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Here are the shots from todays Day of the Volkswagen 2010 at Tea Tree Plaza. Nice atmosphere and a great day for it, even met a few new people.

Long time for an update but I’m going full steam to it right now..

I started putting the rods on the crank shaft only to find that the bearings supplied were undersize.

But it was ok, the guys at V&T did a good job so the main bearings were .25 and so are the rod bearings, just a pain in the ass.

Here is a video of what the issue looked like:

Anyway i went to Euro Imparts on main north road (enfield) at lunch one day and picked up the correct size bearings.

Here is a video of how it should look:

Yes i do realise that the rods dont spin as freely as you would normally see if i were to lube with oil, but i am lubing with molly grease

that is a little stickier (but offers great protection when your gaining oil pressure when turning it over for first time

(note not turning over with spark plugs attached).

Below we have the inside of the case all put together and ready to go.

Thats the permatex aviation sealer around the outside, almost a perfect equivalent to the sealing liquid they used in 1968 when they built the motor.

The other side of the case Moly lubed up with lifters in ready to bolt back together. (don’t forget the oil (return?) thingy down the bottom otherwise you could be in a very bad place )

More aviation Sealant on this side (i really want as few leaks as possible)

Case is together (Some of you may have noticed it obviously was a 1500 single port in the beginning of its life, and somewhere along the way (80-90’s) it was changed to a 1600 Dual port).

Now to bolt the halfs together.. but wait the bolts have been misplaced during my house move.. but stress less i have a new engine hardware kit coming in the mail. Will keep you all updated.

Further to the Previous post, i thought i would document the steps i installed the bonnet hinges on with. (please excuse the car as its in the middle of being done up).

The above pic is just showing what and where the securing bolt and sir clip are. (I have removed the bonnet first to make life easy.).

The above pic is a closeup of the 13mm bolt that needs removal.

This is a closeup of the Sir Clip on the bottom of the original hinge.

Above is a pic of the Cir clip off and the bonnet hinge bottom bit removed.

Both stock hinges are now removed.

New shiny shiny hinges attached to the bonnet. You can see the three adjustment holes for the bonnet to open different amounts (i ended up using the smallest one as it would just clear and i didn’t want to stuff around re adjusting).

This is a closeup of one of the hinges with the new 13mm bolt (unsure if this is the correct side for that black spacer but it worked in the end )

You need someone to help you hold the bonnet whilst you do up the nuts (otherwise you can expect to loose some fingers), Hi Joanne (My other half)

Gas strut installed on the Left. It just pops into the hinge and pops onto the original hinge mount on the bottom (the one with the sir clip)

Closeup of the RHS, again looking good (unlike the rest of the inside of the bonnet.)

Here is a quick shot of how hot it looks opening and closing.

Now again i will apologize for the state of the car as I’m working on it as i get money and time, the car detracts from the awesome hinges. Again i cant say enough about them .

Ha I couldn’t help but grab this, I have no real use for it but I don’t mind storing it just in case (and for $50 how could you go wrong {Thx AVD})..But

So i went and grabbed it from Andrew just up the road, helped me load it into the back of the celica… forgot how heavy they are…

Get it home and then realise there is no way in hell I’m going to get that out of the car myself, and after calling a few friends ad everyone being conveniently busy i decided to tear her down in the back of the car i know crazy right).

So this is after about 2 hours i got to this stage (i can see you going 2 hrs you wimp, but i had to grind my socket so i could get to the head stud nuts.)

Finally got the strength to pick the motor in pieces out of the car… it now looks like this…

So lesson learnt think about how to get it out of the car before putting it in…

-M

A brilliant piece of info for today (late as it is) thanks to Phil74Camper on the AVD website.

Today is 40 years since Apollo 11 touched down on the moon. Is this the greatest accomplishment in human history? As for VW comparisons:

* The Saturn V moon rocket is still the most powerful machine, of any kind, ever built by humans. It is the tallest, heaviest and fastest flying machine ever made. At liftoff its five F1 engines were producing 120 million kW, or 160 million horsepower, consuming propellant at 18,000 litres (14.4 tonnes) per second. Each F1 fuel pump produced 55,000 hp. Each F1 engine was as powerful as 40 B747 engines, and more powerful than the Shuttle’s 3 main engines put together. The first stage had five of them.

