The night's just long enough for me to build it all and let it fall apart

Today's goal was to build the body cart, get the body on the cart and drop the pan.

I was able to cheat slightly - my kid wanted to build something and it was just too perfect so we cut all of the pieces and built a large part of the cart the previous evening.

All I had to do today was install the caster wheels and figure out how to get the body on it without destroying my back or having the car fall on me.  When you have to do stuff solo, you get creative...sparing any incriminating details, the body made it on the cart, I'm fine and there are no pictures of the process.

I used a couple of extra shelving pieces to make ramps to slide the pan out from under the body.

Next step was to remove everything from the pan, bag and tag it and get it ready for transport.  I spent the better part of an hour scraping all of the tar board off of the pan and tunnel, removing heater system cables and all of the remaining brake lines and related grommets.

 Having a place to store the pan that wouldn't also double as a hazard to the kid meant that I'd spend the better part of three hours rearranging the garage to store everything so that it might no get moved around much but still be ready to be installed when the time comes.

I took several pictures of the bottom of the pan but, for some reason, none of the top side.  It's also at this time that I realized that I forgot to remove the shift rod - so that's going to have to come out before it goes off for work.

 Once I got this thing off of the body - I looked it over to determine if I should reconsider the quarter pan idea.  The front area is pretty decent and only the passenger's side rear area is bad - but the whole thing is dented/creased to shit from all of the dirt roads this car has likely seen in the early parts of its life.  Up near the front heater outlet, there's a slight crease in the floor that's about 18" long - among a handful of other areas.

The passenger's side rear seat foot well and battery area are mostly Swiss cheese and barely together.

Full pans it is...now I have to decide if I'm reinstalling jack points and then find some.

I've now got the weekend to relax and figure out what the next steps will be going forward.

Time is too large, it can’t be filled up. Everything you plunge into it is stretched and disintegrates.

Today started late - partially due to the heat and partially due the job hunt.

I pulled the rubber mats, pedal cluster and the clutch cable.  Additionally, I removed the remains of the carpet and the pan bolts that are under the back seat.

Once I was content with the rear being checked out and the interior bits being finished, I moved to the underside and I got lucky - all of the pan bolts came right out - two squealed a little but nothing broken!

I count this one as a 'win'.

I removed the master cylinder, tie rods, brake lines and, finally, the front beam.  Since this just went in a few months ago - it came out somewhat easily.

There are a few areas on the front of the body that I want to address once the pan is off.  I think I can get this area nice and clean with a little more space to work.  The body is in pretty decent shape overall.

Here's a good view of the passenger's side floor - it's the worst of the rust - a small part of me wonders if it makes more sense to replace the rear quarters - but that would require me to buy the rear pieces from ISP and wait.  I have the KF pans and can probably get this going early next week.

I called the local dude about the IRS conversion but haven't heard back.  I may reach out to a couple of other places while I'm waiting just to see what's out there and available.

The second transmission shop called back and told me that my current transmission could be converted to IRS by swapping out the superdiff with an IRS one and replacing the side plates.  The cost is a bit higher than I was expecting so I'm going to try to figure out the next step to getting this process moving forward.

Tomorrow is body cart building day - and should also be 'pan drop' day.  It's coming apart on schedule - now I get to see if I am successful at getting the work done and put back together.  The momentum is high but time will tell...

Celebrate the ability to win small battles - even if it looks like the war may be lost

I took advantage of nearly a full day of time to start the tear down of the pan and subframe.

If you're following along - you'll notice this same picture from the previous post - it's where I started today.

It still surprises me how fast these cars come apart.  I have to stay focused - stay on task and not remove parts from the body...just the pan, man.

One thing I can do while all of this stuff is away being worked on is continue cleaning the underside of the body and clean interior panels.  I may also start cutting insulation to replace the 50+ year old stuff that's in the car because it's falling apart.

Transmission is out - axles will be removed on Thursday.  I'm hoping to sell it so I can buy an IRS transmission vs. converting this one.  The primary reason is that this transmission is way overbuilt for the engine that's in the car.

I'm going to consult another transmission shop and get their take before making a final decision.

