Lottie, a 79 full restoration Part 1/2/3/4/5

Discussion in 'Restorations' started by martinvention, Jul 12, 2015.

  1. Monday 11 Feb, red letter day - flashed her up, drove out of garage reversed and drove home again. First own power trip for about a decade.
     
  2. JamesLey

    JamesLey Sponsor

    You beat me by a day in getting the engine running!
     
  3. Hi James, I did cheat a bit as I had the engine running on the test bed many times since its rebuild. Took it for another trundle today having fitted all air filter vacuum lines. The manifold had a 12mm take off, great for the new brake servo, so I bought a 13x6x13mm T and have fitted behind dizzy, vacuum pipe to thermostatic valve in air box arrowed. Still not 100% on pipe fitting to valve but have fitted intake diaphragm line to brass stub and black plastic stub to manifold pipe. Need to check timing and carb idle bypass/mixture.
    Engine vacuum pipes.jpg

    Also decided to fit hardboard insulation retainer to the hatch:
    Hatch insulation.jpg
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2019
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  4. Fitted engine hatch and tailgate then glass and spent some time getting catches lined up and working well. Unfortunately my white/blue masking line does not match perfectly and will be sorted when all doors are fitted and warmer weather permits snagging work to the paint finish. Rear hatchs fitted.jpg

    This leads well into the next topic, cab door and window fitting. Pretty well covered by Fletcher Gillett in the Haynes restro book but some points to stress:
    1. New paint, sharp trim edges, spring clips and rubber thingies that need force to fit have to be done carefully.
    2. Locks, Glass, winder cable, scrapers, trim quarter-light frame and seals have to go in the right order, you do not want to do this a second time.
    3. Use lots of masking tape to protect paint and some grease where aluminium trim meets paint.
    4. There will be sweat, tears and blood the clips that retain the sliding glass guide in the upper frame are very sharp.
    5. Like a lion about to eat a horse walk around the issue carefully and plan ahead.
    The only part from the Fletcher book that did not work for me was the quarter-light fitting. The book says to fit the frame fully assembled, inserting the bottom of the vertical bar into the window slot from above. But even with the sliding glass loose in the door frame and pushed back there was not enough space to get the lug at the base of the bar into the door. Fortunately I tested before assembling the quarter-light and in the end inserted the bar from below then fitted the trimmed seals, glass and front alloy frame. This photo illustrates part of the problem, getting it all together using "soft" tools and minimal force:
    drivers quarter light.jpg
    All pulled together by a strap and a long screw and nut at the top, then replaced by short one. Finally with main glass adjusted and running true in frame, a final tweak: The metal clips securing the scrapers to the door frame are very difficult; they fit into obscured holes, need force and are hard to prise/press. I felt the outer clips had not gone home so made a tool to grab the ends and pull them home by twisting and levering against the door frame lip. This could only be deployed when the sliding window was fitted one fully up. The tool is a bit of 30x3mm bar with a tang an one end made with a couple of saw cuts, then wrapped with masking tape, and sure enough most of my clips were not home, but soon pulled into place: Scraper fitting tool.jpg
    OK this is Gobbledy Gook to many but I hope it may be found by others before they attack this particular task and that to them it will make sense.
    Job done: Drivers cab window.jpg
     
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2019
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  5. JamesLey

    JamesLey Sponsor

    All useful points fella! I've got these to do at some point shortly.
     
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  6. So what is different from the one above? engine tuning.jpg

    Yes, a lot of bits removed in fact carb, dizzy, alt and pedestal plus inlet manifolds have been removed and refitted as I struggle to find cause of poor idle. James Lay has started a good thread and I will tag on my woes:
    T1 engine won’t idle. Help!’
     
