St. Christopher - Aussie 57 big window

[sportin-wood]

Love the progress of your build!
_________________
.
1966 Bug project
1973 Thing project
.
"Relax, all right? My old man is a television repairman. He's got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it." --- Jeff Spicoli

[jvm]

Hey Nug, I have its long lost brother. Another Oct 57 built which was originally Gunyah Grey. I got it from Cairns but I'm sure it's a Brisbane car originally.

I'd love to know how close they are - I'll send you a DM

[NUG637]

This past week has seen me make up all the hard lines. Re-used all the end fittings from the old lines - with a wire wheeling and a coat of paint they are as good as new - total cost of $32 for all new hard lines

Also fitted a new pan seal

new gear shift coupler

A friend also donated a busted old 4 tab which is exactly what i wanted... wired that sucka straight on with some raw steel wire into the existing 4 tab holes...

[NUG637]

Found this pic from 2016 when we checked on saint christopher on our trip to go pick up my brother coral oval… this was the trip that sealed the deal for us to come collect her from her resting spot about 2 weeks later….

Anyway… pan complete

Rallied the boys together for a shed night to lift the body back on the pan and bolt it all down

[NUG637]

Haven't updated for a while as shed time massively reduced with the lead up to Christmas and helping with the magic of Christmas for the kids then a few weeks away for school holidays etc but i have been ticking little things off the list any opportunity i can.

I had a crack at the wiring (not my strongest skill) and had to source a few things...

All the semaphore wiring had been chopped through to make room for the addition of indicators at some point in its life.... I brought that all back to original function before Johnny ball bags hooked me up with a Lense to replace the melted blob i actually had (big thanks IN2VWS)... i also had to re-sheath the bulb wire as the cotton wire cover had disintegrated into nothing. Abit of heat shrink sorted that out...

Bench tested it and away it Went :salute:

Then made a start on making a carpet kit.

Cut out a template from some bunnings marine carpet (poor mans square weave) and bound the edges with some stuff from spotlight. Lined the tunnel and bulkhead in the left over rubber from the notch build.

Super happy to get out of all that for just under $200

Have been piecing together an original style interior from bits i had and bits from people. So i owe many thanks to Rhett and Benjamin for the door cards that i didnt have. Now I only have to patch a drivers seat back and the rear seat back and i should have a full functioning 58 interior using up parts from boith this car and from old builds. But this is still a work in progress or now

The big fat man brought me exactly what i wanted for Christmas, a complete set of window rubbers. So i have been putting them in over the last few nights.... I must say, i have slung in heaps of windows with trim over the years and never have i had as much trouble as i experienced with these rear quarter windows.... not only did the chrome not want to fit, but the rubber didn't want to sit on the window either and collectively I recon the 2 side windows burnt up 6 hours of my time.

but ey... they do fit nice on the car... just not easy to get them there... it might of been west coast metric that i have used in the past, im not sure but they were far easier to man handle then these sons-a-bitches

[IN2VWS]

Well done Myles. Can't wait to see you drive it to a show down here.
_________________
( ⫏ ⫐ )
(ọ\ ¡ /ọ)¹⁹⁵⁴ ¹⁹⁵¹ ¹⁹⁵⁸
(⦷ ⥢ Ĭ ⥤ ⦷) 𝗞_𝗔_𝗥_𝗠_𝗔_𝗡_𝗡 𝓖𝓱𝓲𝓪¹⁹⁵⁶
⨴⨵--⊗--⨴⨵ 𝕊ℙ𝟚¹⁹⁷³

[NUG637]

me to John!

All glass is in, brakes are bled and she is able to venture outside for a few piccies

Made a tool out of cut off tie-rod to punch a tight neat hole in the floor matts to go over the factory floor plugs

Then came to sewing together the seat covers that had ripped down the stitch line. They have all gotten pretty sun burnt and shrunk abit over the years but i patched them up good enough for this old girl.

