Happy Campers New 67' Bug Barn Find

[Happy Camper]

More shinny little pieces
A couple of weekends I got a chance to head into work again and use the paint booth and clean rooms. It sure is nice to be able to paint in an environment that is this well controlled. After a bit of prep, I finished painting the transmission, front beam and the steering box. I was fortunate enough to be able to let them sit until Monday to dry really well. All clean and shinny now and ready for some re-assembly.

[Happy Camper]

Pan is painted ;D

After a bit of prep work, a little sanding, and putting up plastic all over the walls of the shop, I was ready to paint the pans. I used a single stage paint system from Sherwinn Williams called 2nd dimension. This is an enamel based system with a hardener. I have had good luck with this in the past and it works quite well. Seems to be shinny enough for something most folks will never get to see.

[Happy Camper]

More suspension and steering work

My father-in-law stopped by yesterday and we got to working on the tie rod ends. We replaced all of the old parts and even got a chance to install some "racing red" parts on the transmission mounts. Lots of fun.









When we were about to install the new flex disk at the steering coupler, I noticed the steering box was turning a bit rough. We took it apart for a look inside and this is what we found. Not good news at all.







Looks like I am in the market for a replacement I guess.
There are bound to be a few surprises I guess.

[81pumagtc]

Purdy parts!

Too bad about the steering box, but fortunately good ones are usually under $100. I am pleased with my TRW.

Dave

[Happy Camper]

I cut it!
Well, after lots of thinking, I decided, what the heck, There are lots of beams out there in case I want to put it back like it was, so I did it, I cut out 1-1/2" from each end. I decided to cut outboard of the mounting brackets, and not cut the center section again. If I was going to do this from scratch, I would have removed the center brackets as well, and just taken all the 3" from the middle. This would allow an easy install of the adjusters at the same time. I just couldn't bring myself to cut up all the nice work Steve and I did on the center section, so outboard it was. Oh well, being indecisive is more work.
However, the shortening is going well so far. I started out by putting several layout marks on the beam that could not get scratched off, I did this with my fiber cut off wheel on my dremmel. I made a fairly detailed sketch of the locations of the steering damper mount bracket, the Pittman arm stop bracket, and the steering box locaters. With only a 3" cut, all of these parts can still be reinstalled on the beam. If you cut much more than about 4", I think things will have to be left off.



Next I went after the brackets with a cut off wheel on my angle grinder. I was able to drill out the spot welds that attached the steering box locator and knock the little round locator disk off with a chisel.



With the brackets off, I headed into work to cut the beam on the chop saw. Steve and I did this before with the sawzall, but the chop saw is pretty nice for this!







And there you have it, one really nice front beam for 67 all cut into little pieces ;D Cutting stuff up is lots of fun. Now, with luck, I will get it back together very soon.



This is a shot of one of the pieces I cut out. 1-1/2" minus the saw kerfs.

[bren]

Very nice. I believe you will be glad you did this.
Nice to have access to the work shop!

[81pumagtc]

Cold-cutoff saws rock!

The beam looks really great!

Dave

[dansam]

Looks like the project is comming right along. I replaced my steering box right at the end of the season, not that it was working so bad but had like a half inch of play in the middle that was driving me nuts. So I replaced it with a new gear that I think was around 89.00 or so. Anyway it was money well spent. Never was a fan of the narrowed beam Look or ride for that matter but if your doing major lowering or air bag suspension I guess its a must. Keep on pushing as spring is a comming!

[Happy Camper]

Beam Shortening Part Two
Thanks for all the encouragement you guys, It helps the attitude.
I got back into the garage again this afternoon. I cleaned things up and clamped the parts together with "C" clamps and some angle pieces.



I took it back apart and ground a nice bevel on the ends of the beam tubes to make room for the welds. I clamped it all back up and tacked it all together. I removed the clamps and measured everything again to be sure. All was well so I welded everything up. I cleaned the welds up and sanded the surrounding paint so it is ready for primer.







Next I etch primed the beam and let it dry for an hour or so, sanded it with Scotchbrite and painted it gloss black. I am pretty happy with this part. Should make a nice beam. Next up is to cut the springs and the tie rods.

