TheSamba.com :: View topic - First Dub! Ton of Q's ....... You have been warned!

Wed Nov 04, 2009 4:48 pm

gevmage wrote: Ahem...getting back to the topic at hand...

MoparFreak69, you asked a lot of questions about making it "great", and performance, stuff, but getting a new beetle, there's other stuff that needs to be done before you drive it.

(I'm not clear on if you have an engine in the car now...)

Gevmage, I bought the car as a non-runner and it did not have a carb on it at the time. I decided since I was going to do a ground up job on it I won't screw with getting it running beforehand. After disassembling the engine I found that all the bearings and rods and everything are in quite good shape and can be reused as is. The only issue i found was that it had sat for a while with a little bit of water under the oil and it corroded away one of the bolt holes for the oil screen. I will fill that wil weld and reshape it so that I can have a good seal and not leak any oil. If that doesnt work I can try to find another case and have it gone through, but I'd rather avoid that expense right now.

My "when i'm rich" plans call for a very built turboed motor anyway so the one I have for it right now will just be a stocker/mild motor to put around in.

Wed Nov 04, 2009 4:51 pm

Derek Cobb wrote: I'll try to answer the questions from my experiance.

Third slot from the bottom is where I ended up with my adjustable struts, but your tire choices are really limited. 185 60 15's fit pretty well with only a bit of fender rubbing when the car was loaded going around a corner. You might look into rolling the fender edge to clear the tire. Best thing is to have your wheel and tire combination in hand before you commit to a ride height, but they are adjustable. You'll need a Mcpheareson spring compresser to do it, but IIRC the last time I did it, I didn't have to remove the strut assembly.

Two notches might be too low, but it all depends on tire height. You won't see drastic camber changes with the IRS suspension. One notch with low profile tires might be a really good match for the mild lowering you plan for the front. No need for extended arms.

I have toyed with the idea of come-alongs from the rafters, but I realized that the release for most come-along straps don't allow you to release incremenally, they just "let loose", so raising the car would work okay, but lowering the car would be a disaster. Four sturdy sawhorses and a couple of 2X6's work well. It's possible for one man to lift the body off the pan with a floor jack and some creativity, but that's a lot of clumsy, awkward weight. You really would be better off to find a couple of friends to help.

Personally, I wouldn't be concerned about how the balance tube looked, as it runs behind the shroud anyway. Rubber hose will do just fine and won't be stressed like a solid tube would, with the expansion and contraction of the heat cycles.

The master cylinder will most likely do fine with the disc brakes, I've never had an issue, but I've heard the some have residual check valves that had to be removed. I doubt you'll need a proportioning valve, unless you're doing some serious high speed, foot stomping driving.

Unless you just enjoy welding and banging sheetmetal (which I personally do ), you should look at creative car craft. They have fiberglass fenders already modified for the early style headlights. They also come without turn signal holes so installing ANY year turn-signal lights is as easy as drilling the holes.

I loved Kadrons on my 1600 sp back in the day. Simple to tune and easy to get parts for.

There's a lot of people here that have a real problem with anyone who wants to build a mild-custom like you have planned, but don't let them sway you. It's your car and you don't need their permission to do anything to it. Even if they want to call it a "hack", you'll still have a shit-eating grin everytime you drive it. :D

Thanks for the warm welcome Derek. I agree, its my car i'll do what I like, but I do like to get some pointers from people who have been there before. Obviously everybody has their own tastes and likes so I was hoping there might be someone on here with similar tastes to my own to give me a bit of insite as to what to expect, what looks great, what doesnt work so well. You know, constructive criticism, not just criticism.

Wed Nov 04, 2009 5:09 pm

PICTURES

Wed Nov 04, 2009 5:12 pm

bookoojoe wrote: PICTURES

Poor thing isnt even dressed! I will try to get some pics up later this evening if I can finish my school (college) work. Damn english courses!

Wed Nov 04, 2009 5:17 pm

MoparFreak69 wrote: johnnypan wrote: Bunch of skirt wearin little girls the lot of ya...dont like the tone the pirate's or the member formerly known as Icy takes?then read,dont ask.You all bitch about the finest free VW reference library on the planet like its supposed to be sensitive to your feelings...

Case and point #2. 3rd party butting in after everything has been settled and calmed down. Finally getting some decent, helpful responses and another one comes walking down the street, No MINE is bigger. I'm over it and hopefully the rest of the crowd is too so we can get something useful done. Thanks everyone else for your help, and Thanks to yellowbeard for giving me some helpful information after we finished our pissing contest (why is my leg wet?).

Its called "hijacking",if the pirate pissed on ya you would probaly melt,and if you want to see how VW hung cars from the rafters then go here

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/pressphotos/wolfsburg13.jpg

Wed Nov 04, 2009 5:20 pm

I love old factory shots like that. My boss has a 39 Ford deluxe Woodie wagon that we used factory shots for some of our restoration references. I was more eluding to the "super" aspect with the struts and such flopping all over the place :(

Wed Nov 04, 2009 5:34 pm

MoparFreak69 wrote: I love old factory shots like that. My boss has a 39 Ford deluxe Woodie wagon that we used factory shots for some of our restoration references. I was more eluding to the "super" aspect with the struts and such flopping all over the place :(

Cage and unbolt the strut from the upper mount,or remove the strut all together...gotta support the front of the pan...'39 Ford factory shots?you mean Ford Rouge?where raw materials came in one end and cars came out the other?where Porsche and the boys toured for ideas when building Wolfsburg?never heard of it...

Wed Nov 04, 2009 5:37 pm

Yup. The funny part was that the (Ford) factory shots were staged. Photos of the bodies being mated to the frames had parts installed in them that actually came later on down the assembly line. One of the shots showed the body plate and data tag installed when they didnt do that until well after the chassis and body were one.

