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Post by stude on Feb 18, 2019 7:26:43 GMT -8
When you painted them black you couldn't see the slots anymore but beauty rings do really scratch up the paint.
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JIM
Daily Driver
Posts: 65
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Post by JIM on Feb 22, 2019 18:22:51 GMT -8
Howdoo Dave, nice shop!
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Post by owdlvr on Feb 22, 2019 18:29:55 GMT -8
While you guys were getting snow, I took the MG Midget out for it's first test drive. I needed a few clips installed on the new tonneau cover, so I figured why not bring the car out. These (legal) tires are terrible in the snow! Came home with a long list of things I need to attend to. For starters, the brake bleed is terrible. It might just be a bad front wheel bearing allowing the disc to push the pads back. The '63 Midget doesn't use taper wheel bearings, so you can't adjust for worn bearings. Seriously. How the British motoring industry made it out of the War era I'll never understand. Annnnyhow, I've got tapered bearings coming...but I have to figure out a shim solution because you can't setup the tapered bearings properly without shims. Argg. The tach doesn't work, the speedo doesn't work, the driver's side heated seat is on all the time, and it has some other electrical gremlins. But it runs, drives, oil pressure and coolant temps were great! It is gutless though. Wow is it gutless.
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Post by PICTUP on Feb 22, 2019 22:04:58 GMT -8
Gutless, eh? Did you mix in some diesel perhaps, lol! On the whole it doesn't sound like a lot of things to revisit after all the stuff you've had to do. What tires will you be going to?
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Post by owdlvr on Feb 23, 2019 9:32:56 GMT -8
The tires are brand new "goodride" tires, which were the only thing I could find in a 155/80/13. The 'joke' is that they are M+S tires, fully legal on BC highways in the winter. Our all-new winter tire law we spent millions on two years ago is the real joke. Front wheel bearings are a problem. Long story short, you can only get them through the specialist houses...which means shipping from the USA...which means no solution before I'm gone again. Car will sit until late march or early april, and thus won't be used on the Spring Thaw for 2019. Annoying, considering I get beetle parts next day from AVR if I need them. It is running on at least 1yr old gas, that could be part of the horsepower problem.
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Post by Volktales on Feb 23, 2019 19:37:18 GMT -8
Gas definitely loses octane with age, but generally one year old stuff should still work. This is not true in other parts of the world with more ethanol laced fuels which go "off" very quickly...
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Post by owdlvr on Feb 24, 2019 8:47:32 GMT -8
Well, I think I figured out the wheel bearing issue. Long story short, the outer wheel bearing was installed backwards. The inner race is width X (lets pick 3/4" as example dimension for discussion purposes). The outer race is 1/2 of X, say 3/8", and offset to one side. THUS, if the previous mechanic who replaced the wheel bearings puts the outer bearing in backwards, it will be 3/8" from bottom out on the step inside the hub. That means the hun as the potential of moving back and forth on the bearings which are tight...by about 3/8" of an inch. In my case, it was almost a 1/2" of side to side movement, walking on the bearings when I took the brake caliper off. :-O
If we ignore the potential wear between the outside of the bearing, and in inside of the hub, the outer bearing actually met the 'wear spec' in the manual for testing them. Hmmm. I can't measure the outside of the bearing, or inside of the hub accurately enough to determine if there was any wear, but I would suggest they reinstalled into the hub easier than I think they should have. Flipped the bearing around the correct way, reinstalled everything and got runout within spec. Going to give it a test drive later today to see if it fails again, but will be ordering the Moss taper bearing conversion kit regardless. What I really want to know, however, is how this wasn't a problem for the previous two owners (whom I know). Very strange. The only thing I can figure is the front left caliper, which I found to be seizing, wasn't doing anything...except holding the hub/disc in 'about' the correct location. Since I put a new caliper on, which could have the pads/pistons actually compressed, it allowed for the movement? Scary.
New hubs are $110usd, which might be a wise idea for the one side at least. Passenger side was installed correctly.