I took this picture before I'd finished removing the parking brake.  The interior is out - all that's left is the rubber floor mats, pedal cluster and kick panels up front.

A couple of days will go by before I get back to this but it was a good start.

The rear end part is complete - the middle is nearly complete - the front is prepared for work.  I'll revisit the middle and then get to the front end.

Speaking of the front end - I noticed a few oddities while surveying the scene.  The lower beam collars don't seem to have seated quite right (look at green arrows for gaps) - I'm wondering if this may have anything to do with the weird feel of the car the last time I drove it.  The beam doesn't move at all but it also doesn't look quite right.

The fuel line is about toast on this pan (red circle) and will be replaced when the pan is replaced and the rear kick panel is fixed up and I finally get some NOS parts put to use.  I'm looking forward to this next phase as long as it goes like I hope.

“Somebody took my actual physical presence away and substituted this”

After spending a decent amount of time under the car trying to find a suitable place for the oil filter, I decided to pull the exhaust and get to the business of removing the hanger bar.  I can't use it because of the position of it with the exhaust and it interferes with any possible alternate locations.

Very soon after getting going, I bumped the fuel pump and the fuel pipe just fell out of the pump.  I think it's time to find a way to get a threaded barb on both ends and possibly re-route the lines a little.  These things are, in my opinion, designed to fail.

Wound up taking the engine out because I couldn't get my tools up in the engine bay to get to the crank nut.  Next easiest way to do it is remove the engine, put the flywheel lock on it and remove it.

Nice to see that the welded fan I paid for is in the engine - no way to tell if it's balanced though.

I expected a fight to get the crank bolt off but after maybe two revolutions, I nearly threw the cheater bar across the garage...when the pulley and the bolt fell to the floor and I noticed what I had - I just started laughing at the sheer fucking reality of it all.  I noticed the metal dust shavings in the crank first, then I noticed the bolt on the floor.

I was told that there are Chinese cranks on the market that are so hard that they're a real bitch to machine and they're apparently known for eating crank bolts if the bolts are not installed properly.  Guess what?

The crank bolt is missing half of the threads!  That would not have been a fun failure to experience on the road far from home.  AAA or not, that still makes for a miserable experience.

The suspicion is that the crank bolt was both started and finished with an impact - three to four threads survived.

Red flags all over this engine...not money well spent, unfortunately.

This is likely the beginning of the process to split the body and pan - pushing the pan replacement up to the top of the job board and moving forward with the IRS conversion.  I've got the time so I may as well put it to good use.  I just hope I don't find any sinister shit on the body when it comes off the pan.

The engine is now sitting on the floor.  I went over to a local guy's house and borrowed his Matra fan puller.

We chatted briefly about the current situation and determined that it's money well spent to have him go through the entire engine, document EVERYTHING and replace anything that's wrong or broken and balance the rotating assembly.  I'm hoping he doesn't find much but I won't be even the smallest bit surprised if a crank bolt is the first of a few fucked parts.  He's not likely to get to it until August...that's the next two months of cruising down the toilet.  But it does beat sitting on the side of the road because the engine shit the bed...

This is Nigel in what is apparently his 'happy place' - up on jack stands in the garage - not out in the 'real world' getting dirty and driving around.

The pan removal process will pick back up tomorrow.

Potential solutions to newfound challenges

This piece of recently released engineering is a thermostatically controlled oil filter mount - it combines two things into one package.  Remote oil filter mount and thermostat for oil cooler.  Once I find a suitable location for the oil filter mount and the oil cooler - I can order one of these up...

...in the interim, I may try to find a way to use the existing set up with a slightly different mounting location for the oil filter.  If I'm going to take this apart - I'd like to do it when the engine is getting pulled out of the car for the IRS conversion.  So this here, this is what we project managers call 'scope creep'.  We're also supposed to try to prevent it, but with personal projects, that can be difficult. 

Tomorrow should flesh out the next course of events.

I'll keep marching on like a broken robot

I finished reinstalling the engine tins and the manifolds in the pizza oven garage today.  I wound up with some extra time so I test fit the CSP Python exhaust - suspecting that I'd have some interference issues to resolve.

