Field find 1954 Canadian custom

[sunroof]

Well, I put the whole thing back together much happier now.

I cleaned the shoe boxes which, I must say, is one of my least favourite jobs on a beetle. They were pretty bent up by all the off-roading Farmer John did but I got them to fit.

Small rotisserie:

I bought the J-tubes and flanges from Wolfsburg West, really nice quality. The flanges needed a little help to fit on the heads as the mounting holes were a little too close together but the tubes fit very nicely. With everything bolted together I put a couple of tack welds to hold things until I can find someone with a TIG welder to finish weld the flanges to the tubes. Really important to get these welds right, a life may depend on it!

Considering how some days have been going lately, today was a great success:

Don
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Better and better mistakes!

[sunroof]

Another part cleaned and bolted up. The heater boxes are off to the welder to get the exhaust flanges TIG welded on. The generator is the last bit to get cleaned, once that is done, the engine is done. It will get set aside while I dismantle the chassis. This will be an adventure. The floors need replaced as do the heater cable tubes and everything needs cleaned. Can I get it done by spring? Only time will tell.

BTW: It is quite the winter wonderland here in Winnipeg.

Don
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Better and better mistakes!

[VW_Jimbo]

[sunroof]

I've been there. A friend worked in Orange county in 1994 writing software for the traffic control system. He lived in a condo complex on Algonquin and Warner and I rode his bike down to the pier every day amazed at the California lifestyle. Beach Boys songs were going through my head the whole time. In 1994 he was paying $1300/month for a 2 bedroom. I hate to think what it would be today.

HOLLYWOOD!

DON
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Better and better mistakes!

[sunroof]

Spent some time puttering around with the engine. Waiting for the heater boxes to come back from the welder.

Installed a set of these special dogleg points:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2498240

Item the next:

6K

6K

Also this:

6K

6K is June 1954. The engine # is 1-0832260 which decodes to the first week of August 1954. The chassis # is 1-068---- which decodes to the first week of August as well. I'm going to call numbers matching on this one.

Don
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Better and better mistakes!

[sunroof]

So here is a real good example of farmer Brown's work trying to get better heat from his 1954 beetle:

Got the heater boxes back from the welder and fitted everything up. It all went together very nicely. It sure helps to dryfit everything first.

Now the generator. My Dog it is dirty in there. This is the first generator I have taken apart in at least 30+ years. Of course it needs bearings.

Don
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Better and better mistakes!

[VW_Jimbo]

I am loving your documentation of all of this. I have this coming up in the next 5 years!

Good to see progress!
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Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[sunroof]

There is a lot of insulation missing from the armature windings. I'm not sure if anything can be done with it.

The commutator OTOH is superb.

The insulation is coming apart inside as well.

I reassembled it and will take it to an auto electric shop tomorrow. They were good to me in the past so I'll see how things go now. I really don't want to replace this generator being date matched to the engine but...

Anyways, I have embarked on the Next Big Thing.

Later:

Don
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Better and better mistakes!

[VW_Jimbo]

Piece of cake!
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Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[sunroof]

I hope you're right. What I'm dreading is all the scraping and cleaning.

Don
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Better and better mistakes!

[sunroof]

Well, I got some terrific news this morning. I stopped in at Ace Auto Electric on the way to work and asked them to test my generator. They did it while I waited and told me it was fine and made about 6 amps. Made my day! Only cost $10 for that good news. I was sure worried I was going to have to find another one. Now I just have to find some bearings for it, 6202 should not be a problem.

Don
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Better and better mistakes!

[Dan22]

I would recommend re-wrapping the tape on the field windings since there is exposed wire. It is not that hard to do as long as you can get the big screw out that holds them it (and de-solder/solder the wires). There is a thread on this. I used the 3M fiberglass tape on mine.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=444844

Good news the armature seems OK.
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1-0900722 die langsame grüne Schildkröte
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=765074

[sunroof]

So I installed new bearings in the generator and put some heat shrink on the bare wires and reassembled it. I think the engine is done. I will set the timing, put the frontmost tin on, drop it on a dolly and push it to one side as I dig into the chassis.

Don
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Better and better mistakes!

[sunroof]

That's it, done and dusted.

Don
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Better and better mistakes!

[Ted2]

Nice project.

Which muffler and tail pipe did you use?

[esde]

I would trip over that tail pipe every time.
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modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[pplscar]

Hey Don!

Glad to see you're back in the VW's again. Your progress looks fantastic! I *think* I have a fuel tap laying around somewhere if you still need one. I also have a 53/54 pan laying around with a 59 body sitting on top of it if you're looking for parts.

-Nic

[sunroof]

[sunroof]

So with the engine finally out of the way I started on the chassis in earnest. For some reason I thought that the KF pans would be a simple weld in replacement. Alas this was not to be and a great deal of trimming was necessary to get the pan in place.

I decided that the pedals mounting bracket would be a good place to begin aligning the new pan since this will be a critical spot to get located correctly. I ground the threads off the ends of a couple of M8 bolts and screwed them in from the bottom to make alignment pins.

With the new pan on these pins I started to trim the excess to make the rear outer bolt hole line up. I took close to 1/2 inch off the rear of the pan to get things at the back sitting right. As well I had to take material off the whole length of the pan to get it to sit right from front to back.

In this picture:

You can see that the edges of the front of the pan fall just where they are supposed to. However we see the beginnings of trouble, the first bolt hole is not even close to where it is supposed to be.

As I move down the pan none of the holes are where they need to be. In fact you can tell from this shot that the pan is about 1/4 inch too wide in the middle. There is nothing I can do about this, the ends are right so no amount of trimming is going to make the pan the right shape. Interestingly, the contours (pressings?) in the pan are all in the right place.

The rearmost hole is the only one that is where it is suppose to be, it lines up perfect.

Now for the seat mounting bolts. I cut the bolts off and drilled 1/8 inch holes through the center to make alignment pins to locate them correctly on the new pan.

I then drilled up through the alignment holes to make starter holes in the pan to locate the seat mount holes. I know the pedal holes will be in the correct location, the front outer rail, the rear body mounting hole and the seat mounting bolts will be correct as well. The rest of the body mounting holes will have to be re-drilled once I can drop the body onto the pan. I am not looking forward to that.

The pan is now set in place with the pedals mounting holes lined up, the front outer rail in its correct place and the rear most hole sitting exactly where it should be. Sadly none of the other holes are going to be right. I will have to make new holes to be able to bolt the body down.

Don
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Better and better mistakes!

[Dan22]

Your original pan does not look too bad. Wondering why replace the whole thing if so much good original metal.

Great progress though and good details on the fitment challenges!
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1-0900722 die langsame grüne Schildkröte
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=765074