  7. So one of the good things about a complete restoration is that when one bit is not going well you can walk away and do something else. So I have left the engine idle issue and cracked on with the NS cab door. This side went well thanks to experience gained on the other and I did a bit of cutting on the paint and applied some wax. NS Cab door fitted.jpg
    So now I have backtracked a bit to the troublesome sliding door. One of the issues was that the inside locking catch on the handle mechanism would not 'flick' nicely up and down. The inside handle also seemed a bit limp. It is not designed to be opened up as the connecting pins between each side of the casing are peened over like rivets. With some careful drilling all revealed including two springs that have got away from their designed confines. Sliding door handle.jpg
    After cleaning, re-greasing, reassembly and a few touches with the welder all is good. Next task sloppy link to middle roller and some tweaks to spring/catches.
     
  8. Some more supplies from Martrim so I have set up a sweat shop in my cider shed and hope to have the cab seats re-upholstered soon:
    Upholstery shop.jpg

    Seats bought for a very reasonable price from nice man in Uxbridge are I think very late bay/early T25 and metal and most padding in good condition, though I will add a bit of extra foam sheet to the backs.
    Seat base metalwork.jpg

    Coverings were brown tweed, sticky a bit torn and some ciggie burns. New fronts will be in 2 tone vinyl with backing scrim cloth. In slightly unknown territory and not possessing a walking foot sewing machine I am working very carefully to get best results. Wish me luck!!
     
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  9. More thinking than usual, many drawings and several days careful cutting and stitching and the result: Drivers seat done 2.jpg

    Drivers seat done.jpg

    Drivers seat fitted.jpg

    It will be some time before I do the other one and I will be adding and subtracting a millimeter or two to improve the fit. I also need to weld new rails to the passenger side tub.
     
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  10. Had a bit of a break from the garage but now working back through the deferred issues. The sloppy sliding door hinge fixed by turning up a bush made from an old valve guide (Beetle I think - worth salvaging guides if scrapping cracked head, I have used the old guides for countless jobs) The lower large diameter had little wear and I fitted a shim steel collar rather than bushing, which would have taken too much strength away. The spring that rotates the U hinge was a bit weak so I shortened by half a turn and closed up the eye end. The latching bracket at the front of the track had lost what I presume was a steel plate riveted to the alloy to accept the latch hook used for closing. So I made a replacement from stainless, drilled the alloy and secured with 2 CSK self tappers. Photo of the 3 bits: Slider middle hinge repair.jpg

    Now that the door is hung properly at the rear, I found that I could better adjust the front rollers and get a good all round fit.
     
  11. Another 3 days in my workshop and now both seats trimmed in vinyl with foam scrim under the base and back faces. I also fitted a pair of sliding rails on the passenger side in place of the 2 position brackets. I agonized over this as I did not want to plug weld to the tub which had been finished underneath with primer/topcoat/stone chip, however in the event a wet rag kept the heat transfer to the minimum. Both front seats done.jpg

    The one on the right had a couple of mm less in places and has produced a more snug fit. I anticipate they will look a bit better when ironed by a pair of travellers on a long road trip. If anyone is contemplating reupholstering then have a look at the brilliant silent tutorials on U-Tube by chechaflo.
     
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  12. They look brilliant!
     
  13. Thanks Ermintrude, back on page 13 of this thread I pondered how to fix the mangled steering column cowling, badly butchered by PO in an attempt to release the lock shear bolt. I found some ABS plastic in my come in handy boxes and with plenty of super glue and some plastic bumper filler we got here:
    Steering column cowl 1.jpg

    T'aint pretty but the shape is close to factory and the securing lugs below now repaired and to finish I made some "socks" from same vinyl as the seats and dash:

    Steering column cowl.jpg

    Cockpit coming together slowly:

