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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 12858 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2022 7:17 am Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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So… yesterday, I decided to do the right thing, sorted the paperwork & made the Beest legal.
With tags in hand, I opted for the total immersion method & gave the Beest it’s first real shakedown.
Here’s the odometer from a few weeks ago…
And this morning after a tour through the countryside last night, a drive home & back again.
Almost 120 miles in a night ain’t too shabby.
HOLY CRAP!!! I’ll be glad when those new balljoints break in completely, this thing was a gawd awful handful for the first 30-40 miles. It constantly needed correction since the balljoints were too tight to allow the steering to self-center.
Anyway, upon arrival this morning, I was greeted with my recent order of new door seals.
EXCELLENT! The rattling & creaking was horrific.
Since the original seals were rock hard & quite intent on remaining in place, I needed a tool to extract them without gouging the paint.
so I grabbed this worn out wire brush…
Made a few modifications…
And started scraping & prying the old seal out.
With that out of the way, I began cramming & stuffing the new one into place.
And had to deal with the hateful little C-clip on the check strap.
With that done, now I can sort out some of the other bits that still need to be addressed. _________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 12858 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2022 7:51 am Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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After another 120 miles of driving, it was time to exorcise those demons responsible for the cacophony of metallic rattling emanating from the back of the cabin.
And with the majority of that removed, I dabbled with some of the piddly crap that just makes it a little better, like replacing the fuel door release handle…
And plugging the rear brake inspection & adjuster holes…
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 12858 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2022 8:29 am Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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This weekend I scrounged through a local pick n pull looking for some useable seat belt assemblies for the Beest & since the front seats appeared to be from a Honda, I grabbed a set of belts & latches out of an early Civic.
And while pondering what was useful in the bottom of a buckets of parts that I inherited with the vehicle, I found the remaining switch assembly screw…
Ooh… and the screw & clamp for the horn lead.
Saweeet… the horn actually works!
Unfortunately, it is easily the most pathetic & laughable tone, that is seemingly far better suited for a moped.
While I didn’t find a horn button with the car, I did Shanghai one from another.
And I also caught the odometer at an interesting point.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 12858 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2022 7:26 am Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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Link
Anyway, after trying to exercise the ball joints & tie rod ends to get them to loosen up a bit, I turned my attention to a couple other annoyances.
The first of which was the lack of illumination of any kind on the dash. So after tracing the wiring & finding no voltage to the bulbs, I disconnected the battery, removed the fresh air plenum & radio…
And took the headlight switch out.
Huh, no wonder, it’s missing the little springy thingy that acts as a rheostat.
Oh well, I shnagged one out of a parts car, cleaned the contacts & slathered them down with some dielectric grease & reassembled everything.
Unfortunately, my parts supplier sold me the wrong bulbs
So back to the parts car for the lone remaining functioning bulb.
Woohoo! We has illumination!
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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69aircooled Samba Member
Joined: August 04, 2004 Posts: 241 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2022 9:54 am Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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It is so satisfying to get those little things corrected and working properly again.
That will be a fun car to drive, great project! |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 12858 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2022 5:52 pm Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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69aircooled wrote: |
It is so satisfying to get those little things corrected and working properly again.
That will be a fun car to drive, great project! |
Absolutely! Thank you.
It already is fun, I’ve almost logged 700 miles on it in a week.
Speaking of correcting little things, today I stuffed a fuse back into the fuse holder for the reverse lights…
And then I noticed the overspray on the license plate light lens.
So I cleaned it up with some acetone.
While assembling the rear, I had adjusted the rear toe to be toed out, an alignment spec that works great for the water-cooled/front wheel drive cars…. Wellll, not so much for rear engine, rear wheel drive applications (especially when lifted.). This leads to a pretty ugly tendency for the rear to suddenly “steer” when the outside tire gets loaded. So I made the first of the adjustments to eliminate this effect & bring it back to factory spec.
