A promise, patience, and persistence - My 1974 Westfalia thread

[white74westy]

Trying to get going again on putting the engine together. Ran in to some problems with the cam:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9600781#9600781

Looking for help and recommendations!

[white74westy]

Before I went any further with the engine, and while I was waiting for the cam to come back, I decided to tackle the hardboard insulation panels that sit above the engine. Mine were beginning to look tired, like most of them do at this point in their lives. Nothing too difficult as far as removal, particularly when the engine's not in the way! While I was doing this I placed an order for some Werksberg replacements, back in August 2020. Covid and the holidays really made a mess of the USPS. It took nearly 3 months to receive the panels. No worries! Wasn't in a rush. I was pretty excited to open them up and get cracking. Much to my surprise, I wasn't going to be able to get very far. The joys of owning a '74 reared its ugly head once again.

The 74 and maybe some of the 75's have some strange one-year-only things going on. This happens to be one of them. As you'll see below, the part that sits above the right side of the engine, has a different shaped support bracket for the diagnostic module:

In the image below, I have laid the original over the werksberg piece so you can see the differences and that it just won't fit:

As always, my dealings with Jim have been stellar! I sent him an email with pictures attached explaining my predicament. He stated that in all the years he's been doing this, he hadn't run across this before. I explained that the 74-75 were strange beasts. He was awesome and sent me an additional blank piece along with some scraps so that I could practice cutting before making my final attempt. I will update soon with results.

[white74westy]

Major stall on the project! To say I've had a full plate would be an understatement. Once again, it's time to get back at it. However, I fear there may be another stall waiting ahead, but I'll get to that in a minute.

When I left off last, I was waiting for my neighbor to finish up the last of the curtains. I got the call that it was ready to go in the middle of October. Yahoo!!!

Here is the lovely lady that did all the work for me:

I took the curtain and laid the original atop of it, to get an idea of where to put the snaps:

In case anyone is curious as to how to install them, this is a link to the stuff I used: https://www.sailrite.com/Easy-Snap-Fastener-Installation-Kit

Once I was happy with the position, I made the holes:

Snaps installed:

Time to mount them in the bus:

Popped the upper corner off in the image above, so you could see how it looks on the inside.

That's how she looks from the outside. I'm thrilled!

[white74westy]

[Jim Bear]

white74westy, where did you get that fabric?

And...

I know everything causes cancer, but 3M Scotch Guard has been directly linked to cancer. I heard this some years ago. They found the main ingredient in cancer tumor tissues. Just saying. These chemicles are everywhere, but I personally choose to not exacerbate the issue and impact.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jun/25/anthonybrowne.theobserver1
_________________
"You're either on the bus, or you're off the bus." ~kk
'85 Vanagon Westy - George In the Stable 2020-?/'74 Weekender - Ophelia In the Stable 2007- ?/'69 Beetle Convertible - SOLD 2017-2020/'67 Beetle - September SOLD 2013-2016 /'67 SO42 Westy - Sage SOLD 1996-2001 /'69 Transporter - Baby Blue SOLD 1995-1995/'72 Westy - Nelly - SOLD 1990-1995--STOP FRACKING

[KentABQ]

A fellow Sambanista recommended Scotchgard "Sun Shield" spray to me.
It protects fabrics from fading...

https://www.scotchgard.com/3M/en_US/scotchgard/pro...amp;rt=rud

Wish I had known of it 3 years ago...
_________________
-Kent-
1976 Riviera, 1.8l FI chrome yellow VAN - "Chloe"

"I must say, how can you be in a bad mood driving this vehicle full of vibrant color.
Cars of today are so bland in comparison. It's like driving a celebration!" ---WildIdea

Bus ownership via emoticons:
---williamM

[white74westy]

Not a very productive weekend, but a lot of fun nonetheless!

I was out of town for work this Friday, meeting with a customer when I received a call from my neighbor. This was highly irregular, as it was in the middle of the day. Naturally, I thought something had to be wrong. He is a retiree and I worried that perhaps something bad had taken place, and that perhaps he might need some help. I answered, "yes sir!" Much to my surprise, it was not his voice on the other end of the line, but rather that of his wife. If you'll recall, quite some time back, I made mention of my neighbor that was once a seamstress. She is a lovely retired lady from Germany. She agreed to help me make new curtains for my bus! I'm not the type to rush anyone, and truth be told, I've had so much other stuff on my plate that I really hadn't given it much thought. Well, she was calling to ask questions about the curtains. Very exciting! I couldn't answer the questions then and there, and asked if I could come by later that afternoon. I really have very little left to do on the interior of the bus, but this is one of those things. Of course it was all I could think about for the rest of the afternoon, until I could get back to town. I'm really glad things worked out the way they did!!! The whole way home, I was thinking about the curtain patterns that I had given her. I can't remember where I got them, but I'm pretty sure it was off TheSamba. Anyhow, the more I thought about it, I just knew that what I'd given her was just not right. I met with her and we talked things through. The plans/patterns I had given her were for a later model bus, that probably wouldn't have been quite right for the '74. Happily, we walked through it all and I hope to have a complete set, precisely like the ones I removed, all those years ago. I must mention, that I did have a couple of them left, which I left with her to use as templates. Anyhow, she had a couple of them finished when I got there. Here's a little teaser:

