63Ragtop

fook yeah! so majestic, these are so sweet, well done that man.

See you guys there.

fuck it, wifeys nightshift just changed to weenesdee, there is no god.

Thanks man, so good to finally drive it again, been enjoying just driving to the shops or whatever, am at little girls swimming lesson now, gets to sit up front coz no airbag, even boring stuff is fun in a rad old car.

Yes Sunday was a good day, very little use of a AK.After the wof and reg last week, first job was to get the wheels all pointing in the same direction.me ol mates at lincon tyres sorted that out, easy, rear was pretty good, I'd lined the axles up with some old marks on the spring plates and it did feel good, but the fronts were 10mm out each side, no wonder it was so scary on the motorway.After a short test drive home, it felt much better, need to go over the kings and links again and should re pack the front bearings with more grease, but first.as we pull into our street something went thump thump thump!rut roewhen I put the rear drums back on the pan, many moons ago, I didn't actually have the torque wrench so I just leaned on the multiplier stuck the pin in and forgot about it.I think I may have over done it???the splitpin and the castle nut were still in place but the drum was lose and the back of the studs had been gnawing at the wheel cylinder.At this point I'm out of time and money, the Auckland VW Club Spring Jamboree is days away and if I have to go on three fucking wheels this car was going!So I pulled out the bits of seal and that mangled metal thing, backed off the wheel studs so they were flush with the drum, backed off the front brake shoe has most of that also seems to have rubbed off and redid the castle nut, without hulk smashing it, and so far so good.I am really regretting not replacing all the soft brake lines now, as I have a feeling this is why the rear shoe has rubbed so hard.So Sunday morning loaded up every tool I own and then some, after checking and checking the hubs, drove down to local gasser and met these guys and girls.and arrived at sunny St Heliers Bay for the cars first wee show.and I thought my car was low.project for Felix?were some really nice cars there.this was one of two corvair engined bugs there.some crazy kidone of the picks of the day for me.really really nice, so I was pretty please to get second place in the 58-67 bug class.not bad for a homemade car!So cheers to the VW club, Matt and the guys for letting/making me lead the convoy in, MichealJFox for the choise pic of me and the family leaving, kiwikombi for the new smaller Dellorto chokes and all the other nice volks I chatted to and said nice things about the ragtop on the day.Look forward to more runs and adventures, now where is that rear wheel???

nail biting time. sorted.

I did take it to the tyre shop and he thought that they are ok he gave me the number of their tech department, but when I rang, they just read from the LTSAs spec sheet. 5' inch is all I could find on line, that what the tyres fit on a smart car. Anyway tyres are the least of my worries, the letters L V and V have been said in quick succession. Again, fuck it.

Certainly caught me out. 145/65/15 to narrow for 5.5" wide rim. Smallest on the chart is 165/65/15 =4-6" wide. Fuck it.

Been have been having a nightmare getting this thing legal, Drove it to work a couple weeks back as I was feeling to weak with a headcold to ride my bike anymore, Knocked off early and went to see Frank at the local vw workshop, but he had staff off sick also and was flatout himself. So I rolled the dice at a nice looking garage across the road from work.I didn't want to leave my baby with any fuckwit or some young guy who wouldn't even know how to drive a real old car, this guy has been in the trade for nearly 30 years and use to own/work on bugs back in the day, Sorted.Or so I thought, it failed, which I was fully expecting, as the brakes are not great and the rear tyres are old,hard and nearly bald. But it didn't fail on any of those things, there were a few small things like rear seat belts are old and one won't adjust, somehow though the rear tyres pasted and the front one didn't because apparently they are full on drift spec stretched tyres, ie to narrow for the rims and the real kicker the chassis number doesn't match the paper work, this was something I've always know about, this car is build from about 12 bugs, but no one has ever worried or picked up on it before, so I was off to the vtnz, handly just up the road also, filled out MR16 change of reg details form, waited a week, computer says no. can't just be swapping chassis numbers around I guess.So now I'm waiting again for the faceless bureaucrats to rubber stamp me a new VIN number and I should be good to go! still need to sort a couple small things but tyres really piss me off,I looked up the rim size they fit on(145.65.15) a smart car and it's 5inchs, these mags are 5.5inch, that an't stretched fuck all and in my opinion, the rear tyres are more dangerous as most of the vehicles weight is on the rear.rant rant ranty rant, I know the guy is just doing his job, but I'm running out of energy at this point.anyway as our recently departed friend Mr Petty sang, Waiting is the hardest part.so I didn't rush hour still sucks

go go go! haha, I had a massive grin by the end of that video, nice work man.

Chur Pretty fuckin happy widit!

