Aircooled VW South Africa

Most of the overspray & gunge in the engine bay has come off OK. I've been using white spirit on a rag. A quick rub down & I can mask everything & spray it the original colour. Thankfully no rust just 2 small dents one will dolly out the other I'll need to fill.

Last time I changed the fuel lines I damaged one of the pipes exiting the tank, I decided to remove the tank to repair it & change the fuel lines again, inc the breather ones which I've not changed before. I'm very glad I did, they are obviously very old & have not been changed before:-

The pipe on the far right is the one hidden up in the vent, it teared off as soon as I pulled it so it was long over due for replacement:-



The tank is in very good shape with zero rust inside & out, unfortunately, I broke one of the straps so I'll need to fix it now:-

I'll need to braze a new pipe on to where the old one has snapped:-



Poor Milly now only has 1 rear light:-

As I've been slow with the progress on Milly I've decided not to paint her until the end of the season. The plan now is to paint the engine bay, fix the fuel tank & put it back in. Put the engine & box back in. Put all the trim I took off back on & fit the new aluminium deluxe trim on.

Then all I need is Tax & an MOT.

Most of the tinware is now on my engine along with the distributor drive gear, oil pressure switch rubber boot, distributor, leads, throttle body & Auxiliary air regulator:-

Got the petrol injectors on all cleaned, I may need new seals soon, petrol pipes are on. & I've had my new starter motor back from Shorts where it was re-coned

I've just removed my petrol tank & look what I found:-



These aare the pipes on top of the tank, very cracked & very perished & couldn't get to the bin quick enough.


This one is very very dodgy, it ripped as soon as I pulled it. Its probably 30 years old & is the original. Its tucked up above the leisure battery nearside. Up in the vent, easy to get to but hard to see.
My advice is to change all these ASAP.

My as good as new starter motor:-


Started doing my fuel pipe's:-


This pipe looks a little short so I think I'll cut a new one:-


These are the old jubilee clips which cut into the pipe, the new ones I have do not:-

Finished doing the black on my gearbox, now I've just got to polish up the ribs & lacquer it all:-




I've got a new input shaft seal for the gearbox as well as a new thrust bearing & a new starter motor bush.
I'll also be replacing all the oil with fresh.

As you can see they now reach properly.
Does anyone know how to change the rubbers on the injectors?

Gave my fuel tank to Rickets Radiators. They cleaned it out & sealed it, cleaned the outside & painted it, brazed on both fuel outlet pipes & changed the fuel level sender seal. It looks fantastic now & its right for another 30 years.

My oil level dipstick bellows are only a year old & they've split in 2 places, so I bought a new one. I m,ay send the old one back as I paid £5 for a new one:-

Started polishing the ribs on my gearbox, its going supprisingly easy, I'll need to touch up the edges with a bit of black when I've finished. But I'm happy with the result so far:-


All the rib cleaning up is now done, its all ready for a touch up in black & then a coat or 2 of lacquer:-

Thought I'd change my starter bush before I fitted my re-con starter motor, I'll let the pictures do the talking:-







Just to add a bit of clarity I've threaded a 12mm tap into the bush & then used a hammer to tap it though:-