[Mr_Wobble]

I've just had a whole load of woes with trying to fit a urethane gear shift coupling. Did it to give less sloppiness, but also because the orignal seemed as if it had become bent. Of course, the new posh urethane one instantly wouldn't allow me to set the gear stick up to select 1st/2nd. Refitting the old bent coupling did. Go figure.
Did refitting the stock gear stick return it to normal? Any problems before trying to fit the EMPI shifter?

 

[Mr_Wobble]

how did you find yours to do?

Read all about it here...
http://www.volkszone.com/VZi/showthread.php?t=294375

Decided to leave everything stock for now, as it works, and come back to it another day, once I've dealt with a few other issues around the car.

 

[Mr_Wobble]

Im angry at myself for not noticing it before, not having much knowledge about what was what before i bought it, and also angry at the lady who sold it to me. I feel in hindsight it was maybe a few hundred quid to much.

Yeah, I think that happens to a lot of people. With hindsight we paid too much for Bertie, and should've knocked the seller down another £50-100 due to some of the other areas we've found.

And as for my new car Daisy. Well, I can't say I'm too impressed with some areas. They were honest about some parts, such as the gutters, rear valence, front quarters, but some of the other areas that need attention (chassis crossmember in front of the pedals, area in the rear inner wing and body cross member, and hole in the rear luggage area), not to mention that he clearly stated it came with a full brand new carpet set, only to find it was a well used set of inexpensive mats and some older bits of carpet still in the car. I feel I should've paid at least £250 less for the car. I'm a bit pissed at that, and feel a bit ripped off.

Anyway. Next time I buy a Bug (or van/camper) I'm going to be absolutely thorough, in every detail, in every way. And be hard on the seller over any issue with the car. And never accept any whinge about not letting you lift carpets, look behind panels, and prod any suspect areas firmly with a screwdriver.

On the whole, once you've done the heater channels, and that front quarter and valence, it looks like it'll be decent. The rear inner wings don't seem all that bad compared to some I've seen.

Good luck!

 

[Mr_Wobble]

Wow! What a busy week or so you've had! Amazing how fast things can happen, and how much can be done with a bit of determination, and a little help at times.

No doubt you've already thought about tank sealant (from somewhere like Frost) to clean and seal it against further rust and silt problems. Couldn't believe how much crud had accumulated in the pump and carb so quickly.

Bet your heart sank when you saw the fit of that wing! Must've made you panic a bit. Glad some determination managed to get an ok fit. Not sure what's up with the bonnet though, unless (as you suspect) there's damage to the other front quarter panel too.

It's not just you and jonofdoom that like the removable valence. I want to do that too. It was a nightmare to get the engine back in Bertie earlier this year after replacing his clutch, simply because we didn't have enough manouverability to lift the engine in smoothly. Being able to unbolt the valence would've been so much better. Bertie's valence has a big ding in it, and is rusty on the back of the panel, so that will be done sometime in the distant future.
And Daisy's will be done sometime in the future too, as there's rust eating its way through by the deck lid seal, and I want to drop her engine to replace the skanky tinware and fan housing, plus sort the oil cooler seals (where I suspect a leak is coming from). A removable valence will make that a doddle.

Good on you for having the balls to do the rear bumper hanger too. Very scary cutting out and welding in new metal with few refference points. Did you ever consider making some sort of removable panel out of it too, for the ultimate in engine access!

Keep up the good work, and keep up the posts! :hangloose

 

[Mr_Wobble]

If you haven't already been nosing at my thread about Daisy where I'm currently prepping and fitting a new beam, then you'll see that I've been having fun and games too. I used a simple splitter, some heat, and some force from a hammer.

When it came to removing the beam, I'd only undone the outer ends of the track rods, but that was enough to give me enough movement without them fouling on top of the tunnel when trying to remove the beam. Ideally I would've completely removed the track rods before removing the beam - but those inner ones on the steering arm are a bugger to get to.
At least you've got your fuel tank fully out, which makes it a damned sight easier!

 

[Mr_Wobble]

im gonna attempt to patch it s i cant afford another panel.
grr.

