Rear Tin

I finally got around the doing all the welding that was required to get the rear tin to fit correctly.  I had to fill in all 4 fresh air holes and the heat riser covers.  Because it will go in an oval, I also had to reshape the back edge to make it fit the 36hp apron.  It's a ton of work, but well worth it when its finished.

Deck Height

I finally got to spend some time on my motor this weekend.  The deck height is set and the pistons are balanced to only a couple 1/10ths of a gram.  The deck height is .004" plus or minus .001" and I plan to use a .040" copper head gasket.  I didn't want to take the deck all the way to 0" because the gasket will squish about .003" and I wanted to leave room.

Cable Linkage - Take 2

I was so happy with the cable linkage on the last motor that I decided to do it again with a few improvements.  This time the plates that anchor the adjusting screws have been welded to the manifolds.  I have also decided to go with a master/slave setup rather than a split cable.  Like last time, the pulleys are on the firewall side of the carburetors.

45 DRLAs

I got this set of 45 DRLAs last year off The Samba.  They are a matching set that was a backup for a race car and they have seen very little use.  They have been sitting for a long time so I took them all apart, soaked the bearings, blasted the bodies and polished all the brass.  I also put new gaskets and a set of Jet Drs. on mostly to make changing the idle jets easier.

Cylinder Heads

Over the last few months I've done a few things to my cylinder heads that I have not documented, the intakes have been unshrouded,  the combustion chambers have been cc'd to within 0.1 cc and the valve spring install height has been set to 1.600 - 1.605". I also blasted the fins to break the gloss for better cooling.  Today I polished the combustion chambers.

Center Console

The top mounting holes for the center console have been drilled and the console fits exactly the way I wanted.  I will have to take it back out, but before I do, I will build the rails that hold the bottom of the sides against the tunnel.  I will also figure out how to rig a lever or stepper motor in order to flip the fuel reserve valve because I will not be able to use my foot any more.

Center Console

I got the gauge panel welded to the bottom of the radio panel.  You can't see it in this picture but there is a gusset between the 2 holes to add a little support.  The mounting tabs are also built and welded on.  I still need to weld tabs to the edges of the front faces, but this part is almost done.  Next up is the cell phone compartment below the gauge panel.

Center Console

Last night I got the new gauge panel made.  Because I switched from a single DIN to a double DIN radio, I had to make the top portion of the console a little wider to accommodate the the extra height.  That meant the gauge panel also needed to be made wider.  Right now the radio panel is tack welded in just for fitment and the gauge panel is just sitting there.  Next up is to weld the gauge panel to the bottom of the radio panel.  Then I can start to work on the mounting system to hold it all in the console.  The side panel will be bolted in first then the radio/gauge panel will slide in from the front.  Finally there will be a compartment below the gauges to store a phone, wallet or whatever.  The radio/gauge panels will be painted red and the rest will be covered with tan and ivory vinyl.

Center Console

My original design for the center console only included a single DIN radio.  I actually cut the sides as well as the radio and gauge faces last year.  Over the weekend I found a double DIN radio that I wanted to use.  So I modified the sides and cut a new radio face last night.  I also got the mounting tabs welded onto the sides.

Headliner

The headline in the bug is finished.  It turned out great but the last couple pieces sure put up a good fight.  The center section that covers the inside of the slider was over an inch to wide.  I had to rip all the seams for the bows and the tucks on the sides and redo them all.

The cardboard strip that clips into the back edge of the slider was not sewn on correctly.  The last several inches of fabric on one side were actually not attached to the cardboard strip at all.  But I was able to fix both problems and I'm very happy with how it turned out.