Aircooled VW South Africa

Thanks, R&G - the headlights were actually off-road spots (bought at the Hyperama) which I fitted with fluted glass lenses (bought at Autozone).
Unfortunately the lenses didn't have a fitting for the park light bulb, so the indicators had a double filament bulb, with the park lights dim orange when on (like the early Golf 1's). HW2 will have even larger chromed headlights with lenses that can take the park, dim and bright bulbs.

The mesh covers on HW1 are the covers made by Scat for the air intake of the engine's fan housing - they fitted perfectly over the headlights

As for the tail lights, I had all-red US spec lenses on for quite a while, but within the first few days of using the buggy in Gauteng traffic (and a few near-misses) I realised that SA drivers don't SEE a red indicator light flashing, so I changed it to the legal amber/red lenses. The red lenses are on Merlin's bug now.

If you look at the pics of my buggy...

Those spots, you can take the insides out of those crappy rubber lights that come on beach buggies so often, and they fit perfectly in the spots, so then you have parks. Wasn't me that was so clever, was Dave Rowley, he sell them modified like that.

Update 11/06/09

I said recently that the project is running away with me, and that is exactly the case as we speak

To give you an idea, this is what I did the past week -

Monday - Handed in the fan housing and cylinder head tinware for powder coating
Tuesday - Sourced an almost new stainless steel 4-into-1 buggy exhaust by accident in Witbank
Wednesday (yesterday) - Found a set of NOS J-pipes for the exhaust after just one random phone call
Thursday (today) - Got the front beam back from Werner Alker after he fitted the new king and link pins - thanks Werner for a superb job!
Friday (tomorrow) - Hopefully getting the fan housing and cylinder head tin back from the powder coaters

For the past few evenings I have 'dry-fitted' everything to the chassis, installed the IRS gearbox and bolted the engine to it. With the rear wheels attached to the swing arms, and the front of the chassis on a jack stand, I got a weird feeling when I opened the door to the working space this evening and switched on the light ...because right there in the flat below the house, the outlines of a buggy is starting to take shape!

If all goes well, I will fit the fan housing, tinware and exhaust to the engine on Saturday and start it (for the second time). Curious to see if the exhaust is so good inside as it looks on the outside (and if the ex-Westfalia starter still work.) I will also do a mock setup of the fuel hoses, and let the engine run for a few minutes to check for leaks. (Last Saturday IMPI and I started the engine without the exhaust for a few seconds. The fuel system was not connected, some petrol was just poured down the throats of the Webers.)

Stay tuned...

Pine wrote:
Thursday (today) - Got the front beam back from Werner Alker after he fitted the new king and link pins - thanks Werner for a superb job!

Pine can we have some pics Pwetty please

Pics will follow on Saturday - after I have cleaned the working space

thanks Pine your project sounds as if its comming along nicly *Shane cant wait for those nice pics*

Sounds good pine...cant wait for pics!

Well, everything doesn't always go as planned, does it?

Was too late at the powder coaters this afternoon to pick up the fan housing. They took an early long weekend, and will only be open for business again on Wednesday. So no engine starting for me tomorrow....

Update 14/06/06

Bought some new exhaust gaskets and clamps from Volkspares on Friday and fitted the exhaust to the engine yesterday, using some Copperslip on the cylinder head strut threads, as advised on this Forum recently in another thread. The engine is currently on the gearbox, which is fitted to the chassis with the IRS trailing arms, spring plates, rear brake drums and wheels.

I adjusted the linkages on the Webers, so that the throttles open evenly, and adjusted the engine timing statically (TDC, turn the distributor with the ignition on till you can year the spark on the No1 ignition lead). In spite of the fact that I don't have the fan housing yet, I started the engine for a few seconds and it idled quite well, albeit a bit rough. The exhaust is in perfect nick, and the engine is A LOT less loud than last week's fire-spurting engine start at IMPI . With the fan and altenator mounted on the stand without the fan housing, one can get quite a good idea of the amount of air the fan displaces. I do not have a balance pipe between the two carb manifolds at the moment (the holes are blanked off), I am still not sure how important that it, but will probably fit it at later stage. (After all, VW fitted all their factory twin carb a/c cars with balance pipes.)



This is what the king and link pin assembly looks like after I got it back from Werner Alker. He did a superb job, note the additional grease nipple he installed at the top of the king pin (there is one at the bottom as well), for increased lubrication. He has done this modification for many years now on literally hundreds of Beetles, and says that the king and link pins last a lot longer, that way (which makes perfect sense).

I will see if I can put some rubber grommets at the top and bottom of the king pins, to prevent dirt/mud/muck from collecting around the grease nipple.



Next up will be the final assembly of the engine fan housing, starting it again (and perhaps another video clip ) after which the focus will move to the front suspension, fitting of the disk brakes and the installation of the entire brake system with new brake lines. Money, money, money.....

Pine those king and link pin carriers look great.....is there normally a grease nipple at the top of the carrier like that ??? keep up the good work its looking great .

1972 wrote:Pine .....is there normally a grease nipple at the top of the carrier like that ???

Uhmmmm......

Pine wrote: This is what the king and link pin assembly looks like after I got it back from Werner Alker. He did a superb job, note the additional grease nipple he installed at the top of the king pin (there is one at the bottom as well), for increased lubrication. He has done this modification for many years now on literally hundreds of Beetles, and says that the king and link pins last a lot longer, that way (which makes perfect sense).

1972 wrote:those king and link pin carriers look great.....

Thanks

Pine wrote:

1972 wrote:Pine .....is there normally a grease nipple at the top of the carrier like that ???

Uhmmmm......

Pine wrote: This is what the king and link pin assembly looks like after I got it back from Werner Alker. He did a superb job, note the additional grease nipple he installed at the top of the king pin (there is one at the bottom as well), for increased lubrication. He has done this modification for many years now on literally hundreds of Beetles, and says that the king and link pins last a lot longer, that way (which makes perfect sense).

was to busy looking at those nice king and link pin carriers to focus on reading

Pine,the work on the engine is amazing.This HW2 is going to be a crowd puller.

Crowds? I luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuv crowds!

Pine I don't get distracted that easy,you.......Look!Hooters!