Rebuild 1968 Squareback in one year? = FAIL

[bkeith85]

That's what I was hoping for. I don't really like car shows anyway. I mean, I'll go and spend maybe an hour looking at cars, but to enter one and have to sit there by it all day would drive me crazy.
Really, I just want to see some other cars like mine for a change. I have the only square around here, that I know of. I have seen a fastback or two, but that was a few years ago. I mostly want to check out what other people are doing with their cars and to see that many type 3's in one place. That will be pretty cool.

It will also be nice to NOT hear all the bug guys tell me how they used to scrap cars like mine all the time, because nobody liked them.

I'm not trying to get this thing perfect by any means. I'm just trying to put it back together enough that I can drive it. It won't be pretty. The dash will be green, there's black and red primer in various places, and there won't be any carpet.
Don't get me wrong, the goal is to make it as nice as I can, but not for the Invasion. When I get back, there is a local show that I will drive to, look at cars, and then drive home so I can take it back apart and start sanding all the paint off.

[Bobnotch]

Sounds like you'll fit right in at the Invasion. You'll see quite a few Squares there too (at least 4 that I know of), and won't hear anything about scrapping type 3s (past or present). You'll also get to see a Notch or 2, a T-34 or 2, and several Fastbacks, including the Host's original purchased car (a true 1 owner car with documentation of every dime he put into it). The Tech sessions are also very informative.
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Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof
71 Notch ...aka Krunchy; build pics here;
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249390 -been busy working
64 T-34 Ghia...aka Wolfie, under construction... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412120

[bkeith85]

I'm looking forward to it. I'm making good progress, so chances are good that I will be there. I have a long weekend and hope to be reassembling this thing in the next few days.

I am waiting until Saturday to spray my dash in the Deep Sea Green that I plan to use on the whole car. I'm doing the body and paint in stages as I go. Mostly because I don't have room to pull the body off the pan. Plus, your risk of not finishing goes way up the more you take a car apart. I wanted to keep it driveable (well, around the yard at least). So, right now, everything in and around the dash has been removed. I'll spray that, the front firewall type thing, and the inner rockers on Saturday. On Sunday, I hope to be putting the dash back together.

Until then, I decided that it was time to install the wiring harness I made. I used pieces from McMaster Carr, Rhode Island Wiring, and Digikey.
I added an auxiliary fuse panel for things like the radio, A/C, seat heaters (future), maybe fog lights, and anything else I might want to add. I didn't like piggybacking off the stock fuse box. It's pretty full already. The new one sits under the back seat on the drivers side. It has a relay to provide switched power as well as constant. The blue masking tape is just to hold the wires together until I get it routed.

I have already installed the rear part and just have to route the rest to the front after I paint the dash. I'll post some pics of it installed when I get a chance. So far, it fits pretty good. I left the wires a little long and will put the end terminals on when it's all in place to make sure everything is in the right place.
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[Bobnotch]

Nice. Where did you get the fuse panel?
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Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof
71 Notch ...aka Krunchy; build pics here;
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249390 -been busy working
64 T-34 Ghia...aka Wolfie, under construction... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412120

[bkeith85]

Junkyard, maybe. I don't remember. We pulled an engine out of a gmc truck a few years ago and I kept all of the wiring from it. I have been using bits and pieces of that harness for various projects for awhile now. It may have come from that truck. I made the metal bracket that holds it.
I was able to reuse the inner terminal strips and just crimp new wires into them for the main power wires. I think I found new terminals for the other side of the fuse, for the individual wires that go to each circuit.

Most of those circuits aren't used yet, but I wanted to have the wiring already there in case I wanted to add stuff. I'll need a charging system upgrade before I add most of that stuff anyway.

I did get to test out my wiring yesterday. I got the dash and some of the interior painted. When it dried, I could start installing the wiring harness. I started putting it in on Sunday and spent all of Monday crimping those end terminals on. I got everything done on the engine and almost all done at the fuse panel. I still have to do the tail light wiring.

I decided to put in the battery and test it to see if it would try to start. I got it all hooked up and turned the key.

Nothing. Not even a click. The dome light came on, which was really exciting for some reason, but nothing else.

I started checking wires and that's when I noticed that the battery was showing about 6 volts. That's not good. I hooked up the charger and the dome light got brighter. I turned the key, and it made some noise! So I switched the charger to start mode and the car fired up and ran for a second! Hooray!
The gas tank is out, so it didn't run long, but it ran. It's been at least a year since I could start it without having wires rigged up and running across the floor.

Tonight I hope to finish up the wiring and put all the switches back in the dash. I had to look in the owners manual because I couldn't remember which holes the wiper and headlight switches went in. It's been that long.
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[bkeith85]

Ok, here's an unrelated question. What size tire will fit in the spare tire well? The stock ones are narrower than the 185/65's I have on the car. I am sure I tried one of these when I got them mounted, but I can't remember if it fit. I bet it won't. I think they are too wide.
I need to get a new spare for the Invasion and I am curious what size other folks use as a spare.
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[Mike Fisher]

Stock 165X80X15 fits in my square, but 185's won't.
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https://imgur.com/user/FisherSquareback/posts
69 FI/AT square Daily Driver
66 sunroof,67,70,71,71,71AT,72,72AT,73 Parts
two 57 oval ragtops sold
'68 Karmann Ghia sold

Society is like stew. If you don't keep it stirred up you end up with a lot of scum on the top! - Russ_Wolfe/Edward Abbey

[bkeith85]

Thanks Mike! I was going to try one of mine today, but I have a feeling I tried it before and it wouldn't fit. Now to find a good deal on a 165/80. I found some 175/65s that are about half price, but there's no guarantee it will fit.
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[bkeith85]

I've been working my butt off, but I think I will be ready for the Invasion. Here is the car back together after a year of sitting. I still have a few more things to put on it, but I am able to drive it again.