Went for another wee spin last night, found a dark wall and adjusted the headlights, so now they point at the road, not the sky. Also adjusted the steering box, feels much better, just needs alignement me thinks, still a bit vague and twitchy. Rear end feels good, amazing how much of the road surface transfers though the car, from the rear end it would seem, might be the ride height I guess

So no welding and grinding? just paint and stick it together, like a 1:1 airfix model. British racing green with a white roof?

so, were was I? ah yes friday. I phoned around a few places and found Autostop are the only people that carry Bosch car parts these days, asked about a GT40T (for transformer) coil, no worried the helpful young man said, I 'll ring ya back once the van drops it off, sorted. at about noon the guy rings me back, the coils here in the local shop, but for some reason I double checked, it is the small square one right? no its the round cylinder one, doh! no worries he assures me, I'll get it on the next van, I get another call at about 3, square coil is here, sweet! so I bunk off work early as I have the wifes car for the day to go and pick it up, get home on the double time just as Darrell does and we install the new one and she fires straight up!Once I got the old coil out it was obvious it had see better days, but in my defence most of that great crack was hidden from view under the mounts, and I was more worried about the clutch and piston rings still working etc..all this pissing about with the coil had at least given me time to sort a few other small but important things.these are my jets.as I said in the earlier winge post everything has been checked and double checked, which does at least give me more confidence in the old girl.gave the last few parts of the sunroof mech a lick of paint and duct taped the old cover on for now.water tight bugwhich bring us back to friday night and a for the first time a running car. First job, wash all the dust and cat paw prints off it.jeah.stood back enjoyed a beverage until it was nearly dark.once the kids were in bed and I'd realized the only things stopping a wof was a front number plate, wipers and them brakes, or lack there of. I then remembered I hadn't yet had another go at adjusting the rear drums and noticed when I pulled the handbrake on, I had a good pedel, hmmmm.Sure enough they were miles out, whats next? wipers and a plate? might as well keep going!I have some how amassed quite a collection of wiper arms and blades over the years and so had a nice working matching pair, something else new of this car, polished up the old black plate, so many battle scars, but I love it.By now its 11.30, fuck it, I'm going for a drive!now it get this thing legal. I have however driven it on private roads and those twin carbys are transformed this car into a bit of a beast.that little 1600 revs feels like it wants to rev to the moon! still needs a bit of work on the timing and jetting, but dear god it pulled 50mph in second gear today! a little bit scary with drum brakes! so friggin loud though, no headlining at all, my brother said after I took him for a wee blast, it like sitting in the engine bay! it kind of hard to drive normal as it so much fun to wind out.

A oldschool, house.

I did see that, like what a LS runs on each plug? Would that work on this? Spendy I think.

Right! Darrell had a big old coil from before he switched to MSD, we tried starting it again this evening, started but ran like crap, hooked up the big boy and varoommmm! now I need to find another one of these small Bosch GT40 transformer coils, as a cylinder style won't fit where I've mounted mine at least I know what the problem is, has been drivin me nuts!!

will make sure the bakelite is in good nick! yes it uses bakelite plugs. shock horra!

new coil and leads time I guess? mate has another coil to try tonight, fingers crossed!

Nope, still seem to be having ignition problems.Super frustrating as it was running and driving, warmed it up to change the oil and it's not been right since. Best I've got it to run it was only running on 3 and 4, 1 and 2 side felt cold still, or it wouldn't fire at all.Went and got another set of spark plugs and a "big mother"of a battery.Have had the carbs out and pulled apart twice, the accelerator pump jet on number one was blocked so that fixed that problem, also adjusted the float levels to spec, 5-6mm closed, 12-14mm open, i think it was.started playing with the timing and got it to fire and run for a short time, but just as it was warming up it fell down to two cylinders and wouldn't start again.have tried replacing the electronic points replacement module with the old points and condenser.have tried other HT and spark plug leads.got to the point last week that the new started now sounds like a chainsaw and the battery went flat again.swapped the starter out last night for a old Bosch brazil 12volter and had the battery on charge all night and most of today.Got another good distributor cap and rotor off Frank yesterday, got home from work tonight and got everything together, but had reinstalled the old leads.the bugger started and sounded the best it had ever had, tightened the dizzy down, bumped up the idle stop had it idling pretty bloody well, got brave enough to try to drive it down to Darrell's house 50 mtrs away to check the alt is charging the battery and when i started it up after about the third attempt it was back to two cylinders, farting and hicupin and now it wont start again'.Have been trolling thesamba and found a page with a guy having the exact same issue's, he ended up buying new everything which didn't solve the problem until he moved some wires about, thinking about it now, I've routed my leads though the middle of the manifolds under the carbs because its tidy and looks neat, could this be causing problems? the leads are old after sitting in my shed for nearly ten years but not 40 years old or anything.Anyone have any other ideas as to why it would run fine cold but soon splutter out?

was watching the shit outta this on TM, sorry nothing helpful to add but good luck.

so it will only turn left? great work bro, crazy good.

not to ever paint a fucking car again?

and now we both know why paint jobs are so expensive.