Black Fastback Build Thread

[Clatter]

Hi Ray,

I would indeed love to do a set of heads to 42x36, even with the non-2.0 914 plug angle.
To go to 8mm exhaust stems, and some nice Manley or SI thin-head swirl-polished goodness would indeed make me very happy.

Alas,

I have not my own mill, or even an angle table.
Was going to try and setup an old oven for heads,
And could of course use the freezer in the beer fridge for seats.

My hero Jim is retiring from doing machine work,
And so my own building of motors is now going to follow suit.
Without an automotive machinist to help me,
All of the hard stuff cannot be performed.
I'm shopping for someone to help with these things,
but it isn't panning out.
These parts are getting too rare/valuable to let them be butchered in an experiment trying to find another machinist.

There are, however, many promising finds on craigslist.
More than one old machinist selling it all as a package deal for 'health reasons'.
You can get an old J-head Bridgeport plus a good selection of tooling for like $3K or so.
Unfortunately, the habitat for these creatures is more expensive than that
(not to mention getting it moved here).


These S head valves are only 1mm smaller than the 2.0 914,
So I'm going to go ahead and run them.
New guides, new valves they will certainly work FINE for now.


Here's some prerequisite setup work on a set of beehive springs.

Unfortunately,
i have yet to find enough room for shims and clearance to bind at this point.

A set of Web duals isn't going to give enough room either.

These heads seem to have a rather small installed height!


Not particularly excited to chop down the guide boss this far, either.
We like to see guides kept in place, eh? So thin.

Trying to decipher the distributor drive once and for all!

That majority of distributors i have point this way,
So i have a more-likely chance of stuffing one that works.
Why couldn't Father Bentley take a pic like this, again??

ANyhow,
Got some spring shims on order, a valve spring mic, and a few other things.
We'll make these heads work,
Because,
Er,
At this point,
We have to..!
_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[raygreenwood]

And by the way.....if you were going to go to 42mm x 36mm...Manley has a part number for both and they are readily available. Its a 914 2.0L valve set. Same stem length and stem diameter.

About $85-ish per set intake or exhaust. Excellent valves! Hard chromed stems and stellite tips.

Also you may be able to get 41 x 34 in Swiss made Intervalve brand. Also excellent valves. Ray

[Jason37]

If you need a set of 1.7l heads I have a set. Also, if I have a chance, do you want me to cc my 2.0l heads? They don’t have guides in them, so it will
Make it a little more difficult

[VWporscheGT3]

[Clatter]

Been a couple of weeks.. Thanks for the input gentlemen.

I'm back to "scattered all about" mode.

My addiction just won't let me be; crackhead friend calls me up,
He's all "Yo i gots the rock"!
So i went and hustled some money i didn't even have,
Made a deal on the street,
And now there's another bus in my yard.

Why!?! Why ME?!?!? Oh GOD PLEASE make it stop!!!
I swear I'm gonna just flip it.
I'm gonna make right with the world and stop using one day.
The time, the money, the lies, what it does to the family..


OOoo! Addiction!
Check this out.. Cool, huh?
I was playing with assembling my fan shroud.
(Not that i was -actually- assembling anything, right?)

Think i should go wih restored OG fateners all detailed and cad plated,
Or should i just take the easy way out and use polished socket-head stainless allens?


Here they are, side-by side..

And with flash, just for douchebaggery..

Taking db to another level..;
Here they are mocked up:

Pretty funny that polished socket-head and button-head is the easy way out, eh?
All of these show cars are all allen-headed out.
My Oval certainly is..
One thing about stainless fasteners is that they are a royal PITA if you drop one down into the engine/tin.
Without being magnetic, they can be difficult/impossible to retrieve.
Here, with my bus motor, I went with allens on the fan shroud,
But stuck with regular cheese-heads for the tins.
Function first with a bus, right?

I'm not sure anyone would even notice if the stock hardware was there all prissied up like that.
Allens are all hip, and fit with our theme.
Yet,
The rest of the car is all OG restored hardware,
But a few modern tidbits have allens, like the brake calipers, front trans mount, billet sway-bar mount i made..

Ugh. I'm so stuck on indecision i can't... move.. forward...

OOoo! Look! a Bus!!
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Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Clatter]

Scattered about - about scattered..

Larry the Painter got in a dustup with his landlord, and now he's moving to another shop.
But that hasn't happened yet, and the #1 biggest thing that ever happens to us with a 'complete' at a body shop is our car gets pushed outside in bare metal and left to rot in the rain.
The other thing that inevitably happens is that all of the small things like the ashtray and glove box lid and whatnot get lost forever.
Nine times out of ten at least.. Got a few t-shirts there.

So wasted a bunch of cartime cycles moving all my little doodoo back here to the shop,
And trying to find a clean spot big enough to hold it that's safe from pig nose mud and getting shit stacked on top of it.
That, and going back to the old body shop to make sure they didn't push my car outside,
And over to the new body shop getting it lined up so there's a clean spot inside there where i can put it, for real, and it won't get pushed outside and the small parts lost.
Seems like it's all true that my car will resume again at this new place.
At least so far..
We'll see.
Otherwise, it's 'start over' finding a bodyman.
Typical, though; my Oval had FOUR of them by the time it was actually painted and assembled.
Welcome to California!

The wheels followed me home un-painted.
I'm going to shoot them with high-build and sand the rough-cast lumps out to make them smooth.
Because Larry touched them up where the centers got some curbage in the past, they aren't uniform, and have some smooth spots.
So, we'll have to make them all smooth if they are going to look OK.
Then i can just take them to any old collision shop with a booth and have them shot..

