George’s Cars

Right time i got my ass back in gear and started doing some work in the garage:

71 Westy – this is away being painted at the moment, hoping to get it back next week

Morris Traveller – this isn;t ok at the moment, on the last drive it cut out on me and i have no idea why, fuel is getting to the carb, it getting a spark but nothing is happening. the carb is clean too so i don’t know what the problem is. It drove perfect for 20 miles then decided that it had enough and had to be trailered home

Beach Buggy – between the holiday and work this have been put on the back burner for the last few weeks but i want to get it going again soon. Newt job is to get all the chassis parts sandblasted and painted so i can continue to build the chassis. I also want to get aluminium checkerplate for the floor of the buggy, i like the rough and ready look.

After getting my hands on a snad blaster to clean all the suspension parts I have given up again. I had 2 suppliers who ordered me sand media for the blaster but neother delivered.

So on a pissed off day before Chrismas I decided that I’ll do it the old fashoned way and wire brush it. Yes it will take longer but at least I’ll be making progress. I started with the front axle assembly. Its cleaned and primered but I have to remove the old bearings before I do anything else with it. I don’t have it to have nice clean shiney paint and end up distroying it while cheaning out the remainingg grease in the axle tubes.

Next problem is to decide what to replace the bearings with.

Option 1 – Replace bearings with new bearings and inner shims
Option 2 – Replace outer bearings with rubber or poly bushes.
Option 3 – Replace outer bearings and inner shims with full lenght poly bushes.

I suppose time will tell whats the best option

That it folks, I’m done stripping. For those of you who know me you will be glad to hear the only stripping that has beening going on was on the donor beetle.

I got the rear of the beetle stripped down, the gearbox and rear suppension taken apart.

Now today was a good day in some ways but a bad day in a lot of others. The good is I made progress and have a better understanding of what i need to do for the next few steps. The bad is that its going to cost me more money. Some of the front suspension parts I was hoping to reuse are worn beyond repair so I’m going to have to buy some additional parts.

Above are the torsion bars that are damaged. The photo is really bad quality, i took it on my phone but the inner bushing area is scored really badly.

Some of the other bits I took out today.

I have 2 engines and 2 gearboxes to choose from for my buggy and I’m confused as to which one to choose. Now remember my knowledge of VW’s is very small, I’m learning as I go along. I have a 1300cc engine and gearbox which I know to be good. Problem is these are still in a car so the car will have to be stripped if I want to use them.

I also have a engine and gearbox that came with the chassis, problem is I know nothing about them. They are an unknown quality. But they do have two positives. The gearbox is already on the ground and only needs a quick clean and it could do into the buggy. So first question, should I trust this unknown gearbox or should I go to the extra effort and strip the doner car and use a good gearbox.

Second issue is the engine, again I know nothing about it, I know its a 1300cc case but the guy I bought it off thought it was upgraded to a 1600cc. Now my maths is bad but 1600cc is always better than 1300cc in my book. Is there a way I can tell if it bas been upgraded. Codes on heads? Length of pistons? etc etc…..

If I know its a 1600cc engine its worth the extra effort but if its a 1300cc I’ll stick to the one I know is good.

I have decided after a long nights sleep thinking about it that I’m going to use the gearbox from the donor beetle so that means more stripping. Hopefully it will be worth it in the long run.

Unfortunately my beach buggy project is offically on hold for now. I have some more work to do on the blue beetle, the red beetle and my bay window when it comes back. I need to finish these to make some room in the garage before I can continue.

However I have set a new deadline, there is a VW beach buggy weekend in the UK in June, 3 miles of private beach with nothing but beach buggies, I’m thinking this would be a great first outing for the buggy but its nothing more than a pipe dream for now, but its nice to have something in the back of the mind to push you.

Well over the weekend I decided that I was going to start putting the buggy up higher on the priority list. Over the last few weeks other cars, the campervan, work and family life have not given me much time on the buggy and over the last week or so the fine weather has been getting to me.

I have a long way to go to finish it but I would like to try get it finished before the summer.

First big landmark will be getting a rolling chassis and thats what I’m aiming for:

Saturday I started stripping the donor gearbox and engine. If you remember from earlier on I had a choice of gearboxes and engines. I hope this pays off in the long run. I had to seperate the engine from the gearbox then the gearbox from the remaining chassis (which will be dumped). After hours of cleaning with a wire brush on a angle grinder it was ready for paint. I got the gearbox, rear gearbox mount and spring plates cleaned and primered.

Sunday morning after the primer had dried overnight I painted them black. I’m keeping the paint colours on this simple, red and black.

Today dad got the balljoints out of the front torsion arms. I then got the torsion arms and front axle primered and painted.

They look nice a shiny now they are black.

Sorry about the state of the pictures but all i had with me was my phone so these will have to do for now.

i turned a corner today, i started putting bits onto the chassis, i still have parts to strip and clean but i have enough done to start putting stuff on

i’ll post pics as soon as there is something reasonable to show

I got more work done today on the buggy, the joys of being self employed and not being in the mood to do real work.

Most of my parts arrived but some of the stuff is on back order so I can’t do everything i want to do until next week.

I got the torsion bars cleaned, removed the extra leaves and inserted into the axle tubes, man that was a pain in the rear end. Torsion arms on and in position. Problem 1, the camber nuts for the top of the spindles where one of the things that didn’t come in and I can’t get the old ones off the old balljoints so thats as far as i can go for now.

I got most of the brake lines ran, including the braided flexi’s. The only one thats missing is the one front to back as i need to put the pedals in before I run that one and I need cables before I put the pedals in, another thing that will have to wait until next week.

I also put the new gearbox mount on and remounted the gearbox BUT the axle tubes will have to come off and I was going to try do this with the gearbox mounted but it looks like it would be easier with the gearbox on the floor.

So that’s where i am now, considering i had a bare chassis yesterday its starting to look a little more like a car now which is great, when i bring herself into the shed to show the progress she can actually see something different now.

That will be all for the weekend, its my son’s second birthday tomorrow and I have a wedding to go to tomorrow night so I don’t think I’ll be back in the garage until next week, which kinda suits anyways as it will be easier when all the parts are here.

Well, I rang the part supplier today and the parts I ordered last week didn’t go out on Friday, they are only shipping today so this is going to slow me down until I can get the parts I need.

I know the buggy deadline is for the start of may but i think if i have this finished by the end of may I will be very impressed. Its not a lot of time to do a lot of building, especially since I have the body to tweek and respray.