    Steering column cowl and seats.jpg
     
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  14. Camping in the Cotswolds, house painting and horticulture have held back progress. Time to tackle deferred issues and the rough idling in particular. Compression test = 4 x 140psi as expected with all new suck/sqweeze components, next check for manifold leaks so I connected a hose to the servo vacuum take off brazed to the carb support and surprise absolutely no air going anywhere! I had considered it good fortune to have a manifold with a servo pipe when there was no servo fitted. The open end of the take off was blanked and I never suspected that the nicely brazed pipe did not actually open into the manifold!! i.e. no hole in the manifold wall. So off with the carb, dizzy, some tinwear, alt and pedestal etc until finally I had the manifold out and drilled a hole. I had considered doing in situ but too difficult to do nicely and ensure all the burrs and swarf were safely removed. I also took the time to reface the carb mount. So just waiting for some manifold gaskets, I am going to use fiber rather than the pressed metal this time as I suspect they might be better for sealing and less heat transfer. You can just see the newly drilled hole down the stub pipe. Manifold drilled.jpg
     
    Last edited: Jan 5, 2020
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  15. Also decided to fit hardboard insulation retainer to the hatch:
    View attachment 70745
    [/QUOTE]

    Hi, did you make this yourself of purchase from some where? Did you change / fit replacements around the hatch too?
     
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  16. Hi Coco, all the hardboard insulation was home made using simple paper templates and cutting regularly spaced holes with a drill and hole cutter, primed and satin black spray top coat. Nothing complicated just a bit of a faf working upside down but a lot easier before the engine refitted (see page 14 above).
     
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  17. Moving on I have finally refitted all the components to the engine and having checked things anew found several potential sources of the poor idle:
    1. The HT lead to no 1 cyl had a lot higher resistance than the others so replaced.
    2. The coil to dizzy HT lead also suspect as the copper cores not lapped over insulation and in contact with brass terminal, current path via spike in terminal to core may not have been good.
    3. When the manifold was fitted and carb port blanked I turned engine to 10 degrees BTDC so all but 1 intake Vv closed and then huffed and puffed on a pipe to the vacuum stub and discovered air leaking from both new red rubber boots on the manifold. The boot to alloy intakes was good and the leaks were on the smaller diameter to the steel tube. Upon investigation the problem was the gash pipe clips. Fortunately I had the original german VW ones which closed up better with a small gap between the bolt and nut ends, unlike the other which dug in to the rubber and created a ruck and air gap. Should have taken photo to explain but just beware cheap clips with large gap. So all nice and tidy awaiting test run - fingers crossed:
    Engine after manifold work.jpg
    4. Finally the accelerator pump quadrant and linkage was fouling the alternator and had been bent to provide some clearance. This may have been disturbing the parked position of the butterfly Vv. I am not sure how VW dealt with this, probably a distance piece under the carb? Any way I found a neat solution on The Samba, this reguires that the adjusting quadrant that fits on the butterfly shaft flats is turned over and a new straight link plate to the acc pump operating rod is made and replaces the dogleg shaped plate: photo of new link and flipped quadrant and also original link:
    Acc Pump link.jpg
    and when fitted and at full throttle no interference with the alt, though you can just see where previous linkage scraped the casing at small throttle opening.
    Acc lever fitted.jpg
     
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  18. JamesLey

    JamesLey Sponsor

    What carb do you have? If it's a Bocar one like I have (I know, i know!) then yes they always foul the alternator; I believe the gen solex ones don't suffer from the same problem. The original alternator the van came with had a big chunk cut out of it to avoid the problem. I ended up fitting a spacer under the carb to fix the issue (think I also had to bend the pump arm slightly too!).
     
  19. There were two different linkages fitted originally dependent on if a alternator or Dynamo was fitted.
    Most work rounds over the years ive seen are a spacer between manifold an carb or grinding a section of the alternator away.
     
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  20. Thanks James and Paradox, its a Solex 34 PICT 3, still have not run her as I have been preoccupied selling "Trevor" my little old Kubota tractor. 1 free add on Gumtree and my E-mail and phone red hot, I got the price I wanted though it seems many were willing to pay more. But pleased Trevor seems to have gone to a good home in a sunny climate. Hope when Lottie's time comes I manage things better...........don't worry still a long way off, lots of fun ahead fitting out the interior and testing.
     
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