The Doors

Here are the doors after I dismantled them to bare bones and dropped them off to Minus-Paint.

 

Very clean and mostly original paint except for a small repair to the drivers side door on the leading edge (which I was never fully aware of the extent of it's damage).

Insides were clean as a whistle.

The residue is from the factory fitted tar paper stuff was a bugger to remove.

Here they are after being dipped - you can see some minor work that was carried out probably during the 1960's or 1970's on the leading edge of the drivers side door mentioned previously.

This is after being stuck in the de-rusting tank and then hand rubbed back to bare steel before the black etch primer was applied. Sensational condition.

The doors look fantastic. There is zero rust in both of them which is great news.

About 2 or 3 small shopping trolley dings in each door to be fixed (extremely minor) and some minor rework required on the leading edge of the drivers side door as already noted.

If you look closely at this image, you can see the date stamp inked into the door - 25  6  64.

This lines up well with the car as it was assembled during early September 1964.

The doors are now etch primed black and sitting in dry storage awaiting works.

NOS rear notchback fenders & original doors

 

This is one of the NOS rear notchback fenders I have had hanging up in the garage for the last 25 years. I had them chemically dipped and etch primed about a decade ago hence the black finish instead of the original grey that you would have expected.

 

Here you can see I have marked the holes out for the 'S' side trim I will be using. These were 'N' model fenders so had no holes drilled in them whatsoever except for the lower pair of holes for the sill panel trim.

 

I got excited this morning, smacked in some center punch marks then drilled some 8.0 mm holes. I think I got the holes in the right spots too!

Here are both of the rear fenders after drilling the holes and re-etch priming the holes for a bit of protection. I sure hope I don't get confused and end up bolting a surf board to the car as that would look a bit silly.

 

So after lunch today and also after replacing some roof tiles on the rental property, I headed home and decided to dismantle the original doors.

 

As you can tell, these are in fantastic original condition and original paint. It's nice not working on some old pile of crap which has had every bastard work on it over the years making 'improvements'.

 

 

Original door locks and fasteners. I will reuse the fasteners but may replace the locks with a pair of NOS ones I bought years ago just to freshen the car up a bit. Why not hey?

 

Nice original door check rods. I can not recall if I have NOS ones of these or not but either way, I am not too concerned. What will go back into the car will be detailed up and the original fasteners will be reused.

 

Original door cards will be reused and some of the fasteners. I have NOS screws to replace these as well as the white caps but will reuse the original washers that are still present on this car (under the screws).

 

Original fasteners will be reused on the vent window tops.

 

The other door check rod. Nice and clean considering it's a 50 year old car.

 

Lower hinge. Note that VW didn't get carried away with the paint in there. I will be though. Bugger originality, I want a decent paint job.

 

The door is slightly damaged as you can see because the seat release mechanism levers press against the doors and over time dent or bend the doors slightly. I will reinforce this area from the inside as well as fix the externals. VW should have done similar back when the car was new. I suppose it's a bit late now to recall these vehicles for this potential safety risk?

 

More of the swanky original door cards. I imagine getting hold of this material could be difficult. Luckily for me I will be reusing this as it's still very presentable. 

 

Original window winder handles are a bit naff I admit, but I have yet to find a pair of them NOS. If anyone has some, please email me immediately. I will throw bags of gold to you in return. Well maybe not but you get the gist of it.

 

The original fasteners for the window regulators were not plated as you can see. I will plate the fasteners for the next build as a rusted finish is not a desirable outcome. Not original? So what, I am also not leaving the wheel cylinders or master cylinder in bare metal either!

 

The original foam packing and vinyl piece will either be returned at the right time in the restoration or I will fabricate new pieces. VW got these small features right.

 

Same goes for this piece of felt. I will either reuse it or replace with the same type of material. It makes a difference.

 

I prefer the earlier VW-1500 set up with the small rubber guides but alas this is the later version of the door and I don't have that option.

 

 Original fasteners for the arm rest will be reused as is. Nice aren't they?

