Inspirational fall

It's really been an inspirational fall this year. Working on the drag project feels good and stuff seems to get done also. After blasting all the remaining welds have been done, grinding pretty much done. Some set backs of course. The driver side door needs to be redone. It was just too twisted and hinge side also cracked etc. So looking for a new donor at this moment. These days good repair panels seem to be available through Virtanen resto panels here in Finland. They were not few years ago... Obtained some epoxy primer for the welds. Some sealant to make them sound and the shell should be ready for the body and paint work! Paint booth is reserved early next year, and that I'm very pleased with. Decided not to spray it myself since time looks to be very limited these days. 1 evening per week is really had to come by. Meaning the project progress is sloooowww...

Trial engine parts have also landed from US. Some machining and fit work with them as soon as the cage is welded in the shell. This engine is a bit smallish. Something around 78x94mm. Based in mag case and supaflo style heads. Carburated, well what did you expect? High compression and E85 as it is trendy these days...Tranny will be too long for it but for trial purposes (and hopefully some small wheelies) it should be more than fine. Final destination for it will be in the grey 62. That mouse engine is nice, but come on, no surprises there in the acceleration department...

No project pics, posting a blast from the past instead. In 1950 Autola Company officially imported the first beetles to Finland. 12 of these cars were handed to their new owners on 9th of June at Senate Square in Helsinki. I've seen a few images of this occasion in the web but none of them are accurate enough to see the licence plates if my car was actually there. Some cars of the first patch were not. The serial in the pan tells that this car was ordered by Metalliteos Oy. Later well known as Metos, a  professional kitchen appliances manufacturer in Finland.  Kind of funny to find out these things at this stage of the project... Not that I was actually looking. ;)

Sodamaan

As I probably wrote earlier, the front fenders needed replacing since they were not actually a pair. Lamps were in different height and the shape was not similar on them either. Swapped these to another early 60's pair in decent form. Some rust but, doable to say the least. Didn't want to start welding them until some sand blasting or similar. At that point I asked some offers of blasting mainly the fenders vs. blasting the whole lot. It just made sense to have that all done at the same time - at least cost wise. Local soda-hero blasted the shell and parts with soda and glass where it was needed. I have to say that I'm very pleased with the result. Welding bare metal is quite nice, and now the shell is so much cleaner for the paint and body works...

 

Trial fit of the fenders and door was somewhat successful. Even though they are reproductions for my purpeses the fit is more than acceptable. I'd say this means that roll cage fitting will be in the horizon very soon!!!

Long Gone

Looks like nothings happened for ages... Almost true, but then not at all. Did manage to get that Anthracite rolling after minor work on horn, windshield washer, carbs, family. The usual stuff. The car was drivable for long but just wanted to MOT it without any major concerns this time. Only problems actually was the missing paper work of the changed parts. Since the car was a historic plates car before the MOT check was more than just checking the driving condition. Obviously the engine size, axles etc was added to the registration info. After giving the full list it was all good to go. Well, it too 2-3 hours office work and me drinking "free" coffee. The picture below is a steal from Volkswanker (props to Jyri) blog as a proof that the car was at crem-a-que this summer. Notice how sunny it was? Was it really?? I thought it rained through it all...

Anthrazite bleeding...

After a few "allnighters" I was really hoping to get the 62 out of the garage last friday, but one hour before the barbeque it was all ruined with a massive oil leak from the engine... Don't really know what the problem is exactly but I' m hoping that I've kind of made a novice mistake and left an oil passage without a plug or something. The engine run about 15 sec and there was about 1/2 liter of 20W-50 on the floor, so I'm guessing it is not just a tiny leak. So out the engine again and try to fix the problem and back in again.

Good news was the long hauls at the garage really resulted in working brakes and whole lot of other stuff too. Looks as if it might actually be in driving condition soon! Discovered also that you can't fit CSP valve covers to a standard 62 engine bay without cutting the inner wheel wells a bit. Also some maintenance holes for the carbs are most likely necessary with the BigBeef manifolds as the carbs do come quite near the sides of the engine bay. Otherwise it will be a pain to get the manifolds tightened, plugs in etc... Good news is that the Dell'Ortos fit inside the bay just fine allthough this is with the soft Pipercross cleaners. Not done the K&N order yet since I think they will hit the lid at least on the right side of the car.
Some other things I need to work on is a small oil leak from the CSP breathertower. Seems that the O-ring and the paper gasket are not enough to keep the oil inside, so I'll just glue to bugger tight I assume. Also the "leak proof" JayCee tubes are leaking from the case side. Or to be more exact, it's 2 of the white CB gaskets between the tubes and the case. So, some more glue stuff to do? 8-) There was also some small issues witht the fuel line when the pump was turned on. Some of the clips were not up to the task to hold the pressure. Will replace those with a bit beefier clips and that should do it.

Anyway, here are some images of the car at this moment. The rear wheels do need massive spacers to get them right. On the images there is around 27mm of stuff between the brake and the wheel. And you could still put more. Fronts are ok, can't really go too much lower or the wheels will hit the fenders when cornering, and besides I'm old enought to go for the more comfortable solution...

Delaydelay

Forgot to post this image before. I tried the popular 2'' narrowed beam on the split. Worked, kind of. Have to go narrower, maybe 3-4'' narrower, not sure. So that's why I'm doing it myself this time to get it perfect. The car will just look so much better when it sits really low and the wheels actually turn... Sorry about the greenery - we're going really enviromental at the garage these days. Bio ethanol and all that shit you know...

Almost there...

Getting ready for the break in run soon! Well, I was hoping it to be a week or 2 sooner but seems that it will take a few "nights" to get this baby into the car and finnish all the small little details. But, I'm sure it will be worth it in the end...

Worked on getting the engine all lined up, loads of small cutting of the sheet metal to make it fit... By now I'm absolutely certain they've not seen a beetle in China or Taiwan. Anyway, better than nothing but for a top notch engine bay, one surely needs the OG VW sheet metal... Some foggy images below for you to get the idea where I'm heading. Some plumbing and wiring to do, but other than that, all it needs is a car to stuck it into.

PS: Not sure if it actually fits the stock engine compartment due to the CB BB manifolds... Will tell you all about it with some deck lid stand offs (or hopefully not).

Side Project

I suffer from random "burnouts" with my Split project, or so it seems... Happens to many I've learned. After selling my 911, I've been building slowly my Anthrazite '62. Should be a daily driver with some of the usual spices. The car had only minor imperfections such as some rust at the rear wheel wells where the pan meets the body. Also the pan had a hole at the driver side floor (turned out to be a drilled hole for water or something?). Stripped the pan from the engine, tranny, axles, brakes and took of the rear fenders. For some odd reason, it made sence to take the body off the pan, and then it made sence to have it sand blasted and painted and.... You know how it goes. ;)

Technically speaking, I'm building a 1776cc streetable engine. Mild but reliable. Dual Dell'ortos, 40x35.5mm valve heads, regular VW casting, and ported by yours truly. Engle W110 cam, Vertex magneto, some black goodies to dress it all up. Post some images when finished.

Managed to buy a longer ratio tranny. Affordable stock tranny, not a flyer. Bought also a set of GasBurners. Painted/polished then, and put some Vredestein Sprint Classic tyres on them (155 front/ 185 back). Very pleased with the combo. Front brakes are vented discs with Porsche Boxter rear calipers. Should be enough? Front axle is a CSP 2'' narrowed link beam. Some images of the first trial fit below. Rear is sky high on the images!!! No engine and needs a drop of a spline. A slight miscalculation since I replaced the original '62 torsion bars with Split ones. Beefier indeed!