63Ragtop

Congrats on the wof, always fun in a old car. I love the ratty og paint, it's only original once!

Was doing some yard work a couple weeks ago and my cheap tree saws plastic handle feel apart. Whittled this out of a old piece of the house, on Saturday the neighbour who is into his woodworking helped finished it. Came out nice, looks great, fits your hand mean. Could have just bought a new one but this was heaps better.

Me brother has a Grange, hsv number. Huge boat of a thing but so gangsta!

Awesome bro, no reason needed. Looks like you've been busy indeed! We are starting our Reno at the moment so I feel your pain.

This thing is so cool, I would love to have such a device in my lounge! Music, drinking, functional steampunk!! Even the noise the panel makes as it raises is cool!

Have been chipping away at the Dells, turns out several things were a miss. There isn't a lot of adjustment on the DRLAs. I don't have any other jets so it is what it is. One thing I can adjust is the wee nut on the accelerator pump that, this is why is been popping, have wound it and it loads up the little spring and has nearly completely stopped the carbs farts. The other issue was the stumble. It was better but still randomly there, usually after giving it beans. I thought it might have been a kink in the fuel line restricting flow, as above. Picked up some 8mm pipe and wouldn't you know it the tank was full! Better but still fucking about. Spent most of today trying to tune the bastard things, then it would start running like a bag of shit, this is a bit of corrosion behind the acc pump cover. Then I realized what I'd done, the fricking choke was randomly coming on! Once it was behaving itself, I had a go at adjusting the air correction valves, I think they are called, spend ages going back and forwards, using the temperature gun from work it I got the exhausts without 20⁰ of each other. And balancing the left and right carbs. It's idling so nicely now I can hear the camgears and tappets all rattling around. Which has completely transformed it's road manners, it so much smoother and doesn't pop and fart about, hopefully that's all the gremlins sorted, wife says it needs a exorcism!

Need to neutralise the acid, I've had the same thing just using vinegar, need to wash it in baking soda or something. I would imagine there is something similar for phosphoric acid?

Bubbles, fancy. Thanks.

Anyone know a good place to get hard fuel lines in Auk? Need about 6-7 foot for the vw.

Just start, enthusiasm will follow!

Saw this a few years ago on thesamba, dude built the ultimate sleeper vw. Basically got rid of all the factory vw! https://youtu.be/axyN5zUulE4

Bought a new dizzy cap, they only seem to make these in shitty terracotta orange now. Gave it a wee paint and installed it with a new rotor. Was better but the stumble was still there when the revs got high, and then sometimes it would stumble all the time, I'd pull over and turn the engine off, and restart. It would be fine again, until you'd rev it to high and, back we go. Borrowed Darrells timing light and set the dizzy to about 30⁰ @ 3000rpm, but still the stumble. Did some deep diving in thesamba about 009 dizzys and the compufire ignition, someone mentioned lube oil for the advance mechanism. Shit I haven't touched it since I installed the compufire over twenty years ago. It's running the best it ever has now! I think that's it, the actual mechanism was getting stuck inside the distributor. I also lined up the engine lid alot better, sits so nice and flush now, on this side at least. Carbs are the next thing, it backfires thru the carbs really bad. It's not nice to drive, it's especially bad when it's cold, more research into 36mm drla dells is needed.

Forgot to say, I had to buy this whacking great thing to tighten up the fan nut, hopefully I'll not have to use it again. Got the plug leads off, this fucker got stuck when I dropped the motor out, last time, I think. The old bakelite plugs screw into the leads and this one snapped inside. Darrell the Holden driving westy gave me old set to do some troubleshooting with, only issue is the vw plugs use a spring thing to grip the top of the actual sparkplug, so I had to reinstall the wee nipple thing onto them. Which necessitates removing the plugs as they are so deep in the bowels of the beast. What ballache. Chucked it all back together and did some late night testing (sorry bout dat!) Which seemed okay, but the misfire was back if I gave it Welly( again, sorry) so today I had a look at the distributor cap, also very old, the insides looked a bit corroded, so I gave it a scuff up and now it barely runs at all!! Guess I found the issue!

