79' VW Brasilia 1600

[pgroth]

Hello everybody,

My name is Paulo (is the same as the name"Paul" in US), I'm from Brazil and I have here an old VW Brasilia and a 2003 VW Gol.

Before this 79' I had a 74', which I sold to get a BMW e36 328i, great car to be honest, but the parts here is Brazil for BMW are incredible expensive and I decide to sell the BMW and go back to the Brasilia's world.

So I get this 79', it is in really good shape, original floor and "bottom door panels" (don't know the right name in English, )

Anyway, let's go to some photos, I will post here the progress I have since I bought her, in October 2015. I'm still in the maintenance steps, working a little each weekend.

The first photos..

That's all for now, wish you like this type of car.
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1979 VW Brasilia 1600cc

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLpzjgfo69uFNxzlZbD7paQ

Blog: http://paulosgarage.blogspot.com

[pgroth]

continuing...

The car was painted in the past, but it is was well done.

I begin the work doing a polishing test in a little spot, to see the difference. Since the paint was really oxided, I use a polishing compound really agressive, but by hand.

Well, with this result I knew in the future I would be able to clear the paint and make it shine.

On the end of last year, I bought some parts to rebuild the brakes of the car, specially the front.

I sand blasted the callipers (at home, using a DIY I found on internet) the results were good.

And painted they black.

During the rebuild...

The disk brakes were the original ones..

In the rear, I changed the "brake actuators"

I also changed the master cilinder and brake tubes front to end, just to be sure all would be working well.

Next time I will show some pictures of the engine bay.
_________________
1979 VW Brasilia 1600cc

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLpzjgfo69uFNxzlZbD7paQ

Blog: http://paulosgarage.blogspot.com

[Petfisheric]

Nice clean car Pualo, I wish the Brasilia had been sold in North America so we could have some up here. keep posting.

[pgroth]

[pgroth]

...

This car uses oil bath air cleaners and when I got, those were really dirty.

Here is a before pics...

Struggling with the will of take of the carbs and clean them.... in the future, pics...

Clean X Dirty

Scrapped the old oil, cleaned and put new oil..

All together again...

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Taking a look on the spark wires.. OEM ones.. well I changed them later anyway, but this is the level of the car, several parts were OEM, even the ones that should be changed many years ago

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Next stop, tail lights cleaning.

Abraço!
_________________
1979 VW Brasilia 1600cc

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLpzjgfo69uFNxzlZbD7paQ

Blog: http://paulosgarage.blogspot.com

[pgroth]

...

I just cleaned and polished those, but the results was great. The photos don't show how good they became.

First, before...

And, after...

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A service which brings great results is the cleaning and clear the galleries of the rocker arms, I suspect these ones were not cleaned since 1979, because they were all clogged and the adjustament screws don't move.

Fortunately, I had a set of 8 OEM rocker arms, which I bought for my ex-Brasilia as backup parts. So I did the work in those backup ones.

Installed ones...

Even after 24hours in soaked in thinner, the adjustment screws are stucked..

So I went to PlanB, clean the backup rocker arms and separate the parts to assemble the set.....

My garage mate, she is always watching me close..

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In the next posts, new 3 points seatbelts, distributor cleaning, paint detailing.

Abraço!
_________________
1979 VW Brasilia 1600cc

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLpzjgfo69uFNxzlZbD7paQ

Blog: http://paulosgarage.blogspot.com

[pgroth]

Ok, the seatbelts from my car were not the original ones and were ugly and not retractable, so I decided to upgrade a bit this aspect.

I installed a pair of 3 point retractable seatbelts in beige color, to match the interior color. Let's go to some pics.

There was an increase in the security feeling, hehe.

After that, I went to the distributor. It was really dirty and the centrifugal advance stuck...

I use some thinner to clean it up and lubrificated the mechanism, it worked really well.

To finish this post, I will provide you some images of the paint detailing process..

Roof, before/after, the white fog is oxided paint removed with polishing compound..

