63Ragtop

Minitruck minitruck minitruck! You know you want to.

Ho ho! Wheelie time.

Reminds me of this. Great look for the ol girl them wheels.

Tailgate looks like it's might be a nightmare, any replacement available for these or what?

Amazing thread this, amazing work.

Fuck that's cool!

Have you got the flathead back yet?

Gave the crabs a birthday, both seemed to be weeping gas from the between the top plate that the floats attach to. Cleaned everything and reassembled. Also installed a new set of plugs, really need to buy some leads, these fuckers must be nearly twenty years old. Anyway, one of the plugs was only finger tight and a couple had oil stains around the thread? Maybe those rings are stuffed? When I had it on the bench, I re torqued all the head studs, very carefully as to not pull any out of the magnesium engine case. After a quick test of oil pressure, it started up okay, needed a small clutch adjustment,warmed it up around the block, clutch works so nice, like butter, very pleased. On return, it was idling a bit fast, which is a pain. This engine must be warm to set the carbs. Disconnect the throttle linkage completely, and get both carbs to match. Got both down to 2-2and a bit on the air meter. It's never run this smooth, imagine if I could actually tune the Dells! My son found this for me in a thrift shop, I've been looking for one for a while. To go with my og 90s thrasher sticker. Stoked. And yes it's already leaking!!! Quite badly! Seems to be mostly the cylinders, between the case on side1-2, and from between the head on 3-4? Dogs will hunt! Still really pleased with the work done, clutch works well, flywheel hasn't fallen off, I did it to spec but man, if that was 270lbs it musta been 4 or 500 when I took it off. Engine mounts are definitely softer, it does not like hard launch's. All the axle tramp! Not to worried, I said I'll renovate the house next and I'm not driving it daily but it's nice to have it ready it go.

Turns out one person can lift a vw engine down off a bench by themselves. But I would not recommend it. Spent a few nights degreasing the old boxer. Came out quite well. Took a large screwdriver to the old main seal, very carefully leavered it out. The seal itself looked ok so I thought I'd practice and pressed it half way back in with just my hands. Feeling brave, I gave the new seal a go and and it went I just as easy, some gentle tapping with a hammer and the perfect block of wood and done, hopefully it works! Then spent a few evenings cleaning and resealing the alt stand, fuel pump block off, and the new oil cooler. I also found this rather large crack in my shitty alloy pulley. Wonder how long that's been like that!? I did end up buying a new set of pushrod tubes and the rubber seals for them. But after thinking it over, to replace the pushrod tubes the head have to come off, then you might as well take the cylinders off and give em a clean up etc... And I'm not even sure that the cylinders or pushrods are leaking? So I banged the flywheel back on, centered up the new clutch, spent another couple evenings cleaning all the tinwear, and reassembled the whole thing. Except for these. These are for extra punishment. And slid it all back in. Very annoyed at not having time to delete the old heater pipes from the fan shroud, would unclutter the engine greatly. Next time If anyone has one of these scat 36hp style doghouse fan shrouds, without heat, I'll swap!!

Sucks about the engine bro, that much metal in the filter an't good is it?

Tube of poo it is! Yep, I've still got the torque tool, bit embarrassing how long I've had it. You don't have a rear seal putter innera by any chance? This big washer thing. I will return the torque tool once the flywheel is back on.

Good page that, good info. The is the bare minimum set up is the old cast alloy empi box, connecting the oil filler and both valve covers, many many options and devices out there. This is a tidy install. Can't help but feel these are quite small? Or does that matter as the oil should be draining back down at the same time.

Yep, a very slippery slope. I do have some NOS bare factory heads stashed for the "one day" build. Plan this far is to replace oil cooler, rear seal, reseal alt stand, remove heads, maybe jugs? Hope they aren't stuffed, reseal with new pushrod tubes, install better engine breather system. Drive until it dies.

90km? 90,000miles. Sounds about right. Not really in a position to do a full rebuild right now. Will get some new seals and see how it goes.