 The exhaust tip sits in about the same place as the Vintage Speed so there must be something weird going on with the rear apron on this car.  Not to fret - it's getting fixed or replaced in the future so it can stay this way for now.

 The Python exhaust tip sticks out further than the Vintage Speed exhaust (this is adjusted all the way out).

 The muffler hides this pipe - I just thought it looked strange from the back.

What appears to be a ridiculous amount of camber is due to the car being on jack stands - although the real life 'on the ground' stance isn't wildly different from this...and the reason I want to do the IRS conversion.

Suspicion confirmed: The remote filter to required removal to get the left side mounted correctly.  I'm going to have to find another place to put it as this location is no longer viable.

I dropped the filter mount and the left side mounted up.

Clearance note: there's about a finger's width between the exhaust and the oil fill tube.  The close proximity of the pipes has me leaning toward wrapping all of the pipe to try to control the heat a little bit.

Clearance note: There's about two finger's width between this pipe and the bellows boot.  I have not mounted the heat shield yet.

Clearance note: The current hose routing is no longer viable due to the proximity of the exhaust pipe to the hoses.

The mustache bar half will need to come out - which will be fun because that means removing both the pulley shroud and the fan shroud to get the bar off of the case.  While that's all off - I'll swap from hose clamps and rubber hose to AN fittings and more durable hose.  All of this assumes that I've worked out a better location for the filter (and possibly the inclusion of the oil cooler since it's all apart).  Once again, this car is dying to be taken apart...but I shall resist for now.

There's more fun to be had here...

Sliding backward into progress

Seems like the more I work on the car with the goal of getting it back on the road, the further I get from that goal.  The plugs came out today and they were in decent shape.  But - while I was fishing around looking for the #2 plug, I discovered that the thermostat linkage rod wasn't connected to the flaps.  So I pulled the top tin to inspect everything. And then I realized that the spring is missing.  This engine has less than 200 miles on it since being built.  I'm hoping that this is the reason the engine ran so damn hot last year.  I'm also hoping that there aren't any more surprises like this elsewhere in the engine.  There's a small, but growing, part of me that wants to tear the engine down and inspect it before it blows up...but another small part of me that suspects I might be overreacting.

Here's where I left things - slightly more dismantled than yesterday.  But there's a fairly clear path forward so that's where I'm steering the rest of my energy.  I'd like to be able to drive this car again next week.  It's frustrating to spend all of this time working on the car - only to leave it in the garage again.  I've got a few weeks here until I'm planning to pull the pan out and get that done.  The IRS conversion will happen at the same time so I only have to take it apart once.

Toward the end of the day, the rest of the exhaust arrived and I mocked it up on the floor to see how it all fit together.

The idea is that I can get it installed on Monday - after I have put the top of the engine back together.

I'm still trying to get the one piece I need to convert the rear axle to IRS - CSP is not being easy to work with but I'm going to keep trying.

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water...

In preparation for the new exhaust system, I wanted to make sure that the plugs weren't fouled.

That's how I got here.  In order to get to the plugs on this engine, the carbs and manifolds have to be removed, then the eyeglass tins and, finally, the plugs.  Funny part is that I didn't even get the plugs out because I ran out of time. Tomorrow is another day.

I swapped over from the early oil fill tube to the late oil fill tube - primarily to mate up the 'road draft tube' with the oil fill - which ensures that any oil that makes it past the breather will wind up back in the engine instead of all over the bottom of the engine/fan shroud.

 This is what remains of the seal for the oil filler thing...I should probably know what it's called.

The distraction was completed - cleaned up the oil fill / dipstick holder bit (brb - have to go look up what this thing is called...)

It's 311 813 313 A, Oil Filler Neck

Well, it got cleaned up, the gasket was replaced and the whole thing was put back on the car.

