's no real deadline, per se, and I would like to get it all done so that I can get the brakes bled and back to functional.

I found a shop in Chicago that I'd like to try out.  I'll start with the brake parts and some other miscellaneous pieces.  I don't know when I can make it happen but at least I know where I'm going to start.

What you pay for isn't always what you get...

A few months ago I bought front wheel bearings in anticipation of this brake changeover.

I pulled one of the bearings out of the box for the first time since they arrived and discovered that I definitely did not get what I paid for...I specifically paid more for German bearings and wound up with Brazilian bearings which are nowhere near the same quality.

Might be high time I checked everything with a fine toothed comb since it seems that people, in general, can't be trusted.  I may simply be late to this party and it's time for me to 'catch up'.

I opened the other box and it too has a Brazilian bearing.

Type 3 parts book

I found a Type 3 parts book half way around the world that has at least half of the pages that I'm currently missing.  The price is pretty good and by the time it arrives I will have completely forgotten that I paid for it so it should be a nice surprise.

I'm hoping that the other pages I'm missing will be included.

Fingers crossed things will work out.

A minor modification planned...

I found a decent shot of the 67 only dual brake reservoir.  I'll be using this as a guide to get it installed without looking hacked into place.

My plan is to trial bend the supply line by using copper first then copy the shape into the final supply tubing.

I bought the panel piece to be welded in and once I get the car back on tires I'm going to get this installed correctly.

Fortunately, I won't have to do this on Ferris as the 65 already has this bump on the divider.

Early rare parts for a fellow Type 3 owner

A box I thought may have disappeared showed up today after I made a several phone calls and spent a lot of time on hold.  I've discovered that the postal service has terrible fucking hold music.

Nearly all of the parts in this box are for a fellow Type 3 owner undergoing a restoration on a very early car.  Three of the parts are pictured and one (a spring) is not.  The first two parts are correct while the third part was incorrectly shipped.  I'm expecting the correct part to arrive in a couple of weeks.

Below are the other three parts:

311 129 71 A
Bracket -Return spring
to Eng. No. 65 745
NOS

 311 101 771
Single port cylinder head
NOS

311 115 452 C
Oil Breather
NOS

Black cap repop fuel pump

Here's something I don't think I've seen before:  A black cap late repop fuel pump.

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.