Happy Campers New 67' Bug Barn Find

[vdubdriver]

I like the tie-rod nut idea also. Unfortunately, I replaced my tie-rod ends about a week too early. If only I would have procrastinated a little bit longer.

[Happy Camper]

Some more brake work
My Father-in-law and I got a bit more done on the brakes this weekend. First we cleaned up and installed the new seals on the rear axle bearings. That was a pretty simple project I guess. The only confusion was that the new kits had two paper gaskets and both of the books I have only call for one, so in the true spirit of second guessing myself, I put two on the passengers side, and then decided to install only one on the drivers side! There, if one leaks, I know which one I got right. Hows that for shady logic?
On to the rear brakes. OK, First thing, install the new wheel cylinders, Check. Install new brake shoes, ... Wait a minute, these wheel cylinders hold the shoes too close to the backing plate, they wont fit. Look at new boxes, says Beetle from 65-67. Oh oh, Apparently when the the front brakes were switched over to the Ghia disks, they switched all four of them. Makes sense, I guess, the rears are now VW 4-130's, not the 5-205's like they should be. I am pretty sure that means I now have late Beetle wheel cylinders. Thats the end of that project for now. The new cylinders are on the way, Thats the trickey part of doing a custom car I guess, Everything is a guess, and sometimes you get it wrong. The magic trick will be to leave a really nice set of documentation for the next poor sucker that needs to repair something on this car.
On to the master cylinder and some brake lines; First we painted up the new master cylinder, I was afraid it would be all rusty in six months if I didn't, and then I started bending brake lines with my fancy new bender. I bought this thing from Autozone and it works great. I paid like $16. It seemed a bit pricey for something I will not use very often, but "Now I got one."



We also got the pedal cluster installed. I was missing the brake and clutch pedal stamping that stops them so they dont overtravel and so you can adjust the stop points. I had a nice little piece of aluminum laying in the scrap pile, so I made up a spiffy "billet aluminum" piece.



I am happy with how the brake lines look, it looks like they are supposed to be there, not like they just ended up there. I am getting really close to having the pan ready to trailer up North and park for the summer so I can bring home the bus. A change of scenery will be nice.

[bren]

Nice job with the brake lines!
Now I know what I need to buy to clean up the lines on the rail.

[teamafx]

I know who I am calling next week when I am bending brake lines. I also have that brake line bending tool, it is the best I have ever used. You could have borrowed mine ;D

[Happy Camper]

I would have asked, but it would have cost me more money for gas to drive down and get it, than buying the tool
You are welcome to borrow mine Bren, Just do the math first, but anytime you need it! (After I finish this little project.)

Like the new avatar pic Steve!

I have a question about the brake line that runs all the way back to the rear, How is that routed around the pedal cluster? Between the pedals and the tunnel, or around the pedals to the outboard side?
I haven't gotten to that one yet, other stuff keeps breaking around the house that needs attention. Maybe tonight.

[Happy Camper]

Its time to get rolling on the beetle again:
It’s that time of year, the leaves are falling, football is on TV, the kids are all gone away to college, and the Beetle is back in the garage and ready for some attention. I rolled the body into the garage on my little 4`X8` trailer. I propped it up and started cleaning things up a bit before I set it on the floor. Well, the more I worked with it on the trailer, the more I liked it. I really like the idea that I can just roll it outside if I need to get into that stall briefly. It will be nice to be able to roll it out just to clean up once in a while. I needed to build a stand to hold the body up anyway; I may just as well build it on top of the trailer. I just used some scrap wood to build up the little frame structure for the body to mount to. Added some diagonals for extra strength and it was quite solid. Next I set the corners of the trailer up on cement blocks to stabilize the suspension. Now it feels like it is solid on the floor.







I welded in a couple of steel supports so I would not lose any of the body dimensions when I started cutting out critical structural parts! All the new metal is here, all I need now is some more time to work on it. Starting to get the itch…

[Happy Camper]

Heater -Channel-Ecktomy

It was time to start cutting out some of the rusty parts to make way for the new un-rusty parts. The first thing I figured out is that there are a lot of layers to a heater channel and it’s mounting. I just kind of took it slow and kept cutting the layers back till I got to a good stopping point. I am sure I will need to cut more, but at least I can see whats up under there now.





It’s always an un-nerving cut to make; you know, the cut that places all the load on your newly welded in support bars. The ones that are suppose to hold the car structure in place when you cut out the main supporting member in the Beetle, but everything went perfectly. The body never “flinched”, it was nice and solid as the cuts were made.
As you grind, cut, clean, etc, you can start to see some of the cars “History” I can see that someone has cut out and re-welded in the lower piece of the “A” pillar and an area back behind the heater tube connector as well. These will all be cut out and redone, but at some point a patch job had been attempted. No problem, just some more cut fab and weld I guess.
So far, so good. Lots more work to do.

[Happy Camper]

Step Flange Tool
One of the things I knew I was going to need for the metal replacement in the 67 was a step flange tool. I knew I didn’t really want to spend $40+ to have one shipped. I was chatting with Steve (TeamAFX) a week or so ago and he told me he just made a pair. I figured, being the industrious fellow he is, that was probably a pretty good idea. So, home-made step flange pliers it was. The only difference between mine and Steves is that I took pics along the way. Thanks for the idea Steve!
I started with a bar of steel. I cut off a couple of lengths about 5/8” (16mm) wide, cleaned and de-bured them. I then ground in a step with my angle grinder. I just messed around with the depth until it seemed about right. After that, I took an old pair of Craftsman vise grips and ground off the sides and “teeth” to make room for the blocks. I used a small piece of sheet metal as a filler, sandwiched it between the newly machined “jaws” and pinched them between the jaws of the vise grips. After checking the alignment a few times, I welded the jaws in place, cleaned them up a bit and started pinching flanges! Works great. Hope this helps someone.
Now it's back to work!
Camper

[teamafx]

Those turned out great. I would have taken a pic.... but I still can't find them ;D

[dunedudex4]

Nice, now you can cut and turn beams, narrow them, and make body tools. Thanks want to make another pair?? Thanks Dave T

[wminmi]

very nice write up so far