TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sun Sep 03, 2023 5:41 pm

Quote: I hate that type of easy out but my favourite extractor was no match either. So I ended up drilling the bolt until I could chip the pieces out while trying to do as little damage as possible to the threads on the nut welded on. In the end, I won.

I have never had any success with easy-out of any kind. Your method is the only one I have been able to make work.

Keep it coming!

Don

Thu Sep 07, 2023 10:09 pm

sunroof wrote: I have never had any success with easy-out of any kind. Your method is the only one I have been able to make work.

Yup, even the ones I like are only good to a certain point. It's pretty satisfying when they do work, though. Thankfully I haven't broken too many fasteners.

Thu Sep 07, 2023 11:21 pm

Starter

Pretty simple tear-down and rebuild. Can't remember too many snags. 1958 (I think) Bosch 6V starter, rebuilt at least once by Wilson in Winnipeg. Bench checked it, tore it down, removed the internal parts and reassembled empty to glass bead. Then reassembled and painted as an assembly. Didn't need new brushes. Works great!

Floor Mats

The original floor mats cleaned up nice. They aren't perfect but they're better than some. Little bit of dawn, little bit of toothpaste, a lot of scrubbing. I have all four.

Then I was itching to be able to move the car around so I bought some tires. I threw some porta walls on there for fun shop glam shots. :D She really wanted outside.

Now I can roll it, now I can "bench" test the engine before I rebuild it. 1955 36hp unit I had picked up in 2019.

This one is just trying to get it started.

This is it "idling" ... if you touched the carb it died. If you thought about the carb it died.

Mon Sep 11, 2023 12:12 am

Sunday night update.

The engine ran and we could keep it running but not smoothly. Compression was OK, the carb and fuel pump both needed a rebuild, the V-belt was way too big and the generator pulley and hub had paid the price for it, and the J-tubes were rotten. It could have been used as-is in a pinch but I really just wanted to tear it all apart.

Disassembly.

Most of the odd cyl.head nuts are there ... some aren't.

Cylinders looked pretty good.

Generator pulley damage

Spoiler. Fixed 'em.

Other than the J-tubes the heater boxes look pretty good and they're complete.

Yum

Cleaned up nicely after de-greasing and hot tank.

End of 2020 I got the case halves back from Chem treatment, oil galley tap and plug, and a re-ground 20/20 crank.

Cleaned out the oil galleys until they ran clear. Or "galleries" for whoever likes it that way ... I was taught too long ago that it was galley to change now.

At this point I was waiting for hardware so I started digging into other things.

Cut the J-tubes out of the heater boxes.

All the thermostat stuff was gone and I wanted it back so I had been collecting pieces. The first support rod I got was bent so I found another ... bent, so I took them both to a local machine shop and they straightened them out for me. Now I have a spare.

More to come. :shock:

Mon Sep 11, 2023 6:35 am

Enjoying this post and your progress...keep it going!

Sun Sep 17, 2023 10:04 pm

chicagovw wrote: Enjoying this post and your progress...keep it going!

Thanks! I'm still plugging away.

Sun Sep 17, 2023 10:07 pm

Quick real-time update.

The mounts from Wolf Parts fit much nicer.

Mon Sep 18, 2023 12:35 am

Got the hardware back and engine assembly could begin.

Plugged/sealed up the oil galleys.

The little push-rod guide plates were one of the most tedious things to install, every time I'd get the plate in the correct position I'd screw it up torquing it down. Got it done eventually, though.

I read somewhere to put the main bearings in the bare case and mark them in their correct position so you can see the marks while installing the crank and correct them if they spin out of position.
Crank build up and installed with cam ... and photo evidence that they're correctly timed. I doubted the accuracy of this photo later.

I used permatex aviation sealant on both case halves (same as the gearbox cases) and permatex ultra slick assembly lube. Pardon the messy bench.

Case halves together. Yay!

A couple quick before and after pics ... before I split the cases again. ](*,)

Torqued the cases and there was almost no turning the engine over and zero possibility of end play check. I was a little disappointed but I do enjoy a good trouble shooting session (even though, in the back of my mind, I knew the cause). Gotta go through the motions though, and at this point I was just glad I did the little "marking the main bearing" thing because I knew that they were in correctly and not the issue. Kinda. Next, I loosened the case half nuts around each main bearing and sure enough, when I loosened around the little 4th bearing everything relaxed.
Bit of backstory: Cases were line-bored (twice maybe) at some point but only the 1st three bearing journals were done. The little 4th was left alone. I can't remember now but I think the 1st three were 2nd over and the 4th was 1st over. Regardless ... instead of buying 2 sets of main bearings a decision was made to buy 2nd over bearings and turn the OD of the 4th down. This ended up being the problem as the OD and ID were out of concentricity by about 0.003" ... or enough to mess things up.