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[Bobnotch]

[bkeith85]

Thanks!
Yeah, that is the plan. I was going to drive it to work today, but the idle wasn't very smooth last night, so I'm going to check a few things tonight. After that, I'll be driving it as much as I can to find any bugs that pop up. I've got short trip tomorrow, about an hour away, so that will be a good chance to see how it's running.
I got a new spare tire mounted today. It had an old bias ply spare that, amazingly, still held air. It was dry and bald, so I figured it could go at any time.
I don't know if this is a good deal or not, but right now Amazon has Nanking tires in 165/80R15 for $50 each.
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[bkeith85]

The evening after my last post, I took it for a test drive around town. I got on it kinda hard once and heard a pop and suddenly it got really loud. I thought my muffler had blown off. Nope. I blew the #3 plug out of the head.
I was able to screw the plug in just enough limp it back home. I left that plug wire off to be safe. I let it sit overnight while I tried to figure out how to fix it before the Invasion.

Turns out it must have just gotten loose. Only the last couple of threads were shiny, the rest were covered in carbon. So I chased them and screwed the plug back in and left for my 1 hour away family event.
It did fine that day and for 800 miles for the Invasion in Scottsboro. I even drove it to work today.

I got lucky, I was trying to figure out how to either get a new head or put an insert in that one before the Invasion and starting to panic.
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[Bobnotch]

[bkeith85]

I haven't posted updates here in a long time. I've just been driving the car and it runs great. I'm trying to get another one of my project cars driveable, so I can blow the squareback apart to paint it.
Unfortunately, about a year ago, I started having issues. I had pulled the engine to try a different cam, fix some leaks (or attempt to), and to find the source of a knock I started to hear. I was concerned about the piston pin clearance because I had a local shop hone the bushings and they seemed loose to me when I assembled it the first time. Turns out they were kinda loose, so I got some rebuilt and balanced rods from DPR. It turns out, that wasn't the source of the knock, though. I found that my fan was loose on the hub, so I sent it off to Gene Berg and they welded it solid and rebalanced it. When I got it back together, it ran great for a little while, but I started to notice that it ran a little rougher and the tach needle started to bounce around. I had recently gotten the tach from ISP West and was worried I'd have to return it.

I tried the diode in the signal wire and tried new plug wires. Neither seemed to help. I bought all new plugs and new cap, rotor, points, and condenser. None of that seemed to help. I spent months trying to figure this out. It didn't run bad enough that I couldn't drive it, but I was worried I would damage the tach if I kept driving it. So, I stopped driving it as much. Just a month or so ago, it started running much worse. It wouldn't idle and had very little power. I thought it was low on gas, but the problem remained after a fillup. At this point, I decided to fix it for good. I had to get a new battery because it hadn't been driven much. It was sulfated real bad and wouldn't hold a charge. While checking it over, I found that the point gap was almost completely closed. I don't know how it ran at all. I opened that up and figured I found the problem. It ran a whole lot better, but the tach still jumped around. Because of the closed points, I thought maybe the condenser was bad. I mentioned that I bought a new condenser previously, but I wasn't able to use it because what I got as new turned out to be something someone had bent and hacked, then returned, so I didn't use it. I didn't trust ordering from that source again, so I found some new Bosch ones and ordered a couple of those. I covered that in a separate thread about how I was unhappy with what was available. But, I was able to get one to work. I tried that one and it didn't help, so I put my old one back in. As I am doing that, I found that the little braided wire that connects the two pieces of the point advance plate was broken and no longer connected the two. I figured maybe they made a connection sometimes, but when the vacuum advance moved, it lost that connection. Maybe this was causing a stumble and the tach needle to jump around. It was tricky, but there was a small copper tab left on the point plate and I was able to get some solder on it. I figured this was a temporary fix; I wasn't sure how long it would hold. So I found a couple of core distributors in the classifieds and bought those. Hopefully they have an intact wire.

In conclusion, this fixed the problem! I've driven it a few times and the tach bounce is gone and it runs smoother than ever.

So, if anyone is having tach bouncing issues, check everything ignition related. I never looked at that tiny wire, but it made a huge difference.
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[bkeith85]

Here's another thing. I am a big fan of Interstate Batteries. They are all I buy. The one I replaced was a 6 or 7 yr battery, but it lasted 8 years. It was working great until I let it sit without running for a few weeks.

So, I go back to get another Interstate battery at the local dealer. THEY STOPPED MAKING THEM. Well, the guy said he couldn't get them anymore, he didn't know for sure if they stopped making them. But it means the same thing to me. I was bummed about that.

So I went looking for another decent battery, knowing most sold at the FLAPS are garbage. I stopped at 3 or 4 places and found nothing. I did find one at an Advanced Auto parts. It was a DieHard, I'm sure this was a case of buying a well known name and slapping it on your product. But I was willing to give it a try. The one they had did not have the plastic terminal protector on it. I told them I needed that, so he called around to see if he could order one. He called two places that both had one, but the cover was missing. I'm sure they threw them away thinking it wasn't needed.
I was finally able to find a battery at Napa. It has a different shield for the positive post, but it should work ok. I'm just worried this will be another thing that no one will produce anymore because of dwindling demand.
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[Bobnotch]