56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles

[56Cabrio]

Nice work Seth, wish you were my neighbor
My vert has the same under coating in the engine compartment so I think it came from the Karmann factory.

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1956 Rag Top owned since 1988
1956 Convertible owned since 2000
1963 Hard Top

RIP Dad 4/20/1951 - 2/4/2023

[AlteWagen]

Yup my vert too. It looks like the same stuff they shoot into the quarters and doors.
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Grapes of Wrath $200 Engine Rebuild
Official Dual Carb Thread
Cylinder Head Quick Reference Sheet

[esde]

Thanks for the clarification, I'm glad that is factory sound deadening, as the idea of cleaning it off is NFG.
Still fussing with all the little details. The Bowden tube wanted 7 shims to fit correctly, so instead I modified the bracket a bit and used 3 shims.
Replacing the heater cables and heater tubes to the body. The hard brake line that goes over the trans is rusty so I'll replace it.
A few aspects of my engine rebuild are probably going to drag on, mainly the cylinder head rebuilding. My zwitter is at the paint shop, and the motor is just sitting here stripped down, so I've decided to run it for the summer. It's a 36hp with a cam and higher compression, so it should do just fine..
The car had a later 36hp shroud, with holes for wire clips, and the only correct shroud I had was this one, but it was very rusty in and out. This is after many hours of blasting and ospho

Then last weekend I started working on the rear accident damage in the engine bay

The rear quarter was pushed forward and up, resulting in the bend, and the entire side tray was high by an inch. The bumper was high on that side too.
Many hours with a porta power and hammers and I managed to get it so much better.

At one point, I bolted a ring to the concrete floor, and chained the bumper mount to it. Then by jacking the passenger side torsion bar, the whole rear quarter was pulled back down. But it was cold and I had gloves on and neglected to take pics..
Anyway, new rubber in, and repair complete!

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modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[esde]

Here's something I didn't expect: the car was in the Sept 21 issue of Hot VW!
Dan and Kari took it and their 67 Westy to a show, and I guess it made the cut

Guess I'll be on the lookout for this issue, to keep with the car

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modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[esde]

I try to put a few hours into the engine every week, even if I'm tired or swamped with other stuff. And I've considered a dozen or more combinations, before finally settling on the following
77mm bore x 69.5 stroke
stock head castings, larger 33mm intake valves installed, ported and polished
single Zenith NDIX carburetor
010 or 019 distributor
Late doghouse oil cooler (because cooling a vert is hard)
The cam choice is still up in the air. I have a stage 2 cam from aircooled research, but Matt never sent me the specs on it. I "think" it's similar to an Isky 2j. I may have a custom cam done. Not sure. Compression is prob 8.5-9 to 1
I have some nice OG high compression pistons that I'll be running too
Nobody local would give me the time of day when I was asking about the heads, so I tooled up and am doing them myself.
guide removal: seems like there are ten ways to remove the guides, I did the best I could with what I had. I core drilled the guides 3/4 of the way through, leaving a step at the end, and just a very thin wall holding it in the head. Then I used a punch against the step and drove them out. That worked fine for most, but I did break a few and had to remove the leftover chunks from in the head. Not fun. And every head had different guides, even a few cast iron.

Then removing the intake seats.
Cut down some old exhaust valves, and weld them right to the existing seats.

Tap out the whole thing, repeat

This is Tom Thumb. He's a recent stray I adopted. Not much help but he is enthusiastic when I spend time out in the barn (where he lives)

New seats from CB

That's where I've left those, while waiting on some stuff to make the seat counterbore. Exciting!
And then, right in time for my birthday, Jose from DPR sent my stuff!

The crank is standard rod journals, .10 mains
The flywheel is 14lbs, 3.5lbs lighter than stock. The crank is 3 lbs heavier than stock. So the whole assembly weighs about the same, but the weight is now on the crank throws which is the weakest part of a stock 36 crank.
I'm going to get started on fitting stuff in the case this weekend, but first I need to thoroughly clean the barn....
SD
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modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[VW_Jimbo]

NICE UPDATE!!!!
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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!