Stripped all the tinwear off. Some of the problem is poor crankcase ventilation. As well as the standard cam, lightened flywheel, carbs and exhaust. This engine is actually blueprinted and dynamically balanced, which means it revs faster and higher than stock. Which means more pressure or splashy oil stuff inside or something. Add to that my stupid worst than stock breather, and shit comes out everywhere and anywhere.the front pulley doesn't have any seal, it has a thread that chucks it back inside, looks like some oil has made it out, possibly the oil pump cover below also? The rear crank seal has definitely been leaking, nice wee river running down the middle. Comparing the 1-2 side to the 3-4 cylinder side they look fairly similar. I'm thinking I didn't do fuckall to seal the alt stand when I put it on, was rushing to get it back on the road. The case is wet with oil around it. One thing I did do was replace the seals on the oil cooler, so imagine how pissed off I am with the fecking oil under it. But looking closer, some of the fins on the front of the cooler are pretty hammered and oil stained. guess the fan has been shooting things at it for 30odd years. So add that to the shopping list. With all the leaks up top, it's difficult to tell if the cylinders or pushrod tubes are actually leaking or just covered in shit? After the last rebuild, I wasn't able to re-torque the head studs once the engine was run in, question is, how far do I go with this? It runs pretty good and now I'm not driving it daily I've go a bit of time to seal it up properly. Look at this puddle inside the bottom slead! Yeezus.

Old solid front mount. Nice new heavy-duty kombi mounts in place. So fresh and so clean! Just need to remember to top up the gearbox oil, something else I've never done, not the easiest process I'm guessing. Which just leaves this thing to sort out. Which although looks cool from this side. Is caked in oil from this side. Any tips on stopping a vw engine leaking oil from ever possible place would be greatly appreciated. Fin.

Which finally leads to this. Gotta take these off first and a couple other things, and out she comes. One very rusty dusty old (dated 1999) clutch. The bearing in the center there is all lose, don't think it's supposed to be like that ? Plate looks okay, again center section had a rattle. Bellhouseing was wet and grimey. I bought new engine mounts when I good the new clutch, these polyurethane ones were cool when I was twenty, but I'm sure they make the noise and vibration issues even worse. And the axle boots need replaced again, these only lasted 3years? Shit house. So I spent most of Sunday removing the fucked parts and cleaning the underneath of all the oil and road grime.

Still going. After being a daily driver for the last three years, the clutch had reaaalllly had enough, I adjusted it one more time, and it was working sweet. I drove over to qualitat to grab a couple last parts, thought I'd pop in and see a mate at his work down the road, pulled up a couple blocks away and bang. No more clutch cable. Old mate helped me push it inside, dropped me off home, picked me up in the morning, took me back over to qualitat, and helped me sort the cable. Good cunt. Guess I had it cranked the cable a bit much and stressed it out. Anyway four hours later, I got the little loop on the little hook. Fuck.

Another thing I've never gotten around to is polishing the paint. After I smashed the front fender I had intended on doing it after painting. After sitting out in the sun all day at work for the last couple years the paint was pretty rinsed. Spent a couple evenings worth of elbow grease, paint is actually cracking in places. Wish I'd done it years ago, but whatever, looked so nice after a shower of rain, water all beading off.

The other thing that likes to die is the wiper motor. It works fine until you really need them, like a thunderstorm in heavy Auckland traffic. Then they cook themselves and fuck out. Opening the motor for possible the first time in sixty years reveled grease with the texture of smashed prunes.

Hello oldschool. The bug got a new wof a couple months back. Just needed new front tyres and the front bearings adjusted to pass. Was looking pretty hard for a wider tyre as technically the 145s are too small for the 5.5in wheels. No 155s or 165s in the profile in wanted, to chicken it try a 175, so bought another set of 145/65/15r. Balanced and aligned together with the sorted front bearings and the high speed shakes have greatly reduced. Drives really nice now. Except for the slow death of my clutch.

Looks better on those ryms.

Least it wasn't the back one.

Amazing as usual man, so cool to watch your work.

Needs to be painted red.