A vast improvement already, but I will still be making a few more adjustments to dial it in completely. _________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 12858 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2022 10:14 am Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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This morning I set my sights on replacing a pop out window seal, so I carefully removed the screws while holding the window in place, & then removed the window.
So nice of VW to install this convenient catch tray.
Once out, I knocked off the loose paint & scraped the scale off the rusty areas.
I then cleaned the aperture & treated the rust with Ospho.
Fortunately, the old seal was just pliable enough to come out in a few pieces.
Since I did a quick how-to in another thread, I’ll just import it here.
TDCTDI wrote: |
Find the seam on your gasket, align it so that it is in the center of the bottom of the window.
Slip the lower lip of the gasket into the groove of the trim, & then, using a thin piece of plastic with a dulled (preferably squared edge), tuck the other edge of the gasket into the groove. In this case, I found an old battery post cover.
Use the flat edge of the “tool” against the flat edge of the seal to push the seal towards the other side that is already tucked into the grove, & then into the groove.
Once you have a starting point, stretch the gasket a bit & then several inches to a foot away, tuck the upper edge of the seal in again. This now secures the tension that not only makes the seal thinner, but it also helps pull the seal into the groove as you continue to tuck & stuff it into the groove.
Then, get comfortable, support the window in your lap ,& continue to tuck the seal into the groove.
Once you get the seal tucked in, all the way around the window, you then need to slide the seal back & forth in the groove to assure the it locks int the groove.
Here you can barely see where the seal has not completely dropped into the groove (roughly an inch in front of my fingers.).
By adjusting the seal back & forth, you can get it to drop into place & once it does, you should be able to slide the seal in the groove with a bit of effort.
No lube necessary & it should only take about 15 minutes for each window.
Good luck, I hope this helps. |
Unfortunately, the Ospho wants a 24hr cure time before a top coat, so I hung the window back in place with a couple screws at each end until tomorrow.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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67rustavenger Samba Member
Joined: February 24, 2015 Posts: 9772 Location: Oregon
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Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2022 8:44 am Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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The car is coming along quite well!
Thanks for the popout window seal tutorial. That'll come in handy for the future.
Stretching the seal, kinda like when installing hood and decklid seals is the best method of getting the seals in place. _________________ I have learned over the years.
Cheap parts are gonna disappoint you.
Buy Once, Cry Once!
There's never enough time to do it right the first time. But there's always enough time to do it thrice.
GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo! |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 12858 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2022 3:49 pm Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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67rustavenger wrote: |
The car is coming along quite well!
Thanks for the popout window seal tutorial. That'll come in handy for the future.
Stretching the seal, kinda like when installing hood and decklid seals is the best method of getting the seals in place. |
Thank you sir, I’m glad that some part of this train wreck is useful.
First thing this morning, I cleaned, sanded, cleaned again, primed, & shot everything with a quick coat of “Almond” Rustoleum. Yeah, yeah, it’s not gonna last, keep it’s shine, match, whatever… IDGAF, it’ll keep it from rusting further, & it looks better than it did.
After letting it cure all day, I stuffed the window back into the hole.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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Mickey bitsko Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2019 Posts: 511 Location: New Mexifornia
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Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2022 4:27 pm Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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Lookin real good 👍 |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 12858 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2022 7:22 am Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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Mickey bitsko wrote: |
Lookin real good 👍 |
You LIE like a dog!
Thank you anyway.
Since there is no precipitation predicted for the next week, I decided to perform my modern interpretation of a rain dance…
By cutting the gasket around the rear window to investigate just how bad it is underneath.
Ok, not as bad as I would have expected.
So I proceeded to scrape, brush, & sand away at the worst of it.
And apply some Ospho.
With the weather getting cooler, & knowing that I be experiencing a bit better flow through ventilation, I felt it was time to address the only problem with the heating system, the control lever with performance issues. It just won’t stay up.
So I grabbed my drill, attached a hole saw, & perforated a urethane bumper cover.