I really took my time doing this on the notch and it came out fantastic! i did these ones a quick as i could and it kinda shows but it goes with the theme of the car

Ended up just sewing an offcut directly over the top of the sun damage area on the back seat

A big thank you to Benjamin and Rhett for the the door cards, I ended up sourcing a passenger door card locally but it was missing the handle so i pulled some measurement off of a mates factory handle and made one of my own but out of timber. once again.... good enough for this old girl

[NUG637]

Before fitting the door cards i contact cemented some plastic to the backside to help with moister protection.

anchor waxed the the inside of the doors and then fitted them all up

This car had clearly been fitted with a centre mounted sunvisor which im guessing got knicked before we found it in the paddock.... Years ago we had picked up a visor from a swap meet but it never fit anything we had very well so with abit of bending and tweaking i managed to get it into some kind of shape that met the gutters of the beetle and then went about making my own centre mount from a Kings awning mount

I dipped the mount in the pool a few times to accelerate its patina process while i buggered with other parts of the car.

Then last weekend i had ago at painting/blending the green visor into something that matched the car....

with a base coat of sprayputty cream, then some bunnings Tuscan red and a few bangs/scratches and a dusting of schwarz and grey enamel wiped down with a towel before it dried... i think it suits perfectly...

[NUG637]

From December to march my time is limited so progress has been slow but still moving nonetheless

Took the battery out of the notch and sorted my way through the last of the electrical stuff

Then started on the deep clean of the original 36er

Gave the heads a blasting before lapping the valves and honing the cylinders

Left with lapping marks on the valve

New pushrods seals on the stretched out og tubes

New oil cooler seals and heads back on

New flywheel seal

Then found an old stale air 40hp exhaust we had that someone had already butchered. A little massaging and some chopping and banging got something to represent an exhaust that only cost a section cut off the heat riser from my kombis old 1600 manifold

Ordered a 28pci rebuild kit for cheap from eBay, though I didn’t read the fine print that it would take 6 weeks to get here….

So my current mechanical hit list from here is

- rebuild carb
- rebuild fuel pump
- fit new engine bay seal
- fit engine

[sportin-wood]

[NUG637]

Thanks Sportin-wood

Carb kit arrived

Bought a fuel pump rebuild kit, pulled the pump apart to find out it was more than serviceable, so cleaned her out and put it back together and got my money back for the rebuild kit.

Engine in

Wheel Alignment done

Dib Gave me a hand to sus out the last of the electrical items like this Hella indicator stalk

Got her fired up for the first time in my ownership and took it for some Hot laps of the yard and then the street.

Engine is a beauty! sounds strong, feels strong and fires straight up even when cold with the help of a functioning choke cable, oil pressure goes out instantly and no funny noises or anything to report.

Gearbox pulls all gears and feels good apart from first gear has a fair wine to it, suspect a dodgy tooth on first gears drive shaft. But its holds and feels good and first gear is only short anyway so I can put up with a little noise.

All in all, im super happy with this old girl. Think I'm gonna get her registered and enjoy it for abit before I list to sell... its just been too fun and to easy to build not to enjoy it. If it was a prick to build I would be be more inclined to get rid of her instantly but that isn't the case. Just need to save some pennies for Tyres, a battery and rego now then im away. There is nothing left on the to do list after those couple of items to purchase

[finster]

nice one!
_________________
"we're here on Earth to fart around" kurt vonnegut

nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect...

[jordiando]

looking good mate, love seeing Aussie beetles. Cant wait to see it registered and on the road.

[NUG637]

New Tyres this week! Ended up with 145/65 fronts and 185/65 rears then it was time for rego!

Few local trips which showed my fuel tap leaked like a sieve once it had a full tank of fuel added to the head pressure…

Took it to get pizza last night and then off again this morning for the local “cars and coffee” where it received a lot of great attention

She sure is a cool little cruiser

[NUG637]

New wheels, Same shitbox

Personally i think its hard to beat stock wheels on a type 1 but i couldn't pass these up and the offsets work perfectly with the adjustable spring plates and the 6" beam

[IN2VWS]

They look good on the car. Well done.
_________________
( ⫏ ⫐ )
(ọ\ ¡ /ọ)¹⁹⁵⁴ ¹⁹⁵¹ ¹⁹⁵⁸
(⦷ ⥢ Ĭ ⥤ ⦷) 𝗞_𝗔_𝗥_𝗠_𝗔_𝗡_𝗡 𝓖𝓱𝓲𝓪¹⁹⁵⁶
⨴⨵--⊗--⨴⨵ 𝕊ℙ𝟚¹⁹⁷³