* The first stage contained 1.9 million litres of propellant (RP1 jet fuel and liquid oxygen), about an olympic 50m swimming pool full. That’s enough fuel to fill 49,000 Volkswagens. The Saturn burned all of it in 150 seconds.

* At takeoff the Saturn V weighed 3,040 tonnes, as much as 3,475 Volkswagens (or 9 Boeing 747s). It was as long as 27 Volkswagens parked nose to tail, or 73 stacked on on tyop of another.

* The Saturn could lift 140 tonnes to orbit (160 Volkswagens), more than any other rocket before or since, and 4 times as much as the Shuttle can. It could lift 47 tonnes (53 Volkswagens) all the way to the moon.

* The ship’s highest ever speed, 39,897 km/h (Apollo 10), is 312 times faster than the top speed of a VW.

Well here we go here is another 160 photos of what i have collected in the past few weeks, May i just put a special thank you to FSGT Walker for alot of the images he sent me in the past few weeks (namely the nationals photos). Anyway with that out of the way onto the pictures Enjoy

Well here we go VW’s new Concept which has been green-lighted for release in 2013 at a rough cost of 20,000 pounds so thats abotu 55,000 Australian. Some quick details: 2.0-liter turbodiesel four mounted amidships. It puts out 180 hp and 260 lb-ft of torque and pushes just 2,600 pounds via a six-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Expect a 0-60 of 6.2 seconds and a top speed of 140, all while returning about 35 mpg on the European cycle and upwards of 62 mpg in “Eco” mode. But more importantly the engine appears to be back where it should be (in the ass end). All i can say is when can i get one please. See after the pics for the press release.

Detroit 2009: World Premiere of the Concept BlueSport

Volkswagen celebrates comeback of the compact roadster
Wolfsburg/ Detroit, 11 January 2009 – Maximum driving fun with minimal fuel consumption: This is the standard by which Volkswagen is starting the new car year 2009 and is presenting the roadster Concept BlueSport at the North American International Auto Show. “The BlueSport proves to be a compact and passionate car with a clear Volkswagen signature. The car offers pure dynamics with a powerful 180 PS Clean Diesel engine that is combined with the characteristic Volkswagen philosophy of efficiency,” confirmed Volkswagen’s Chairman of the Board, Prof. Martin Winterkorn in Detroit.

The Concept BlueSport is making its appearance at the car show in Detroit with a Flex Silver exterior and orange fabric convertible top. “It is the symbiosis of outstanding technology and timeless Volkswagen design that makes this car an exceptional sports car. Its styling is clear and is reduced to the essentials; the car body itself has a lean and linear structure”, explains Volkswagen chief designer Walter de Silva. The interior shows finesse in details and conveys a high level of technological fascination. Immediately visible to the eye is the intuitive and easy to operate touchscreen. Perfectly adapted to the interior are the leather upholstered seats in lightweight construction with their single-piece seatbacks.

Behind the two sport seats of the 3.99 meter long Concept BlueSport, a 132 kW / 180 PS strong Clean Diesel (TDI) with common rail injection and downstream NOx storage catalytic converter delivers dynamic performance. A 6-speed DSG dual clutch transmission – the most economical and agile transmission system in the world – transfers power to the rear wheels. In just 6.6 seconds the sports car is moving at 100 km/h; its top speed is 226 km/h. Also having a positive impact on the car’s low fuel consumption of just 4.3 l/100 km and reduced emissions are two technologies that are part of the so-called Eco mode: an automatic start-stop system and energy regeneration. Together they propel the Concept BlueSport to an additional fuel savings of up to 0.2 liter per 100 kilometers in city driving.

