STL 1973 Thing

[ente_kaefer]

[ente_kaefer]

Yea, ready to roll !!

Car passed inspection with no issues, and I was able to get license plates as well today.

Weather be damned, I just *had* to use the Thing for some errands this afternoon. It was rather 'brisk' driving as the temp's were in the low 30's this afternoon, I am missing one window for the car, so I drove with only the rear windows installed.

Need to update my list of 'tweaks' to get accomplished before heading to Kubel Treffen Ost !!

[ente_kaefer]

After I finished work today, weather was rather decent out here on the frontier, so I grabbed a wire attachment for my drill, some sandpaper, and steel wool and proceeded to grid off layers of paint and rust on the four rims on my car. Yea, all four rims are stamped 5JK x 14, ET 32.5, so it appears I have all stock 14 inch rims. The spare is a 4J x 15, with a date code of 9/61, so I will need to replace that.

Getting closer to Kubel Treffen East, now I need to replace the tires . . .

[mondshine]

Looks great Mike-
Got to love the tag in the windshield!

Last year, I replaced all 5 of my tires with Yokohama Y356 195-75-14.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Y...;tab=Sizes

So far-so good with the tires; the 25.8 diameter puts my speedometer pretty much in line with my GPS. The spare fits nicely in the trunk.

See you in Dayton, Mondshine

[ente_kaefer]

Made time to perform a 'field expedient repair' to the two ripped sections of my roof with materials I purchased about 18 months ago. I used black denim material that I purchased from Hobby Lobby, cut, and then applied to roof with spray contact cement on the cloth as well as roof.

I also located a buggered up, Austrian zeltbahn to use to cover the rear seats in the car. The camo pattern actually looks pretty good against the orange paint, if I can locate some more, I may see about having seat covers made from the zeltbahns for the car.

[ente_kaefer]

Replaced all four tires with Douglas Xtra Trac II radials, 205/75 R 14. Wow, what a difference from what was on the car !

Now I need to pull the left rear drum, and tap the stripped threads on the drum with a 14mm x 1.5 tap, and then locate three 14mm lug bolts.

[JayC]

Looks great!

[mondshine]

Mike-
Both of my rear drums have been re-tapped to 14mm x 1.5 since I managed to strip a couple 12mm bores several years ago.
The lug bolts are from a late (4 lug) Beetle; cheap, and easy pickings at your local junk yard.

[ente_kaefer]

[mondshine]

Mike-
I re-tapped all of the holes on my rear drums while they were off, just because the drums are a pain in the neck to remove. I did not need to shorten the late Beetle lug bolts; no clearance issues.

90 LbFt is good for the 14x1.5 lug bolts.

No VW junk yards near St.Louis? You should be able to harvest 10 of them for $5-$10.

Good luck, Mondshine

[ente_kaefer]

[ente_kaefer]

I was able to pull both of the rear drums, and tap them from 12 x 1.5 to 14 x 1.5. Good thing I was able to purchase 16 really nice 14 x 1.5 lug bolts from The Samba classifieds, lesson learned for me is to not use the aftermarket 12 x 1.5 lug bolts.

Job was made easier in that since new rear brake cylinders, brake shoes, and springs were installed it was not that difficult to remove the nut that secures the rear brake drum to the drive shaft. My circa late 1980's Craftsman torque wrench only goes to 160 foot pounds, so I tightened the rear drum bolts as best as I could, installing new cotter pins.

Next on the list, two of the 6mm studs came out of the drain plate housing on the engine block when I removed them, so I need to replace them as well as the cap nuts.

I have a replacement roof ordered from Convertible Specialties, it will be interesting to see how the instillation goes.

Also waiting on a CSP finned sump plate so I can installed a VDO oil temperature gauge.

Depending on the day job, in theory, I would like to get all accomplished on the car so I can make a 'dry run' for Kubel Treffen East by trying to make it to the GROOVE VW event in Springfield, MO on SAT, 06/13/2015,
http://groovevws.com/content.aspx?page_id=87&club_id=813651&item_id=400133. If not, a run to Hermann, MO . . .

[ente_kaefer]

Still trying to get all that needs to get accomplished on my car, the 'Day Job' has been crazy, well, it does pay the bills as well as my all too many hobbies and interests . . .

Progress, I have gone from . . .

. . . so that I could pull all four rims to grind off old paint from the stock rims, and prime each rim. After I mounted the rims back onto the car, I liked the look of the Rustoleum, red, primer, so for now they will remain that way. I also readjusted all of the drum brakes in preparation of bleeding the brake system.

To . . .

With the car on ramps on the front, it will make it a lot easier to bleed the brakes. Not long after I purchased the car, I pulled the gas tank to sand it down, prime, and painted with undercoating. It was then that I determined that a previous owner replaced the steel fuel line with 1/4 inch fuel line from the front to the rear of the car. Great . . .

The concern I have is the age of the fuel line, and what it is rubbing against inside the tunnel to the rear of the car. I located within the Type 1 section of The Samba some good guides on replacing the metal fuel line, although I will admit, it does not look like it will be a 'fun' job. I am leaning towards running the line through conduit on the right, outside of the tunnel, over the bit of metal that covers wires going to the rear of the car. Wir werden sehen . . .

I also replaced the speedometer in the car with one from a 1970 Type 1, I like the larger numbers . . .

I noticed that when replacing the speedometer that a previous owner had 'repaired' some wiring using black and red wires. Great . . .

So, as it stands right now, my list of things to do is . . .

- Bleed brake system
- Replace voltage regulator and fuel pump
- Rebuilt and adjust the carburetor
- Sort out wiring mess behind the front dash
- Get the replacement roof installed on frame
- Rebuild all four side windows

And any other 'stuff' I encounter while performing tasks listed above.

[imtb]

Looks good, nice find for St. Louis.

[ente_kaefer]

It has taken at least 18 months to get all of the items identified that need to be corrected and fixed with my vehicle, however, it will now start, idle, accelerate, stop, water will no longer will leak through the roof when it rains, and I now have heat !

A ‘Special Mention in Dispatches’ for Jason Douglas of Midwest Air Cooled and Machine, in Arnold, Missouri. For any Samba members in the St. Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area, you may know him from Archway Import’s; he now has his own shop. I was hitting crunch time in terms of time to get all of the work completed on my vehicle; Jason was able to complete it all, and his attention to detail as well quality of work is outstanding!

Jason was able to install a complete BN-4 gas heater system that I purchased from The Samba classifieds, as well as install a replacement roof for my vehicle from The Thing Shop. While he had the car, I also ordered from The Thing Shop a five point show / roll bar and had it installed, and had him install CSP front disc brakes on the vehicle.

So, if you are in the St. Louis, Missouri area, and see an orange Thing in South County, or Jefferson County, odds are it is I . . .

[ente_kaefer]

To the best of my knowledge, there is only one area of my vehicle that has significant rust, that being, the area to the left of the lower hinge of the drivers side door.

I believe I found the source, a missing body plug.

Now I need to determine what the part number is for the body plug is, and replace all missing on the vehicle.

Argh, somehow The Samba 'flipped' the pictures after I uploaded them . . .

[Ron Domeck]

The Thing Shop has these. They are called body caps. This area is very common rust area.

[GI Joe]

[ente_kaefer]

[ente_kaefer]