A little isopropyl alcohol and a couple day old permatex comes off pretty easily.

I don't always measure concentricity, but when I do I'm gonna be sure.

Back in business.

Flywheel (and a spare) turned.

Pots and pistons cleaned and ready

Oil pump and sump covers cleaned up. Pump cover lapped.

Coil painted black and a new sticker.

Oil pump and sump cover installed

Crank pulley and the tin cleaned up then I can do end play.

End play, rear main seal. No issues.

Bed time!

Mon Sep 18, 2023 1:13 am

Good old Princess Auto, what would we do without you!

Don

Mon Sep 18, 2023 8:31 am

Nice work! Coming together nicely!

Tue Sep 19, 2023 8:55 am

I once had a '59 deluxe in Capri blue that I bought for $50 and drove for over 2 years. One day I was changing the oil and found a 6mm nut in the oil pan. I knew immediately what it was and that it was time for a rebuild. Sure enough the nut had come off the locator plate and the plate had worked it way down to the camshaft and tore everything to shreds filling the engine with shrapnel. That was the end of that motor.

Don

Sat Sep 23, 2023 12:03 am

sunroof wrote: Good old Princess Auto, what would we do without you!Don

lol No doubt. That drawer full of tools that get used once for a single job would be way smaller and wayyy more expensive (I've been known to be a tool snob from time to time, though).

sunroof wrote: Sure enough the nut had come off the locator plate and the plate had worked it way down to the camshaft and tore everything to shreds filling the engine with shrapnel. That was the end of that motor.

Well if I wasn't worried about installing those plates correctly before, I am now. Any pictures of the carnage?

VW_Jimbo wrote: Nice work! Coming together nicely!

Thanks!

Sat Sep 23, 2023 1:43 am

Friday Night Update

Still in 2021 -

Little local shop rebuilt my heads. Cleaned the pushrod tubes up.

Painting tin for assembly ... what it looks like when you bake parts that you painted in high humidity. I think.

Pots, pistons, heads, oil cooler, and the little 010 (that I didn't use)

Engine tin cleaned up, added wiring clips that were missing and fixed a fancy crack at one of the coil nut plates. Powder coated semi-gloss black.

Next I worked on mocking up the exhaust. CSP stainless muffler and WW j-tubes. I wanted to make sure everything fit seperately first and then mark position and fit together.

Then I got the J-tube stuck in the muffler so I took a break from that for a little while.

Intake manifold cleaned up. Heat riser tube completely plugged and a small crack. Cleaned out the heat riser with a modified Fania brand E-brake cable on the drill. Fixed the crack. Satin black cerakote.

I was still annoyed at the exhaust so I decided to try my luck with the fuel pump. I made myself a tool based on something I saw on here and in the manual and modified it as the install tool.

Ultrasonic cleaner was perfect for doing this type of job. Just 5 minutes with dawn alone was enough to removed most of the varnish from the valve and spring seat. Last pic is after a few turns in the cleaner.

Couple pics from assembly.

Back to the exhaust. Mocked up where it's supposed to be. Now just to weld it in place and clean it all up.

Sun Sep 24, 2023 10:27 pm

Quote: sunroof wrote:
Sure enough the nut had come off the locator plate and the plate had worked it way down to the camshaft and tore everything to shreds filling the engine with shrapnel. That was the end of that motor.

Well if I wasn't worried about installing those plates correctly before, I am now. Any pictures of the carnage?

That was 33 years ago and it didn't occur to me to take pictures because I didn't have any film in my Pentax.

Don

Thu Sep 28, 2023 1:03 am

sunroof wrote: That was 33 years ago and it didn't occur to me to take pictures because I didn't have any film in my Pentax.

Ah the nineties. I've still got a couple rolls of undeveloped film from back then.

On the topic of carnage. We had another engine come into the shop that a blade liberated itself and went through. High pressure compressor rotor ... before and after.

Thu Sep 28, 2023 8:18 am

RustPatch wrote: sunroof wrote: That was 33 years ago and it didn't occur to me to take pictures because I didn't have any film in my Pentax.

Ah the nineties. I've still got a couple rolls of undeveloped film from back then.

