a little side project...

today I received a nice package with the first parts of a little side project:

a few pics I took today

Today I took the Volksback for a spin and shot a few pics. It was the first day in weeks with dry weather and dry streets...

It is really nice to have a good working heater system on board, even it was only around 0°C - inside it was cosy.

Air ride - baby!

Here is the reveal of yesterdays post:
XY- dampers are: Monroe MaxAir - made for aircooled VW's on the rear IRS axle.
But, as the Type 3 front damper is the same length as a beetle / type 3 rear damper, I just exchanged the lower bushings - and here is the Type 3 front pseudo - "Airride"!
As the Monroe is a standard damper plus the adjustable air cushion - it rides really well and I can have the cool "in the weeds" look whenever necessary and a moderate ride hide also.

I lowered the front another notch, then installed the Monroe's

enough said, look:

"standard" ride height:

"low" stance - on the bump stops:

again, in detail:

"high"

"low"


















I am looking for an onboard compressor to "blow-up" the Monroes whenever I need it - Maybe I'll use one of those "mobility kit" type compressors...

By the way...
On an IRS equipped Type 3 the similar thing could be done to the rear as well! On a swing axle I would strongly recommend NOT to "high jack" the rear - the extreme positive camber would look ugly and drive like crap!

wheel adapter - finished!

Here is the finished wheel adapter, including the freshly wrinkle-finished aluminium bits and a cleaned rubber boot:

... almost factory looking - I like it!

bullit in the brain?

Here is another project I just started...

...
what the hell is it?

the left part is made of bronze and is a mounting aid...
for:





damper bushings:

left to right: og Koni damper lower eyelet with narrow bushing, XY damper lower eyelet with narrow bushing, XY lower eyelet with og wide bushing...

a few minutes later: all XY dampers have the narrow bushing now...


You may ask: Why? The Koni's are top notch dampers, BUT - look closer to the next pic and you know what it is all about:

stay tuned ... more to come tomorrow!

wheel adapter

3 years ago I bought a nice wooden steering wheel at the Techno Classica. The wheel - from Mountney, England - is really nice, but the original Mountney boss for old VW's is a real POS... bulky and bad fitment, so I designed an adapter to mount the Mountney wheel to the good old Raid boss, which is quality known since years!

both have 6 bolt pattern, so it was an easy design...
A special thanks to Thomas for his nice work on his lathe!

 and here is the steering wheel it was made for.

update: theirs (Mountney og part) vs. mine boss:

I dismanteled the Raid boss, every metal part will be re-painted in wrinkle finish black and the rubber boot will be given a quick makeover...

more pics later!

some more pics from the oily motor... noch ein paar Bilder vom verölten Motor

Here a few more pics of the oily mess which will be a motor again later on...
Hier noch ein paar Bilder von dem öligen Klumpen der irgendwann wieder ein Motor werden soll:

lots of carbon oil residues everywhere
überall reichlich Ölkohle

luckily no big chunks of whatever in the mesh filter
zum Glück keine groben Teile im Siebfilter

Rosmalen 2012

Is it just me or do you also see a significant rise of prices in the last 2 years? The price for a German made NOS ERNST exhaust system almost doubles every 2 years and so on. Anyway, I just picked up a few little things for the Fastback this time:

Kommt es nur mir so vor oder steigen die VW Preise unaufhörlich weiter? Vor allem in den letzten 2 Jahren finde ich das schon fast kriminell! Ein NOS Ernst Auspuff verdoppelt zur Zeit ca.  alle 2 Jahre seinen Wert... Egal, für den Fastback gab es dieses Jahr nur ein bisschen Kleinkram:

a repro VW badge for the front, a set of motor sheet metal mounting screws, a logo set for the 2 liter center caps, a NOS set of  seat rail gliders, 2 rubber breather valves for the original crankcase breather system, a brake pad mounting set to get rid of that annoying squeek during braking (the spring loaded metal clips were missing on my calipers) and the notorious tunnel basket... 

Ein Repro-VW Zeichen, eine Tüte Schrauben für die Motorverblechung, Porsche Logo's für die 2 Liter Felgen, einen kompletten NOS-Set Sitzgleitschienen, 2 Gummi's für die Serien-Kurbelgehäuseentlüftung, einen Bremsklotzmontageset - damit das lästige Quietschen beim Bremsen mal ein Ende hat (bei mir haben diese Federbleche gefehlt) und natürlich ein Tunnelkorb...

new year = new challenge: a motor build!

With the new year I want to start building my own motor, first step is to tear the donor apart, a REALLY dirty one...:

 old oil everywhere! The consistency is more like honey - but taste and odor are far from that!

the mustache bar was already loose - I don't need that anyway

 oil + dust = yummy!

oil carbon under the breather housing...

According to the serial number it should be an early 1971 crankcase with the preferable "dual relief" oil galleries though...

the only plus with this piece of crap: all nuts and bolts are easy to loosen - soaked in oil for years!

After the complete tear down I will thoroughly clean it and check for cracks...