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Sat Sep 03, 2022 8:49 am

Turns out the Wilwood brake bleeder screws were puking brake fluid all over my fancy wheels in a couple of places.
Flinging brake fluid all over inner fenderwells and suspension parts and... :roll:

Bleeder screws were (hopefully [-o< ) just leaking from the adaptor to the caliper body, so I JB-Welded all of them in after a meticulous cleaning.

Here Jeff got an artsy shot of me messing with something else (Anything else!) than those leaky-ass brake calipers.

'Critter1' Justin turned me on to this small SpinTech muffler that i fabbed up to work with my S&S header.
Along with a bit of suspension raise, this should stay off the driveway.

Found another S&S on the classys thanks to a tip from Damon.
Was dented up pretty good, though.
Trying a trick where you pressurize the system, then heat up dents cherry red to get them popped back out.
Wasn't working with a mapp gas torch, so it got sent to Darren.
He didn't seem to want to do it though so i might have to get my own oxy torch.

My local ceramic coater went tits up.
Can't find another in the whole bay area.
Can ship this to Jet Hot for coating,
But hard to stomach $459.80 plus shipping for just this:

Shifting was being sloppy and found it came loose inside the tunnel again.
Shift ball was moving, and looking inside you can see porosity.

JB-Weld to the rescue again!

A good double-nutting plus some lock-tite and hopefully it'll stay this time.

A but more clutch travel can often improve shifting so i ordered a later longer pedal hook,
But,
Drat,
Already had one in.

At the top of the pic you'll see the pedal stop was still in place.
Cutting it off should hopefully help a bit.

Hope springs eternal..

Sat Sep 03, 2022 9:25 am

Seats were overstuffed when they did them.
Couple that with not able to slide very far back, -or- recline much,
And you can have a real crap driving position.

Here my legs were bent, my belly touching the wheel, and my head almost on the headliner.
Driving the thing like that makes even an old man feel silly.

First step was to rip the seat bottoms down and shave some foam using grandma's old electric steak knife.

Followed that with some blending using a flap-wheel on an angle grinder.
A bit lower seating and also a bit of side-bolster.
Nice to have a win.

Flattened the stock seat track back-stop down and welded in another.
Two more clicks back should help.
Let's just hope the seat doesn't fall off the tracks one day.

No pic, but i also ovaled out the holes in the seat bases where the cams come through.
They're already ovaled, but i extended the holes upwards.
This, along with shaving down the flat on the seat cam where it's in full recline.
That gave a bit more recline to the back.

Three small steps for an improved driving position..
Hopefully i won't come back from every drive quite so pissed off anymore.

Speaking of pissed off...
How much grief can one fuel gauge give?
I'm starting to think it's best to just give up on having a fuel gauge on these cars.
Kind of like most guys do with wipers.
Around here, only about 20% of the cars even have wipers, and the rest probably don't even work.
Ovals didn't have fuel gauges - likely because VW gave up trying.

So the gauge was NOS, but decided to peg itself past full.
Taking it apart, the needle would jam against the face at full full.
Bending the needle a bit inwards kept it from doing this,
And grounding the wire, it pegged full, but open, it returns correctly.

Yay! fixed! right?
Wrong!
Gauge would work grounded or open but not with the sender.
Using a meter is supposedly possible to test a sender but all i ever got was a needle jumping around wildly.

So i rigged up a test to tip the sender upside down and rightside up and watch the needle move.
Supposedly... :roll:
All this would give me is a reading of mostly full to totally full.
Since the gauge tested right open or grounded, i ordered a new sender from ISP.

Still no love.. :(
Behaves the same as the sender i have.

So I guess I'm back to the gauge again..
Unfortunately i gave away the two other old gas gauges i had.

Anybody have an old gas gauge they'll sell?
Couple i tried listed here didn't get back to me...

Just to add insult, the sender leaked fuel and ruined tank paint.