Now I has these soon to be friction discs.
After opening the center hole a bit, I sanded the discs down a bit & cleaned up the edges…. OK, my lazy ass filed them down on the fresh asphalt.
I then slipped them into place & I now has heat.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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vamram Samba Member
Joined: March 08, 2012 Posts: 7304 Location: NOVA
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2022 5:12 pm Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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TDCTDI wrote: |
After opening the center hole a bit, I sanded the discs down a bit & cleaned up the edges…. OK, my lazy ass filed them down on the fresh asphalt.
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Cutting corners are we?
(Seriously, love the wildebeast and the way you go at it and document everything!) _________________ Eventually, "we are what we pretend to be.’”
Give peace a chance - Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!
'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!! |
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Rome Samba Member
Joined: June 02, 2004 Posts: 9654 Location: Pearl River, NY
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2022 9:04 pm Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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For those heat lever friction discs, I used the milky plastic lid of a margarine tub to cut two of them out for either my Beetle or Ghia; has worked for decades.
Your almond spray paint match for the right pop-out window rust repair is surprisingly good. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 12858 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2022 6:19 pm Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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vamram wrote: |
Cutting corners are we?
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Nope…. Those were clearly circles.
vamram wrote: |
(Seriously, love the wildebeast and the way you go at it and document everything!) |
Thank you. I try to keep it interesting.
Rome wrote: |
For those heat lever friction discs, I used the milky plastic lid of a margarine tub to cut two of them out for either my Beetle or Ghia; has worked for decades.
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Nice.
Rome wrote: |
Your almond spray paint match for the right pop-out window rust repair is surprisingly good. |
Thank you.
The rear window frame got the same treatment this morning.
And wouldn’t you friggin know it, the miserable, rotten,lying bastids they call meteorologists were correct as usual…
Screenshot of the seven day forecast…
But you scroll down & get this…
And as if I was both cursed by, & then smiled upon by the VW gods, while cruising down the highway, I found a huge sheet of plastic causing everyone to veer out of the lane, so, out of concern for everyone’s safety , I collected it, wadded it up, & stuffed it in the frunk. _________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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67rustavenger Samba Member
Joined: February 24, 2015 Posts: 9772 Location: Oregon
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2022 7:17 pm Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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Quote: |
And as if I was both cursed by, & then smiled upon by the VW gods, while cruising down the highway, I found a huge sheet of plastic causing everyone to veer out of the lane, so, out of concern for everyone’s safety Rolling Eyes, I collected it, wadded it up, & stuffed it in the frunk. Laughing |
Makin America Beautiful again? I really liked that thread.
Meteorologist, the only job in the World, where you can be 50% incorrect, and still keep your job!
The car is coming along very nicely! Keep up the great posts. _________________ I have learned over the years.
Cheap parts are gonna disappoint you.
Buy Once, Cry Once!
There's never enough time to do it right the first time. But there's always enough time to do it thrice.
GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo! |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 12858 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2022 7:13 am Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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67rustavenger wrote: |
Makin America Beautiful again? I really liked that thread.
The car is coming along very nicely! Keep up the great posts. |
Nah, I came to the conclusion that those nasty fu#%^rs that lived & traveled down that road just didn’t care. Especially after one told me to stop since the state wouldn’t pick up the trash in his yard if the rest of the road was clear.
This piece of plastic was obstructing half a lane, around a blind corner on an exit ramp causing people to veer suddenly at highway speeds.
Doubled over, it still covered the whole roof & back half of the car.
Since I have seemingly squirreled my trusty window gasket installation cord (that has literally installed hundreds of windows over 20+ years.) away in some unknown “safe place”, I needed to make another, so I thought I’d bring y’all along for the ride. I started by finding a suitable container.
And cut the bottom out of it.
Then, I got some paraffin wax, & melted it.
And then, I pulled a section of 1/8” nylon cordage (long enough to accommodate the largest piece of glass that I tend to install… Bay Bus windshield.) through the liquified wax to thoroughly coat it.
