Front Wings Off

Theoretically removal of the front wings is very straight forward as they are simply bolted onto the shell (via captive nuts welded to the shell). Before this can be done it is necessary to remove the front bumper, indicators and headlights.

The bumper is attached to the shell with six bolts which were very simple to remove. The indicators have captive bolts which sheared off when I attempted to loosen the nuts. Use of heat was not an option because of the rubber bush and plastic lens. On reflection I should have tried a bolt splitter (or soaked longer with oil). The headlights are attached with a single screw at the bottom of the unit. Once removed the headlight simply unclips from the wing. Here is a picture of one of the headlight units dangling:

The unit is free once the spade connectors and the black socket have been unhooked. Initially I was puzzled by the fact that the black socket is too large to fit through the hole in the wing. However the connectors can be removed from the socket by depressing the small lugs (if that's the correct term) with a small screwdriver. Once this has been done the wires fit through quite easily. It's a good idea to immediately reassemble the socket immediately.

In the run up to this job I had soaked the wing bolts in penetrating oil from inside the boot. This meant that the majority of the bolts undid quite easily. The exception being the bolt at the bottom of the A-post. On both sides the captive nut immediately started to spin. I'll need to think about how best to fix this (the drivers side should be fine as I need to patch the bottom of the A-post anyway). Here is a photograph showing what I was left with (notice that the extent of the historical repair to the shell is quite clear in this photo):

A Gallon of Purest Smetrol

This weekend my plan was to finish the rear axle. However I hadn't got round to buying a suitable sealant for the split gaiters. Therefore I decided to remove the petrol tank because it's clear that the body shell requires some welding and I don't want any explosions spoiling my day. There isn't much to removing the tank as it's held in by only four bolts. After these had been removed all that was needed was a bit of jiggling to lift the tank up. This gave access to the fuel line which was clamped  before cutting. Here's a picture of the tank after extraction.

And this is the gaping hole where it used to sit. Notice that there was a lot of work done in this area before the car was laid up. It's not very neat but unless it turns out to be full of filler it appears solid.

The front apron (if that's the correct name for the panel) is clearly for an older left hand drive car. I know this because the steering box access hole is on the wrong side and the panel also has holes for bumper brackets (whereas the bumper brackets for this model come through the wings instead).

The tank was half full of petrol that dated from about 1985. I released the clamp from the fuel line and nothing happened. After a couple of minutes a small blob of gunk appeared but there was no further movement. Therefore I opted for pouring the petrol out through the filler pipe - here's what I got.

This neither looked nor smelled like petrol. In fact it had a very odd sweet odour which caused me to name it "smetrol" (I was going to call it "shitrol" but that isn't as child friendly). Regardless it would seem that I have  a couple of gallons of premium quality smetrol - I wonder if anyone would buy it from me...

Painting...

It definitely seems premature, but I actually needed to get some painting done on the Beetle today. The old swing axle gaiters were removed in a few minutes thanks to my stanley knife. However the tubes were too rusty to make an oil proof joint with the new gaiters - see below:

Therefore I decided a bit of painting was in order. I decided to try POR-15 as it seemed to get quite a lot of praise in the various forum articles I'd read. I ordered a tester kit from Frost. This kit comes with some marine clean (a degreaser), prep and ready (an etch primer) and a small tin of POR-15. Application is pretty straightforward but a tad fiddly with the components still on the car. The picture below shows the tubes after POR-15 has been applied. It gives a very smooth finish - it feels very like glass. It's best to overcoat when it's tacky. If it becomes completely cured then it needs to be rubbed down before the next coat is applied.

Notice also that the sound deadening has been removed and the original colour of the car can be seen quite clearly. It looks like the right had engine bay panel needs replacing and also both bumper mount panels. Time to learn how to weld...

Anyway, back to the painting. After two coats of POR-15 I risked top coating with Frost chassis black. I'll see tomorrow if applying this directly to the tacky POR-15 was a mistake or not. It certainly seemed to get a good grip and there didn't appear to be any reaction - time will tell. Here's what the axle tubes looked like after their first coat - ooh shiny!

Second Oil Seal Fitted

Despite having to fix an overflowing cold water tank I still managed to get an hour of work done on the beetle. This time I was fitting the new wheel bearing, brake back plate and oil seal. On the other side of the car the wheel bearing simply slid into place. However on this side it stuck before getting to the end of the splines. Judging from the manuals this isn't unusual. The solution is to drift it on with a suitable pipe or a punch. I opted for the latter and after 10 minutes solid tapping the bearing was seated. The next goes a shim washer and small o-ring. Then the back plate and paper gasket followed by the large o-ring. Finally the outer spacer is oiled and fitted to the oil seal (which had already been tapped into the housing) before the housing is bolted on. Here's the finished article.