[tehillah1]

Seth your skillset and determination are amazing not to mention your toolset.

[Rome]

Hi, Seth. After first seeing 'Sprinkles at New Jersey's Dubs in the Shrubs VW meet last May, and again along with finally meeting you at the Aircooled Gathering in September; it's very interesting to see the car up close and partially "dissected".

Have you thought about giving it a nickname "jayes" from the original owner's initials similarly like your Samba name per your initials?

We rarely see such detailed (and very good quality) photos and explanations of a VW transmission regardless of the year. I've always regarded a transmission as a "black box" that would be replaced as a unit, instead of opening one up and looking inside. A VW friend George F in northern NJ was skilled with rebuilding them as a hobby about 30+ years ago, and would sometimes have one apart when I'd stop by his backyard workshed. I paid him to rebuild a later trans at that time. He, just like you, was careful with the tolerances of measuring and knew about the special jigs needed for some of the assemblies.

Your cat could be the younger twin brother to mine!

Trivia: The bearings- "SKF" stands for the Swedish-based Svenska Kullagerfabriken based in Gothenburg. "FAG" stands for Fischer's Automatische Gussstahlkugelfabrik (Fischer's automatic steel ball factory) named after the founder Friedrich Fischer and his machine to grind steel balls perfectly spherical. SKF had many factories and subsidiaries worldwide; in Germany it was based in Schweinfurt which is why many people think that the S in its name stands for that city. The K and F also translate directly with the German words Kugellager Fabrik. Coincidentally FAG is also based in Schweinfurt.

[esde]

[esde]

every other thing in my life decided to get in the way of this car, and I finally cleared a few days to start putting it back together for the summer..
The engine build is going to be a while, and it's not the sort of thing I like to rush, so for the summer I will be running the 36hp I built for my zwitter. I pulled the early zwitter tins off, and installed most of the 56 bits that I had. Still needs a few things, but it is close to going back in the car

I am working on a correct thin slot 6v generator for it, but I have not been able to get the housing zinc plated yet
Part of the goal is to improve lighting with the 6v system. So as a start I have LED snowflake lights from Chip B

These install between the reflector and lens. For some reason I didn't get a pic of the final result

These are good for 6 or 12 volts, and BRIGHT.
And on to the front. The original sockets were trashed.

I cut the nuts to remove them, and sourced new sockets from Koch's. They're stamped EIS parts, and are pretty nice
new vs old

I tried installing the bases to the fender first, but then the screw holes for the lens trim would not line up

SO I installed the base to the lens and trim, and then installed that onto the fender.

Much easier

The old sockets hade some ratty looking ground wires added, if I find I need that I have a plan to keep it neat and clean
Got new wire boots from Koch's also

Hoping to get this motor installed this weekend. even though it is mothers day and my wedding anniversary...
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modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[VW_Jimbo]

Looking good Seth! Loving the details regarding the LED lighting. Keep posting up the details. I am hoping to get there some day.
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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!

[esde]

Got a little more time, and it has been largely two steps forward and one step back..
I got the engine from my zwitter dressed in mostly 56 tin and accessories, and installed.

Even though I have straightened out much of the rear apron and accident damage, getting the engine seal in took a lot of fussing. Like hours and hours
And then charged up the battery and reconnected all the cables, and
nothing. Nada, zip, zilch
So I spent all night checking fuses, wires, cables and everything, and uncovered a ton of hacked wiring. Almost everything worked before, so I had never really checked much of the wiring except to clean the fuse panel. Here's a bit of what was found.
The headlight fuse panel had been replaced with this fused relay panel, which is sorta nice. But it's got a bunch of loose white wires powering it, and just looks sloppy.

Lots of tape covering bad splices. Damned

Here's my favorite, a brass split bolt on the headlight feed, that was half wrapped in tape and definitely shorting occasionally.

So, about this time I checked the battery electrolyte (remember doing this way back when) and realized the battery was shot. The date was stamped 2018, I guess 5-6 years is all you get from a battery these days, so I picked up a new new one. Suddenly the new led tail lights are working again, along with everything else..

