There is nothing stopping me now

I have been working on these original Maico disk brakes for a few years now and it's great I am now at the point where I am happy to be able to use them.

 

First up, I sent the rotor housings off for wet blasting. They came back looking beautiful. You could tell the alloy used back then was of an excellent quality. Next I took the calipers with me to Sydney where Boris (http://www.vintageveedub.com.au/) and I dismantled them with the help of a big press (they were seized from having sat for 30 years). I left the calipers with Boris and he arranged to have them honed after having been blasted.

 

The brake pads were also sent off to be re-lined (being unique to he Maico they had to be re-lined). They came back perfect as expected.

 

We ended up throwing the original Maico pistons away and using some pieces from a Ford F100 (from memory) and standard off the shelf brake seals etc. I know we made it an easy thing for future replacements of items if required.

 

I had the steel disks sent off for cadmium plating to keep them from rusting and although they look a bit naff right now, once the brakes are applied the first couple of times, the gold on the disk will burn off and it will look fine.

 

Rounding out the works, I have only just now got the aluminium rotor housings back from chromatic chemical coating (http://keyman.com.au/) and I think they look brilliant. Although the coating isn't a super long term coating, it is better than bare alloy (and it's not as though the car is going to spend even 1 x second in the weather). The fasteners were replaced with new zinc plated high tensile and original bearings replaced with new Japanese made items as well as seals.

 

Nice looking set up huh? And period correct for the notchback. I am lead to believe this set are basically the only ones on the planet now so it's nice to see them in this restored condition and able to be utilised.
 

 

North Hollywood delivers

 

 

 

Nice work there North Hollywood Speedo. I hope they make it to me safe and sound. A nice Christmas present for me (or the car?).

 

I don't think they have looked this good since 1964. Thank you to Gizmo Bob for delivering them to NHS as well. Appreciate the effort Bob.

The cheap BRM's are bare and raw

I sent my spare set of BRM's off for a chemical dip last week and got them back this afternoon.

 

Very pleased with the result and I expect that over time the alloy will darken which is the desired outcome (the oval window bug which they will be attached to is in a similar condition so they looked out of character in shiny black).

And just because I can, I have cleaned the original 'S' badge up and stuck it in one of the book cases.

 

I will replace it with 100% NOS parts and keep the original on display as a reminder of how much it was looked after, polished to primer and well, just plain enjoyed.

 

True patina.

October and November antics

What a busy couple of months since the last post.

The transaxle is now completely dismantled down to the gears and synchro's etc. Measuring everything up, 1 x shim is a little bit worn, 1 x synchro is almost at it's wear limit and that is about it. I will measure up all my spare shift forks, shift rods and synchro's while the transaxle is in pieces and if I can find better ones (I suspect the originals from the panel van transaxle are slightly better due to only 60k miles on them), I will mix and match until I have the best parts in this transaxle. It will be good to get it back together and up to specs as it is the original transaxle for the car.

The magnesium housings have all been sand blasted, wet blasted, degreased and cleaned 2 or 3 times and the next step for them is to go and get treated at an electroplater with what ever treatment they dictate which leaves the magnesium a gold coloured finish. This will then provide the 'etch' or surface to enable the 2k primer and black paint to be applied. This will happen during November with a bit of luck.

I have also finally measured up the front suspension beam on a granite surface. And yes, as suspected, it has turned out to be slightly twisted. Oddly enough this appears to be from the manufacturing process as there is no obvious damage to the beam. So with that, I have been making up some fixtures to hold the beam in a 100 tonne press and I will apply some pressure to take the twist out of it. It's currently 10mm out of whack (measured from it's extremities), so if I can reduce this to something less than that, it will be a good thing. The car drove perfectly straight and true etc so I can only assume it was like this from the factory. It will be worth the effort to straighten the beam as it is the original for the car.

I am also lead to believe the gauges for the notchback should be completed within the not too distant future too - these are all off at North Hollywood Speedometer http://www.nhspeedometer.com/ . I am having them wave their wand over all 3 x gauges and bring them back to brand new specs (or better in the case of the clock which will have a modern movement installed). It's nice to retain the original items for the car and bring them back to life with fresh paint, chrome and zinc plating etc. Can't wait to see them.

As far as the oval window bug goes, I have just sent the repro BRM's off for a chemical dip http://www.minuspaint.com.au/ and expect to get them back next week completely bare and with no more of that nasty shiny black paint. They look bloody awful when they are glossy and I think I will leave them bare alloy for that car. Perhaps I will just polish the ribs of them but that will be it. I have no desire at all to detail yet another one of my cars!

Professionally it's been a busy couple of months as I am about to change jobs, hence the lack of VW time of late. With Christmas coming, I expect a few more whole days will be able to be devoted to the notchback with the priority being to getting that mechanically complete as soon as I possibly can. I think the car is on the right track for the time being.