Stripping/sanding/Epoxy/high-build/sanding/base/clear/cut/buff.
Ever get this sense of deja-vu?
Sucks to drag out stuff and clean the gun and all for just one little spot.

My rebuild Jim Adney sender was obviously overtightened..

Also the ISP senders supposedly have a float inside that quits floating.

Good God!
How much grief can a fuel gauge give?

I hate this car.

On a happier note.
TMI sold me another carpet set to replace the one i cut wrong.

Gotta take the wins when they come, right?

Sat Sep 03, 2022 10:40 am

Um, yeah. You have been busy. With such a detailed build, Id expect a lot of SUCK chasing.

Still looks cool as hell. 😎🤙🌺

Sat Sep 03, 2022 10:54 am

Looking better every day Steve! Can’t wait to see her on the road! 8)

Sat Sep 03, 2022 12:11 pm

Steve, you might want to run a separate ground wire from the sending unit to the body, and see if that helps clear up your problem. I've done that before on a car that had a glitchy sending unit. Turns out too much paint was causing a grounding problem. Just something to keep in mind.

Sat Sep 03, 2022 5:22 pm

Bobnotch wrote: Steve, you might want to run a separate ground wire from the sending unit to the body, and see if that helps clear up your problem. I've done that before on a car that had a glitchy sending unit. Turns out too much paint was causing a grounding problem. Just something to keep in mind.

Ya, i paint all my junk so I’m super well versed in ground issues..
Way harder those negative grounds vs. regular wiring running on the hot side for sure.

Unfortunately that’s not the case here..

:(

Sat Sep 03, 2022 5:58 pm

Seasurfnbird wrote: Looking better every day Steve! Can’t wait to see her on the road! 8)

Yeahman..!

Car needs to be back in its proper habitat;
The girls really do seem to enjoy being together.

Sat Sep 03, 2022 7:32 pm

Clatter wrote: Seasurfnbird wrote: Looking better every day Steve! Can’t wait to see her on the road! 8)

Yeahman..!

Car needs to be back in its proper habitat;
The girls really do seem to enjoy being together.

Never a bad picture of that car. Hope it starts behaving so that you can drive it without worry, you certainly deserve that.

Tue Sep 06, 2022 9:42 am

Clatter wrote: A good double-nutting plus some lock-tite and hopefully it'll stay this time.

This just made my brain tick. I work at an old Chrysler dealership with inventory eons old. anyway, check out what I remembered I have on my shelf! However the issue you may find with it is the fact that the treads are not metric they're 3/8-16

Thu Sep 08, 2022 8:51 am

Not to brag but while my car may look like a turd, my fuel gauge AND windshield wipers work :wink:

Progress is progress Steve, one more thing done is one less thing to do down the road. And seriously, my sympathies on the fuel gauge electrical gremlins. I despise electronics, it's all a bunch of hocus-pocus and voodoo inside electric gizmos.

Thu Sep 08, 2022 10:15 am

Bobnotch wrote: Steve, you might want to run a separate ground wire from the sending unit to the body, and see if that helps clear up your problem. I've done that before on a car that had a glitchy sending unit. Turns out too much paint was causing a grounding problem. Just something to keep in mind.

this is exactly what i did and my gauge has been rock solid ever since. give this a shot. :wink:

Thu Sep 08, 2022 11:02 am

VWporscheGT3 wrote: Bobnotch wrote: Steve, you might want to run a separate ground wire from the sending unit to the body, and see if that helps clear up your problem. I've done that before on a car that had a glitchy sending unit. Turns out too much paint was causing a grounding problem. Just something to keep in mind.

this is exactly what i did and my gauge has been rock solid ever since. give this a shot. :wink:

Same on my Notchback.

Tue Sep 27, 2022 9:19 am

A bunch of little stuff happened...

Thanks to Jon for the fuel gauge.
Can tell how much gas is in the tank now! \:D/

Got a really good final alignment on the thing this time.
On four ramps to load the suspension,
Two big long extruded aluminum straight-edges from my man Karl run along both sides.

