H-Gs Project 356

[H-G]

So the latest update(s) which led to being able to put the project on its own wheels:

After the last update, I was in the process of rebuilding the rear brakes. I have to say that this initially went pretty smoothly with all items slotting into place as it should. the handbrake cables (300mm shortened) were greased and popped into place and after clearing all of the threads the back plates were bolted into place and torqued up. These were followed by the slave cylinders and adjusters. I had to re-profile the handbrake levers so that they didn't catch the brake shoes. Once this was done, everything else fitted into place and the drums went on.





I'll stay with the rear brakes for now as I have also fitted the handbrake and have it working (of sorts). After blasting, I painted the handbrake and then cleared out the various threads and pivot points, before greasing and assembling. Here is where I struck upon a challenge as the with the cables attached the handbrake, the shoes were pulled out to far to allow the drum to be fitted. To overcome this, I had to slightly reduce the length of the distance bars between the shoe. Unfortunately, I have slightly overdone it on the first bar I filed and have had to order a new one. Notwithstanding, It allowed me to get everything fitted and the shoes adjusted against the drums. With the handbrake cables adjusted, the handbrake now works and will hold the car pretty well.



That's rear brakes, now to fit a newly painted gearbox.

This really was a simple case of bolting everything together, however I did use stainless nuts and bolts for the rear gearbox mounts. I also used a new nose-rubber to provide a seal where the nose enters the chassis.

To provide a good positive change, I replaced the VW rubber shift-rod to gearbox link with a urethane replacement. I had read that the metal element of the aftermarket linkage is nowhere as good as the original and when compared, I would have to agree. There is twice as much thread for the grub-screw on the VW linkage so much less chance of stripping threads when tightening everything down. with everything fitted and the linkage was connected to the gearbox. The gear lever was put in place and then bolted down once the stick was vertical with the gearbox in neutral.











All gears are selectable and the change feels very positive and ready for one of these:

http://www.vintagespeed.co.uk/index.php ... Itemid=119

[H-G]

o finish off the back end, I cleaned up and refitted the shock bolts and bolted the driveshafts into place. I have since removed the driveshafts so that I can grease the CV joints before the final fit. However they went into place easily enough and after fitting the polished brake pipe, pretty much finishes off the back end.



Time to head to the other end of the chassis and start getting that back together.

[H-G]

So I have already fitted the beam, trailing arms and spindles so we are looking at brakes and steering. A lot of this is a simple exercise in bolting up the various components. Before the disks could be fitted, I spent some time again, clearing threads and making sure that any overpaint was cleaned away from the spindles. The disks went straight onto the spindles and tightened down, spun, the nut backed off and then tightened down again so that the thrust washer will just move when pressed with a screwdriver. Before fitting the calipers, I fitted new piston and dust seals. I've got some stainless bleed nipples on order and these will go on as soon as they arrive. The result of this spanner work looks like this:





I have also offered up the anti-role bar and will tighten this into place one I have sorted out the shock lengths. This is a very heavy duty ARB, so I am hoping that it will help me to induce a bit of understeer.



I've also had a go at fitting the steering box so that I can measure up the tie rod lengths. I do have a short tie-rod and I'm in conversation about a long tie-rod. I did consider buying in the shortened rods, however it's going to be much cheaper to buy a M14x1.5 tap and do the work my self. Finally, I have fitted the brakepipes across the front axle.





With all four corners back on the chassis, I got myself up into the parts store (garage attic!) and brought the wheels down......

[H-G]

I still had the same challenge whereby the rims just wouldn't go over the centres of the hubs and disks. To I tentatively removed the powdercoating from the rim centres with a 120 grit flapper wheel. Once removed the rims fitted with no problems - I will be spraying the centres with some lacquer to help protect them from the elements.

I manged to get this done by mid afternoon so I took the rims into town to see if I could convince a tyre company to 'donate' some scrap tyres. No success with the first two garages, however on the third attempt, success :D Fitting cost me the princely sum of a voluntary £10 donation to the coffee fund and I drove away with a big smile on my face and a set of 185/55 tyre fitted to the rims.

Back at the cave, they went straight on to the car:









A few minutes after this, and with a bit of help from the Sqashmeister, it looked like this:









This moment was very quickly followed by the opening of a bottle (or two) of my home made blackberry champagne while we just sat, looked and sucked through our teeth as we realised that the front end was low - very low - far too low! Oh well, that's for the next time I'm in the garage, cos after a couple of bottles of champers, I was in no condition to do anything about it.