Don't worry, you're not the only person going through the whole lack of motivation and feeling down because of a nasty surprise like that.
I'm going through this with Daisy at the moment, as she's gone in exactly the same place as your car - except I've got to do both sides. There are previous extensive patch repairs, including one whopping great ugly plate on the bottom of the framehead, and I've had to do a ton of welding around the framehead area myself (sides, front, etc). Patches on patches. Ugly looking work (too embarassed to post it on my thread), but solid and safe enough.
If it weren't for the work on the framehead - the time it's taken, I would've had that front beam in, and presented her for her MOT by now. As she's my daily driver, and I'm borrowing a car to get to work, you can imagine how down I feel about it all.
However, I'm glad I found it now, it needed doing for safety's sake, and will get it solid and safe enough to last a little while.
I'm starting plannning the body off and new framehead, "Napoleon hat" section, and other chassis repairs for about 2-3 years time. Time to start buying/collecting the panels, parts, and saving up cash for any other unexpected surprises.
At least, like you, I'll have a 100% sorted front axle beam that I know will just drop out, and bolt straight up, once the framehead is done in the future. I'm going to be going around the whole car in the near future, replacing the body mounting bolts, or at least removing them, coating with plenty of copper ease, and putting them back. That way I know the body will be a comparitive doddle to pop off in a couple of years time.

I'd do what you're planning. It's been repaired already. Patch it for now as it saves doing a body off. Then as I'm doing, start planning for a body off in the future, once the car is done and you've had a year or two of fun from it first. Hopefully you'll find somewhere better than a driveway to do the body off by then.

The way I made up the curved repair section, was to clamp the thick piece of steel to the old axle beam, then hammer it around the beam, using the torsion tube as a former, until it was the right shape/curve. Then tacked it in to the framehead, checked it for striaghtness and alignment, then offered up the old beam to double check. Then welded it in.

Exactly the same area as yours. Looks solid enough, but a few taps from the hammer knocked out a bigger hole than yours. Haven't got a pic of that at the moment, but will get one sometime.

However, this is what greeted me on the other side when I removed the beam...

As I said, you're not the only one going through all this at the moment. You'll get it sorted. And learn something new, pick up new skills, etc. Good luck!

 

[Mr_Wobble]

now these seals for the beam... the OG ones and the new ones i ordered are both too big for the hole. i had to file the rubber down to make them fit. not cool at the price they are!

I've had problems with those before, and used the same solution of filing them down. Not sure if it's a case of the genuine seals being tight, or the aftermarket replacement beam being too tight, in the past.
I've found that the larger lower seals aren't always too bad, but the smaller upper ones just don't want to know. I've now got to straighten one I bent the other day before having another try.
The non-genuine seals don't have the metal reinforcement built inside them, so are really soft and pliable, and pop in soooooo easily. However, I don't like the finish on the non genuine ones. just don't trust them as much.

Very neat and tidy looking repair to the framehead. Bet you're glad you decided to do it now, rather than replace the entire chassis as you were thinking at one point. It'll last a while, and give you time to plan what to do about it, and to save up. :hangloose

 

[Mr_Wobble]

also tried inbetween downpours to try and hook the window washers up - need to know if i should just say sod it and order an electric one or not ... but i think im missing a connection pipe or something?

That's similar looking to Daisy. Bertie has a full pipe all the way from the washer bottle to the spare wheel, but Daisy has a shorter pipe which won't reach the tyre valve, but looks like that. I found that she has a one way valve, like a tyre valve (see that little bit in the middle of the connector, just like a tyre valve). So I just attached a footpump to it, and pumped pressure into the washer bottle. Being a one way valve, it stayed pressurised, and provided there aren't any air leeks it should stay that way.
Just out of interest, attach a pump, put some pressure in, and see if it's like Daisy's.