Hood, 50/50 shot..

Here, after almost finished the polishing process and applied the sealant..

A result from the work, the colors of those cars are really beautiful.

And the next post will be about the carburetors, lots of work, but incredible results.

Abraço!
_________________
1979 VW Brasilia 1600cc

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLpzjgfo69uFNxzlZbD7paQ

Blog: http://paulosgarage.blogspot.com

[Milho]

Wow This a pretty one!.

Here where I live are so many of them, mostly old rusted non-care one's... But a few in a pretty good conditions!

...Quizá viaje por tierra hasta allá el año que viene.

[pgroth]

[pgroth]

So.. after some time using the car I decided to clean and check the carburetors. In the end, each side had its own configuration and it explained why the car idle was not good nor the acceleration.

Put, let post some pictures..

Before..

Here is a after/before the cleaning..

Puzzle ...

In one (or two) piece.

Since a was doing the carbs "rebuild" I took some time to clean the engine bay and paint the "tins".. pictures in the next episode..
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1979 VW Brasilia 1600cc

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLpzjgfo69uFNxzlZbD7paQ

Blog: http://paulosgarage.blogspot.com

[Manfred58sc]

Nice!!
_________________
Fat chick owner/operator

[pgroth]

[pgroth]

Moving forward..

I took of the tins to paint them and to clean the engine bay.

They were really ugly, no paint in some parts, black paint in others, oil spilled in all...

Engine bay was also not beatiful...

Started by cleaning the engine bay, here are some after shots..

http://i.imgur.com/T3KkxFH.jpg

It is not impeccable, but really clean.

Then, I start the work in the tins.. to clean them I did a home sand blasting.

50/50 shot..

It works...

The difference...

...
Before

After

I put it on top, just to see how it could be in gray color (as the Pumas were), but in the end I prefer to go black.

After the sand blast, I cleaned and prime the parts..

And here a picture after the paint.

In the place just to feel how it would look.

After reassembling...

Next week, some updated pictures of the car...

Abraço!
_________________
1979 VW Brasilia 1600cc

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLpzjgfo69uFNxzlZbD7paQ

Blog: http://paulosgarage.blogspot.com

[Rome]

Your engine and compartment revival look excellent! Did you paint the shrouds with a spray can, or with a spray gun and air compressor?

[pgroth]

[pgroth]

As promised, some pictures of the car.

First, the Brasilia and my 03' VW Gol in the garage.

And some pictures of the car (and my cousin's one) in a "train" museum in my city.

Well that is almost the changes until today, after that I did some changes in the rocker arms and I will show you it in the next post.

Abraço!
_________________
1979 VW Brasilia 1600cc

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLpzjgfo69uFNxzlZbD7paQ

Blog: http://paulosgarage.blogspot.com

[Rome]

Paulo, with the wide engine compartment space and those wide cylinder tins, are you able to install the engine with both carburetors bolted to the heads? Or do you install the engine without the carbs and mount them afterwards? The US market never received the Brasilia and I might have seen a single car in all the 30 years I've been active in the VW hobby... so I'm unfamiliar with this unusual engine bay.

[pgroth]

[pgroth]

I had a trip to US in April, i took the opportunity to buy some parts to the car, between them I bought the Empi Ball foot valve adjusters.

I was curious to see the noise differences between them and the original ones and they really make difference, a lot of noise vanished.

I took the car original's valve adjuster screw and heat them in hot water to be able to unscrew them, and it worked

They were really dirty..

I took the time to clean the internal ducts..

and also to make the upgrade which mean to increase the lubrification..

As the empy screws are bigger then the originals, I remove some material from the rocker arms, in this way the spacer which came in box with the empi ball foot do the job..

Here some before/after..

Good to mount..

Abraço!
_________________
1979 VW Brasilia 1600cc

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLpzjgfo69uFNxzlZbD7paQ

Blog: http://paulosgarage.blogspot.com

[74Brasilia]