TheSamba.com :: View topic - 72 Vert Project-Continued

Mon May 16, 2011 5:50 pm

Yes, all the metal has to be in 100% bare metal.

Mon May 16, 2011 10:42 pm

swhitcomb wrote: Yes, all the metal has to be in 100% bare metal.

Im guessing you mean for powder coating Sean? Some sealer brands claim you can coat over the rust and it will not spread. I'll defenetly try the phos acid first before coating over any rust though. Thanks for the advice !

Tue May 17, 2011 1:41 am

Yeah sorry, should've quoted the post I was answering.

Tue May 17, 2011 5:51 pm

No Problem I figured you were talking about the tins. Maybe you could offer that service in the classifieds ! :P

Update: I picked up some Phos acid at Home Depot located in the landscape stone department &
went home to drain the gas tank of vinegar which was left in the tank for 3 days. After rinsing it out realized it seems the vinegar actually did a good job of removing the rust. After sprinkling some baking soda and pressure washing the tank this is how it looked. The flaking rust appears gone. Think it still needs some acid?

BEFORE:

AFTER:

While passing by the electrical department I picked up one of these fittings used for passing wires through junction boxes etc.
The idea was to use it as a connector to pass through the rear engine tin and feed the fuel line through.
This will hopefully protect against the notorious engine fires which is sometimes caused by the original rubber grommet wearing out and allowing the fuel line to get cut against the tin.
It has smoothed surfaces which should prevent weat to the fuel line.
Also added a small piece of vinyl hose which was flared on the ends using a heat gun. A 7 minute job which may prevent lots of heartache in the future. :roll:

Tue May 17, 2011 6:11 pm

There's a guy in there doing it already. Hate to take his business, he's been very helpful to me. I've done 4 engines now. Didn't charge for any of them. Of course, the 3 people who's cars I did other then mine helped with the process.

These are the latest 2:

I hadn't finished putting the Ghia together when that pic was taken.

Tue May 17, 2011 6:20 pm

That looks great ! Original tins too ...so much better than those repros that so many claim fit horribly.

Wed May 18, 2011 2:51 am

Yeah, I can attest to the poor fit. The German tins have deflectors welded in that the after market ones don't too. I've been going to the Bug Out and a few other local shows and buying ratty looking German stuff and cleaning it up and powder coating it. Looks brand new when I'm done and usually costs less then the new after market stuff. I get a lot of it for $1 or $2. That buggy we welded quite a few holes shut, and that shroud started life as a chrome Chinese shroud.

Back to your Ghia though. :) You're so close to being done! If you work hard you may make the fall Bug Out.

Wed May 18, 2011 8:53 pm

How did you remove the chrome? Do you usually sandblast the parts yourself or have people bring them to you already stripped of paint?

Thu May 19, 2011 2:48 am

I sandblast them. Chrome came off with a 7" sanding disk and sandblasting the corners. That's Deb's Buggy, and John did all the sandblasting on it. The hot pink is a 2 stage. White base and pink final coat.

That Buggy, Chad's 68 Ghia, my Ghia, and Chad's 66 beetle, all the cars our club has powder coated, will be at the Bug Out if you want to check them out in person.

Thu May 19, 2011 11:13 am

72Ghia wrote: While passing by the electrical department I picked up one of these fittings used for passing wires through junction boxes etc.
The idea was to use it as a connector to pass through the rear engine tin and feed the fuel line through.
This will hopefully protect against the notorious engine fires which is sometimes caused by the original rubber grommet wearing out and allowing the fuel line to get cut against the tin.
It has smoothed surfaces which should prevent weat to the fuel line.
Also added a small piece of vinyl hose which was flared on the ends using a heat gun. A 7 minute job which may prevent lots of heartache in the future. :roll:

That should work well. You can buy replacement grommets. Also a short piece of fuel line slipped over this section will work with clamps at either end. You can slit the fuel line open to make installation easier.

Thu May 19, 2011 11:19 am

Very nice work. Look forward to see the finished product, keep up the good work.

Thu May 19, 2011 6:30 pm

Thanks for the replies. I read where there used to be a service bulletin put out by Volkswagen informing mechanics to check or replace those grommets on a regular basis. Yes the metal sleeve is probably way overkill but is was a simple & inexpensive install. Wear from vibration is one thing but you can imagine what a hard enough whack from an accident could do to an unprotected fuel line passing through the engine tin.