Well i just got my case back from being machined, case savers installed, and crank ground. She looks hot . For those interested it cost about $1200 and took about 1 week, It was done in Lonsdale SA by V & T Motors (08) 8382 8111, They literally have a machine shop just for VW motors which used to operate 24/7 pretty much back in the late 70’s now not so much , but they did an excellent job, even to the point of getting the casing to the correct temp exactly if not they would start again from scratch.

If you don’t know why this was needed basically after years of service the thumping of the cam shaft on the bearings impact into the magnesium case. E.g Follows:

 Now its all shiny.

Other news I cleaned up the front beam blew all the crap off (grease dirt etc), and painted her up.. (but it was annoying moving the front beam around (mental note next time i need to take it off reverse into the garage .

That engine trolley came in useful to keep the pan movable.

Finally put the front end back on (man was that a pain in the ass, don’t look forward to doing it again.

Also blasted the ass end with water and the rubbed her bacl and gave her a nice high temp  paint, looks sweet.

I also grabbed these for $20 both straight and in good cond (unsure if i will use the yet) but i have never seen the  closer style of bumper before, any ideas?

Anyway until next time., I’m a bit slow lately because I’m looking at buying a house to move all my beetles too as their current living quarters are being sold . So wish me luck.

Finally had some more time off to work on my orig 1968 beetle. I need to get this shell into a move-able shell (shed where it is being stored is being sold). So I decided to clean her up and get that motor case looking shmick. After a few chats with people on the aussieveedubbers forum (and previously getting blasted by my other half about putting engine case in the dishwasher ).

This is after several sprays of various degreasers, First off i used oven cleaner to get the basic dirt and grease off, worked good but the cheap $2 degreaser i sprayed on was way more effective, I also tried putting petrol into a sprayer and spray it, again it did work, but nothing like the $2 degreaser and a shot with my high pressure sprayer. Then coated the block with silver enamel spray (about $10 for a can). I did this because it looks cool but also the degreaser/oven cleaner seems to take the finish off the block.

I also started cleaning up the rear end of the pan same way as above.

Tempting to do a rat rod front end on her not sure yet.

Ended up with this welsh plug from when i was cleaning the engine block, downside is i have no idea where it is from :S hopefully someone on the AVD forums will be able to help me .  Will be putting new seals in etc hopefully next week if i don’t drive to melb to get an engine.

Summer is here and that is good as it gives me time to work on both my beetles. But i thought i would share a few of my latest items from good ole ebay.

Here we go 2 Prelude seats for the good beetle, I havent had time yet to look at the seat mounts but i reckon it should all work out, The guy i grabbed it from had the excess material from the back seats of the prelude so with any luck i should be able to get the back seats trimmed with it. Not bad for $50.

Grabbed this new mean looking steering wheel (http://shop.ebay.com.au/merchant/thriving168), was about $90 after shipping and was hoping for a blue VW logo but its really nice, just need a nice new boss adapter.

Grabbed this awesome engine trolley (my supermarket trolley was good but was a bit lacking), this guy made these on ebay he also makes some other awesome tools to work on beetles with. Hopefully will get a online shop up for him, but for now you can get the tools at http://shop.ebay.com.au/merchant/yasdnil01

I’m guessing he may shutdown for the xmas period, here are the two other tools I grabbed from him, Awesome Quality Pulley Puller and that hex nut for that annoying transmission hole to put diff oil in through. (not sure of correct term). All those tools worked out to be less then $100 with shipping how the hell could you go wrong with that price?

Also yesterday i picked up a fiberglass set off ebay for $100 how could i go wrong, all i was really after was the bonnet but its good to  have a few more spare fenders (especially ones that can be repaired easily like fiberglass).

This isnt such an ebay item but i went to InterVolks down here in adelaide (Main North Road), and picked up a set of J tubes for the beetle for $40 to get rid of that useless heater pipes (also makes getting to the rocker covers easier). Also from intervolks picked up a few seals and exhaust gaskets.

In the past few weeks i have also picked up a new set of wheels for the car (stock) just because i wanted new tyres and it was cheaper, they were about $60 for 4 wheels 3 useable tred.