2020 Type 3 Vision

Day 1 of 2020 is here and I will continue to attempt to achieve 1 x small job per day on the VW's this year as I have done for the last few years in order to get the cars completed (especially with the T34 heading to South Australia this year).

It really is that simple in building a car- chip away at it slowly and before you know it, you have a cool car. It staggers me the number of people that fail to see this is the easiest way of building a car and they end up selling a half arsed pile of rubbish with parts missing etc. There is no excuse for that.

I recently got some black 3M contact adhesive for attaching the front and rear compartment seals, so I started today on the front compartment as this seal is a genuine VW item (later model VW-1600 that I shortened and glued back together).

Things went perfect and the seal is now stuck down suitably well.

I will let it sit overnight, check it in the morning and if all is well, close the lid to confirm it's all hunky dory.

As for the rear seal...I know that is going to be a pain in the arse. It is not a genuine VW item and while it's close to the correct profile, it isn't spot on. I have started by attaching the top of it to the body only and left it with a bunch of clothes pegs to hold it tight while it sets up. I will continue tomorrow morning with both sides and the clothes pegs idea to hold it all in place. Assuming that all goes well, the bottom of the seal will be attached by mid day (and probably masking taped tight to the body for a bit) and by this time tomorrow night I can then call the rear seal done.

Door seals will be the next items to attach but I better order some more of the black 3M adhesive as I only bought enough for the front and rear. I have plenty to do elsewhere anyway so it's not a problem.

The black VW is looking good. As soon as the hot weather passes, it will go for an outing or two.

Proper Cal-Look height?

Of course there is no answer to the correct height of a Cal-Look VW. That would be just mental to even throw out a number! But for a long time now I have considered that the height of the black VW, especially the rear, was just a bit too low (it used to drag the previous exhaust merged flange every now and then which was sub optimal).

I am also not a fan of having axle's either above or below the differential center line based on the wear this causes to the fulcrum plates and axles etc. The least amount of travel has to be better for wear in my mind.

So the morning after Christmas, I decided it was time to rectify the issue and raise the rear end of the car by 45mm to get the axles near on perfectly at right angles to the differential. It was also a good opportunity to 'fix' a few things that were bugging me too.

Here is the car with straight axles now from the drivers side. I think it has now made the car look more purposeful too.

From the passenger side. Looks exactly how I had planned at the beginning of the day. Yes the sheet on the concrete is to catch a weepy oil filler tube which is another one of those things I will rectify at the next oil change. No biggie.

Here are the 3-piece BRM's and Porsche 356B rear drums outside before they got a cleaning. Not too dirty or anything but I always try to leave things in better condition than when I removed them.

End result from behind the car. Nailed it!

Was a good morning's effort.

Managed to raise the rear end by 45mm, re-lube the torsion bar rubber bushings inside and out ((perfect condition still) genuine NOS VW items as installed 20 years ago), replaced the stainless hardware on the spring plate retainers with original VW hardware; completely cleaned and degreased all components dismantled such as the brakes so they are spot on; replaced the axle nuts with correct CSP 356 Porsche items (wider flange than VW items which I installed unaware back then...), and while I was under there, I replaced an o'Berg bung that had an old temperature sensor in it from the previous ECU that is no longer required just so it looks the goods (no functional change).

Next step on the black VW? Probably a thorough cleaning of the body and chrome to get it shiny again. Mechanically I can't think of anything major to address or alter.

The notchback now needs some more assembly work as far as where my car time needs to go, bearing in mind that with some urgency, my T34 will be heading here in 2020 from Western Australia.

NOS Servicing Paraphernalia

Thank you Terry B for the following NOS paper items which will mostly become display / reference items but could become reproductions for my cars and possibly others.

With the Christmas break upon us, I expect to finish a few things on both the black and green VW's ahead of the T34 making it's way to me in 2020. It could be a very busy year ahead.