Not bad for 6 volts!
Still have the turn signal botched wire mess to solve, but hey.... tomorrow
Ultimately, I may look to replace the harness as this is cut in too many spots for my comfort.
And here are a few shots of the trunk liner, after it's careful removal

Under the cardboard there is a black fiber pad, which I have never seen intact. This one is shedding and delicate, and may not go back in. Were these for sound? Does anyone offer a replacement?

Anyway, it's getting close. Need to look at one axle seal, which is leaking, and get the heater cables out. I went to replace them, and they seem to be stuck in the tube. Won't go back in, or come out.. oh fun
baby steps, it'll get there.
SD
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modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[tehillah1]

Nice update Seth...looks like you're moving in the right direction for some summer driving. I'll be interested in the "rewire" project as I'll be doing a complete harness in my 55. I'm gonna upgrade whatever I can when doing so as I'll be 12 volting my bug and want to be sure to have circuits for whatever a 55 doesn't have...

Jim

[67rustavenger]

Seth, The trunk liner/under liner question came up recently in the 58-67 forum.
Matthew Hendricks had a suggestion and Andy T. as usual had factory info.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=791639&highlight=liner

Sadly, no one makes a re-pop under liner.
Being the clever guy that you are, I'm sure that you can make a suitable replacement under liner.

I've seen some bogged wiring hacks before. But never a split nut for the headlight wiring? WOW!
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I have learned over the years.
Cheap parts are gonna disappoint you.
Buy Once, Cry Once!

There's never enough time to do it right the first time. But there's always enough time to do it thrice.
GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo!

[esde]

[VW_Jimbo]

Awesome update! Jimmy loves ice cream! Especially with sprinkles! This Jimmy loves ice cream with sprinkles! So, I would bet your Jimmy does too!

You may want to just want to use a cheap, insulated butt connector on that exposed wire connector. I would hate to see you allow the smoke out of the wires!

Have you seen the tools in this thread?
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=86982&highlight=tool+kit

Engine looks great!
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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!

[Rome]

[esde]

Passenger side axle seal was leaking, which led to lots of bad words and gear oil spots on my barn floor.
First time I pulled the drum and discovered this:

you can see a bit of the o-ring pinched between the axle and shim, I figured this was maybe the issue and replaced it. Nope, still leaking
Even though the spacer was stamped VW and had a nice surface, I swapped to for a known good one. Nope
Break down and replace the seal, which was a brand new seal from WW.
Remove the old one and this is what I find

Now, by this point in my life I've replaced hundreds of oil and grease seals, and I'd be shocked if I had caused this, but hey I'm not immune from making a mess of things, so maybe it's my fault. I cleaned everything up, make sure the seal bore is clean and deburred the edges, and install a new blue seal from WW.
Which promptly tears the same way. ARGH.
I installed a cheap generic black seal two days later, and all is good so far. I am going to draft my email to the guys at WW regarding this. The seal compound has terrible tear strength; I installed the second one on a press, so it was perfectly square to the bore, and watched the blue rubber just bunch up and come loose along the edges.
BEWARE:

And then on to more fun. Adjusted and attempted to bleed the brakes, which were uncooperative. Ended up replacing the master, even though it looked sort of fresh, and bingo! Everything bled perfectly.
One of the cool things about these cars is that when the system is clean and has good lines and hoses, they will pretty much gravity bleed. Just needed to pump the brakes to get the last air bubbles to the end, and one last pump to get clear fluid, and better than ever before. SO CLOSE
Just need to mount the oil filter (this engine has a full flow filter) and improvise a signal indicator ground (due to some wiring gremlins) and we will be test driving.. hopefully to the farmers market next weekend.
SD
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modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[Busstom]

Wow. That's a good P.S.A. on the seals, thanks. And they are my usual go-to source for these goodies, and Poppy needs a right-side seal right now
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My name's Steve and it's pronounced "Bust 'em" (cuz people think I'm Tom)

[Dan22]

Show us how you mount your full flow oil filter, please!

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1-0900722 die langsame grüne Schildkröte
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=765074