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Post by PICTUP on Mar 23, 2019 14:07:53 GMT -8
If you haven't seen it yet:
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Post by owdlvr on Nov 23, 2019 21:19:48 GMT -8
Whew! Almost a year, a British car project, 18 driving events and I’m back in the garage for a little bit. Crazy how time disappears with work and the house. Reality has set in a little bit when it comes to this car, I simply just don’t have the time to devote to it like I did on the Rally Bug when I built it. So, today I took stock of the situation to try and figure out what I should do. As Classic Car Adventures continues to grow, I’ve had the opportunity to drive a number of excellent classic cars, and my calendar of events keeps growing. Hagerty has me put together a large number of their “Hagerty Touring Series” events, and I put together The Drive Home with the LeMay museum. With it, and perhaps a little bit of age, I’m less inclined to build another stripped-down race car that needs hearing protection to drive. I’ve really enjoyed some 911’s on events, and even a 914 with a smaller motor. You could talk to the co-driver without problem, the heat works, and one of the 911s even had a stereo that added to the enjoyment. Hmmmmm… Okay, so I have a relatively rust free 73 shell, which has a bunch of fairly good bits on it. I’ve bought all the bits for converting a Subaru transmission to work in the Beetle. I even just retired my 2.5RS sedan, by upgrading my winter car to the wagon. I really wanted to take the time to put the EZ30 3.0L six cylinder engine I have, but I think I need to be realistic about my time and go with the easy option. It’s just a SOHC 2.5L in the 2005 sedan, but it will drop in pretty easy. I really didn’t want to use the Porsche brake setup and wheels, for the sole reason that “everyone” does it. But, reality is setting in. I already own the kit, it’s already bolted to the car, and it we know it works. The AP-Racing callipers I have stored away in the shop? Yeah, they would be damned cool…and I might still decide to use them…but I have to re-engineer the mounts from the ground up, and I checked on the price of pads. Oh-my. Okay, for the moment lets concede that we’ll use the Porsche setup thats already on the car. Suspension? Well, I’m not overly stoked with the MaXX struts (I’d have gone full coil-over)…the truth is I have adjusted the height of the Rally Bug _maybe_ five times over the past 5 years. Honestly, it basically runs the 2” drop at all times…and even if I go rally crossing, I’m often too busy or lazy to raise it up! Okay, maXX struts will do just fine on the curved-window. So how about the rear? The car I have is equipped with 944 steel rear arms, and what I believe to be a combination of early 944 and 996 brake setup. But hidden on my property I have that alloy-arm rear setup. Early 944 Alloy arms. Hmmm…that should also have some nice 944 torsion bars in it! Okay, stripped all that down tonight, need to pop the wheel bearings out and do some brake research to figure out exactly what transfers over, and if I need to order anything. So, I think, after a long period to decide, I want a car I can drive without hearing protection. Something that is as fun as the Rally Bug on tarmac, but has heat and some creature comforts. I will need to toss some “Dave” into it though, and already have some bits decided upon. You’ll see another Hargett shifter in the car, presuming Mark is still in business. I also picked up a pedal set from the Subaru Racing program I do some work with. It uses under-foot master cylinders, which will make it a heck of a lot easier to mount over the Rally Bug’s setup. One thing I don’t have is a balance bar setup for it, which is pretty important. It also needs to be raised a minimum of a 1/2” off the floor, possibly an inch, but it’s already pretty “tall” for a Beetle. Going to change the driving position significantly! -Dave
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Post by Volktales on Nov 24, 2019 17:24:06 GMT -8
Wow! Look at those minty heater channels. You should do up a bone stock restoration! Yeah right... Gonna do the head gaskets on that Subie before it is installed? I would...
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Post by Brenticon on Nov 24, 2019 20:00:17 GMT -8
wow …. just wow ...
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Post by owdlvr on Nov 24, 2019 21:08:05 GMT -8
Wow! Look at those minty heater channels. You should do up a bone stock restoration! Yeah right... Gonna do the head gaskets on that Subie before it is installed? I would... Hahaha, yes, the Subaru motor will get a tear-down and clean up before it goes in the car. Will do head gaskets and everything else on the way out. Before I pull it from the car, however, I need to determine why it started running on three cylinders the last trip over the hump. Suspect plug wires or coil... ---- Spent some time today digging around my storage shed, figured I must have a steering wheel adapter for an OMP wheel in there, and I know I have a heater core to some random projects. Found both, neither will work for the '73. Must be a wheel adapter for an Audi, which is also where the heater core comes from. It may still be useable, but I think Summit Racing has some much better / easier units to incorporate into the car. Mounted up fenders to the left side, so I could see how much wider I need to go for fenders with this wheel/suspension setup. These are 17x7, ET55...so the fenders would work with wheels of the correct offset, or I order wider fenders (which was always the original plan). Hmmm, well, might as well start prepping to see what the aluminum arms look like?! Tore down the aluminum arms and started cleaning them up, and tore down the left side of the rear suspension. Realized I didn't dig the 944 rear axles out of my storage shed, so I will need to go back when it's light out to find those. Also need to borrow a buddy's press to finish getting the bearings out, I can't manipulate the arms correctly to use my press. Not a lot of work accomplished for a Sunday, but I've got 4 trees coming down around the house this week and had to prep for it. There is going to be a lot of log splitting in my future -Dave
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Post by PICTUP on Nov 26, 2019 8:08:33 GMT -8
Seems like this Bug has history what with all the different suspension/brakes already in place. It'll be interesting to watch your evolving vision/reality guide it to an outcome.
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Post by owdlvr on Nov 26, 2019 8:27:57 GMT -8
The history isn't that exciting. It was a German Look project that stalled out due to funds / amount of work required. Car has never been assembled, and all of the fun bits that are on it are brand new / mocked up. I'm actually surprised it didn't fall apart on the trailer, everything is hand-tight.
Previous owner spent a lot of money on it before realizing he just didn't have the motivation to get it finished. I was offered the car about a year and a half before I actually bought it, but balked at the asking price. A year and a half later, when I realized how difficult it was to find a "rust free" 1973 Beetle, I called him back to see if it was still available. By the time I arrived to look at the car, he had looked me up enough to simply point out the bits I wasn't going to be happy with. He really wanted me to have the car because I was one person he figured could actually finish it, as opposed to just parting it out and scrapping the shell. We negotiated, and I took it home. My original plan was to sell off all the Porsche bits, in favour of the AP-Racing stuff I have, and swap the car over to Subaru fitment so I can use the motorsport wheels I have from the rally program. Doing the math, I really don't have the time to re-engineer the brake setup, and I'm simply going to use the stuff I have to get the project on the road faster. Still lots of big budget items to purchase for the car, and the house keeps sucking funds away...so better to be conservative at this stage!
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Post by magikbus on Nov 26, 2019 14:54:33 GMT -8
and the house keeps sucking funds away...so better to be conservative at this stage! Tell me about it. I've spent around $60K on my house so far and that's mostly just materials. When I think of what I could have done with Betsy for that amount of money...... But then I'd have to be living in her :-( Stan
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