Wed Nov 04, 2009 9:49 pm

Basically New to VW.. Got a 72 standard beetle but the previous owner wasn't sure about the engine. Its obviously a single port something. I just don't know enough to find how to ID it.
Here is a pic if it will help.

http://www.mycitycable.com/~bluesky/file/Bug%20Engine.jpg

Thanks,
Michael.

Wed Nov 04, 2009 10:13 pm

The flat spot that the generator mount bolts to on the back of the engine will have some letter and number stamped into it. The first 2 letters will tell you what era car it came out of. You can probably find it around here or just do a search on google or something for vw engine block codes.

Wed Nov 04, 2009 10:17 pm

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/info/engine_letters.php

Thu Nov 05, 2009 2:30 am

Hey. Empi might be not the best but hey, if it can do the job then so what, its just ike cheap tvs, they make so many because they sel so many.

Hope you have fun wiith the dub!1

Thu Nov 05, 2009 6:11 am

True 71beetlesedan. I have no problems using cheaper parts as long as they look to be of decent quality. I would never just throw a brake caliper on any car straight out of the box without checking it over thoroughly (this goes for ANY car)! I checked my parts over, they met my quality standards and look to be more than sufficient to get the job done safely so I made the purchase. Not to mention I got a little cash flow moving here locally which is desperately needed. Its what they sell so its what I buy.

Thu Nov 05, 2009 6:26 am

MoparFreak69 wrote: Its what they sell so its what I buy.

Viande will want to have a word with you...

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=381245&highlight=lowest+price

Thu Nov 05, 2009 6:46 am

MoparFreak69 wrote: Viande wrote:

Do you not think advising someone as to which parts are garbage is not support? Gary's post was not heckling you he was advising you that EMPI is not the company it was 30 years ago.

Very well stated Viande. If it had been said even remotely similar to that, I would have never cared or thought twice about it. How would you feel if I told you that everything GM was shit? You may like GM and think the opposite and probably get upset about it right? Now if I stated that I felt GM was of low quality and provided (insert factual evidence here) supporting my statement, sure you may not agree with it, but its not going to piss you off is it? Its a thing called Tact that was not used. Had I read every single post in every single category on this site I would probably know his stance and what to expect, but had I done that I wouldnt have needed to sign up because I would probably have known everything I needed to know, and would probably be too old to do it anymore!

Except GM doesn't build shit, that's fact. EMPI does build poor quality stuff, that is also fact.

Thu Nov 05, 2009 6:52 am

71-BEETLE-SEDAN wrote: Hey. Empi might be not the best but hey, if it can do the job then so what, its just ike cheap tvs, they make so many because they sel so many.

Hope you have fun wiith the dub!1 Yep. It's people like you who are helping ruin the hobby. :roll: I bet you wouldn't think twice about buying an engine from GEX.

Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:09 am

Knock yourself out,hang the cheapest stuff you can on your car (I especially liked Mopars keeping it "local"line...since when is china local?)waste your time putting all that stuff on the car.And when it cracks peels or fails come back and apologize to those who's only intent is to not have you make the same mistakes others have made.Whats neat about this place is that most of people your arguing with about using poor quality parts have not only learned that lesson but enjoy the hobby so much they actually strive to offer high quality parts at prices that leave no doubt that they are not doing it solely for profit...but to offer alternatives to the junk that other sell based purely on profit.Better yet,repeat Glenns sig line over and over like a mantra....

You dont always get what you pay for,but you always pay for what you get...

Thu Nov 05, 2009 8:10 am

I'm not sure why you would take such offense to a warning. Granted it wasn't a paragraph explaining the intricacies of why most people on this forum don't buy empi products but it doesn't need to be. There are threads and threads about it.

If you were about to get hit by a car would you get angry because someone yelled at you to move? I don't think so. Sometimes the messages that we share don't come out in manner we would like them to but by getting angry you are in effect no better. Sometimes when you ask for help from a group of strangers and one is more abrupt than the rest it is better to accept that personality because as stated you already asked for help, so you obviously need it.

Imagine for a moment you walked into an old garage and asked for help and the mechanic called your brand a piece of shit and told you to buy a real car. Would you lash back at him? I ask honestly because these are the types of people I learned from, if they didn't agree they would let you know. If you did something stupid they would call you an idiot and when you did it right they would smile that the car was fixed again. They carry with them years of experience even if they are a bit closed minded at time. I find the benefit of thier expierence far outweighs any feelings that they may have hurt in passing on thier knowledge.

Anyways. It's your car do it how you want. I am actually building an engine with a set of old empi DP manifolds with the rubber hose. I think it will work well for me. I am also porting the kadrons for a 74 federal dizzy. If the manifolds are of the china or previous version I have no idea but they are what I'm going with, despite empi being crap. If I have problems with them I will fix it when I get there.

With the duals you will also want to look at getting a hex bar linkage instead of the pressed aluminum tube or whatever comes with the kads. It will make them more maintenance free.

Thu Nov 05, 2009 12:14 pm

Yellowbeard wrote: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/info/engine_letters.php

Thanks for the link, I'll check it. When I was looking it over earlier, I thought I saw something in that area but it looked like it was rubbed out or worn down where it was difficult to read.

-EDIT: I checked the engine on the generator bracket and below that on the engine. Looked all around but didn't see any numbers. Is it possible that someone before has changed that part out with one that had no numbers on it? If so, any other way to ID it? --end

Thu Nov 05, 2009 12:57 pm

Gary wrote: :roll: I bet you wouldn't think twice about buying an engine from GEX.

LOL I am sure that will hurt a few on this board.