UPDATE- The RedKote gas tank sealer worked very well. It has about the same consistency as warm pancake syrup but the fumes are noxious like contact cement.

It only took less than half the quart to coat the tank as per the instructions. Enough to do another tank. Guess I'll be coating the Beetle tank shortly :D It probably could use it too by now.

BTW- How many of you have been running the fuel filter under the gas tank vs. inside the engine compartment ? Is it still fairly easy to keep a check on this way?

Mon May 30, 2011 4:57 pm

Engine finally in. Waiting on a new oil cooler & other minor odds-n-ends to finish up.

Help from younger brother. Funny how many neighbors stopped by when they saw legs sticking out from under the car to make sure everything was alright.

Then it will be onto the wiring harness and lastly carpet & seats.

Mon Jun 06, 2011 10:19 pm

A few recent photos. Getting a little closer to completion.
Since most of the engine work is done I dropped off the replacement decklid to the painter & got it sprayed & put back on.

Minor tweaking needed . Decklid is sitting a little high on the right side even with the hinges lowered all the way down. Thinking of elongating the mounting holes out a little more to help correct this. Tried reducing the tension on the springs , no luck. It's about 3/16 too high.

Waiting on a few parts from Cip1 to wrap up the engine.

Also having some issues with the rain tray bottoming out on the fan shroud before lid shuts. Not sure what is going on there but it has been added to the"to do list" :roll: Fan shroud is all the way seated on cylinder tins Frame horns dont appear bent engine sits straight so Im a little stumped on this one !

Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:18 pm

Sat Jun 11, 2011 11:06 pm

72Ghia,

Great job on the car! It's coming along great. I hope you don't mind if I go back and ask a question on the convertible top.

Do you have a good seal at the rear window bottom-rear corners? My car has about 3/4-inch gap between the window and the top at both corners, such that any water on the rear window flows right past the seal and overflows the drain channel along the bottom of the window. I can't figure out how to adjust it, or if any adjustment is possible. Does yours seal reasonably, and how did you adjust it to get a good seal? (Or did it all come together with no adjustment needed?)

Thank you.

P.S. I put the fuel filter between where the hard line exits the body and the other hard line goes to the engine (near the transmission). That seems to be the most recommended spot from discussions here on the Samba.

Sat Jun 11, 2011 11:30 pm

The rear glass seals fairly well but just like you mentioned there is about 1/8" gap at the corners. At first the entire seal did not seem to to be laying tight against the glass until the interior side of the fabric below the seal was pulled tight onto the metal spikes . This fabric should have some wire running through it as reinforcement to keep the spikes from tearing through the fabric.
You might want to check with Vince "Ghiaddict" first who documented the entire installation process. I carefully followed his thread and everything turned out better than expected. I did also notice the bottom of the angles of the seal are curling outwards. Im thinking this might of been caused by the top shrinking since it was purchased by the previous owner about 10 years ago but never installed. Im not sure if adjusting the rear cable would make any changes to the bottom seal, Im guessing it is there to put tension along the top of the seal to press against the rear glass.
I'd probabably check the fabric tension inside the car under the window and see if that makes any difference. Anyone else having this issue?

As for the fuel filter I just installed it under the gas tank.
Hopefully it will work ok there. I figured the the less connections near the exhaust the better. Easy enough to yank the front tire on occation to check on it. :P

Mon Jul 11, 2011 2:15 pm

While waiting on a wiring harness to arrive I fabricated a faceplate to install a modern Alpine in the glove box. I wanted to leave the original Saphire radio in the dash for a stock look.

Tue Jul 26, 2011 9:41 pm

New wire harness installed after 4 evenings. Gave up on using the instructions supplied with the loom and went back to the original VW diagram. Mainly because original chart specifies wire thickness ( major help) & various terminal number designations. Plus original is provided in color. All were very helpful in confirming correct connections. The loom seemed to be good quality but instructions were poor.
A few wires too short even after several different routing paths and finally just had to be extended. Supplied by California Pacific. They have been good to deal with so far.

The harness still looks like spagetti under the dash. I dont think there is much that can be done to clean it up without lenghtening certain wires. Some are only long enough to make it from point A to point B without much play for clean routing. Might just zip tie what can be grouped and let it roll as is. Original harness looked similar to spagetti as well :?

Wed Jul 27, 2011 11:00 am

Great job! The wheels look great!