[Happy Camper]

A great story about one of our members!
If you have been following my build thread, you know that I have recently discovered a junk steering box. Well, Brian, "vdubdriver" PM'd me and said he had one and he wanted $10 for it. I drove an hour down to Coloma Saturday to pick it up and it was great to meet Brian. It was great to see his toys, nice cars.
Anyway, it came time to look at the steering box and after a bit of twisting the shaft, it felt just like the one I had. I was certain the bearings were shot in that one as well. Brian felt horrible he had me drive all the way down only to have the box be bad. He felt so bad he gave it to me for free. I thought I would take it home and tear it apart to see how it had failed, maybe we would learn something. Well, as soon as I loosened the adjusting nut, the box turned freely, nice and smooth. This is indeed a Happy Camper!
OK, so here is the deal. I certainly owe Brian $10 the next time I see him. And secondly, this says something about the caliber of folks we have in our club! Things like this sure make you feel good about the "good volks" we hang around with. Way cool, thanks Brian, Karma baby, Karma!
For fun, here is a couple of shots of the beautiful bearing surfaces on the wheel shaft of the box I bought from Brian.

[teamafx]

I'm gone for the weekend and come back to see this! My beam is next on the chopping block. That turned out great.

[vdubdriver]

Feb 13, 2011 20:28:56 GMT -5 Happy Camper said:

A great story about one of our members!
OK, so here is the deal. I certainly owe Brian $10 the next time I see him. And secondly, this says something about the caliber of folks we have in our club! Things like this sure make you feel good about the "good volks" we hang around with. Way cool, thanks Brian, Karma baby, Karma!

Thanks for the Karma. I didn't join the Goodvolks to make money on VW parts. ;D It's about the people and the cars! Anyway, I would not have offered the steering box if it was not something I would have used in one of my cars. If you had not taken it, I would not have had any qualms about putting fresh grease in it and using it myself. Now..........what can I spend the $10 on..........hmmmmm.

[dunedudex4]

Can my beam be 3rd in line? But I would like to cut and turn mine for off road so raised. Brian call me I can help you spend your 10.00 ;D. Scott, was the box hard to disassemble? Thanks Dave T

[Happy Camper]

Walk in the park Dave,
There is a trick however, before you open anything up, clean the two shafts very good. I used a wire wheel on my angle grinder. You just need to be careful not to destroy the two seals.

Once the shafts are clean, you can remove the little slide on clip on the steering shaft (small shaft). It slides right off. I have no idea what it is for, but it needs to come off to take the box apart.

loosen and remove the lock nut that holds the "slop" adjuster screw, (the screw with the slot for a screwdriver.) Next, remove the four bolts on the cover. Tap the cover to loosen the gasket seal and it should rotate a bit. Remove this cover by turning the adjustment screw all the way in until the cover comes off.

Now loosen and remove the big lock nut and steering shaft end plug. This end plug is an adjustment for the end play of the steering shaft. This plug pushes the bearings, one on each end, against a set of races, like a bicycle wheel bearing setup, they work together.

The bearing in that end should now come out. You can tap the end of the big shaft to raise it up and out of the box, and when it clears the steering shaft gear teeth, both shafts will slide out. Now, the steering shaft (small one) will usually slide right out, but you will have to smak on the big shaft a big to get it to slide through it's bronze bushing. Remember, clean shafts, or they wont slide past the seals and bushings very well.
Nothing to it.
Note: This is a pretty greasy job!
After I had everything apart, I spent about 45 minutes cleaning things up. There are lots of spots for old grease to hide in there!

I still haven't decided what grease to put back in there yet. everything I can find says to use a moly grease, it is supposed to be good under very high pressures. If anybody has any experience here, that would be awesome? I am thinking maybe a grease meant for universal, or CV joints would work out well.

[ghiastein]

Feb 15, 2011 7:34:14 GMT -5 Happy Camper said:

I still haven't decided what grease to put back in there yet. everything I can find says to use a moly grease, it is supposed to be good under very high pressures. If anybody has any experience here, that would be awesome? I am thinking maybe a grease meant for universal, or CV joints would work out well.

I believe the steering gear box requires gear lube. I am thinking 80 weight but I will check when I get home.

Grease might not be a good idea due to Michigan winters. Not enough friction to heat up the grease to help it flow.