1956 Dove Blue Panelvan Coming Back To Life After 26 Years

[b-man]

With the shift rod now back in place after replacing the shift rod guide and rear coupler it was time to get the big-nut transaxle installed.

I bolted on the new adapter nosecone and put the transaxle into place and found that there's simply not enough clearance between the new nosecone and the rubber donut to slip the original donut retainer plate in there.

I needed to come up with a slimmer retaining plate. The original plate is a stamping that is formed with reinforcements along the edges, effectively making the plate almost 1/2" tall near the center. There's barely 1/2" of room between the nosecone and the front of the rubber donut. No way to start a bolt on one side (passenger side) either.

So I had to come up with a fix. I cut a 1.00" long stud and used some blue Loctite to secure it, leaving a little less than 1/2" of it protruding from the donut mount on the torsion.

Next I scrounged a piece of .200 thick mild steel plate and duplicated the shape of the original mount retaining plate. After spending a couple of hours with a drill, a Sawzall and grinder I had my plate finished.

Getting the new retaining plate in was a bit of a chore, I had to squeeze the donut down some using the bolt on the driver's side of the mount and work the donut in enough to get the nut started on the stud. It was definitely a struggle to get that plate pushed far enough down on the stud to start the nut, but I kept at it and got 'er done.

As you can see the clearances are tight. The nut I used was a slimmer one from my VW hardware stash that's only .230" thick. Combined with the .200" thick retaining plate the stack up is only .430" tall.

So for anyone deciding to use the Fast Fab adapter nosecone, be aware it's not a simple bolt-in using the original factory hardware.

I checked the engine to transaxle mounting face position before I removed the original split-case, using the center of the stamped mount cradle as a reference point. It measured .255". After installing the big-nut transaxle I measured again and came up .280", plenty close enough that it won't affect the rear wheel toe in.

Glad that's over with.

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1956 Dove Blue Panel
1966 Velvet Green Single Cab
1957 L41 Black Oval Window Beetle

[BarryL]

Man, you sure surmounted an almost insurmountable obstacle. Check one for the persistent.

[b-man]

Part way through struggling to get the retaining plate installed I was almost ready to yank everything back out to remove the nosecone, check the thickness of the area of interference and possibly have it milled down about 1/16" to maybe 1/8" to gain some more clearance.

I kept at it and luckily didn't need to do that, but it was definitely looking like an option.

If I ever need to put another transaxle in place of this one in the future I'll definitely explore the milling for added clearance option, it's just too tight in there.
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1956 Dove Blue Panel
1966 Velvet Green Single Cab
1957 L41 Black Oval Window Beetle

[b-man]

Made some good progress recently, I managed to get the '66 front beam installed. I took this front beam out of my '66 single cab back in 1989 and I've had it kicking around all these years, nice to finally find a use for it. With the factory sway bar along with improved bump stops and bigger 1-ton brakes it will make for a nice upgrade in handling and braking.

I didn't need to do much more than give it a good scrub down and pump it full of fresh grease, it still has most of the factory black paint pretty intact. I did take apart the link pins and clean up the shims and needle bearings (everything looked perfect) then set up the shims after measuring the trailing arm offset (6.5 mm on both sides). I ended up replacing the seals and o-rings between the spindles and trailing arms, other than that it needed nothing.

I reused the original 1956 non-adjustable tie rod and the adjustable tie rod ends. The rubber seals were still in very nice shape for being over 62 years old and cleaned up nicely, it's really too bad rubber products these days are of such poor quality. I did use the '66 adjustable tie rod to replace the bent '56 piece, then cleaned up and painted all of the tie rod components.

I replaced the leaky seal on the steering box after scrubbing it down and painting it in place with some rattle can Rustoleum satin black.

Getting closer to having all 4 wheels on the ground.

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1956 Dove Blue Panel
1966 Velvet Green Single Cab
1957 L41 Black Oval Window Beetle

[b-man]

Before I can get the front brakes put together the worn backing plates needed to be addressed. The four points where the brake shoes ride needed to built back up with welding rod and smoothed down.

Here's an example of the wear, most of the spots were worn much deeper than shown in this pic.

Built up with welding rod.

Leveled out using a die grinder with a Roloc disc.

Also needed to add material to the shift rod ball socket, the passenger side of the socket was worn down enough to allow the shifter ball to pop out when trying to engage 1st, 2nd and reverse. This problem may have been caused partly by the use of a later shift rod guide with the plastic bushing, replacing the original non-bushed guide and 'm' spring many years ago before I purchased this bus.

I'm hoping to aleviate this problem by not only building up the worn area but also by adding approximately another 1/8" of material to the top of the ball socket. I can always remove the added material if it interferes with the proper operation of the shifter.

Weld material added.

Inside diameter opened back up with a die grinder, working carefully and slowly.

Outside smoothed down with some hand files, I'll call it done for now until I can install it and test the shifter operation.