Got them floating at just the right height to hit sidewalls.
Shows front/rear alignment, toe, just perfectly.
Get them tight to both rear tires, then put a tape measure across.

Wrote numbers down on the blue tape to get it all 100%.

Shortening rear spring plates finally allowed zero-toe rear.
Also coming up two clicks pulled the top of the tires out a bit.
Muffler stays off the driveway now! :D
Had to trim a bit from underneath the fender lip on the right side.
Why is it VWs are always so crooked in the the rear?? :-k :-k :-k

Sitting out every night in the dew took a toll on things.
Paint had a bit of micro pitting.
Chrome looked scary but thankfully came back with a polish.

FIVE full days of buffing brought it back into line.
Big thanks to Xev for the help.
Work area shot:

Still didn't do underneath - enough of that already.
What's done is done.

Took the car to our local cars n' coffee.
Was really surprised how much of a reaction the car got.
Lots of really nice old Detroit iron at this event.
Those guys can appreciate a shiny car a lot more than the VW crowd these days.

Funny, Don showed up in an unrestored original body-bumper barndoor deluxe Samba,
And the V8 crowd didn't really comprehend what they were seeing there.
While that kind of thing is ultra holy grail in VW world,
You could see a kind of perplexed inspection from the hot rod guys..
:lol:

Anyways, it's back together and running with the major bugs worked out.
Still shifts a bit vague but I'm thinking that's just a Porsche trans for you.

Other than that, it's ready for some driving.
Just in time for the winter rains! :P

Thanks again to all who follow and help.
Takes a village..

Tue Sep 27, 2022 9:50 am

8) 🍻

It looks like Kevin brought you some shit PNW weather :lol:

Tue Sep 27, 2022 10:03 am

But did mom dig it?

That’s one of the nicest sounding VW engines I’ve heard in the wild. If not the nicest 8)

Keep up the good fight Steve!

For my very small contributions to the fasty I was rewarded with amazing wine, beer, food, and friends. Sniff.

Mrs Clatter sent me back to Portland with a cornucopia beer and wine.

Steve turned me on to Tommy Bolin. I had no idea #-o

Tue Sep 27, 2022 10:09 am

Clatter wrote:
And the V8 crowd didn't really comprehend what they were seeing there.
While that kind of thing is ultra holy grail in VW world,
You could see a kind of perplexed inspection from the hot rod guys..
:lol:

I find that the V8 and JDM guys are far more appreciative and genuinely enjoy seeing VW's and Type 3's specifically. Even with my Sh*tbox i get so many thumbs up , COOL CAR DUDE! and random folks wanting to talk with you about the VW they had back in the day than I have ever got going to a VW show. I think the straight up VW events are far more critical of anything that isn't their buddies car or a club car... Sad really

Glad you got it out and about Bro!

Tue Sep 27, 2022 11:41 am

Rad! Glad to see it out and about. I need to get over to Santa Cruz one of these weekends and check it out in person.

Tue Sep 27, 2022 3:12 pm

Good to see you out and about with it Steve. That's how you find the bugs, so you can fix them. Still looks damn good though. 8)

Sat Oct 07, 2023 4:12 pm

Hi Steve!

It was good to see this car in person today at wharf invasion. What a gem!

Cheers!
Anton

Sun Oct 08, 2023 9:08 am

Hey hey my man.
Good to finally hook up with a fellow local after so many years.

While a VW car show certainly is NOT my thing,
it is great to meet up with a couple fellow VW nuts.
I get super stoked when someone comes along who can appreciate the amount of work done here.

Got a great spot this time next to some cool bus people who had shade -and- beer!
Made the whole "sit around all day and talk about it" show thing better.

I love driving my car so much, it's really not a show car anymore.
Didn't even wash it for this event. :oops:
Plus,
It doesn't have a roof rack, air-ride, Dynamat, safari window, etc. :roll:

Always come away from these events swearing 'never again!',
But hooking up with a couple new VW heads makes it worth it.