Type 3 Front Beam reconditioning guide

[Clatter]

Nice!

I am SO glad to hear that people are stepping up!

Just did this the hard way, cutting up beams, and with marginal results.
Having your parts available would have made this far easier.

Don't forget to mention that using your new pieces allows folks to tank/boil or powder coat beams to their heart's content, without fear of damaging the old bushings..
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Bus Motor Build

I have excellent news for the world...
There is no such thing as patina.
It does not exist!

[Yabbadubbadoo]

[Yabbadubbadoo]

[W1K1]

I received a link this morning at work that may be helpful.
Igus does small batch runs in whatever plastics you need.

http://www.igus.eu/wpck/3196/barstock?C=DE&L=en

or they can 3D print as well

http://www.igus.eu/wpck/13370/3D_Druckservice?playlistid=87
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1973 super 2110cc
1965 squareback 1500E-sold
1971 bay window westy- EJ2.5 subi swap

[Yabbadubbadoo]

Thanks Wiki.
I should get good service from the company I got quoted from. They are the Australian distributor for Quadrant plastics with CNC machining capability.

That company you mentioned is the first company I've seen using engineering grade plastics for 3d printing. I really wish 3d printing was an option but I think we're not quite there yet in terms of printing time vs cost and also structural rigidity. Every time I speak with 3d printing companies about strength they always load their answers with ambiguous replies like "It's 'almost' as strong as cast abs" etc.
The prints I've handled so far tend to fail in layers so the flanges in my design would be vulnerable to breaking I would imagine. Also the range of available materials is a bit slim.
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Sydney, Australia.
66 Type 3 Fastback

[ataraxia]

I spent some time tonight on the practice beam sections...and while I got the pieces out, I'll want to devise a better, less risky method for the beams I'm building up.

The interior of the practice beam is different from what Paolo's beam looks like (mine is from an early '65).

The 'cup' holding the bushing at the proper depth covered the inner edge of the bushing - with the exception of about 1mm. There wasn't enough of it there for me to do anything from the other end of the beam.

I obviously don't want to score the inner wall of the beam or leave random bakelite pieces to float about inside the beam...so other than a bearing puller for the needle bearings, any ideas about how to get the inner bushings out? I'm thinking about an extension for my drill with a cutting bit on the end because I don't think an inner bearing puller is going to work on the bushings.

[Yabbadubbadoo]

I see it appears to lack the four spaces in that sheet metal flange stopper but the depth of that flange looks very similar.

In my test section I used a dremel with a burr on it but that was just to cut the Bakelite. The metal bush will definitely need to be cut out with a reciprocating hack saw blade or pulled out with a home-made tool like I did in the very first set of videos at the beginning of this thread.

I don't really expect anyone to go to the extent of making that expanding tool that I made in the end. That was just me trying to get the Bakelite out without breaking it so I could measure it.
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Sydney, Australia.
66 Type 3 Fastback

[ataraxia]

After a night of sleep, I'm considering buying an extension for my Dremel so that I can use a burr on the end as well. The beam with sand doesn't have the metal bushings so that's one less element to deal with. Getting the bearings out isn't difficult once I have the correct tool.

I think getting the sand out of the beam is going to be the hardest part, honestly.

[Yabbadubbadoo]

I'm not entirely sure the dremel would work that deep. I used a cut section of beam with my dremel but being only a short beam cut where the bush is located I got enough angle to use the dremel.

Hmmmm. (scratching head). Similar discussion came up a while back and the sharpened chisel seemed to be a winner. You know if you rigged up a hacksaw blade and got most of the way through the Bakelite it should break off easily with a chisel or large screwdriver. I wouldn't be too worried about making a 2mm cut in that sheet metal flange. A tiny bit of collateral damage that will never be seen.

Also, getting the sand out would be tricky and a royal PITA. I put my beam upright in a drum and pumped kerosene continuously for a long while to clean out the grease. Separating the gunk from the kerosene with a baffle inside the drum. Yup, messy job that was.
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Sydney, Australia.
66 Type 3 Fastback

[ataraxia]

I'm thinking of using one of these affixed to a small diameter shaft of some sort to hold it stiff:

I'm going to take the beam to a radiator shop and have them dunk it and see what they can flush out. There are a lot of unintended baffles on the interior of the beam because of the way it's put together so I'm not 100% confident that it's going to work.

[ataraxia]

Well, I have two pieces of good news and one piece of news that's a potential problem:

Good news #1: I got all four bushings and bearings out of the first beam rather easily without damaging the internal face of the beam.

Good news #2: There isn't nearly as much sand inside as I suspected so it doesn't need to be dipped at the radiator shop or repainted. It looks to have been limited to the bearing area only - not much got past the wall of grease in the beam just past the bearings.

News #3: The top inner bushing 'stop' isn't present in this beam. There's nothing - just a tube with nothing to keep the bushing in place.

What are the odds that I can pop those inner bushings you made into the beam and they'll actually stay in place? There's no photo because I couldn't get one that looked decent so you'll just have to take my word for it.

[Yabbadubbadoo]

The stops on the top beam are hard to see because they are just three small bumps but if it has none like a beetle beam I think it will be fine because they go in real tight. The bush is about 0.5mm larger than the housing so it compresses a lot by engineering standards where they typically press fit nylon bushings with about 0.1mm oversize.
If you still feel it isn't tight enough then you could measure the exact location of the bush, drill and tap a small hole from the outside right in the middle of the bush and screw in a grease nipple in the hole because they enter the beam housing about 1mm and will act like a locator if the bush decides to creep (although it's very unlikely). Shim the grease nipple if it goes in too deep. I had thought about the inner bushings creeping prior to doing the install so I went through all this in my head but after feeling how much force was required to push them in I had no such concern so I never bothered with that idea.
_________________
Sydney, Australia.
66 Type 3 Fastback

[Yabbadubbadoo]

Here's what the stops look like on the top beam but as I said if it doesn't have any don't be too concerned unless the housing diameter is also different.

_________________
Sydney, Australia.
66 Type 3 Fastback

[ataraxia]

Definitely nothing inside the beam but it is good news to hear that the bushings will stay put.

I'll see about getting them installed shortly. Control arms are at powder coater so it'll be a couple of weeks still.

[Yabbadubbadoo]

[ataraxia]

This is the cleanest photo I could get of the inside of the beam. The surface is covered in Fluid Film so that it doesn't flash rust from the humidity today. I'll probably have to hone it out lightly anyway because it started to rust as soon as I cleaned out the grease. Ahh, summer in the Midwest...

No stops of any kind so I hope you're right about the inner bushings staying put!

[Yabbadubbadoo]

Is that small bump inside the grease nipple I can see (lower right)? If so, make sure you take that out before you press in the bush.
_________________
Sydney, Australia.
66 Type 3 Fastback

[ataraxia]

[Yabbadubbadoo]

[Yabbadubbadoo]

Thought I'd post a little vid of how to remove the inner bushings without any special tools.

https://youtu.be/5MqNaW-rOYQ
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Sydney, Australia.
66 Type 3 Fastback