Finally I'd like to thank Darren at Prowlers Speed and Custom (26845 Oak Ave, Santa Clarita 91351, 661 478-4024) for the quick and friendly help he provided me today. I dropped by after work today and Darren quickly took care of the TIG welding I needed while I waited for a very reasonable price. Thanks again Darren!
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1956 Dove Blue Panel
1966 Velvet Green Single Cab
1957 L41 Black Oval Window Beetle

[norcalmike]

Nice save!

[karl h]

very nice work! keep the pics coming. as for the nosecone, for a 400 buck part i would expect it to mount more easily...
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61 panel: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=465022
68 ghia vert
arctic alice (63 on irs): http://cal-look.no/lounge/index.php/topic,27456.0.html
86 Caravelle
04 new beetle vert

[b-man]

[b-man]

The fall weather has been perfect so far this year so I took advantage of it this weekend.

Getting the front brakes situated was my first priority. Bent up some new brake lines connecting the slave cylinders, using the original lines as patterns.

Factory originals.

Note that one of the lines was almost ready to fail, it was rubbing on the drum hub, a common problem.

Backing plate mounted with both slave cylinders. I started by attaching the bottom cylinder to hold the backing plate in place. Then I attach the line to the upper cylinder, finishing/adjusting the line so it hugs the cylinder and the backing plate. Then the upper cylinder gets bolted down while tucking the line under the retaining clip on the backing plate. Next the lower cylinder comes off and the line gets attached, again adjusting the line as the cylinder gets bolted down again.

Here you can see how the line hugs the upper cylinder and sits flat against the backing plate, an absolute must.

New brake shoes and springs installed.

Another look at the brake line, you can see how it clears the brake spring. Nothing that moves can be allowed to touch this brake line.

Brake drums were painted last weekend gloss black Rustoleum from a rattle can, now installed. I'll be using bay window clamp nuts to allow for easier bearing adjustment, arriving tomorrow from Samba member Josh in Colorado.

After finishing up the front suspension (new shocks, steering damper, soft brake lines) it was time to get the gas tank installed. This is the original 1956 tank, still in excellent shape after a little cleaning inside and out. Using a new set of pads, foam gasket and filler neck seal it's now back in place.

I also rebuilt the fuel tap using a seal kit from Wolfsburg West, the original filter screen was still in nice shape so I cleaned and reused it. Cleaned and greased the reserve cable too, works butter-smooth. Poured in a gallon of fresh gas to check for any leakage at the tank to fuel tap connection, so far everything looks dry.

Shifter is back in place and working nicely so far, will readjust as needed once I get the 36 horse back in place. Greased up the choke cable and replaced and greased the heater control cables as well.

Glad to finally have all 4 wheels back under the panel.

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1956 Dove Blue Panel
1966 Velvet Green Single Cab
1957 L41 Black Oval Window Beetle

[norcalmike]

Great pics of the brake line bends. Nice!

[b-man]

A little bit of bus history from pages 80 and 81 of the March 1984 issue of dune buggies and hot VWs magazine. I'm the guy crank starting the '56 panel on page 81, the same bus you see here being resurrected.

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1956 Dove Blue Panel
1966 Velvet Green Single Cab
1957 L41 Black Oval Window Beetle

[Who.Me?]

This is the first time I've seen pictures of another splitty with the same brown underbody treatment that's on my October '56 Single Cab.

Have you tried finding a colour match for it yet?

Any idea what month your van was built?
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Andy


Looking for info on my truck's history. Are you from Campbell California or nearby. Do you recognise it? ... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=636786

[b-man]

[Who.Me?]

[b-man]

Finished up the hard lines for the rear brakes using the old lines for reference. No bending tools are required other than your hands and an old flexible line end to hold the line while making tighter bends close to end of the line. At this point every single piece of both hard and soft brake line have been replaced. The spring plate to reduction box bolts were torqued down to 80 lb/ft with copper anti-seize on the bolt threads with new wavy washers under the bolt heads.

While I was busy getting the rear brakes back in shape I noticed the driver's side roller bearing plastic cage had disintegrated. The bearing itself was still in good shape with no galling or pitting but it needed to be replaced.

Everything inside the reduction box was in great shape, no debris from the cage or anything else inside just nice and clean. The upper bearing looked perfect too so I'll simply replace the roller bearing and seal it up with a new gasket. The rear brake backing plates both received the same treatment as the fronts. The worn areas where the shoes rest were welded up, resurfaced and painted.

New axle seals installed and bearing caps torqued down to factory specs (40-44 lb/ft) using blue Loctite.

Brakes shoes and springs assembled, the star adjusters were lubed both on their threads and in their holders with high heat copper anti-seize.

Brake drum snugged down (final torque will come later) with my handy Snap-On 3/4" drive flex handle and 46mm impact socket.

Ready for shoe adjustment prior to brake bleeding.

All the brake shoes were adjusted snug against the drums before bleeding. After bleeding they will be snugged tight again after the shoes settle in and then backed off by 4 clicks of the star wheel.

