Cipica, VW 1303S from '74

[tzepesh]

Porsche Boxster seats are re-upholstered. They are not perfect, the backs are not yet fully stretched, but this is done by us (well, mostly my wife).

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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[tzepesh]

I went on Friday to the shop to install the doors and check with the team the fitment. Problem is that the doors are too "to the front". Meaning that there is almost no gap by the A pillar, and too large gap by the B pillar. It seems like it would need some kind of shims between hinges and body.
And no, this topic is not covered by the Look, Listen body leaks manual.
Any ideas how to solve it? Sorry I do not have any pics.
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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[jeremy.g]

I placed a block of hardwood on the hinge where it stuck out of the car and hit it with a heavy hammer. This will bring the hinge pin forward or backward, depending on where you need it to go. This worked surprisingly well for me.

-Jeremy

[tzepesh]

Thank you, Jeremy! I also got the same feedback from several other sources. It seems that the doors might have been opened too far. Bentley has some suggestions, one is to place some piece of metal on the inside of the hinge and force the door.
This topic (even though it refers to uneven B pillar gap) details a similar issue and solution:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=589349
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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[tzepesh]

Progress! The team from the body shop re-aligned the doors and are working on preparation for paint. Unfortunately the original paint reacted to the filler and primer, so it had to be cleaned off...

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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[Buggeee]

I absolutely love the seat covers. What kind of sewing machine can go through multiple layers of vinyl fabric?! This opens endless possibilities of chosing your own fabric.
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1966 Sportsmobile Camper https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0
72 Super Duper http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=672387
(adopted out) 61 Turkis Pile https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=728764

[tzepesh]

Thank you! It is not perfect, as an experienced upholsterer would do it, but it's fine for our wishes. The point was that we can not use "off the market" headliner, and I do not have any upholstery shop where I can take the car and let them do the work. You know, 1303 with ragtop? Also we needed to make dashboard cover. So we needed to get our own sewing machine, and if we have it, why not give a go for the seats, too (I could have taken just the seats to an upholstery shop...).
The sewing machine is an industrial Juki DLN 5410N-7, and it was not so expensive, ~300 bucks. For the "decorative" sewing we would have needed another variant, with 2 needles, but it would have been too much investment for just one car interior... So it was done free hand by my wife on the same sewing machine.
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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[tzepesh]

Peek preview! 1:10 scale model, combustion engine RC car.

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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[Buggeee]

I Looooove that color!
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1966 Sportsmobile Camper https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0
72 Super Duper http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=672387
(adopted out) 61 Turkis Pile https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=728764

[tzepesh]

And some more work on the body: Almost all right side is done. Front hood done, rear hood almost finished.

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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[tzepesh]

Today, not so happy. I went to the workshop and the preparer put waaaaaaay too much bondo on the front and rear line where the fenders meet the body. He did not realize that there is the fender beading that takes any issue. So he somehow made the bondo go over the fenders by a few mm. I asked to take down all that bondo and follow the body line, just to fill the imperfections in the body.
Why I am so upset is that I had given them the fender beads to check, and asked them to call if anything seems not to be right.
The poor guy had the best intentions and worked a lot to make everything look right. Unfortunately he got it wrong. Now, it will be corrected...

And I am not satisfied with the color (LY6W). It looks great out in the sun, not so good in shade/low light. Therefore I gave two more plastic RC car bodies to try L98B ('75-'77 Viper green metallic) and L96N ('76-'78 Lime green metallic/Viper green metallic). This is the hardest choice I have ever had to do.
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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[tzepesh]

Small update, because I know you all like pictures. Door and rear panels. Sewing by my wife.

Meanwhile I opened the engine to re-seal the case halves. Everything looks very well, but the complete engine was rebuild a few years ago and I only made a few thousands of kilometers. Pictures and some measurements will follow, but nothing too wild.
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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[Lost69Convertible]

[Buggeee]

[tzepesh]

Thank you. I'll let the artist know her work is appreciated .

Engine build: no pictures, but so measurements. The engine is a quite normal 1.6 with an Engle W100.
flywheel endplay: 0.004"
combustion chamber volume: 54cc (JP group heads, for longer spark plugs)
Deck height: 1. 0.069", 2. 0.058", 3. 0.058" 4. 0.055"

So apart from #1 which has a higher deck, the others are quite close. I do not know if it is the case deck, cylinder or piston. Compression result as ~7.3:1, a bit low for W100 (recommended 7.5-8.25). But it worked until now, so I won't deal with it now. Especially that I also have the type4 on bench, just to finish painting the tins.

And of course, just to make things fun, I put on the cylinders, heads, pushrod tubes, and then looked at the box of tins and saw the ones that should have been under the cylinder. Because, why should I look in the book to check all steps when I've done this several times?
So, next step: off with the heads, tins on, heads back (maaaaybe I will cut them a bit to decrease the chamber volume to 49 or 50cc for 7.9 or 7.8 CR), all tins on and engine is ready.
Still waiting for the other RC bodies to be painted in L98B and L96N.
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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[tzepesh]

I bought a new engine hood, it fits pretty well. Left side is also done, now just the fenders need a bit of corrections and the front valance where it was welded. Then PAINT!

So, on paint: I liked the first option under light, but not under shade. So I requested to paint some other toys so I can compare them side by side. Beetle on the side: Audi LY6W, middle beetle: VW L98B, Nissan on the other side: VW L96N. I will go with the L98B, with some extra metal powder as in the Audi color. It looks like VW knew very well what they were doing.
Artificial light:

And in sunlight:

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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[tzepesh]

Getting really close to paint: preparation almost done.

And the result of L98B with the metal pigment from LY6W. We have a winner!

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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[Buggeee]

It looks like pearl. That is a winner.
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1966 Sportsmobile Camper https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0
72 Super Duper http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=672387
(adopted out) 61 Turkis Pile https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=728764

[tzepesh]

It is not pearl, it is metallic paint. It is actually the recipe of the original L98B (viperngrun) with a different type of metal powder. At the paint shop they told me that the difference is the shape of the metal flakes cutout (hexagonal vs rectangular or something else), therefore it sparkles slightly different. So it results as L98B with a bit extra glitter effect. Anyway this L98B is quite a special paint, it has different shades/tones depending on light, and it is very hard to appreciate from just pictures. I have seen lots of cars painted with it and all looked different...
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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[tzepesh]

IT'S GOT PAINT!!! That's a great Christmas gift.

And the same movie on youtube and facebook (better quality on fb I guess):
https://youtu.be/b5VOekxHoqM
https://www.facebook.com/100027276460168/videos/601133774324194/
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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration