Black Fastback Build Thread

[Bobnotch]

[andybla]

Have just been going through your project, keep up the good work!!

[69 Notchback]

I can't wait to see this car in person!
I have been disappointed with all my parts I have taken to chrome! well my wheels where the best things I have seen come out of a chrome shop as of late. all other parts have hade imperfections as well. I can remember my dad getting things back from chrome when I was a kid and it coming out perfect. not the case anymore.
Keep up the good work my favorite build to date.

[Chochobeef]

I'm guessing this is stalled out because of other people? You've done some fantastic work, and it is a shame you have to wait on others.

Can't wait to see you start putting it back together with your "shiny" plated pieces of hardware.

[Clatter]

Well thanks for the kind thoughts, guys..

The project does seem to be getting stalled out because of other people, no doubt.
Paying someone to do something,
Then have them do it crappy,
Means you have to pay someone else, and hope for better, or live ith it.

When I'm tying to do a car at this level,
It's not everyone who can get there, dig?
Many just don't have high-quality work as part of their routine.

Here's the latest..



We'll start with the good news...

Ray's Upholstery in Watsonville has always been the old go-to for auto interiors around these parts.
They were usually so busy, that they turned me away a coupla times in the past.
About a month ago, they said it would be a month before they could do my rear seat.

What do you know, a month later they actually did it!

The bottom is tight, with no wrinkles.

I remember Bob, or someone, telling me how the TMI seat covers were too short, and didn't quite reach.
Ray's put some rivets in to anchor the edge, because it seems too small.
Like i said, this thing is tight!
Cool by me..

The rear seat back is pretty nice, too.

The little corner thingies are a bit saggy,
but that could be TMI, or..?
I'm not so anal as to really care too much about this.

Some details.. They used burlap to protect the padding from the springs,
And a bunch of hog-rings.
They got it tight like a drum..

Being a TMI seat cover, it's small, and this top glued edge is looking to peel up.
Since i can't just put it in the car to pin it into place while it sets up,
We'll deal with it as it comes later. No biggie.

Moving on to the front seats;
Now things get a bit uglier...
Steve Brazil did a couple of pieces of furniture (and well) for my old lady.
One of her girlfriends at work dated the guy for a while,
And he did some curtains for my bus a few years ago.
He had my seats forever, but a couple of weeks ago called me (her) with some news.
I thought he was actually working,
but no,
Turns out a mouse got into one of my seat covers when it was sitting there for so long..
He needed another seat cover for material, but, dumb luck, i still had the wrong ones left over from before TMI made me up the correct ones..
Eventually, he got my front seats 'done', and here's what i got...

The bottoms aren't so bad, but, for some reason those wrinkles irk me..

A good thing is that he sent me to get some wire coat hangers to replace the string that goes along the lower welt.
He wasn't able to get the string-filled welt to hold under the spikes.
The hanger wire worked - tip?

Here's where things get worse:

Fucker threw away my OG covers, so now i got no more originals to figure out this stupid area where the trim meets..

I think it's supposed to go straight across right here,
Like this:

That's how it looks like this trim piece is designed.
A couple of pics of OG seats i found seem this way, too..?
Anybody got a pic for me?

So here i sit, pissed off again, looking at my front seat backs...

I mean, they are TMI seat covers after all, so i can't really finger the guy,
But,
Since he threw away my originals, how do i know now what to shoot for?
He must have done it on purpose - destroy the evidence.

Dunno if i should take them to Ray's for a re-do,
Or bring them back to dipshit, because he said he could steam the wrinkles out of them?

It just sucks, he gave them to me like that, and expects to be paid.
And, honestly, i haven't been in all that much of a hurry to do so.

It's going to cost me to have them re-done at Ray's.
Plus the covers I had to use for patch-pieces were supposed to be sold on.
It seems like that set of OG covers he threw away have to be worth something too, right?
I feel like i should bill him what he says i owe him!

After restoring the frames, having them wrinkle powder-coated, waiting years to get the covers made correctly at TMI, then this at the end here now???
Really don't think that the whole seat project can just finish like this...


Anyhow,
Another venting/rant...
Send me a bill!
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[W1K1]

That's a really amateur job on your seats, Fuch me, I would be pissed.

I have done a few sets of the TMI myself and they are never perfect but I have never seen a set of seat front tops not fit properly, unless he over padded the tops so there wasn't enoughmaterial left at the bottoms.


It's no wonder we try to do everything ourselves, rather than be disappointed by others
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http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/jim_martin_engine_build.php

1973 super
1965 squareback 1500E
1971 bay window westy- subi swap

[Chochobeef]

Well piss, If that ain't some crappy upholstery work. Hell, I can do better than that and i'm a computer guy.

First off, as soon as he told me a mouse ate through a seat I would have gone over there first thing and snatched my seats up to go home. Then we wouldn't get to see the debacle afterwards. Second, him throwing the old stuff away. I would have asked the customer if they wanted to keep them before tossing things that could be used as templates.

Sorry for your troubles, but I think number 1 fits the bill here. I'd have taken them after the mouse.

Best of luck on getting out of paying full price because I don't think you should with how your stuff was treated and the "quality" of work.

