Air Cleaners

My new boring bar set showed up yesterday so I bored the holes in the bottom of the air cleaners and got them installed last night.  I still need to cut some sort of design into the tops and polish them.  I cut a VW logo in one of the tops before thinning them down but I didn't really like it.  I may just cut some straight lines in them...  Any other ideas?

More Air Cleaners

Last night I finished cutting the spacers that go between the top and bottom of the air cleaners, I carbon finished them, I cut the head of the screws down to just under 1/2" and cut the counter-syncs into the top and bottoms of the air cleaners.  All that is left is to bore the 4 holes for the carb throats and polish the aluminum parts.

Air Cleaners

The DRLA carbs have the fuel inlet sitting slightly above the top of the carb.  With cross bar linkages this is not a big deal because there is a plate that mounts between the carb top and the bottom of the air cleaner base.  This creates just enough space so the air cleaner base clears the fuel inlet.  I could have made a spacer but I decided to make a whole new set of air cleaners.

The tops will have another .250" taken off the thickness leaving them at around .500".  The bottom will also have .250" taken off, but only around the edge so the spacer is built into the air cleaner.  They will eventually have a red anodized VW logo carved into the top but the rest will be polished.  This is all being done on a manual mill with no CNC.  Even the VW logo.

Cable Linkage

The Dellorto's are done and the linkage is all hooked up.  If you look between the fan shroud and the intake manifold you can see the adjusting screw and the support bracket that it screws into.  They will eventually be anodized black so you won't be able to see them.  I wanted to get a little time on the car to make sure it all worked well before making it pretty though.

More Cable Linkage

The carbs have been set on the motor and the cables installed.  After this picture was taken I cut the cables to length and installed the cable splitter so I could test everything.  It ran as smooth as butter.  I put the motor in and the cable hit the front engine seal so I had to pull it back out to clearance it.  So the motor should be installed in the car tonight.

Cable Splitter

Tonight I wrapped up the cable splitter.  I made the whole thing last night but when I put the end-caps on with the cables installed, they bound up because the holes in the cable holder didn't line up right with the holes in the end-caps.  So tonight I made new end caps.  The brass piece is a valve guide drilled out to .343" and the end-caps are oil pressure relief plungers.

Yet More Cable Linkage

Now that the pulleys and adjustment screws are done on both carbs, it is time to focus on the center of the linkage.  This is the set of rollers that will be attached to the front engine tin in order to make that sharp bend without adding too much friction to the cable.  The rollers have been heat treated to give them that purple color, the rest will get a carbon finish like the stops on the carbs.

More Cable Linkage

I have made really big progress on the cable linkage in the past few days.  Both pulleys are turned, new bearings have been installed in the carbs, the idle holes in the throttle plates (used on single carb setups) have been soldered closed, both bottom mounting plates have been cut drilled and tapped, both adjuster screw holders have been cut, fit and drilled for the adjuster screws.  The left side carb is done but I still need to drill and tap for mounting the adjuster screw holder to the bottom plate and machine the slots to attach the cable to the pulley on the right side carb.  Once that is done, then I will start on the cable splitter.  Keep in mind, this is the firewall side of the left carb, not the deck lid side of the right carb!  This stuff will be anodized black and hidden in the shadows when it is all done.

New Idler Pulley

While doing some routine maintenance on the bug last week I found that the bearing for the idler pulley had gone bad.  I could order a new one from CB Performance but this one only lasted a few thousand miles, so I'm not sure I want to try my luck with another one.  So, I went to Brown Bearing and got a nice quality sealed bearing to start with.

Next I went to Coeur d'Alene Metals and found a scrap of solid chrome.  The problem was it was 3-1/2" diameter so I had to turn it down to 2" on my little Grizzly lathe.  Then I bored the center out and pressed the bearing in from the back.  I shouldn't have to replace this one any time soon.

