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Not much of an update today unfortunately, fact is I've caught up with posting and run out of material. The next big thing is the exhaust, I need 3:1 merged collectors and I'm too tight to spend 500+ buying them so I've ordered the materials I need to make some. Still difficult enough to find at a reasonable price but a company in Australia had what I needed. Once those are in I'll make a cutting jig for them and get going on that project. Yesterday I spent a frustrating few hours installing longer studs for the billet valve covers and found the covers would not go on anymore, the cause being some of the studs are not straight. Tried in vain to straighten a few of them but it just annoyed me even more when that didn't work either. The issue being that the new ones are a fair bit longer so if they are even a little bit off the covers won't go on and I'm reluctant to use bolts threading in and out of aluminium constantly when doing valve adjustments. So, got online and ordered new ones, at least now I know what to look out for and hopefully these work. Looking around at what else to do to salvage the day I thought id start pulling the gearbox apart, started with the longtudenal diff lock housing and once this was off was pleasantly surprised to find all of the clutch discs in tact and seemingly in good shape. The planetary gear which is often damaged on these due to the pins coming out looks great also but 2 of the pins were coming out and the 3rd is also loose. Once cleaned I'll tig weld these in place on both sides stopping that from happening in the future.
The planetary gear which is often damaged on these due to the pins coming out looks great also but 2 of the pins were coming out and the 3rd is also loose. Once cleaned I'll tig weld these in place on both sides stopping that from happening in the future.
Ok I officially have withdrawal symptoms.. looking forward to the next update
Soon, very soon.
Basically it goes like this. Ordered stainless bends from Australia (Car Mods Australia) to make my collectors, THE WORST customer service I've had for many years.
Took my money instantly then zip, nothing for 3 weeks, sent emails and nothing. After a month finally was told no stock and not getting any more.
Great, a month wasted. Just get a refund? Right?
Ohhh if only it were that easy. With the help of the bank that took another 2-3 weeks.
Then ordered some from the UK. Kind of sucked the energy out of me for a bit.
Apologies for the rant but I was pretty annoyed, one of the many reasons I try and do everything myself.
Suffering a severe lack of interest and motivation the project has kind of stalled and pretty nothing has been achieved since the last update. Couple of weeks ago Pro Coat sent me the completed front calipers which look fantastic so I thought I'd assemble them and put them on, things went well at first. I had new kits for them, new pads so things should be easy...... Cleaned up all of the old hardware, pistons, and bought some new stainless retaining bolts. Assembly was straight forward, pistons went in easy so all was well. Once I went to fit them on the car I realized the error I had made, when I received these calipers from the US one of the balance pipes was damaged so I made a new one. The calipers have arrows on them for the direction of travel of the disc and this is due to the fact that the leading piston is larger, I did not consider this back then and as a result installed the balance pipe in the wrong end. Sent them off for powder coat that way and of course now cannot remove that pipe without mauling everything and that's exactly what happened yesterday. No matter what the pipe needs to be moved to the other end but the fittings wouldn't budge until the vise grips came out, pipe moved. Powder coat ruined. Time to park this for a while maybe.
Amazing fab skills and also attention to detail, Mr. Racoguy, I'm oreally enjoying following your build! I hope you don't get too worried to drive it because it is tooo nice once it's done, as it often happens after you have put hundreds if not thousands of hours into a car.
By the way, I would really recommend you add a 3D printer to your arsenal, you won't believe how you ever got by without one, once it's in your shop. I'm sure you have been watching Jonas' videos and all the cool stuff he has come up with? Nowadays you can skip the learning curve and all the tinkering required with previous cheap printers, something like a Bambulabs X1 with the AMS system is pretty much plug & play and can do multi-material enclosed printing with technical materials such as ABS, Nylon, Polycarbonate, flexible TPU for gaskets etc right out of the box, for a very fair price. Especially being located in New Zealand, where everything is NOT a fast free shipping order away like it is for our friends in the US, this will be a game changer for you.
Amazing fab skills and also attention to detail, Mr. Racoguy, I'm oreally enjoying following your build! I hope you don't get too worried to drive it because it is tooo nice once it's done, as it often happens after you have put hundreds if not thousands of hours into a car.
By the way, I would really recommend you add a 3D printer to your arsenal, you won't believe how you ever got by without one, once it's in your shop. I'm sure you have been watching Jonas' videos and all the cool stuff he has come up with? Nowadays you can skip the learning curve and all the tinkering required with previous cheap printers, something like a Bambulabs X1 with the AMS system is pretty much plug & play and can do multi-material enclosed printing with technical materials such as ABS, Nylon, Polycarbonate, flexible TPU for gaskets etc right out of the box, for a very fair price. Especially being located in New Zealand, where everything is NOT a fast free shipping order away like it is for our friends in the US, this will be a game changer for you.
Cheers!
Lukas
Ha, thanks yes I'm no stranger to making cars undriveable because they are too nice. I seem to do that to each one I build but then cannot cut corners either and leave things to be so so.
Often thought about a 3 printer but I really am an idiot when it comes to computers and software. I'm much more of a make up on the fly type person, I don't even put things on paper first.
It's probably something I'd need to learn like everything else.
Ha, thanks yes I'm no stranger to making cars undriveable because they are too nice. I seem to do that to each one I build but then cannot cut corners either and leave things to be so so.
Often thought about a 3 printer but I really am an idiot when it comes to computers and software. I'm much more of a make up on the fly type person, I don't even put things on paper first.
It's probably something I'd need to learn like everything else.
A good number of idiots seem to be able to operate these things so you probably meet or exceed that criteria. That said I don't blame you for not wanting to fuss with software etc. I'm in the same boat being both an idiot and easily frustrated with computers. However, I am interested in what Jonas is doing. What exactly is he doing? And how could it help our hero?
Trying to at least progress things however small that may be, managed to get some yellow paint that matches the calipers pretty well and touched those up with a brush. Bit of epoxy primer first then several coats of yellow. Am I happy, no. But it will have to do. The front rotors had gone a bit rusty from sitting around and wanted to clean those up, they measure fine and didn't really warrant wasting money to replace just yet. In the blasting cabinet they go and hit them with glass bead cleaning them up, ran a DA with 120 grit over the pad surface to take the rust off. Once clean a couple of coats of zinc spray will keep them from rusting, wiped away the zinc on the pad surface with thinners. Once the car has working brakes the pads will take care of the rest ending up with zinc right up to the edges. Rotors done they can go back where they belong with the calipers. Either lost the brake hard line from the strut to the caliper or used them on another car, the latter being more likely since the original calipers ended up on the Karmann Ghia. Not much achieved but it is progress at least.
Just to keep everyone in the loop I've parked this project for a while until I sort some other life issues out, need to clear my head before continuing with this. Thanks for following along, I will be back.
Just to keep everyone in the loop I've parked this project for a while until I sort some other life issues out, need to clear my head before continuing with this. Thanks for following along, I will be back.
best wishes man - you’ve been doing some inspirational work. Really been enjoying it!