As you'll notice in the first photo, the new material is a very close facsimile of the original in color, and pretty close in texture to the rest of the material used in the bus. Thankfully, it is UV resistant, so hopefully, they'll hold up a lot longer than the originals did, specific to bleaching that is so common with the curtains in our buses. Needless to say, I've been over the moon...I can't wait to see what she comes up with. I can't wait to finally be able to finish the interior of the bus!!!

Yesterday, I got to catch up with a couple of my buddies. My neighbor has a '72 Westy. He recently bought a small trailer to pull behind his bus. It needs some work, and it's going to make a fun little project. However, he didn't have a hitch. Another friend of ours, that lives just around the corner has some pretty amazing fabricating skills and agreed to help make the hitch. By the way, he also has a sweet '72 tintop. I pulled up in my EVC and thankfully at one point, had enough wherewithal to take a picture:

Here's another shot of the boys getting some of the final touches done on the hitch:

All in all, a great weekend in the books! I hope that everyone is keeping well, staying healthy and safe!

[white74westy]

While I'm waiting to get the cam and lifters back, I decided to do some preventative mainainence. I opened up the firewall and replaced all the fuel lines in the engine bay.

Started with this little bugger, as its always one of the ones I like doing the least:

As you can see, I went through the opening left by removing the tail light. Lots more room that way! Right before I tightened up the clamps:

Also wanted to take a moment to highlight the fuel lines that I used, the last time I installed them. I bought the correct size, metric hoses, from Belmetric.com. It's the flenor product that they offer:

Here's a link to the fuel line for those interested: https://www.belmetric.com/multifuel-hoseethanol-ap...sv33dl8vl1

It's reinfoced and is designed to be used with a bunch of different fuel types, including high ethanol content fuel. I was really curious how it would hold up. I'm happy to report that after approximately 6 years, they show no signs of deterioration! I split a couple of pieces, in order to see what the insides would look like:

The white stuff you're seeing there is leftover paint from the vapor lines. I was also pleased to see no deterioration on the ends either! I prefer to run non-ethanol fuels, as such, I didn't run very much ethanol based fuel through them, so maybe that played a part in it; I don't know. Either way, I was well pleased with the results and decided to use the same stuff again. I hope this proves useful to those that wonder if the Belmetric fuel lines are worth it. BTW...no this isn't some kind of ad, just a friendly FYI.

Next up, replacing the hardboard insulation panels at the top of the engine bay.

[white74westy]

[old DKP driver]

We are all looking forward to seeing your build going forward!
Nice heads
_________________
V.W.owner since 1967

[white74westy]

Camshaft and lifters are on the way! Hope to receive them later this week, or early next week. Yahoo! Hopefully, that'll mean the I can get back to putting the engine back together!

[white74westy]

Still waiting on the camshaft. The work has already been done. However, the lifters couldn't be saved. Rather than to sell me what she believed to be an inferior product, Faith recommended that I wait for the new batch. Hopefully I should hear something from her fairly soon and we can get back to building the engine.

I had a little time to look at the heads a couple of weeks ago. Almost immediately I noticed that there would be a problem with the thermocouples that I bought. I bought them off the internet somewhere. They're 14mm with 24" of shielded cable. However, the part that attaches to the ring sits at a 90° angle.

Subsequently they wouldn't fit properly in the notch and definitely wouldn't allow the ring to seat properly under the spark plug. I asked Len if he would be willing to take a look at the heads and the thermocouples to see if anything could be done. As always, he was more than willing to oblige. He removed some additional material from the original notches, and I think they're going to work great.

Hopefully it won't be too much longer...

[white74westy]

Early Christmas this week at the white74westy house:

You keep hearing people say how these things are works of art, they truly are magnificent when you see them in person!!! Len's work is second to none! Excited for what's to come!

[white74westy]

I started a dedicated thread on my engine rebuild:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=739070

I can't wait to get this thing back in and hopefully a good long run out of her!

[white74westy]

[orwell84]

Glad you got your case back and are moving forward again. Parts look great.

I get the overwhelmed part. I got my crank, rods and balanced parts on Friday. They are way better than the old parts I’ve been throwing around in my last rebuild. I’ve got that handle them like a bomb that will go off feeling again.

