Rollin' rollin' rollin'

Well, I lie if I said it was no fun... to roll the car around the garage with no engine. With almost the correct wheel mounted, and suspension and steering all working. Like a child with his pedal-car =) The rear torsion springs has not been loaded for over 20 years, so it sits relatively high in the rear yet. But with an engine mounted and some kilometers down the road it should sit quite nice. The car was put on stands again after the garage boys were finnished playing with it, and fenders stripped off gain. Now it's time for painting the last details and clean everything up nicely. Another step in the ladder cleared =)

Brake power

Of course it's tempting to think in the direction of disc brakes to get the car closer to modern technology. But that would probably spoil the total image of the car right now. So to keep drum brakes, I went for 65 T1 front brakes, the widest type for linkpin set up. In the rear I have used T3 5 stud brakes. Every piece except the drums and shields have been replaced with new parts.

The drums was machined to new finnish, and to fit the T1 axle. The latest brakeparts arrived from CIP1 yesterday, and was fitted last night. Still a little curious to how the handbrake will work on the T3 set up.

Rollin'

There has not been to much update on this blog lately. I've mostly been working on details for the car, that will be revealed when the car is driving. Building up for a surprise moment? In a way it's fun to show up in the spring with a car no one has seen before. My biggest consern these days is the time aviable to finish the car. I'm about to reach a critical stage in building my family a new house, and that sucks up a lot of time. But the main goal, given the limited time for VW these days, the car will be rooling at the end of april. The chassie is almost complete, and fitting brake parts and bleeding brakes should make it ready. The bodywork is mainly done, and a finishing coat of color is left to do. The engine will be fitted in early may, and hopefully with some "tuning" of the whole car, it will roll it's maiden voyage to Sweden in early june. I promise to release some more footage as we reach may, and the car is really coming together... The photo show what's going on these days =)

Making it go

It's finally time for bolting things together for real, after several nights in the garage with bondo and sandpaper. I managed to use an evening in the garage again, and some pieces are coming together. I bolted the pan and bodyshell with all bolts, and it was a tricky task to make it all line up again. A pain in the ass to be modest. Then I installed the pedalcluster and mounted new wires and greased them up good. The shifter was mounted and adjusted, and felt right at home in the "climber". The next on the list was the main seal of the gearbox, and a new Sachs release bearing found it's way in. Removing the old stone hard seal was not as easy as expected. But it came loose without damage to the box =) Most of these functional parts are sourced through Wolfsburg West, and I must say they seem to be VERY good. Everything is "Made in Germany" and the quality feel is a lot different than Mexico and Brazil parts. Rounded off the night with installing new axelboots, also german with superb quality. Next things to do is bolt up rest of the chassie and get the last brakeparts to blasting and machining. The summer is coming way to fast....

Rear apron

The apron is now welded up and the details for making it removable are done. I also managed to restore the rear body mountingbrackets and weld them into place yesterday night. Finnished off with grinding and etc primering the last surfaces on the car. I also started sorting out some wiring under the hood, as the car was transformed to turnsignals at some point. More pictures to follow... Just had to try out the correct taillight to see how it will turn out =)

Turning water into wine?

Well, to be honest, the heart shaped lights have seen better days. But they seem to be the correct ones for the car, without holes in the bottom. That had to be when they were new, because mother nature has supplied some natural holes over the years. The ready painted light was in far worse condition than the untouched one on the left. I put it in citrus acid, and the solid material left was not much. I built the bottom part from epoxy-metal, and it looks to be solid and usable for the purpose. Then a little filler and primer, and that was it. Not nearly NOS, but they will serve their duty on the car for some more years.

The choice of tail lights

Given the fact that my heart shaped lights were in bad condition, I settled with using 60 ies lights, because the car had them when I picked it up. They are parts of the cars history... Or... What a lot of bullshit =) Of course the car is going to have the OG lights. I just had to mount some straight fenders to fit the H-apron. The car has taken so much beating in the ass, that the fitting was a nightmare. The H-apron came fom a fairly straight 58, and should fit OK. But a lot of hammering, cutting and bending was the only way. I'm not sure if only the Wolfpart bumpebrakts will do. I think some large donor pieces from another car is needed for a 100% result. But for now, the "racer" will have a removable H-apron that fits "OK"(hopefully).

Putting in a new bottom

The spare wheel well was gone way beyond saving, and the whole nose on the car was smashed in about 10 cm into the well. The best thing would be to get a new Wolf part, but for now a new bottom will do. Having Brezelfürsten around the workshop, means that no shortcuts are made. After I finnished cutting the new piece, the "profile-police" arrived =) I had no other option than to copy the OG profile. With a hammer and simple tools, and about an hour later, the profile was ready. Not perfect, but much better than expected, given my sheetmetal skills. It's temping to chose the off-the-shelf way, but it's more curing of the soul to make it yourself.

Now it's just the welding left...