Cable Linkage

I'm currently working on a cable/pulley linkage setup that is similar to the SyncLink system.  The difference is I'm mounting the pulley, spring and throttle stops on the back side so they are out of sight.  I will also build a cable splitter rather than a master/slave setup.  Next up is the cable holders and sync adjustment screws.

Back on the Road - Again

It took all of Saturday and most of Sunday, but the Bug is back on the road.  I got the fenders color sanded and undercoated, the running boards polished, the HID headlights wired in, the turn signal lenses painted amber and everything put back together.  All just in time for the rain to start.

For the first trip, I promised the girls I would take them for ice cream if I could get it done before dinner on Sunday.  I managed to get it all assembled but had to wash it after dinner.  Close enough, so all 4 of us piled in the Bug and went to Blue Berries for some yogurt.

Outside Mirrors

I really like the swan neck mirrors, but I hate the way they mount to the car.  Yeah it's great that you don't have to drill any new holes to put them on, but really a single stud to hold that mirror on the car?  I decided to use some Q-Bond to cement an additional,
slightly larger stud on the other end of the base to give it some additional support.

I started by cutting a small piece of scrap sheet metal to act as a dam so I didn't have to fill the whole cavity with Q-Bond.  Then I cut a piece to hold the new stud suspended while I cement it in place.  Finally, I put the Q-Bond in place in 1/4" layers.  The mirrors are now way more solid.  I probably could have used J B Weld, but this stuff dries so much faster.

HID Headlights

 Since I had to take the headlights out of the fenders in order to paint them, I figured I would install a set of HID bulbs this time around.  I managed to find a H4, 8K, slim ballast kit for a reasonable price.  So I mounted the ballasts and igniters inside the headlight bucket.  The rest of it is in the corner of the spare tire well, out of sight.

I also had to take the front turn signal lenses out to paint the fenders.  Before putting them back in, I cleaned them up and used some amber colored translucent paint to give them a little color.  I also sprayed the bulb holder silver to help reflect some of the light back towards the lens.

More on the Doors

The doors have been color sanded, assembled and put back on the car.  The driver side required a shim behind the lower hinge because it sagged a ton.  But after putting a .035" shim between the hinge and the jam, it fits perfectly.  I'm happy I took the hinges off for paint.  It was much easier to work with.

Doors

Its taken the better part of the weekend, but my doors have paint.  There is a spot on the passenger door that needs a little more attention.  I got a hair in the paint and I tried to fix it...  I know better but I did it anyway.  Now I have a bigger mess to fix than just a hair.   Once it all dries, it shouldn't be too big of a deal to fix it.

Door Hinges

What do you do when the hinges on an oval are so rusty that you can't press the pin out?  You use a set from a Super Beetle of course!  With just a little bit of work a set of late hinges can be made to look just like a set of early hinges.  All I had to do was counter-sync the top of the hinge to accept an early pin, cut a notch for oiling the pin and drill the 4th hole.

The problem with the Super Beetle hinges I had was they were so warn that even a second over size pin would not take up the slop.  So I reamed them out to .347" and turned my own pin out of a Grade 8 bolt.  If you look close at the piece on the left, you can see all the work that had to be done to make this look like an early hinge.

Paint Work

Part of the Aussie Flash Trim project is the repaint the sides of the car.  I decided to go with a 3 tone look.  The tan matches the canvas top and the ivory matches the trim color on the interior.  It matches the steering column, blinker switch and the center of the steering wheel right now.  The seats and door panels will have some ivory in them as well.

The tricky part of this was where the flash trim dead ends at the front.  I wanted to paint the tan section between the 2 pieces of trim, but there was no clean ending toward the front of the car.  Aaron made an off handed comment that made me think curving the tan up to meet the top trim just might work.  I really like how it turned out.

Aussie Flash Trim

I have not done much to the car for a while, I've been having too much fun driving it.  But it's time to start making some improvements again.  I'm starting with the Aussie Flash Trim.  I mounted it on Thursday and removed the fenders, bumpers and running boards yesterday in order to get ready for paint.  The space between the 2 trim pieces will be tan and the lower section will be ivory.