So that lasted nearly a week? Was dropping the boy off at work in that's shitty weather Saturday evening, the harbor bridge was closed, the northwestern packed but moving. Luckily just after we got off at Westgate I thought I heard a rattle for a couple seconds. The unmistakable sound of a loose cooling fan. Which is the entire cooling system in a vw. Just as I was having a look at it, this guy and son walks up asks if I'm okay, do you need a ride? I owe that man a beer! You can remove the fan which is mounted to the back of the alternator, but this is easier. The sides are supposed to be flat, I had noticed it before but hoped it was okay. New fan installed. And back in she goes. Seems to run fine again, I did notice a little stumble like it was running low on gas. Bunged a new filter in as it the old one had been in since I finished the resto. Hopefully that is all the bugs out. Edit, it an't the fuel filter. Seems to be when under load. Need to check timing etc, might be the ancient spark plug wires. Not as old as the fan, but easily 20years old.

Been driving to work the last couple days. It always hated slow traffic, carbs are spitting and hickuping, it wants to rev! No oil puddle! Made some changes to the radius on the bottom of the gauge pod. Should look rad. Been doing lots of reading about the sender end, a million opinions, should have tapped the case for them if I'd thought about it. Full flow, as it's called, allows for a actual oil filter and a good spot for senders. Maybe the new rebuild. Anyway, if it didn't explode sitting in this shit for two days, living the dream!

So, oil cooler replaced, old valves and springs installed, cleaned everything again, reinstall everything again. 3d printed gauge mount prototype. Plumbing in the other end is going to be fun. And after getting the number 1 and 2 sparkplugs wrong, again. Let's just say, so far, so good.

Fuck yeah! What a mission, well done KK.

That would be awesome @sluggy Think I could pop in on Friday morning?? Did you install both of them in the pressure switch hole? Thanks Guys! Bit of a rollercoaster for sure!

Monster is fairly straight forward. I think one of these might work? https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/car-parts-accessories/performance/gauges/listing/4121551413 Or this one? https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/car-parts-accessories/performance/gauges/listing/4122943438 For the pressure gauge.

Anyone know how these work? Both oil gauges are electric, any ideas?

Well that's gotta be a new record even for this fucking thing! 23hrs? Wof,Reg and running. All the oil fell out! Luckily it happened in the garage and a very short time running, barely warm so bearings should be fine. Pretty sure I know what happened. New oil cooler shit itself. Everywhere. Had dismantled and the engine out on the floor in 1.5hours, getting fast. These, are the oil pressure valves, or ones a oil pressure relief valve or something. Being a 1600 70s engine, mine has two. Earlier engines 1200-1500 only had the one tall spring unit. The 1500 type3s had a habit of overheating their pancake style engines so vw added the grooved piston to up the pressure or let more oil into the cooler. None of which is needed for a duel valve block, which is fucking annoying when you think you are being prudent and replacing the old parts with new and improved. So here we are, again. honestly you've just got to laugh!! I picked up a new cooler today and will reinstall the old valves, should be fine. @sluggy gave me a bunch of VW parts awhile back, which included a monster tach!! And a pair of gauges for oil pressure and temperature, thinking it might be a good idea to get them installed.

So up with slightly blurry eyes this morning, after a evening of sometimes literally blowing the cobwebs out. Clean sheet baby! Spent the rest of the day cleaning and polishing. Celebrated with a drive to Bunnings and had a sausage In bread. Couple details to finish up in here, idle is a touch low but starts sweet.

Decided to roll the dice on the dowel pin, fairly sure it's not from the engine by the look of it, time will tell! Got everything hooked up, turned it over and fuck me if it was lazy as shit still and barely spun!? Battery is new and charged, guess the starter is dead? A couple hundy later... One of these things an't fucked like the others... Little bit of a mission to install because some fool mounted a oil catch can right above the nut that also holds the starter in, so carb off, can out, then the starter can come out. And after forgetting to check the sparkplugs where hooked up correctly, it fired into life for the first time, sounded terrible, like a massive exhaust leak but ran okay, had a check underneath... That will be why!!! Decided it needed some fresh gas. Drove pretty good, timing might need a tune, tyres need some air, forgot how terrible drum brakes are! But I'm sitting here in absolute disbelief at what just happened. The motor ran smooth and pulled well, revving out just like before. I was fully prepared to pull it apart again and chalk it up to a good learning. Very happy.

Prepping the final few bits and pieces tonight, getting pretty good at this part now, spun the engine around on the bench and heard something small fall on the ground. What the fuck are you doing there dowel pin? You're supposed to be inside the case, stopping one of the bearings from spinning you little cunt!