We have both had this week off work so have been getting down to some more of the bits and bobs that need doing. We are slightly ahead of our planning so that’s a bonus as the original plan doesn’t allow for any slacking over the winter and Christmas.
Since the last update we have done a whole load of stuff and things are starting to take shape again.
We have removed the front and rear suspension, changed the top mounts as the old ones where perished and disintegrated as we took them off, then refitted them with nice new ones and returned them to the chassis.
Thanks need to go to Pete, a fellow VW fan, for lending me his spring compressors the other week, needed them again for the suspension work on this.
We have fitted, modified, built and generally re assembled the pedals and all the linkages for them. This involved a lot of swearing as they where not the easiest of things to get back in place, then only to find they had to come in and out a further 4 or 5 times to get all the bits the right shape and in the correct place and then finally connected up and bolted down.
We had to adjust the mounting for the brake master cylinder as we bought a LHD one for 1/3 of the price of the RHD ones.
This is all well and good but the brake pipes come out into the center tunnel.
Master Cylinder
So we have spun it around 90 degrees and refitted it. This allowed us to get away with using the cheaper part but might make filling and bleeding a bit more tricky.
We have made up and fitted new brake solid lines as the old ones got chopped up and/or lost and wouldn’t have gone too our newly mounted master cylinder anyway.
We have replaced the throttle and clutch cables and refitted them to the new pedal linkages, and adjusted them roughly into place.
Pedals, Master Cylinder and Brake Lines
We ended up with some new toys as well, we needed a second workbench and some more sockets and some grease so off we went shopping, came back with a new bottom cabnet tool chest and a heap of other stuff
You wouldnt know I didnt have the tool chest before as its now full up with stuff that just seemed to be floating about.
We have removed the tie rods and cleaned them up, replaced the rubber ball joint covers and given them a good re-greasing.
Getting the split pins and the nuts off was not too hard but we had to get out the good old blow torch to losen the pins off and then a swift smack with a mallet to remove them. This might have caused a small fire as the grease that had leaked from the torn ball joint covers went up.
Flame
Only problem is that in the process of taking the arm off the bottom of the steering box the bolt sheared off inside the arm, I have spoken to www.vwheritage.com who have been nothing but helpfull throughout the whole project and they imparted some bad news on us. The arm is not in production anymore and can’t be bought new, so we either need to repair ours or find a 2nd hand one (or forge our own 
– Simon).
Steering Arm With Snapped Off Bolt
So if anyone is breaking an old beetle we need a new arm now, or if someone knows how to get good and proper seized sheared off bolt out please let me know.
Next on the list is to replace the wishbone ball joint covers, and this is a job I am not looking forward too.