Once done, I scrounged up a “Bic Stic” to sacrifice.
After disemboweling it, I slipped the tube over the cordage & knotted the ends.
Upon completion of my new tool, I thoroughly cleaned the rear window, and found the seam in the gasket & centered it at the lower edge of the window.
And after installing the gasket around the perimeter of the glass, I then inserted the tool into the groove in the seal.
And zipped it around the window.
Make sure that you go beyond your starting point.
With that complete, I tossed the window into the hole & spritzed the perimeter with windex.
After giving the window a few whacks with the palm of my hand to seat it, I went inside to pull it in.
I pull the cordage until the lip of the gasket is barely able to reach over the frame, & then go back outside to give it a solid whack with the palm of my hand to seat the glass, and the continue pulling the glass in.
Now that the glass is fully seated…. It’s time to pull the outer lip up & out, onto the body.
I usually do this with a hook tool, but since the paint was still a bit softish, I carefully extracted it with my fingers.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 12858 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2022 6:54 am Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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Alright, while driving through hurricane Ian yesterday, I learned a couple of things about the Wildebeest.
One, a lifted Beetle is far more susceptible to cross winds than a lifted Ghia.
And two, I still need to address some water ingress issues.
Fortunately, the passenger side pop out & the rear window sealed great. I guess I should have at least installed the driver side pop out gasket.
However, the most notable leak was the one streaming down the bulkhead.
So, after removing the remnants of the trunk liner, I was reacquainted with all the crap left by the rodents. (Yeah… I shoulda addressed that a while ago.)
Anyway, I removed the ever-so-delicate fresh air plenum drain tube & inspected it.
Since I couldn’t lay my paws on a suitable replacement, I pushed the detritus out, & carefully wrapped it in electrical tape to seal it & keep it together until I can source a replacement (yeah, right, it’ll probably stay there until it leaks again.). That was literally like trying to seal a aluminum foil slinky.
With everything still being wet, I couldn’t treat the metal, so I tossed everything back in place & hopefully that will have remedied that leak. _________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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67rustavenger Samba Member
Joined: February 24, 2015 Posts: 9772 Location: Oregon
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Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2022 8:33 am Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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Is that more nuts and mouse shit in the tube?
Did you have a look inside the fresh air box, for mouse fun? _________________ I have learned over the years.
Cheap parts are gonna disappoint you.
Buy Once, Cry Once!
There's never enough time to do it right the first time. But there's always enough time to do it thrice.
GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo! |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 12858 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2022 8:46 am Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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67rustavenger wrote: |
Is that more nuts and mouse shit in the tube?
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No, that is literally 50 years of composted leaves that had 25 years of dry time.
Quote: |
Did you have a look inside the fresh air box, for mouse fun? |
The box was almost completely full of the same stuff, sorta rehydrated, rotted leaf litter. I imagine that this was the cause for the pans being in such rough shape, a constant resaturation of the carpets & padding.
In my quest to improve upon something every day, today I yanked the driver side pop out window.
And with more rain scheduled, rust remediation be damned, I just stripped the seal out…
Crammed the new seal in, & stuffed the window back in.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013 Posts: 12858 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2022 9:08 am Post subject: Re: The Wildebeest |
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For today’s daily improvement, I removed the passenger side door card to address the almost seized window regulator. I grabbed a can of chain lube, attached a straw from a can of brake cleaner, bent it into a U, & saturated the cable in the track.
Rolled the window up & down a few dozen times while lubricating it a few more.
With the window functioning as well as can be expected, I turned my attention to the bottom of the door.
After blowing out all of the rotted vegetation, I scraped & brushed off the flaky rust, & douched out the bottom of the door with brake clean.
After a bit of dry time, I flooded the cavity with Ospho.
And then distributed it a bit with compressed air.
Now it’s clean & treated.
_________________ Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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