longing for perfection...

One major change for next year will be a nice set of Porsche Fuchs replicas. The front rims are slightly modified SSP's, they deliver a real cool wheel with the TÜV approval as well, but there is one detail on those wheels that bugged me since day one. The center cap is of good, heavy quality and resembles the PORSCHE center cap almost perfect - with one exception: The galvanic surface is just plain wrong, as there is a slight goldish, nickel-like shine to it. Here you can see what I mean, look close to the otherwise perfect Karmann Ghia which also won a trophy during this years Spa Le Bug Show:

(This picture was taken during the 2014 Weeze Show)

 The cover color doesn't fit to the polished surface of the wheels.

So I sent my covers to a chrome and polishing specialist, to re-chrome my covers, here is the result:

It is not easy to catch the bright chrome shine on camera. Even though it might just be a little detail, but I am sure it will be noticed!

Porsche Museum Stuttgart

Last weekend I visited the Porsche museum in Stuttgart, a great exhibition of the sportscar:

Currently, the 30th anniversary of the Porsche 959 is celebrated with a special exhibition, one item is the  impressive cut-away model, originally shown on the 1985 Franfurt auto show IAA.

 The famous Berlin-Rom Wagen with full aluminiun body

Moby Dick:

forget about flat 4 or flat 6 engines,  flat16! = 16 cylinder twin spark "boxer" engine =32 spark plugs + mechanical Injection

For me, one of the most impressive cars, the Porsche 909 Bergspyder, less than 400 kg weight!

The legendary Fuhrmann engine.

For any gearhead: If you haven't been there - you have to go there! 

Ultra VW magazine Issue 146: The Volksback feature and other Type 3's as well

Finally, the 6 page feature of the Volksback made it into the October issue of Ultra VW!

I am happy with this feature, words and pics are really nicely done! Most of the pics were done @ Zeche Zollverein in Essen. The shooting took place in July when it was sooo hot, this is a picture of it, Toby was assisting with the remote flash!

 Already long gone, today it was below 10°C!

Jonathan Ward did it again: VW Camper Derelict

Jonathan Ward is world famous for his company ICON (Ford Bronco and Toyota FJ supercars) and their Derelict builds.
This time he did a great job on a 1967 VW:

Old school rocker covers

With the modified rocker geometry and the added 4 mm shims under the pedestals the OEM rocker covers didn't fit anymore. I digged deep in my parts stash and found a pair of vintage aluminium cast rocker covers from German company Beetlechoose. I think these date back to the early 90's. - Already 25 years!

I just have to modify the hardware and bolts, put new o-rings and copper washers on them and the longblock is officially done!

Rear view mirror

My mirror was some sort of automatic high speed cut-off. Everytime I reached 120 kph it flipped against the vent window due to the wind load. I tried several times to tighten the nut to achieve higher clamp forces, but the material is so weak, I stripped the thread!
Luckily, we have a huge "helicoil" repair set in our company, which I borrowed today.
This is the problem: 

 No clamping force on the spring, as the thread in the lower nut was stripped.

Here is a detail shot of the stripped thread. When I drilled the new hole for the thread the material appears to me like aluminium, super soft!

The helicoil insert is clearly visible, after re-assembly it appears a lot stronger. Tomorrow I will give the Volksback a "high speed test" to check if the mirror stays as adjusted...

Spark plug sockets

Spark plug access is ain't easy on aircooled VW's - and the 2 Weber carbs don't make it easier, but luckily NGK has a wide array of spark plug sockets. After I tested a few of them, this is my choice: