Catbox's 1970 Square Build

[catbox]

Sooo not much has gone on with my square....
But I have been picking up parts here and there,

Which leads me to a question...
Is there a way to tell a NOS dashpad from a reproduction?
I picked one up from a friend and began wondering.

I do realize that it is for a later car than my '70 and I am ok with that...

This was in the bottom of the box...

There appears to be a piece of steel imbedded in the pad on the passenger side as well.

On the box there is a COD stamp for a price of $72.00
Other than that there are no markings on it.
I may or may not elect to use it, but I have one if I want it.

If anyone knows it will be somebody here...
Thank you in advanced.
_________________
"...these cars were preferred by the racers because the strut front suspension results in far superior handling than the regular torsion bar front end..." - Keith Seume.

[KTPhil]

NOS has metal reinforcements, in gray in color on backside, does NOT mold speaker grill into main pad, and will have a VW logo on the back.

[catbox]

Thanks for the reply Phil!
It looks as though according to your specifications I have a lovely replica.
That works just fine with me.
_________________
"...these cars were preferred by the racers because the strut front suspension results in far superior handling than the regular torsion bar front end..." - Keith Seume.

[68vwfasty]

Peter, nice meeting you this weekend. Good luck with the build. If you need any help let me know.

[Bobnotch]

[VWporscheGT3]

I have the same dashpad... finally screwed it all down and it fits like it should.. factory correct doesn't bother me..
_________________
If you have any questions about Forged ICON 4032 VW pistons just shoot me a line.

[catbox]

[catbox]

Not much progress as my wife has been dealing with MS issues and the hospital.
I did get to stay home while she was in for a tune up.
When she returned and was comfy I went outside and played with my square. Sitting in the drivers seat making engine noises had my son looking at me funny....

So I dug into the car and started looking around.
After reading so many threads here about rusty hulks I wanted to see what mine was like, even though I had a good idea...

Minor surface issues on the driver side...

The passenger side has the battery acid hole...

But the rest seems just fine...

I also found some rusty spots in the rear area...

Here I see that the car had been hit sometime in its past on the passenger side...

Which after peeling off the covering of the rear floor you can see that it made the diagonal corner wrinkled but not too bad. There was some surface rust under the padding, but it came off simply with a wire brush.

I have to find time to get a yard project all finished up before I can start checking out the engine to see what it needs. I may rebuild the Weber 34's I have and see if it will run. Otherwise I will need to build something to get it moving on its own.

I told my wife that the tires we need to buy are $500 for the set.
Ripped that bandaid off and now when I actually buy them it should not be that bad for her.
_________________
"...these cars were preferred by the racers because the strut front suspension results in far superior handling than the regular torsion bar front end..." - Keith Seume.

[catbox]

Wow has the last year gone by fast...
This guy is still in the driveway.
Not being worked on just yet.
I have picked up lots of the parts that it needs to get underway though.

I did manage to find it a new set of seats that came from a 2000-ish Audi that was a fresh kill in the wrecking yard and on 1/2 price day...
They need some work, but for $40 for the pair I will have a nice set to work from.

At the Northwest Bug Run last weekend I picked up a set of stock carbs for it. They had a mechanical fuel pump attached to them as well. Not to shabby for $20 total.
_________________
"...these cars were preferred by the racers because the strut front suspension results in far superior handling than the regular torsion bar front end..." - Keith Seume.

[catbox]

Ahh yes this is one of the reasons that my car has had no love.
We managed to blow the differential out of my wife's Sub on the way to a hockey game one night.
That took all the fun out of my project car savings for quite a bit...

After this one was repaired some of the cooling system decided it wanted some attention as well. So that was another adventure.
Now that is all back together and running like a top.

I have procured an engine for the Square.
It came from a club member that likes me and he wanted me to have it.
I said ok what is it and he said it comes on the condition that I can never sell it or its parts to anybody else. No problem.
He had it built and the gentlemen that did it was a local with decent reputation that suddenly let it all go and close up shop.
So needless to say my buddy was not happy with what he received, even though it still runs it is not what they agreed on.
So he calls me and tells me to come and get it.
I get there and this is what he has waiting...

It is a fully dressed and ready to go 1915 built on a universal case that he has been using to move his project Ghia around with.
I was only thinking that it was going to be a long block, but this is what came home with me.

So soon that will be stripped down bare and I will probably take the heads off to see what all is going on inside of it so I know what to expect.
This engine supposedly only has around 6.5 to 1 compression at this time and that will definitely be fixed before I run it around.

I also have found the perfect frame to hang on the back of the car when the time comes around....

