If you want some wood knob inspiration, look up Built by Basil on Instagram or Facebook or the web (fai warning, his website may have issues according to our company server.) He makes custom knobs out of recycled skateboards and other cool wood. Amazing stuff. Makes me want to buy a vintage manual vehicle just to buy a knob from him.
This thread is just awesome! Well done!
So final shipment of little odds and ends showed up. I think today is the day I put gas in it. Still have to figure out the clutch line routing but that should be reasonable easy to do. Still need to get the battery box but again that is supposed to show up this afternoon. I may just sit in it and make vroom vroom noises.
Then the difficult part is registration and getting all the little gus worked out.
It is an amazing car
Ok so it runs and stops. Still does not shift properly as the clutch needs to be bled more. But in a pinch you could drive it. No leaks, no drips no really anything other then a front wheel bearing needing tightening up.
Now on the the good stuff.
Tons and tons of little 1 hour jobs to complete but its far enough along that I can get it insured and registered. Also far enough along that I can start to think of the next project. After building this I have been thinking of passing on the 917 and doing something like a ruge aluminum car. It would be a similiar build to this but I would get to make the body and chassis myself which is something I have not done. Or maybe a F20C powered model A like I have been talking about for years. 917 still wins in my mind its just so much money to finish the way I want and I am not 100% sure I can actually use it the way I want.
Mm we might need video of the fireworks show because that sounds epic
Yes, I want to see the exhaust flames
More parts showing up. Finalized the engine tuning and it no longer barks or shoots flames. Booo. Battery box I made was too big as well so I moved it into the front of the car and need to rewire it a bit. Cleaning up some of the ground wires as well. Still need to get the new hydraulic line for the clutch to show up. The old one was leaking. also found a leak around the head covers which is pretty normal. Also need to order some seatbelts or use parts form a old out of date harness so I can get it registered. Does not need them but I was told that I should put them in just to be safe.
So next question. Pant the Darts on the rear or not. Leaning toward yes but not sure yet. Would do red i think for color.
I don't know much about these cars but I know little bastard had them and so does every other replica of said car. So I vote no
Well I drove it. Up and down the driveway and in and out of the garage. Its so easy to drive it hilarious how light the steering is even unassisted once you are above say 5mph.
The good. The shifter and clutch are better then any VW that I have ever been in and I would go so far as to say its better then some stock OEM cars. The clutch engagement is perfect though it took some tuning. I can pull away from a stop with just idle no problem and under power it moves.
The good and the bad. The emergency brakes really work. That is a good thing because the brake pedal went to the floor about five minutes into testing. Burped a huge bubble out of the front brakes both sides. Worked for a bit then went to the floor again. no leaks so likely even more air hiding in the system somewhere. Need to get my power bleeder out and find them. Bleeding disk brakes on VW's suck and always has.
The bad on the emergency brakes is the cables are still stretching so I got one really good stop and then a not so good one then loose cables. Need to redo the mounts and routing and stretch them out really good.
Couple things. I love the vintage beat up paint more and more. It is so easy to work on a car when you don't have to work around fresh paint. I really need to make a aluminium cover plate for the inside of the car where you put your feet to get in. The paint is gone there already. I want to find some good headlight covers that look preperly vintage but the really good ones are monster money that I don;t want to spend. The otehrs are cheap chrome from China.
So next on the list once I start the registration is to make my own aluminum cover for the passenger side. Make or buy a plexiglass bubble to replace the windshield. Fill in the wiper cutouts and paint. Then I am going to make an aluminum headrest and fairing
Also a sense of scale.
In reply to wearymicrobe :
Glad you are now able to drive it. For me, that's the part that mattered.....the stuff getting there wasn't enjoyable, but driving a car I made myself is great
In reply to wearymicrobe :
At least the car seems light enough that you could engine-brake to about a walking pace in first, then just jump out & walk it to a stop.
Darts on the rear or not. Leaning toward yes but not sure yet. Would do red i think for color.
I do like the red darts, and they seem like the most “period correct” choice, but I’ll play devils advocate here and say I though these ones I found (on some late night internet photo expedition) looked nice.
Either way, I think that some kind of dart on the rear fender helps a lot to break up the rear end, my opinion.
Also, nice work on this build so far. Ive been following from the start but this is my first chance to comment. I’m getting “weary” from reading all these awesome updates, keep ‘em coming!
Pretty sure I got all the bubbles out of the brakes now. So that is done. Starting gluing some wood up for the shifter knob. Did a bit more tuning last night and the webers are getting better and better each time. It's hard to se the idle though with the duels and the linkage I needed to run to get everything to fit. But slowly getting there. Weird thing is my brake pedal falls forward. It does not seem to be attached to the actual piston the way it is in other cars. Which means I may need to make a pedal stop for it at some point.
My garage looks like a tool tornado hit it though. Between not cleaning up after the rally car build and this car and the leaks from all the old cars. I need to clean this afternoon for a few hours.
So cleaned the garage and cleaned out the carbs and went for a test drive around the block. IE not going back and forth in a straight line.
Still air in the brakes, it stops on a dime but still inconsistent pedal feel. Still something wrong with my jetting. Car is way too low so I reset the ride hight up another 2 inches in the front and 1 in the rear. No chokes means it sounds terrible while warming up and then settles right down. The cam in this thing is too aggressive for street driving but will be fine for what I intend to do with the car.
Also the front wheel fell off about 5 feet from the house. forgot to tighten the lugs after I rebleed the brakes. nothing of value hurt but a couple scrapes on the bottom of the car.
RichardSIA said:...adding to the Patina, I see.
RE, chokes, don't your Webers have the enrichment device hooked up?
Lets call it Patina. I met the newneighbors when I did it which was fun., They are car people as well so they loved it.
No pulled off. Not sure why but its a common thing in the VW world. The motor came form a bug that was destined to me made into a Baja so I think that is the issue. No Dr idle tubes though. Has good filters so maybe does not need them.
New oil cooler mounts and oil filter. Will add quite a bit of oil volume to the car. Also got a CB oil pump which is much better then what I have. Got a 1.5 liter increased oil slump as well used and that will seriously help as well. Brakes are perfect now. Made a brake pedal stop as well to get it perfectly aligned.
Increased the front height 2 inches and now no rubbing at the front. Really looks like its almost done now.
As for the carbs.
Its running a treat now. Re-cleaned the webers and blew out everything with compressed air and increased the idle jets one step. It really sings now. Takes about 90 seconds to warm up now. It idles at about 800rpm which I am amazed it does with the FK cam.
I'm glad you've got the brakes sorted...time for a spin around the block
Getting my temp plats in about a week. Then year going to do a shakedown driving up the coast.
Things left to do are wiring and a bunch of cleaning. Then its onto the fun stuff like making the aluminum panels.
Therapy puppy./
Seat belts are in and the car other then wiring is done. It's 99% of the way there short of shakedown.
Ok I don't normally do this but I need help with the wiring. Like in person help me finish this up help. I am in San Diego and if anybody wants to get paid or knows someone who seriously knows wiring and VW's I am willing to cut a check to get this done. All the wires are labeled and run into the cabin. I have all brand new Bosch parts and relays I just do not understand how to do this.
I wouldn't call myself an expert. Do you have a diagram and fuse block? I'm perfectly willing to come through and spend a bit of time on it if you don't find professional help.
What area of San Diego are you in?
Sparkydog said:What area of San Diego are you in?
Right outside of La Jolla. I am willing to help as well I need to know how to do this in the future so I can lay stuff out better.
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