 

The original plastic sheeting has been carefully removed from the car and I will replace it with a modern sheet of plastic slightly thicker and also glue it down at the conclusion of the restoration. So many people fail to install plastic sheeting on their 'restored' cars and it's basically the death of their brand new door cards. Pretty silly huh.

 

Next update, I might show you the floor pan which is now completely painted in 2k glossy black. It looks fantastic thus far but I need to complete a bit more of the build before I put the images up here.

The original tools for this 1500 'S'

As requested by Pedro (USA), I took some photo's of the original tools as provided by VW back in September 1964 for my 1500 'S'.

 

As far as I know, these are the original tools and have not been changed or even cleaned up much in the last 50 years.

 

I have not used any of these tools ever and it would appear they have not been used except maybe once or twice back in the day.

 

 

Note the manufacturer's details on the black painted handle (look closely).

Original hub-cap puller tool. Slightly bent but I will leave it as is.

Original Hazet 8mm / 13mm open end wrench. Would it have cost any extra back then to nickel plate it or similar? 

 

 

 

I think the tools provided by VW with their cars back then were a bit crap in reality. Even today, my new VW T5 transporter is only just provided with enough tools to change the spare wheel and perhaps there is a spanner of some sorts.

 

What is surprising to me is that people didn't buy the Type 3 1500 Hazet round tool kit in large quantities because that is one super nice accessory that would have been very useful back then.

Trans-axle Chromatic Conversion

A couple of people asked me what the finish was like on the trans axle before I had it painted. Well, I am glad you asked.

 

As usual, I started out by having the magnesium parts wet blasted. If I wasn't restoring this car I would have just left the magnesium casings as is after wet blasting as this process leaves the magnesium in a very nice smooth finish. But VW did paint these housings black originally (mine was painted black anyway) so after the wet blasting, I dropped it off at the place (http://keyman.com.au/) that does the chromatic conversion. You may recall that I had the Maico disk brake hubs also chromated as well (and they turned out fantastic).

 

One could leave the housing in this state if so desired, but the thinking behind all this was to provide a surface with enough of a 'key' so the black 2k paint would adhere.

 

Nice finish isn't it? Note that the original number has been retained.

Missing studs were loctited back in after these images. I had to remove them in order to fit the mill that I was using to drill the hole in the housing for the longer shift rod (that is the short story).

Clean as a whistle.

I asked the wet blasting fella to not get too carried away with the bell housing area. I cleaned it up further after these images with some thinners and a coarse scrubber. 

Here it is just before I taped it all up and had it painted. Quite a time consuming process.

I hope that this time around the black paint wont flake off like it did when VW attempted it in 1964.

Also the way VW painted the trans axle back then was 'rapid' to say the least. It would appear that VW just assembled the whole trans axle and basically spray painted everything including fasteners etc in the black finish. Yes of course this was a production car and time was of the essence but it was a bit slap dash. It's details like these that I will not be replicating with my car because I feel that if VW didn't have the time constraints they would have painted it like I have done (yes I need therapy).

Took 50 years to test last time around and I am not convinced I will be here in 50 years from now so perhaps it's not as big a concern as I am making it out to be. All I can do is my best!

April 2014, only 1 year from when I started

Well, one could assume I have been doing very little based on the number of updates I have made this year, but as you can see, I have been busy with the notchback mechanicals.

First up is the front beam. This is the original numbers correct unit as fitted in September 1964.
As mentioned in a previous post, when I checked it on a granite table, it was found to be twisted. Not sure how on earth that happened but anyway, such is life.
I made up some bits and bobs to tie the beam down / support it, and then pressed the beam in strategic locations on a 20t press. I managed to get about 95% of the twist out of it without damaging it (a relief!), so with that I sent it off for paint and thus today as you can see, I collected it.
Looks pretty damn fine too!

The original needle bearings and Bakelite bushings shall remain as I found nothing wrong with them. Best on these Type 3's not to mess about with these items if you can or you will spend more time cocking about than you can imagine. I have refitted the original torsion bars temporarily as you can see (yes with grease on the splines of course).
The Maico's are there ready to rock and roll (refer to previous posts for details on these), as well as the ball joints, an NOS German dampener and assorted parts like the angled tie rod end.
The trailing arms and steering box components are in the other garage undergoing some detail and assembly work (POR-15). Once completed to a high standard, these will be brought into the assembly room and installed.