I've got several quotes for replacing the pans and I'm going to go with one of them here once the IRS conversion is set to take place.  The plan is to also modify the pan so that I'll have 3 point seat belts up front (real auto retracting ones) and I want to move the rear brake "T" slightly to eliminate a bend that seems to serve no real purpose other than to make it a real bitch to install the brake line.  I'm also going to have the fuel line in the tunnel replaced with a new line since the front end is pretty close to being toast.  All that's left to decide is if I want to use a bed liner on the bottom of the pan and what I want done with the inside of the pan (paint or ?).  I don't want bed liner on the whole thing so I have to figure that out rather soon.  I'm looking forward to putting some of these parts that I've been hauling all over the country to use!  I'll have to try REALLY hard to prevent scope creep - these cars come apart really easy.

The proposed build up of the IRS conversion - barring anything odd - is going to happen in a couple of months.  I'm waiting on a part from CSP to convert the rear disc kit from swing axle to IRS.  In the meantime, I've sold off a lot of the swing axle bits and those funds will go toward funding the IRS conversion.  While the engine is out during the IRS conversion, I'm going to swap out the tins for better condition original tins without the wrinkle finish on them - it shouldn't bother me because it's such a minor thing - but it bothers me.  I've got some nice original tins that can be put to use and the wrinkle finish stuff can go to a new home.

I'm trying my hardest to keep the motivation up and get this car on the road - let's see what I can carry down from that hill better than Jack and Jill.

It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.

From a project car perspective - today was both productive and weird.

I received confirmation from CSP that the rear disc brake kit could be converted using a few simple parts - they did not propose that I buy a whole new brake kit.  I'm waiting on the sales team to tell me the cost of the parts...should be tomorrow, I'd guess.

Once I had that confirmation about the brakes - I decided to start posting parts for sale.  Sold a few things and then through some Facebook conversations, I sold a whole lot more.  Since I'm heading into an IRS conversion and I have that prostreet transmission, I cannot use the camber compensators.  In two different conversations, I sold all of the camber compensators and their related parts within a couple of hours.  I also sold a few other stock parts that I've been hanging on to for quite some time with no real reason or purpose.  I'm real close to having this conversion fully funded through the sale of parts that I would have likely never used.  It'd be great if half of what's left would sell too - I'm motivated to let things go now that I have what appears to be a clear path forward.

Additionally, I found a semi-local source to both replace the fuel line and weld in the KlassicFab floor pans.  They're working up a quote to do the job and I should have that back tomorrow.  Having all of this information at hand definitely makes it easier to propel the work forward.  Plan is to get the exhaust on the car, drive it for a while and then take it apart for the pan restoration/IRS conversion.  Let's see how I do later this year, yeah? 

I will have to come up with a list of things to modify on the pan before I drop it off...new 8mm fuel line is one, moving the rear brake T as it exits the pan is another thing.  The rear seat kick panel I've been dragging around, along with the pans and the NOS rear kick panel stand brackets will finally get put to use!  It also sounds like they've got an old school panel beater within their walls - I could theoretically take a panel at a time and fit my stuff in between their full blown restorations - getting the car closer to paint each time.  It'll be nice if it works out that way but I'm not going to get too excited quite yet.

Speaking of not getting excited - the box of pipes from CSP is in New York and should have cleared US Customs today but it didn't...so Thursday is the soonest it'll show up this week.

2018 Bugfest

 The local show was pretty good - met up with some old friends and made a few new friends as well.  I sat with Lou in his swap space for a couple of hours and made just enough money to buy myself some lunch later in the day.

Nice bus in the parking lot.

 Super clean split window single cab

 Another view of a few nice splittys

 The beginning of the row of bugs - it was a long line and double deep.

 I moved down about 1/3 of the row and took this picture

 A couple of the nicest Westies - there were a few more that I didn't get pictures of due to people.

 Beetles

 Beetles

 More beetles

 One of a few nice early 'vert beetles

 An earlier 'vert beetle

 Bradley GT with a scooby motor - sounded really good.

 Joe's 67 Fastback

 Doug's 66 Type 34

 64 Notch - heavily modified/patina car from Indiana

 Tom's 68 Squareback

 66 or 67 Fastback - I didn't realize until later that I failed to take a good look at this car.

Nice split window bus - very similar to the one my stepdad had when I was a kid.