maschinenbau said:Cool project! I always thought Beetles would be fun to drive in rallycross. Once you get it running, bring it by and I'll help patch some panels. I still have plenty of free filing cabinet leftover!
Thanks! I may actually try and do this the “right” way, at least with the floor pans. For the remaining parts of the body, though, maybe not...
eastsideTim said:Patrick said:Last week when i cut the tunnel out a baby possum crawled out...
Guess it wasn't a mouse nest anymore...
Parts are beginning to trickle in. Unfortunately, the linchpin is the front transmission mount, and it may not be here til Monday or later. I'm having minor surgery on Tuesday, and will be restricted from much lifting or bending for about a month. If the part arrives Monday, I may have a very busy evening trying to get things assembled. If not, I'll be begging for help from others to get it put together.
Some good news - I went to replace the brake hardline the PO told me had been damaged (and there were signs of fluid on the chassis near it), but it didn't look damaged. My wife and I did a quick test, and the brakes worked on that corner of the car, and she didn't see any fluid coming out of the brake lines anywhere when I pumped the brakes, so that's one less thing I need to do. However, I did find that the cap for the brake fluid reservoir is mostly gone, so I'll need to get one of those, and flush the brake fluid, since I'm sure it's got quite a bit of moisture in it by now. Also, makes me wonder what that fluid is - could be from a blown shock, I suppose.
Oh yeah, I guessed right on the size of the fuel pump threads, and have an adapter that should work to use rubber fuel lines for now.
Following along :D
Quick updates:
From some numbers on the engine, my father-in-law has figured it is most likely a VW rebuilt 1500. Will still be using it as the initial engine, and hopefully build something else with a bit more power for later.
New brake fluid reservoir is on its way. Even after shipping, it was considerably cheaper on Rock Auto than Amazon.
The front transmission mount did not make it today, so I won't be able to get any heavier work in tonight. Decided I needed to get some sort of progress, so made sure the oil filler cap I bought fits. "If it doesn't make it go fast, chrome it"
Also debating on ordering a shift knob for the car. Part of me just wants to go cheap, and get something stock-ish. Part of me wants to get one of these, or something else a little oddball:
In reply to eastsideTim :
Put me down as voting for one of those glittery balls. I think big metal flake and glittery vinyl seating is due for a comeback
Quick update. No real progress, as I'm still restricted from lifting much weight. Have done a little purchasing. 18 gauge floor pans have arrived and are stashed away for now, until I have time to do more intense repairs in the late fall. Shifter knob has been acquired 
And finally, during a trip to the antique mall yesterday, I picked up these:
If you register a car as a historical vehicle (still not 100% sure I'm going to do it), Ohio allows you to use plates from the car's model year. Depending on how the restrictions are interpreted, I think I can get away with registering it that way, eventually.
In reply to eastsideTim :
Talk to Miles about that. IIRC they let him use a new YOM plate, not an authentic one. I may not have the story correct, but for sure he knows about YOM plates.
Knurled. said:In reply to eastsideTim :
Talk to Miles about that. IIRC they let him use a new YOM plate, not an authentic one. I may not have the story correct, but for sure he knows about YOM plates.
I think they allow old plates, as long as they are still legible. I went through the code recently to check. I’ll have to ask Miles what he ended up doing, My main concern will be staying away from the attention of the authorities, whether OSP, or Mounties, as the car may end up on a road rally in Canada next year.
eastsideTim said:Quick update. No real progress, as I'm still restricted from lifting much weight. Have done a little purchasing. 18 gauge floor pans have arrived and are stashed away for now, until I have time to do more intense repairs in the late fall. Shifter knob has been acquired
If you register a car as a historical vehicle (still not 100% sure I'm going to do it), Ohio allows you to use plates from the car's model year. Depending on how the restrictions are interpreted, I think I can get away with registering it that way, eventually.
If I were a car, I too could be registered as a historic vehicle......
Kinda makes me feel all grown up.
In reply to Indy-Barely Functional-Guy :
I've been able to qualify for historical plates status myself for a long time. Still not sure I'm grown up.
A bit of progress to report. My father-in-law stopped over on Friday, and with a very small amount of help from me, installed the transmission:
Also, converted it back to cable clutch, and hooked up the shift linkage. Seems to shift fine. He pulled the clutch on the engine I have, and there's still quite a bit of friction material left, so it went back on.
I may try to mess with the brakes a bit in the next few days, but other than that, it needs the axles installed, and it'll be time to put the engine in. We'll either need to wait until I have no more medial restrictions (about a week and a half), or will have to have a couple people over at the same time to install the engine.
New brake fluid reservoir is installed and filled. Still no leaks in the brake system, but the brakes will need to be bled at some point.
Ran out of patience a few days before I'm supposed to be allowed to crawl around under a car. Had to do something or it was going to drive me insane, so I installed the axles. Due to how close the bolt holes are to the CV boots, needed to jack up the car once on each side to rotate the axles enough to get everything in. But, it's done.
I think there's not much to do other than check the transmission for gear oil before it's time to install the engine. I think I'll toss new spark plugs in before installing the engine, but everything else should be able to wait until it is safely tucked in the engine compartment. I've tossed the old lawn tractor battery I used to use on my rallycross car on a float charger. If it'll take a charge, it should have enough juice to turn the starter.