Went around to a couple other painters and it looks like $250 for squirting them front/back base/clear.
Need these done already so i can mock up the pan for real.
Enough already. Sweet Jesus these wheels..


Brent (Brent!!! ) sent me a couple sets of these DCNF trumpets.
They don't have the little inside sleeves cast into the bottom of them where they meet the carb top.
Was going to go to Darren's and chuck up a big piece of aluminum in the lathe and make up a few spacer rings to fix this.
Also, they really could use some detail work; the insides of the air horn are all rough and don't seem to line up well, casting flash, and..?
So, we'll spend some time dialing these in..

The LAST good thermostat in my stash isn't, um, a good one after all.
Praise the lard we can get them from Ohio now.

Dan Ruddock, the valve spring king says he'll re-work my valve job.
Sinking the valves in the seats should get me the room i need.
Making up a proper box can be a real task sometimes.

Since i was making up boxes,
I decided to throw in the towel and send the vent wings to ISP.
Everything i have ever gotten from ISP has been great,
So we'll gamble that they can do these vent wings the way an anal nut-bar wants them done..

This box, (along with the brake rotors), is the LAST order to go to Oregon for cad.
(yeah, right )

ANybody want to come over and wire-wheel them all down, soak in vinegar, tumble in media, then wire-wheel again?
Anyone?
I sure don't want to, for some reason..


Oh, no.
What's this i found buried in a corner..?

Looks like another rabbit hole to go down..

Think i just need to go and find a barstool somewhere.
Much easier that way...
_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Bobnotch]

WOW, just WOW!!. What is it with you and body shops? Are you just that demanding, or is it more of not finding someone stable that can do the job in a timely manner? Just kidding. I know several people who are in the same boat. I guess that's why years ago I started doing my own paint and body work. If I screw up it's on me, not someone else. I'm not planning to move, so the project stays put, and I only have to keep track of the smaller parts.

At least it looks like you have a back up plan for all that's going on, and still have to do.
As for the column head, at others have already done that job, so you can easily reference pics of it.

Bummer about the body shop, but shiite happens.
_________________
Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof
71 Notch ...aka Krunchy; build pics here;
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249390 -been busy working
64 T-34 Ghia...aka Wolfie, under construction... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412120

[T3Yoshi]

Sorry to hear about the body shop situation
I look forward to seeing the vent windows when ISP is done. I liked the ISP bumper re chrome review you did.
Thats a tough decision. I think the socket-head stainless allens actually look pretty good on the fan shroud. But if the tins are all stock hardware, maybe get those original ones cad plated like you said. I dunno, Clatter knows best.
You are doing a damn thorough job and I cant wait to see this engine all buttoned up with either of the hardware options.

[Jason37]

[Jason37]

And you have to wire wheel and clean your hardware for CAD? The guys I used here just dipped and cleaned it, then plated.

[Clatter]

The more you prep it, the better it comes out.
_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Bobnotch]

[Mike Fisher]

The cheese heads look a little wider/beefier/better than the allen heads.
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https://imgur.com/user/FisherSquareback/posts
69 FI/AT square Daily Driver
66 sunroof,67,70,71,71,71AT,72,72AT,73 Parts
two 57 oval ragtops sold
'68 Karmann Ghia sold

Society is like stew. If you don't keep it stirred up you end up with a lot of scum on the top! - Russ_Wolfe/Edward Abbey

[Clatter]

It rained all weekend, and I did a KDX200 resto for my friend with kids the same age.
We had all four of them in action paint-stripping and cleaning parts and all - it was fun.
Not much car stuff even though I had the whole weekend...


Got the heads boxed up for shipping, as well as the vent wings.

And also these right here:

Pedro tells me he can get these restored for me like his..!

How cool is it that the logo is both VW and Porsche?
Fits, right?

An old-timer down the street worked at Norm Anderson as a lot boy back in '67 when the car was new.
He didn't remember this exact car, but would have been the guy who unwrapped the shipping packaging, and detailed the car for sale.
So, these plate frames being OG to this car, right here in the area, means a lot to me.

Super stoked Pedro is going to help me get these right.
So many specialists in the community have pitched in to make this one car happen.
Really thankful that there are guys doing these things for us.
_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[VWporscheGT3]

I would have to say that is the only bummer about once the fastback is finished, I wont be able to put my black California plates back on since we live in Nevada. I'll just have to go with some vintage style Nevada plates when I get him back on the road.
Nice Clatter!
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Schnell, SCHNELL!

I like being wrong, Because, it is another opportunity to learn. If you stop learning from your mistakes than what is the point?

If you have any questions about Forged ICON 4032 VW pistons just shoot me a line.

[69 Notchback]

So impressed every time I poke my head into this thread.
Getting there Steve.

[chink13]

hey clatter I think I may have a type 4 thermostat or 2 laying in my tool box ill check tonight let me know if you need one

[raygreenwood]

If you are changing hardware...screws/bolts...go with zinc/cad plated stock screws or better yet...hex head cap screws.

Allen heads...suck. They have their place where narrow profile is needed...but all Allen heads are horrible for the amount of torque they can take on the Allen wrench before stripping or rounding...and stainless are the worst.

Engineers love them....for all the wrong reasons. If you want a nice example of stupidity...look back to the epic space walk...I think it was to repair the Hubble telescope....where between the issues of Allen head bolts and cryogenic temps...they stripped...in space.

If you need button heads...buy torx screws. Or better yet....Torx-plus. Ray

[Bobnotch]

[Clatter]