Getting the profiles "correct"

The last touches of welding were completed on the drivers side as well, and some new fastening nuts are now in place. The whole front corner is also redone, and some more grinding and filler will make this good as new. The top part of the profiled innerwing was also replaced with a cut-out-part from the wrecked donor car. Amazing that 65 body parts fit the 52 like a glove, and look completely the same as the OG part. A new frontclip and a wheel well from Wolfparts will most likely be fitted before painting the car. But for now it's fun to practise some welding and recreating parts.

Cleaning up the last welding details

Before
After

The zwitter suffered a front incident at some point, and there has been some hammering to get the shape right again. Still I was not quite happy, as the profile around the wiring tube-mount had lost it's shape. Luckily I cut away this piece from the donor car we wrecked last year. The front part of the innerwing is not 100% still, but the profile is right, and maybe some minor hammering and a coat of filler will make it Ok for now.

Zwitter details

It's all in the details I've heard. For the archives and Fürstens satisfaction, I took a picture of the OG fastening clips for the brakehoses. I imagine these are the correct ones for the car, and the set was complete with 6 clips.

Ending 2007

At the end of 2006 I made a promise that the Zwitter would be welded at the end of 2007. The main goal I set when I purchased the zwitter was to have it ready for Hessisch Oldendorf 2009. As the pictures from last night can reveal, the status is a little better than what I was aiming for. New front end with new pieces, the gearbox with new mounting rubber, and new brakelines are all in place. I finnished off this year of restoration work with a paint touch-up of the parts mounted on the chassie. Now I look foreward to a summer of testdriving a newly restored car =) HO 2009 is still possible =)

Waiting for the BIG push back there?

When I (Oval57) was working in the garage last weekend I couldn`t help for shooting this picture of Knechtens Zwitter.
Is he thinking of a BIG engine back there? TELL us!

My early years

We all have to start somewhere, and for me the interrest for motored things came with the moped years. Long before I reached the age of getting a license for a moped, the customizing was already started. Most of my buddies were in to the same thing, and the "hot" thing in the late eighties were Malossi equipped Suzukis. There were a lot of "battles" on the roads at the contryside were I grew up. 11 HP mopeds and speed up to and above 100 km/h was exciting for a 15 year old =)

Now being twice the age, I still remember the good times with the moped gang. Some of my buddies back then still keep the spirit alive, and are rocking hard in a band called Malossi. And most of the lyrics are related to the good old moped racing days. Go visit them and listen to some of the mp3 songs available: http://www.malossi.cc/, a nostalgia trip to the teenage years.

The music works very well with VW cruising as well =)

6V ironman contest

Last night Fürsten and Oval 57 helped me out putting the body back on the pan. As you can see in the movie, these three men are working in an office all day long. Heavy lifting does not come natural to us, but we managed anyway. For those who understand norwegian, there is quite a lot of "jabbskjit" in the background. We are sorry.

A small step for mankind...

.. but a huge step for me =) Last night I finally got the body placed on top of the pan. Most of the heaterchannels have been replaced, and it was interresting to see how they would match up. The meassuring during the welding seems to be pretty accurate. The holes in the pan and body aligned well. It was a heavy lift, but with good help from Oval 57 and Fürsten, we managed to drag the body onto the pan.

This was a critical milestone for me personally, as I had set a goal to complete the welding during 2007. With two small kids and not to much spare time, it was satisfying to come this far during 2007. It has been a long jurney of welding and sheet metal work, but it has been worth it. Now starts the funny part of the project, bolting all the parts together and to give the car the correct stance.

To day is also my birthday, and I could not wish for a better present =)

Peace and harmony

The floor pan made it's way into the garage again. It has been 20 years since the body and pan were together the last time. The time has now come to join them again in harmony =) The pan was sandblasted and painted in 87 and has been stored indoors since then. It has a few scratches in the paint from transportaition, but I will do a touch up of the paint after they are joined. The body has been stripped to bare metal in all four inner wings, and got a layer of etch primer.

There is still a little welding job to complete at the rear bumpermounts and some small repairs in the front as well. This will be completed when I finnish the new rear apron. The last thing I managed last night was to glue the rubber gasket to the floor pan with sikaflex. Next operation is to place the body ontop of the pan, this will give some needed space in the garage right now.

1750ccm Kvikk Motor

I have moved the Kvikk engine build up to our new blog, "Memory Lane". There I have added part 2 of the build up as well.

http://6vmemorylane.blogspot.com

On my back

Not having a barbeque stand for my zwitter body, a lot of work has to be done lying on my back. Last night I finished grinding all the welds after changing the bottom of the heater channels. Found two small holes that needs to be taken care of as well. Then it's time for painting the bottom of the body, and bring the floor pan into the garage. Everything takes time, but I will not have to worry about rust anymore... And the car is now solid enough to be driven HARD =)

Toxic juice

Picked up some chemicals on the way home from work today. If they work half as good as it smells, it will stick on the car for at least fifty more years. It will be interresting to se how it turns out. Epoxy primer first and then a topcoat of black filler-primer.