They really don’t give a crap about historical registration. Heck my uncle had his work beater 91 lumina on historical plates and daily drove it for 2 years. On something old nobody bats an eye. I have non registered 1954 plate on the belair because they wouldn’t register it because i painted it the incorrect color for the year. I had a cop on me when i was parked before carli and i started dating, and he assumed we weren’t just sitting there talking. He said nothing about the plates, and didn’t say much of anything when I offered to open my fly and verify no evidence of action happening.
In reply to Patrick :
LOL! I'm the kind of person who doesn't get away with much, so I tend to try to follow the rules as much as possible. Down this way, my father-in-law has gotten pulled over by a police officer who suspected he was not following the historical plate rules. This was in a 1930 Chevy that tops out around 45 MPH.
My father-in-law and wae stopped by yesterday after work, with the plan to get the engine in the car. My FIL actually got there before I did, and was finishing up checking the gap on the points and setting timing when I got home. We also hooked up a battery, in order to confirm we picked the right wire to connect to the starter solenoid. Ran into a few issues, as the battery terminals were not easy to read inside the car, so the battery got hooked up in reverse. It probably didn't help that the positive cable is black and the negative cable is red. Once we sorted that out, I installed the starter, since it looked a lot easier to do with the engine out.
After a bit of brainstorming, we used two small jacks to lift the car up, slid the engine under the back through the driver's wheel well, got it onto a jack, and lowered the car back down. wae and my FIL did the heavy work there, while I ran the engine jack. Much thanks to them for that!
After a pizza break, we were back at it, with me running the jack again, and them underneath, positioning the engine, and once we had it in place, bolting it to the transmission:
At this point, the main goal for the day was achieved, but we still had some motivation, so we kept on, to see if we could get the engine running. A short test showed the battery had enough juice to turn the starter, as long as it's not near the top of a compression stroke. wae tackled the wiring, while my FIL dug into the oil - it was overfilled so we figured we'd drain it and toss some fresh oil in. I put the battery back into the project S10, so it could be moved down the driveway, to give the beetle somewhere to go, in case it caught fire.
We ran into a problem with the oil, though. Dropped the plug, and nothing came out. Pulled the strainer cap, and some sludge glopped out:
Copious amounts of carb cleaner helped clean the strainer somewhat, but still didn't get all the sludge out. There's also a layer of it in the bottom of the sump that needs to come out. The current plan is:
1. Get some Kerosene, put about 2 qts in the sump, and leave it there for a few days, then drain it and hope it dissolved the sludge. Repeat if it didn't. I was initially thinking of cranking over the engine to get some kerosene up in the top end in case there is sludge up there, but after sleeping on it, I'm afraid to risk wiping the bearings, and with all the liquid oil that was also in the car, I'm hoping there isn't too much sludge in the top end.
2. Instead of using oil, fill the engine with ATF, and maybe some seafoam for its initial startup attempt. Change it out fairly quickly.
Any suggestions from people with a sludged engine are welcome.
Other than that, I need to get the fuel line hooked up, and at that point, I think it will be ready to try to start. I am going to order a new gasket kit for the oil strainer, and put it in when the oil is changed. I'm also trying to think up anything else I should order just in case.
The charging system will need to be hooked up at some point, too. Right now, we are bypassing the generator, as the car is wired for an alternator. Shouldn't take too much effort to adapt, and I already have a voltage regulator.
It's feeling really close to initial startup, hoping it all comes together in the next few days.
Got a bit of kerosene from a neighbor, and put about 1.5-2 qts in the sump. Not sure how long I want to let it sit in there, but I suspect parts I ordered won't come in til Saturday at the earliest, so I may as well let it go until then. I also ordered a set of valve cover gaskets, so I can pull the valve covers and see if there's any sludge up in the engine, or if it was all in the sump. If it looks like it was all in the sump, I'll still run some ATF (or maybe kerosene) along with oil for the initial run, then change it out quickly afterwords.
Oh yeah, carb rebuild kits were cheap, so I went ahead an ordered one of them, too, just in case.
Good progress
In reply to Patrick :
Thanks, can’t wait to try to fire it up. Just have to have the patience to degunk the engine enough first.
In reply to eastsideTim :
E85 is doing a fantastic job of degunking the fuel tank in my ex-Charles Wright RX-7. Denatured alcohol is 95% ethanol, so E85 is just slightly more denatured alcohol, that costs a hell of a lot less than $20/gallon.
That brownish-red goo is E85 after about ten days or so. That coloration is gunk leaving my car.
In reply to Knurled. :
Mmm, looks like root beer.
Cool car! I’ll enjoy watching this thread. An old Beetle is on my project bucket list but there’s a few others to cross off that list first, so for now I’m happy to live vicariously through others when it comes to air cooled VW stuff.
The obvious answer in regards to removing sludge is to bite the bullet and split the case. That way it is much easier to justify a cam and balanced crank. Better heads because they'll be off anyway, some machine work for with to fit bigger cylinders. Pretty soon you'll know there is absolutely no sludge.
In reply to barefootskater :
Ive got a line on a short block to do some work to during the winter. My hope with this one is to get the car driveable, and maybe even able to run in a rallycross or two this season. Once the racing season is over, work on this thing will be going into high gear.
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