Looking forward to seeing more of your build.

[white74westy]

It is utter madness at the white74westy house!!! Trying to stay on top of multiple projects at one time. Initially I had hoped to start one project, and see it through to completion, before I started the next. I have had very little success in doing so, to this point. I started working on the transmission on the EVC and had to stop, once it was time to order parts. Bagged the valve body up and laid it on the bench, until the parts came in. Next, I received a call from my friend that the panels for the Westy trailer were ready for pick up. Woohoo!!! They look absolutely amazing. Once again, I was stymied there as I must wait for the PB Blaster to do its thing on some rusted bolts.

One of the biggest lessons I've learned along the way is not to rush!!! Every time I have ever tried to push the pace a little too far, I end up making mistakes, breaking something, or the quality of work suffers. I'm not willing to do any of those things. However, it's difficult not to feel overwhelmed a little.

Nevertheless, I'm moving forward. This weekend I managed to get going on some of the deep cleaning, in preparation for the upcoming engine build.

I started with the heads. I immersed them in the ultrasonic as much as I could in order to remove as much of the carbon deposits as possible:

Eventually, I turned the head the other direction, so the valves face downward. This helped me to loosen the deposits sufficiently enough to get the combustion chamber and valves clean:

The ultrasonic is an amazing tool!!! It has managed to get nearly all of the nasty crud off the heads, with minimal assistance from wire brushes. The first couple of rounds I have merely used Simple Green, to help get rid of the really heavy, greasy nastiness. The next couple of rounds I will be using a solution that I bought made specifically for cleaning engine/carburetor parts.

Yesterday afternoon, I managed to remove all the valves. This is what the bench looked like at the end of a long day:

In reality, almost all of the valves were in really good shape. However, there were a couple that had some scoring (not sure if that is the right term) on the stem. I could feel a ridge, where the valve felt as if it had been gouged. I don't know what the cause might be. Perhaps I was at fault in some way, when I was removing them from the head. Either way, I did not feel confident reusing them. Not worth the headache, or another nagging feeling that I should have done this, or that while I was in there. I ordered Manley valves. The part numbers: (42mm Intake) 11628-4 and (36mm Exhaust) 11629-4. Once they arrive, I will get started on lapping the valves and rebuilding the heads. Hopefully from there, I'll be able to make some good progress on the cleaning the rest of the parts, and readying everything for assembly.

[white74westy]

[WildIdea]

Good news on the case. Can’t wait to see it.

I remember my crankcase breather was choked up with creosote to the max as well. Like you, I feared pieces of that gunk breaking loose and falling inside my brand new build. I started with lightweight dissolving agents but ended up trying legit old school easy off oven cleaner. Breather placed inside a gallon size plastic bag and spray it full the best I could and let sit for 10-15 min then would add hot water to the bag until it was submerged then dunk the entire bag in the ultrasonic. Took several cycles cause that junk just keeps on coming out, but all the gunk stays in the bag instead if the ultrasonic tank. Of course the easy off ate the paint off the breather and I needed to repaint.

The plastic part of the breather was another story. After seeing someone here take one apart by scoring and prying at the seam, I think SGkent, I remember seeing a little flapper inside that I think gets roached when the oil builds up. Now I’m starting to think that’s what’s wrong with mine and thinking about popping that apart and making sure it’s working properly. At times I get bursts of oil working back though and throwing it around my compartment.
_________________
1977 Sage Green Westy
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=691987
1965 SWR Walk-Through Standard
1960 211 Panel American Camper Conversion

[white74westy]

I have been busy trying to get the '95 EVC up and running. However, there's been some work on the bus getting done too, albeit very little. The case came back and at first glance, it looks amazing!

I will get a closer look very soon.

First comes the cleaning. I have been putting everything in the ultrasonic. There will be several rounds of cleaning done that way. During the first round, I've been using Simple green. The ultrasonic has a nice heating feature, that allows for a combination of the ultrasonic, detergent, and heat. I've put the lifters, rocker arms, hardware and even the heads in there. I will continue to use the Simple Green for the next round or two. Once I feel like the bulk of the dirt and grime have loosened up sufficiently, I'll switch over to a proper cleaner designed for engine/carb parts.

The other day I popped the breather box in the ultrasonic. I was shocked at the amount of coke that came out. This is a very small sampling of the junk that came out:

I didn't think to keep some of the larger chunks that washed out in the first couple of rinses. It goes to show that you can never be too clean.

Anyhow, that's all for now. I hope to get a good amount of cleaning and prep done very soon. I will of course post my findings/results. If anyone sees anything along the way that I have missed, please don't hesitate to jump in and let me know!

a.