[Bobnotch]

[Volktales]

Clatter, here are some seat pictures for you

These are original seats in a 1969 Notchback. Hope this helps...
_________________
1974 "Restfalia" Camper 2000 cc EFI 2001-
1970 Beetle first car, rotten, yard art 1985-
1966 Sunroof Beetle, restored 1998-
1964 Ghia, ongoing project 2007-
1962 Beetle Beryl,original paint survivor 2012-
1970 Savannah Beige Beetle 2012-
1992 16v GTI, 100% stock 2006-
1991 "Terseo", wife's old daily 1995-
1969 Chevrolet CST/10 (family owned since new)
1965 Gold Corvair Monza 2021-
1966 and 1965 Monza 2022-

[Clatter]

[Xevin]

Good god brother that upholstery work reminds me of something
Sorry dude. You’ll prevail.

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Keep on Busin'

[Bobnotch]

[Clatter]

The front seats got dropped off at Ray's along with the pics 'Volktales' so graciously donated.

Doing an initial tear-down, there looks to be some possible remediation to the issues.
At first, it looks like there's no way to thin out the top of the padding;
That the covers simply aren't long enough.
But,
After looking and futzing some more,
The back padding was glued in place kind of 'high up', and can be scooted down.

Hopefully that will make it so the covers can come down, and be attached at the bottom correctly.

Now, I'm off to the chromer, to grab the (hopefully) now-stripped worst pieces of the batch,
So they can (hopefully again) be metal-worked, and smoothed out, enough to be chromed successfully.

Also going to drop off my stripped, and now-crack-repaired SB12 rings to them..

Not that I'm particularly religious,
But,
I feel like fingering prayer beads, or lighting a candle right about now...
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[Xevin]

might work for a Type 3 Im
sure you could find this on eBay or any corner store in Santa Cruz


Link

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Keep on Busin'

[Bobnotch]

[Clatter]

Oh, Well...
Comes a point where you have to actually live your life.

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[Jason37]

Exactly! The whole point of building a car is to have fun doing it. Rushing and getting stressed out takes all the fun out of it.

[Bobnotch]

[Clatter]

Well, it's been a while..

Since the Fastback was being no fun,
This thing went and got in the way again..

First, I decided to build a whole new (milder) motor for it.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=692654

Then,
When the cam turned out to be special order 3-4 weeks wait,
The big motor came out and apart.
And whatta ya know... It went back together and back in..
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695053


Anyways, enough about that POS..

The rear suspension stops battle continues..
Visiting Darren, he wants to make new snubber mount posts from scratch on the lathe, because they re so rusted gone.
So they got removed..

Here you can see the 'after', and how rusty those mount posts were.
Also, the countersinking of the wrong holes I drilled in the aluminum tranny mount blocks was done for welding reasons..

Finally, here's a pic of what IRS snubber pads look like stock.
Just for reference..

Despite the 'California' in their name,
Looks like California Push Pull got my cables chopped down just right.
(They're from Chico, so still have some values left?)
Mocked up, and looking good at full droop..

The underneath part, with my chopped down adaptor sleeve is looking right, as well.

So,
Back at it again...
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[Clatter]

After struggle, failure, and re-failure,
I'm due for some fun.

Because the shifter was out in the dirty shop a bunch over the last few years,
it was full of grit..

Cool thing about this Bug@5-speed shifter that i never knew,
Is that even the gate pins are bushed.

Some of the machining marks were showing,
So,
Since it was apart,
It got the things that show smoothed out on the ol' wet/dry.

After everything was cleaned up,
It got moved inside for a proper assembly session.

Cool that you can pack the insides with grease behind the bushings..

The chromer got the shaft right; it was a flat silver before.
They also successfully black-anodized the body/base.
A stock type 3 knob fits on just so.

As soon as i went to start installation,
Another one of my many fuggups showed it's ugly head.
One of those cross-braces i put in there years ago was RIGHT in the way.
How scary to use the angle grinder inside there!?!

Something that i never thought about before showed up at Volks Cafe.
(A moment of silence for the passing of our last local VW speed shop.. RIP)













Anyways, *sniff*..
The dune-buggy shift-rod shortening-kit includes a threaded section for adjustability!
WhooHoo!! Perfect for this project, where the shifter base is mounted without adjustment..
Here shows my many marks from mocking up and ciphering/re-ciphering.

Zap Zap.

Funny moment during fab.
You gotta wonder sometimes..

After getting manhandled for years,
The shift rod needed polished up.

And in she goes!

A few pics, so you can see what all was doing here..

Remember, there is another bushing in the tunnel just in front of the adjuster; two u-joints make this necessary.

The length adjustments are made by spinning the rearmost part at the hockey stick,
Then tightening the lock-nut thru the rearmost hatch.

There is also side-to-side, and throw length adjustment, by screwing the ball at the bottom of the shifter up/down into the socket at the front of the rod.


As a final shot,
The only thing that (might) happen later one day,
is the shaft getting bent to match OG.
Here's a stock type 3 shifter, and it's bend, shown for comparison.

Once the car is together, and getting driven, it would be easy enough to pull the shaft and put a bit o' bend in it.
Didn't want to do that until it was tested In Real Life.. If i live that long.


In the meantime, I'm dry shifting it, adjusting things, and making Vroom Vroom noises!!

Vrooooommmm.. *shift*.. Vrrrooooommmm.. *shift*..
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Bus Motor Build

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