The next task is to replace the oil gaiters on the swing axles as these have perished and torn. Once that job has been completed the rear axle should be oil tight!

Doing the Unstuck

It may seem like I have forgotten all about this restoration blog but that is not true. The problem has been lack of progress and spare time. However this weekend I managed to spend a few hours in the garage. The plan was to remove the rear wheel bearing. Earlier attempts had involved hammering, heat etc. The ideal solution would be to use a puller. However it was not possible because there was no clearance at the back of the bearing for the puller arms. Therefore the plan was to use the grinder to cut a couple of slots on the outside of the bearing. These slots would then locate the puller arms. This was a bit of a fiddly job as the bearing kept spinning when the grinder was applied (I suppose that is what bearing tend to do). Finally I managed to get a couple of half decent slots opposite each other - one is visible below:

Then I held the puller arms in place as Fiona did the spanner work and the bearing started to move slightly. Once we  had moved it an inch it was possible to fit the puller arms behind the bearing and progress was much quicker.

Next time I'll be fitting the new backplate, bearing and oil seals. Then its time for the axle gaiters before finally fitting the new rear brakes and drums!

The First New Part is Fitted

The new rear brake backplates and axle gaiters arrived. I decided to start with the driver's side first. The backplate can only be replaces by removing the rear bearing housing (held on with four bolts). While this was off the oil seals were to be replaced (as they were leaking).

The housing was pretty much glued in place but a few thumps from a rubber mallet got it moving slightly. Then pulling the drive shaft brought the bearing and housing a centimetre or so out. This allowed me to get enough purchase to pull the housing off. It brought everything but the final spacer with it (i.e. outer spacer, small o-ring, washer and bearing).  The old backplate could then be knocked off with the mallet and replaced with the new item. This picture shows the passenger side bearing (with the outer spacer in situ).

The bearing and washer were put back on the drive shaft after a quick wipe and a new o-ring was fitted. A large o-ring was also placed around the bearing (the previous item had become cemented to the housing).

The old oil seal has to be knocked out of the housing. I clearly don't have the knack because this took ages. I then cleaned up the housing and ensured the oil pathway running though it was clear. Here is a picture of the housing (part way through cleaning).

 The new oil seal was then hammered into place (I used the old oil seal to protect the new one from damage) - remember to put the oil slinger in first.

The official approach is then to oil the outer spacer and fit it to the oil seal before fitting. However I hadn't read the section very carefully and put the outer spacer on the shaft first and then fitted the housing. This is a bit more fiddly but seemed to work fine.  Here is the finished article.

I have started the same job on the passenger side but the outer spacer is not co-operating (yet).

Pistons Off

The weather was dreadful today and so it was a choice between slouching in front of the television or wrapping up warm and heading out the garage. I chose the latter and spent a pleasant couple of hours tinkering. The main task was to remove the pistons - the rest of the time was lost to tidying and boxing old parts.

Removing the pistons was very straight forward. Only three tools were needed: a blow lamp, a small hammer and a "punch". I didn't have a punch with a diameter that matched the pin so I improvised and used a 14mm socket and short extension. The method is to heat the piston until the pin is loose and then tap it out.

As I am buying new pistons and cylinders these are destined for the bin. Here is a picture of the engine after the pistons were removed.

The final jobs before splitting the case are to remove the distributor and the oil pump. However if the rear brake backplates I ordered arrive this week I will probably rebuild the rear axle before splitting the engine casing.

Happy New Year!

I haven't had a chance to spend any time working on the beetle since my last post in October. It's not clear to me why I had less time than normal, that is just the way it worked out. Anyway as I am now on my Christmas vacation I decided to spend to time working on the car. Followers of this blog will know that there were two sticky jobs that were preventing progress.

The first problem was my inability to remove cylinder number 2 from the engine. Various combinations of lubrication, hammering and heating had yielded no results. Therefore I decided to use my trusty (if scary) grinder. I wish I'd done this in October as within 15 minutes the cylinder was off.

Buoyed from this success I set about the second tricky job - the seized brake drum. A couple of hours of pulling and hammering later the drum had defeated me and I skulked off to pour myself a whisky. That was a few days ago.

Today, the 1st of January 2012, I went out and tried again and worryingly the puller screw just kept turning. The last time experienced the same feeling (way back in August 2010) it indicated a failed puller. But not this time - the drum was actually moving off the shaft!

And after a few more minutes the drum was off - I think I should get it mounted (like big game hunters used to do with bison). My wall will soon be littered with trophy parts vanquished by my mighty spanner (as Richie Rich would say, "ooer, that sounds a bit rude").

The final task today was to remove the star adjusters from the back plate. Twenty minutes with the mole wrench and blow lamp dispatched that job - another small trophy for the wall...