Rust2Rods 1967 Air Ride Beetle Journal

[Rust2Rods]

Well, I really have not done much on the beetle since the weather this year has been a lot colder than normal. We have seen temps in Jan -14 through -16f. Too cold to even think about doing anything outside. And yes the garage is heated, but at that temperature it takes almost days to get it warm enough to work. So instead, I have been buying parts for a new motor build. A while back in the journal I bought a supposed "fresh build" 1776 type 1 motor. Well after tearing it down, the cam, lifters, crank and bearings were wiped out. It was the motor that had the dellorto's on it. Well only thing I can figure is either the guy that had the motor originally didn't break it in properly, or washed the motor down with those dellortos causing the failure. Either way, the motor was torn down.

So the plan is now, bumping it up to an 1835 since the machine work was freshly done. The case is in good shape, so new cam, lifters, bearings, crank. Heads are a set of large valve heads that have been ported and polished. I have a set of 1/25 ratio rockers for it as well. 12lb lightened flywheel... it should go just fine...Hopefully the parts will be in soon for that and I can start putting that together with the help from a local drag racer. (Prescott Phillips)

Stay Tuned....
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Check out my project journal here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=477711

[Rust2Rods]

Today we started working on the new 1835 build for the car. Prescott Phillips is walking me through the build. He's doing the machine work and showing me how to put this whole thing together. We started by building the short block. This was the motor that I had picked up on Craigslist. Basically it was a supposed "fresh" 1776 motor. Well after digging into it, the cam, lifters, crank and bearings were all wiped out. I had figured that the Dellorto's that I got with the motor were put on, washed the oil out on the motor and wiped everything out.

The block was mic'ed and checked. Everything looked to be just fine. All the numbers were good. Until... we started to assemble it. Everything was going well until we torqued the case up. After some trial and error we figured out that the rear main case journal had something amiss. Prescott put the line boring tool in with only the rear cutter installed. Case was re-cut at 20 thou. After looking at the re-cut we noticed that 3/4 of the cut was done and there was a 1/4 of the cut that wasn't touched. This didn't look right. Did a quick test fit on everything. Put the halves together and the rotating assembly felt fine... started to torque it down, and it started to get tight again. Come to find out that when the rear of the case was torqued down the rotating assembly got tight again..... The only thing that we can figure is either the line bore that was done wasn't "true" or the case wasn't torqued and assembled properly when it was line bored.... So back apart again...

Now, the decision was made to open the case from the .020 that it was when I got it and re-line bore it to a fresh and true .040 Which means I now have to order another set of bearings... Oh well.. at least it will be done right this time.

Tomorrow will be gasket matching the HPMX intakes to the big valve heads and port and polish them.

I would have taken pics, but right now it's pretty boring until we really start putting it all together.

Stay tuned.
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Check out my project journal here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=477711

[TrentSuncloud]

Hey Rust2Rods, was wondering if you could pm me or email me, I have something to discuss with you. My email is [email protected]. Thanks alot

[Rust2Rods]

Well the motor assembly has begun. Case was re-line bored to .040 checked and assembly has begun. Here are some photos of the build. A big thanks goes out to Prescott Phillips who pretty much did all the work, but took the time to show me how to go about it. So here goes....
Here is a shot of the heads that are going to be used. 40mm intake 35mm exhaust. Gasket matched ports, ported and polished on the intake runners and in the manifolds.

The heads were CC'ed and measured out at 52cc's

Brand new set of pistons and barrels for the motor. 92mm x 69mm =1835

Checking the deck height on the motor.

A shot of the internals. You can see the counter weighted crank, and the stock rods.

After checking the deck height, it was determined that we needed to give a little clearance for the deck height. Rather than adding shims, compression ratio was calculated and Prescott decided to flycut the heads.

Here's the end result. You can barely tell, but it's been cut.

Later valvetrain was installed, 1.25 ratio rockers installed, rocker geometry was checked, Manton pushrods cut and assembled. Engine is now a long block and waiting for fitment of the engine tin and the rest of the parts. I will get photos as I go along with doing that. I will also be powder coating the engine tin and fitting everything.
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Check out my project journal here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=477711

[zodlaw]

I was going to ask you if you notched your spring plates or not. I am going to do bags in the back. Right now I am hitting my spring plates on my 69 bug but if I clearance them it looks like the brake lines will come in contact with the shock tower in the back. I did look through your pics but I did not see anything about that. Thanks for any pointers.
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68 build that had been sitting for 18yr in a garage.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8119987#8119

Bagged 69 pile (SOLD)
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=591100&start=0

[Rust2Rods]

Hey zodlaw,

I did not notch the rear spring plates. The only thing I did was remove the bump stops, and the trailing arms and bags were worked into figuring the rear height and total drop.
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Check out my project journal here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=477711

[dorf_online]

I just found this journal, absolutely what I needed. Great job! Any progress?

[Rust2Rods]

The progress has been slowed down. Currently the body is undergoing bodywork. Hoping by this summer it will be in paint and joined back to the pan. Once the progress for this picks up again I will start posting. I am currently working on a 64 beetle with air ride while this one is getting the body work done. I am guilty of not updating these journals as much as I should, but a lot of that comes down to the amount of spare time I have. Most of the work I have been doing is completed before it gets posted. The biggest problem I am running into is managing all the photos. Uploading them to the samba is a time consuming process and with the changes to google's picasa It's way more effort now than it should be. I will have to look into something that's a little easier for me to keep these journals updated.

Here's a link to the 64 build if you're interested.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=602657&highlight=rust2rods
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Check out my project journal here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=477711

[VolkDubz]

pretty neat read through, well done!

[Low-n-broke]

Have to ask as i cant find one, where did you get the brake master cylinder with the tank on top? I like that way better !!

[zodlaw]

cip1 they sell the parts you need.
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68 build that had been sitting for 18yr in a garage.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8119987#8119

Bagged 69 pile (SOLD)
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=591100&start=0

[Low-n-broke]

Thx

[Drewmon]

[59rusty]

Great thread did you ever get it finished?

[Rust2Rods]

Hey Rusty. Believe it or not, it's still in progress. The build has slowed due to my regular job, other projects and waiting for the bodywork to be done by someone else. I am hoping that I get the body back sometime between this spring to early summer to get the project back on track. I have 4 vehicles, 3 are in project stages. Once the body is back and in paint, it will go together relatively quick. After this one is completed the next project will start which is a 61 Ghia Convertible.
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Check out my project journal here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=477711

[Rust2Rods]

Drewmon,
The rods are offroad Empi thru rods. You can use allthread, however I'd never do this. Alllthread is much too soft in my opinion and personally I wouldn't trust it.

The thread diameter is 1/2"-20 The thru rods that you buy for offroad are usually too long for a narrowed beam. I re-thread them and cut to size as needed.

Since I started this journal, I've progressed quite a bit by doing air ride on Link Pin front ends, swing axle and also building beams from scratch (Link pin and Ball joint).

As far as the ride, I have a 64 Beetle I put on air ride in this journal:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6...p;start=20

It rides about the same to be honest as a stock beam. Sometimes a bit harder when fully aired up but for the most part, you really can't tell.
_________________
Check out my project journal here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=477711