This is the sub frame I will be using. It's not the original from my car (I still have the original but it had a few too many small dings underneath so I decided to use a spare) however it is from a 1964 T34 and was in fantastic condition with zero dings or dents to deal with. I have temporarily dropped the original torsion bars in and I am going through the parts boxes to work out what I have got and what I am missing. So far I am not missing too many items which is a $$$ relief!

I checked it for straightness before it was sent off for chemical dipping (refer to earlier post) so I know it's 100% perfect for the car. Nice and shiny huh? Yes I will hand rub the paint slightly at a later date. Credit to Paul Roberts for the body and paint work on the sub frame and front beam. The floor pan will be the next challenge.

I am using German parts on this build as much as possible as you may be able to see. It does make a difference.

As mentioned earlier, I have the front trailing arms in the other garage, here's a photo of some of the items I am working on.
The pedal cluster is there, the front trailing arms, the rear suspension components (bump stops) and misc odds and sods. If you have used POR-15 before you will know it is a fairly time consuming process to get right. Next step with all of these items will be to lightly wet rub them then continue with another coat. I wont install anything on this car until I am 100% satisfied it's up to standard. Right now these parts are about 1/2 way through the process.

And although not 100% complete, here are some images of the original transaxle. The work involved to get it to this stage was staggering.
I started out by dismantling the transaxle (of course!), had the magnesium housings wet blasted, then I sent them off for chromate coating (like anodising and comes out a 'gold' finish). With that complete, I bolted the main housing up to a mill and drilled the hole required to fit the longer selector rod as per later transaxle's on the recommendation of Rhys and Andrew at German Auto. Worked out perfect and a very good idea.

 

With that complete, I had Aaron Thompson paint the housings (after extensive taping up of the areas not to be painted of course) and this is the result. Glossy black and this time round, the paint may actually stick due to the chromate coating (the original black paint was barely there after all these years as you may see in an earlier post).

 

All original fasteners were sent off for zinc plating and the axle tubes were pressed apart while I was at it. Eagle eyed folk may notice I have fitted a pair of Berg side plate savers as well. I figured 'why not' and had them painted as well so they aren't as noticeable. Yes I even had the axle tube locating pins zinc plated that secure the bearing housings to the tubes.

 

Rhys and I assembled the transaxle over a weekend and with a bit of sorting through my extensive collection of low mileage parts (including the original 60k mile transaxle from the black car!), we managed to use the best of the best parts with minimal wear. I am extremely happy with the way it went together and to give an indication of the condition of this transaxle, the gears still had their original ink markings on them from the factory and all of the synchro's measured up still within specs. The condition of the components indicated how well this car was looked after.

 

I can't wait to take this car for a spin as the transaxle was always fantastic and made the car an absolute pleasure to drive.

Yes I need to wipe off a bit of assembly goop as you can see. Also the seamless boots require the clamps to be fitted shortly of course.

 

I am fitting up a heavy duty clutch throw out arm because I have previously experienced a broken standard one in another car (not this notchback). Because of this, I purchased some sintered bronze bushing material and machined the bushing to suit my requirements. It's now finished (and re-oiled and will be installed as soon as the other components are finished being painted in the POR-15. I will be using a brand new return spring and the original clutch arm and fasteners.

The starter motor will be sent off next (once the other projects and issues mentioned above are dealt with). The starter I am using is not the original for the car, but a later higher output 6V unit to assist with starting up the 1602cc Okrasa engine that will be fitted. I figure that I am using as many period correct performance parts as I can, I may as well fit the car with the best 6V starter that VW offered back then. The starter will be completely detailed in line with everything thus far. You wouldn't expect anything less hey?

The floor pan is off in a workshop about to be painted so it wont be long now before it all gets bolted together and resembles a rolling floor pan once again. It's getting exciting.