New dual circuit master cylinder installed using a 1/4" thick stainless steel spacer plate my friend Gary was kind enough to fab up for me. The dual master is for a bay window bus, I bench bled it before installing it. The brake pedal pivot bushing was replaced along with the pedal return spring.

The fluid reservoir wouldn't clear the crossmember unless it was installed with the filler cap towards the rear, no big deal as fluid is easily added using a funnel tilted at an angle and the cap is pretty easy to access as well. Using a 1/2" thick spacer between the master and mounting bracket would have allowed me to mount the reservoir the other way with somewhat better access to the filler cap, but then I would have had to cut a notch in the pedal pan which I really didn't want to do.

I gravity bled the brakes by myself in about 30 minutes. I opened up all four bleeder screws and pumped the pedal a few times until fluid was squirting out all four, then I closed the bleeders. Next I gravity bled the right front followed by the left front, you simply open the bleeder screw and let the fluid flow into the jar until the bubbles are gone.

Next was gravity bleeding the right rear followed by the left rear, easy job. Pedal is now nice and firm.

Emergency brake cables were extended using a pair of coupling nuts and some 2-3/8" long pieces M6 threaded rod. Later on I may need to remove the cables and nibble about 1/2" or so off the ends of the factory cables to allow for more brake adjustment, but for now they seem to be working fine.

Cleaned up the original splitcase trans a bit and stashed it for possible future use. The hockey stick was super-loose and wiggly, probably a major source of most of the leakage along with the wasted axle boots. I drained maybe a pint out of the entire gearbox and reduction boxes, I shudder to think of what it might look like inside.

I was interested in finding the serial number and casting dates plus it just needed to be cleaned up so it wouldn't transfer so much gunk onto you whenever you walk past it.

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1956 Dove Blue Panel
1966 Velvet Green Single Cab
1957 L41 Black Oval Window Beetle

[oakman]

Great work on everything you've done. Getting closer!!
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Brandon

[b-man]

[b-man]

I was able to get the '59 36hp 1200 running after rebuilding the carb and fuel pump and draining the old gas out of the tank.

Now that it's out I want to clean it up and replace the muffler with the proper bus single tip and get the heater boxes back into good working condition. Removing all the cooling tin and cleaning up the head and cylinder fins is important in order to help the engine to survive.

Upon further inspection I decided to try using my other complete and running spare 36-horse, a '56 engine I know the history of. Turns out the '59 engine has a bit too much crankshaft end play (.018"), has a crack starting at the back of the distributor boss (perhaps from the rear end impact years ago) and the compression feels low turning it over by hand.

Here is the '56 engine, sitting just inside the rear cargo door of the panel.

This engine was used in my daily driver '56 bug about 30 years ago, it was removed only because I was replacing it with a fresh new 1600 single-port (that now resides in my '66 single cab). Other than being a chronic oil leaker it was 100% reliable and very strong, holding 68 mph on flat freeway stretches on my daily commute. Compression feels noticeably better than the '59 engine, end play is about .009" which I can live with. Valve lash was between .005" and .007" after checking them all so everything points to it being a solid unit to use after a good cleanup.

Stripped naked and worked over with nylon brushes and old gasoline for several hours, finished off with full strength Simple Green and a high pressure garden hose nozzle. It had signs of a pretty good leak at the oil cooler seals and plenty of crud and debris were sitting between the two cylinders on each side. Now it's super-clean and ready to be dressed back up again.

Scored a new muffler (my Christmas gift to myself ) and reused the old tip that was tweaked in the rear end accident and later hammered back into shape.

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1956 Dove Blue Panel
1966 Velvet Green Single Cab
1957 L41 Black Oval Window Beetle

[b-man]

Today I got the 1956 36hp engine running on the stand, it hasn’t been run since sometime in the mid-80s. After cleaning the oil strainer, replacing the valve cover gaskets, oil cooler seals, distributor o-ring and fuel pump gaskets I threw some tin along with the intake and my rebuilt carb on it and warmed it up to check for oil leaks.

The ‘56 intake manifold has a clogged up heat riser as evidenced by the icing plus it has a hole in it, I will be replacing it with the ‘59 intake that has a good clean heat riser. Both heater boxes need repair pipes and need some welding to reattach the boxes to the J-tubes.

Video of the engine running: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QosmaBgJkiM&feature=share

I did see two of the six main case nuts leaking oil after about 30 minutes of run time, bummer but not unexpected. However I was able to get an open end wrench on the center case nut and snug it down a little, then got a 17mm socket on the nut closest to the flywheel and torqued it to 25lb/ft. Ran it again for about another half hour and the leaks stopped. All the gaskets and seals I replaced sealed up nicely.

I’m very happy with how it’s running, no smoke, no unusual noises and no biowby to speak of. Now I can repair the heater boxes and get it dressed up with the good intake and a fully functioning thermostat setup, along with the new single tip muffler.

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1956 Dove Blue Panel
1966 Velvet Green Single Cab
1957 L41 Black Oval Window Beetle

[OP]

Nice work Post March 56 I'm guessing?
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