Starting Over - Son's 71 Ghia Coupe

[dingerjunkie]

Hello All. Trying to get better about regular updates.

First, brakes back on the front spindles and ready for wheels. The original front hard lines were in fine shape, so I reused them after a flush...not everything needs to look completely new...

The rear suspension is back together, and I'm installing new bearings with the new rear disc conversion. Here is where things are making me wonder.

First, is that a safe route for the new e-brake cable? Does anyone foresee problems with that setup?

Second, after bending the supplied hard line into place, I'm about four inches long, so I need to cut and re-flare. What is the right flaring tool to match that line to the female fitting on the steel-braided replacement soft line?

Third, the caliper clears the rotor cleanly with no touches in rotation, but there is barely a gap on the outside of the floating bracket. Should I shim to get closer to gap-center, or will this be safe as-is?

Next up, pans are trimmed, button holed and clamped in place. Welder has a new magnetic ground setup, and I'll be ready to start after some initial practice on 20-gauge sheet (I've never welded before).

[Rome]

[dingerjunkie]

[dingerjunkie]

Okay...reply on e-brake cable and other brake-related things.

The e-brake mechanism is definitely supposed to be o the top of the calipers, and I did figure out the proper routing for the cables. I just took the bumpers off temporarily and routed the cables outboard of them, along the top of the arm...works fine with no pinch points. Pictures will be posted later.

Second, The caliper clears both sides just fine...close enough to centered to have both rotors spin freely. I pulled the brake pads and confirmed the actual floating section moves cleanly with no contact or issues. All good there.

Third, if I'm evaluating this properly, it looks like I need to purchase additional stainless steel braided brake lines for both sides, but I need a confirmation.

Because the rear calipers are floating, not fixed like the front, I need to run...
1) a very short flex line from the caliper to a hard line on the swinging arm
2) a hard line from that connection to the flex line at the singing arm front pivot
3) a new braided replacement for the pivot flex line
4) joined to the fixed hard line point bolted to the rear of the frame on each side

Is this right? Am I correct in stating the hard line at the caliper would either be subject to failure or would limit float-caliper movement?

[dingerjunkie]

Greetings, All. Here's the latest....and the latest questions...

Chassis is effectively complete. (pictures in next post)

pans button-welded, plus spot-welded at seam edge
seam sealed top and bottom
pans painted after seam cure
underside, including frame tunnel, primed & coated w/Herculiner truck Bed
All brake lines run & bled
Pedal assembly in place
Throttle/clutch/heater-box/flap cables all run
Proper manual shift-rod installed to replace shorter AutoStick unit
Wheels back on so I can roll chassis around

With that behind me, I rolled body out to driveway on dolly and got to business with a drum sander. The rear end of the car looks good, outside of typical "shopping cart" damage to rear decklid and around tail lights. Last shot in this group is the driver-side wheel well corrosion from battery out-gassing over the years.

The front-end is where I'm worried/shocked, and I'd like some input from others on a recommended path forward.
The original body obviously took a massive front-end hit that likely damaged everything up to and including the gas tank, but hit high enough to not take out the front beam or steering column, which look original.
From what I can see, the driver-side structural section and most of the nose came from "donor #1." these pics show current state.
Next-to-last image shows a corrosion-point where the yellow '70 structure was mated to the white '71 structure.
The last picture is the trunk view of the driver-side butt seam.

The driver-side outer skin here is one contiguous piece from trunk corner up past the headlight, which looks to be "donor car #2." The overlap seams/welds are obvious now that they've been uncovered. the seam overlap below the headlight was too big, not clean and not properly sealed, so I'm seeing corrosion from the outside & in the wheel well. external body gap to the inner supporting structure is bigger than the stock rubber seal would handle, I think.

Passenger-side, the chop-and-weld includes the outer skin and part of the nose in one massive slice from what I think was "donor #3," which explains the tighter tolerance at front of wheel well with the original rubber seal. It also includes the improperly-repaired headlight section, where the bucket was welded inside somehow.

Ugliest part is where the sections from Donor #1 and#3 meet at the nose, in a brutally ugly, off-center butt weld.

So now to the hard decisions, where I really need guidance/advice.
With the corrosion on the lower driver side, combined with the front scar and passenger headlight, should I plan on replacing pretty much the entire front end from another car again?
Do I buy al the sections to basically re-skin the entire front of the car...AFTER I fix the corrosion and welds for the inner supports at the wheel wells?
Do I just handle the corrosion, redo passenger headlight and filler the crap out of the whole thing again, whistling past the graveyard?

How would you proceed?

[dingerjunkie]

Hello All. I'm far past overdue for an update to you all. Here's the latest.

Engine build is complete.
Since the body is not in place, my son and I figured we'd do the break in run on the chassis, as the engine stand was a bit too flexy/wobbly for me to feel comfortable running there.

Breather setup is from absent fuel pump and oil filler. I didn't vent the valve covers, as any pressure there would work oil back to the sump, which is well vented. The center breather box is really just acting as a junction to the carburetors. It has the top sealed with RTV silicone do any pressure pulses from the crank will move to the intakes rather than blowing out through the box filter.

I'm not sure how close is "good enough," but I think I'm okay on pulley shimming for fan belt alignment.

Fuel line routing is up and out of the way. The hardlines have the extra bends to ensure enough flex with engine heat expansion/contraction. This setup makes for nice fuel pressure gauge placement as well. The stainless end section should ensure no cut-through at the tins.
For those that look over, yes, we're running Andrig's velocity stack and the Evolution-1 impeller-style fan.

Outside of all that, I got ahold of replacement seat rails which I'm using really to support the SCAT brackets I purchased with some new ProCar-90 seats. The rails & brackets are bolted in and ready for the seats after I get the body back in place.

Alex and I are very excited about the first start and break-in run once I build out a run box and fuel pump rig. He is less excited than me about the upcoming bodywork.

_________________
Theory and Practice are ALWAYS Identical...theoretically...

[Teeroy]

Even with the stainless fuel line, you need a grommet in the firewall tin where it passes through, it will cut it without
_________________
Pres. Rivercity VW Club www.rcvwclub.org
Founder Derr Wheat Panzers (DWP)
ARR #3
www.autosportsnorthwest.org

[DaveB9]

Teeroy makes a good point, but beyond that it looks amazing! Clean work.

I always find breathers tricky - I ran a design like yours for a while on a 2007 with twin 40s, but found a bit much oil in the carb tops. But the original system ran negative pressure with a large line to the air cleaner, so a lot of aftermarket systems for big cc engines actually provide less breathing capacity than the original set up.

What is you plan for the nose of the body?

[Steelz21]

That’s some good progress you have made.
Where did you get the stainless braided brake flexi’s?

Tx

Andy

[dingerjunkie]

[dingerjunkie]

[dingerjunkie]