I do need to source up a stock dual carb linkage set up for the car still.
I only have the one for the ICT's at this time.
I am also going to be looking in the short type 3 Weber/Dellorto manifold kit for the car as well. I have a set of those for the car and would love to run them.

Depending on where is most comfy for me to have it in the car...
I have picked up a pair of Hurst shifter projects for the car as well.
They both need the base plate sourced from one of the repops that are out there...
One bent...

One straight...

I also happen to have a similar Bugpack look a like shifter that is complete that may see duty until the Hursts are fixed up. You can't have a bitchin 70's era car without a Hurst shifter in it, right?

Here is the most recent photo of it sitting out in the pouring rain that came through a couple weeks ago...

_________________
"...these cars were preferred by the racers because the strut front suspension results in far superior handling than the regular torsion bar front end..." - Keith Seume.

[Mike Fisher]

[catbox]

[catbox]

Here are the new to me stock carbies that will live on the engine for the time being.... I scored them at the swap meet for a mere $20 for the set...

They also came with this feller...

At the local U Pull It they have the half price day and while I was there I found a Geo. Thinking it was awesome that I found one, I pulled the alt and took it home for my $20. I looked when I got home and saw that most are using the 3 cylinder alternator and mine came from a 4 cylinder. Rats!

Here are some of the parts and pieces that I have picked up for it over the last year....

A full set of stock black seats...

Here are a set of -3 carbs....

_________________
"...these cars were preferred by the racers because the strut front suspension results in far superior handling than the regular torsion bar front end..." - Keith Seume.

[68vwfasty]

Peter, You and your son need to get working on the square so we can see it at the Bug Run next year. I have some bits and pieces left over from my resto. Let's chat at the RCV meeting sometime and see if there is anything you need.

[catbox]

[Bobnotch]

[catbox]

This project has not died, yet.
It has simply stalled out on me.

3 years ago I had a massive heart attack and died for a bit.
Obviously, I made it.
It just took some time for me to bounce back after the damage was done.
After that I took quite a bit of time off from most of my hobbies just to get myself back up to "normal".

My son Max is now almost 17 and a great helper when I need something done.
He has become the President of his high school auto club.
Recently he installed the previously mentioned 1915 into my bug as the little 1500 was leaking quite profusely.

In this photo you can also see the side of Max's first car.
A 1955 Chevy Bel Air.
He is excited to dig into it and get it roadworthy again as well as getting the square back out.

I landed a new job last year that has infused my income with a bit of disposable income now.
So the square has been brought from buried in the garage with no hope to see the light of day.
To buried in the garage with hope to see the driveway again this summer.

When more progress is made, I will update this one again!
_________________
"...these cars were preferred by the racers because the strut front suspension results in far superior handling than the regular torsion bar front end..." - Keith Seume.

[catbox]

The engine that I had received for the square.
We took it to Buddy Marks house a few months ago to look into what it is that we have here.
This was a commissioned build by the feller that I got it from.
It turned out to not be what he wanted and he fought with it for a while and then gave up. He gave it to me for my square build.
I needed a fresh engine for my bug as it is my daily commuter.

Upon removal of the head, we do have a 94mm bore engine.

When we measured the deck height we found it to have the piston sitting down in the cylinder 0.086". Not rad.

Turn the head over and we find that the chambers are tiny and have been semi hemi cut for more cc's. I forget what they CC'd too, but I believe it was around 39cc's.

The CB compression calculator said it had 8.25 to 1 compression.

Inside the rocker box was a noisy mess.
The rockers were all very loose.
Buddy Mark is my Guru for most things Aircooled.
He had the parts and pieces to make them better.
There were valve spring shims placed in between the rockers among other oddities that we had to remedy.

So we buttoned it all back up as our time was short for this exercise.
The engine is in the bug now.
I let Max do all the install and only interjected when asked or ran for parts.
It runs, it is just not quite happy yet.
More carb tuning is needed before we can call it a success.

If it does not shape up, I may have to pull it back out.
Then totally disassemble the engine to figure out what other fun stuff is inside of it.
We don't know what cam is in there, but suspect it to be an Engle 100 with stock rockers.

If it comes out I have a suspicion that it may have a short crank or rods in it and that is why the pistons are down in the holes like they are.
If that is the case it will get a new cam, 74mm crank, and perhaps a set of fresh rods to make it a little baby stroker 2054.

Time will tell and we shall see....
_________________
"...these cars were preferred by the racers because the strut front suspension results in far superior handling than the regular torsion bar front end..." - Keith Seume.

[Bobnotch]

[catbox]