:hangloose

 

[Mr_Wobble]

If your bug has a dash mounted wiper/washer switch then you can convert it to run an electric pump off a modern car and still use the existing bottle.
http://www.volkszone.com/VZi/showthread.php?t=377490&highlight=washer

You know, this is something I've always thought would be the natural thing to do - to upgrade the washer system to electric. But if the old system is holding pressure, then it works superbly. And there's just something quaint and quirky about it that appeals to me now. The look on peoples faces when you describe how the washer system works is priceless. It's like when you describe the heating system to people too. :hangloose

 

[Mr_Wobble]

Glad to see you got your car finished in time for Bug Jam, and better news that everything is fine with it, and that it made the journey there and back.
Bet those first 50 miles of the journey were a bit of a butt clencher, until you got used to the anti-roll bar clipping things, and the fact that the car wasn't going to fall apart, or parts fall off, and the engine wasn't going to explode.

Looking forward to see which jobs you're going to tackle next. :hangloose

 

[Mr_Wobble]

That's the pipe from the washer bottle to spare wheel? The one that presurises the bottle continuously? I'd love it please, as Daisy's is missing. PM'd you Cy.

Nice LED interior light too. I remember recently that Poundland and a couple of other shops were doing cheap LED interior lights. Mounted in swivel heads, and fixed with double sided tape pads. Would do the job cheaply for the footwells.
If you have a little more to spend, Maplin Electronics www.maplin.co.uk were doing a pair of LED lights that mount into a panel with chrome bezles. Very compact and neat, and would work well in a Bug's footwells. Or Maplin would probably sell the LED's, Bezels, and resistors seperately if you look through their catalogue/website.
I'm planning to add footwell lights, under bonnet lights, and engine bay lights. All compact and neat LED. Not for show, but for practical reasons. A little bit of subtle modernising. I think Maplin do interior light delay timers too, which can be used to keep interior lights on for a few seconds after you get in - I think they're in the kits section of their site/catalogue.

 

[Mr_Wobble]

hehe thanks guys. the interior is still orange

i will have to do some stencils in orange over the top or something

How about flourescent pinstriping? Just track down a big roll of thin self adhesive pin striping, and either use it where the original chrome trim would've been, or do something daft and 70's, such as go around the edges of the wings, running boards, valences, etc with it (a bit like the Batmobile in some ways).

Just need to remember you cape and camp costume!

Nice job you've done on the 1/4 panel and front clip. And to have it one colour makes a hell of a difference. I love that magical transformation a car makes from being worked on, prepped, looking a right mess and mixture of colours, to suddenly being all one colour. Even if it's just grey primer, or matt/satin black. It just suddenly looks so much more complete. More finished. Bet the g/f will be surprised when she sees it.

 

[Mr_Wobble]

this one is a mystery. i have no idea where its coming from. lol

Daisy has a similar leak, with oil collecting in the same place. Was bugging me too.
Then one day, after test running the engine, I was sat looking into the engine bay, and saw a drip of oil run down to that area. I came from up on the top of the engine, somewhere under the fan housing I believe, which on that side of the engine means it's most likely the oil cooler. So I suspect that it's a case of new oil seals on the oil cooler in my case. Did you replace yours when you had the tinware off?

 

[Mr_Wobble]

yours running ok thus far? get all that paint off it ok?

Yeah, she's running ok. Not great, just ok (fuel economy a little better, but still pants, and she's running too rich).
She leaks quite a bit of oil from various places. So much that she goes from max to below minimum on the dipstick in about three weeks - which i know because the oil light was flickering under braking/cornering the other day, and it'd been about three weeks since topping the oil up from just below the Min mark.
I reckon she has more than just a leaky oil cooler seal, though the pushrod seals don't look too bad.
I'll really get to assess her next year, as I'm planning to replace the rear vallance (and make it removable), and whip the engine out to do the gearbox/engine mounts and clutch bearing while I'm at it.
If I can, I'll collect a set of tinware together and have it blasted/powder coated, and get that done at the same time.
As for work on Daisy, it's slowing down now the weather is closing in a bit. Got a big update to do sometime on bodywork, but have been busy with other things too (life, etc).

I still haven't bothered polishing the remaining stains of the paint off, and still keep finding bits of red, blue, green, etc in odd places around the bodywork. Really ought to just nip out with the polish, but when I have time to work on her, I do other things instead.

So, keep an eye on the oil level, and replace those seals when you get a chance. :hangloose

Nice prezzies, by the way.