On the topic of carnage. We had another engine come into the shop that a blade liberated itself and went through. High pressure compressor rotor ... before and after.

DAMN! Would not want to be flying in that when that let the ghost out! That’s a bad day for sure!

Sat Sep 30, 2023 11:18 am

VW_Jimbo wrote: DAMN! Would not want to be flying in that when that let the ghost out! That’s a bad day for sure!

Nope. Me neither.

Sat Sep 30, 2023 12:16 pm

Updates from 2022.

Started rebuilding the carb. Ultrasonic with lemon juice. Kinda stinks but cleaned really nicely.

Really starting to work all over the place. Started to get the body ready for metal work. Removing the undercoating from the wheel wells.

New shocks, needed to add some colour. Koni 80-1349 & 80-1350. Mika's front shock lock plates repros fit nicely.

Next I worked on the brake lines. I wasn't 100% happy with any of the pre-made stuff I tried so I bought a roll of copper-nickel brake line, a bunch of stainless fittings, and all the tools I needed and made my own.

These rear ones were the hardest and I couldn't make it happen with the lengths they say in the manuals.

The long one down the centre took some practice to get bends I was happy with. In the end it was a little long but I didn't have enough line to make another. The nice part is that I could make a bunch of bends first and feed it through the front suspension and in.

I like how it turned out up front, nice and straight.

Sat Sep 30, 2023 12:31 pm

A little bit from about a week ago. Got the body back from metal work and panel fitting.

More later.

Sat Nov 11, 2023 11:35 pm

Took a little break. Lost my project mojo for a bit but I think I've got it back. Let's see.

I did the brake lines in April 2022. I guess I'll continue from there.

The brake fluid reservoir that was in the car, which I can only assume was original, was in rough looking shape on the outside but on the inside it was pristine so I cleaned it up to see how it looked. Glass bead, and POR15 metal-prep and paint. Looked pretty good and I figured it was easy enough to replace later should it not look/function well. I temporarily used a plastic cap and generic rubber line to connect to the master cylinder but that lasted only a couple months until leaks appeared and I had to change to the real deal.

Made the MC line and installed it with the little washer.

Around the same time I was doing the brake lines I was also playing with the short standard tunnel mats. I wanted to keep them but couldn't find replacements. I had seen the nice repro front mat but it is ribbed and mine are pebbled and they don't make a rear mat. Longer story short, I found a later short mat on here (that was almost completely ripped in half) and bought it thinking I might be able to "mend" them together and make one.

I cleaned the mats with Dawn powerwash and toothpaste for the hard to clean spots. The rubber is still pretty soft but they're a little rough around the edges. Cleaning them made them look a lot better.

Before Cleaning:

After some light cleaning:

Dawn power wash:

After cleaning:

Fitting the front mats together to make one. The only problem I had was that the tear in mine is right above the throttle cable and I didn't think glue would hold with the tube underneath it so I cut a slot around the throttle cable tube. I was happy with how it turned out.

The rear mat had damage from the seats so I trimmed that to look a little nicer.

Good enough for me. Then I started picking away at the generator. I found a retired electrical motor guru and he gave me some pointers ... only time will tell how well I followed his instructions.

Cleaned up the armature ... I was told to lightly glass bead and then coat with clear insulating varnish. Done and done. I added a little spray on graphite grease to the threads. Similar story on the fields. New bearings and brushes and hopefully it works.

With the generator done I could install it, most of the tin, and test fit/install the thermostat assy.

I found what I was told was an NOS gen stand gasket, even if it's not it sure is a nicer fit that the reproduction that I had. I held it in place for a few days with a socket so it would take shape and be easier to install.

With generator installed and fitting the t-stat. This is October of last year.

With all that done and the shoe boxes loosely in place I could finish installing the exhaust.

I made a pretty dumb mistake when tacking the heaterbox to the J-tubes ... I didn't check that the cover of the heater box fit. I got lucky on one side, but not the other and had to remove the tack and re-do it. No big deal, just something learned.

I also had to file a bit out of one cylinder head to allow the shoe box to seat properly. Other than those two issues the exhaust all went in unexpectedly smoothly. You can see that it would bind up on the exhaust gasket and flange if bolted down.

Clutch, pressure plate, and engine installed.

Heater cables were an insteresting install. Everything went well but I had to install the cable with the longer side on the opposite side. I don't know if it's because I have a '55 engine on a '56 chassis or somebody modified the heater boxes at some point. I guess it doesn't matter, it works as it should ... just a little backwards.

Getting close to being all caught up.