[H-G]

Final pics of the day - fingers crossed it won't be long before we see this attached to the chassis and taking residence in The Cave:

[H-G]

While the garage was empty I kept myself a busy by making myself some garage chairs



A pair of donate (thanks Squashy) Golf seat mounted to a couple of 'scrap' office chair bases.

You may also have noticed that I've painted the floor which as brightened up that end of the garage and makes it a lot easier to keep clean.

[H-G]

I've also been doing a lot of research on the engine specification for the car which, if all goes well, will make for something that will be able to hold its own!

This is what is planned:

AS41 case fully HVX and Full Flow modified
CB performance 74mm crank
Khultec 5.4 inch con rods
Mahle forged 90.5mm B&Ps
Engle 120 cam with straight cut gears
CB performance 1:1.25 ratio rockers
Manton Chrome Moly pushrods
Match ported 044 heads
Twin Dellorto 40s
Vintage speed 38mm stainless exhaust
Lightened flywheel

All rotating parts dynamically balanced
Rods and Pistons statically balanced

A couple of the bits I've already acquired:





If all goes well we should be seeing around 130bhp, enough to give a good friends Dodge Charger something to worry about

If the interest is out there, I will do a separate thread for the engine build; while I have made start, it will now go on hold while I get the body ready for paint so will be a bit sporadic.

[H-G]

All in all a good week in the cave. During the week I spent the best part of 5 hours working out where the centre of the car was as this is an essential datum point for measuring out from for lights etc. Due to the exceptionally curvatious lines there are absolutely no points from which you can measure to find the centre. however there are some fixed points on the chassis that can be used, these being the nose of the gearbox input shaft, the gearbox cradle, the small hole in the gearbox input shaft sleeve and the two bolt heads on the chassis tunnel where it meets the bulkhead. So how do you accurately line these up I hear you ask? Well dear reader, you use a Frickin Laser! I just happen to have a laser level for builiding houses which can also generate a vertical line. Mounted on a camera tripod , wound as hog as possible and then pointed down I can generate a line along the length of the chassis. Then it only takes about 2 or so hours of moving the entire lot millimetres left and right to ensure that the laser line joins up every single datum point - I've now found the middle of the car. Some masking tape and a marker pen and another 15 mins of checking , double checking and then checking agiain and I have this-





Due to a bout of the severest man flue know to science, I had to leave things until the weekend when I was joined by Sharkus and Squashy for Cave Time with mates.

[H-G]

A lovely Sunday in The Cave with Sharkus and Squasy today. To start off with we stripped, polished and re-wired a Raydyot laud lamp that Sharkus had picked up for Grace. Squasy did the re-wiring, I made new cork gasket and we all took turns a polishing various bits before it all went together again. I found a length of cloth conduit to hide the new wires so it should look pretty good when fitted to Grace.

After Sharkus had left to go to a Jelly and Icecream party Squashy and I set about mRking out the rear lights. I had some dimensions I'd taken off the interweb, however when these were applied to the body it just didn't seem right, nor did anything line up with the moulding marks in the Gel Coat. After a bit of head scratching and eureka! The measurments were for the lens screws which stand approx 20mm proud of the body. A few adjustments to the laser level (horizontal this time) and presto, everything lines up and looks good. Que 30 mins of checking, double checking and then checking all over again about 10 times - measure thrice cut once however I went to the extreme here as I am crap at working with fibreglass.
We ended up with the back of the car looking like this:





With everything marked out there only one thing for it - get the cutter out and make some holes. The initial cuts with a rotary cutter on a dremmel ended quickly as th disk buckled so out came the jigsaw. Success, however glass fibre will dull a jigsaw blade very quickly. Once. The main cuts were out, a bit of time with a drum sander on the dremmel to open the holes out so that the light clusters fit easily. A short time later we have the cluster fitted:







Next job is the rear bumper I think........

[H-G]

You know how I said that I had put the engine to one side while I worked on the body and the next big purchase was the front indicators - I lied!

Just bought a few more bits:

SCAT Mini D heads, ported, polished, 3-angle cut with 40mm inlet and 37mm exhaust valves
A set of 6 (yup 2 spare) Mahle 90.5mm forged B&Ps
SCAT Chrome Molly 8mm head stud kit
SCAT Remote Oil Filter Bracket
Set of SCAT lightweight liftersj
Set of Total Seal Gapless Piston Rings
SCAT Crank Build Kit
SCAT Gland Nut

[H-G]

I've also decided that I'm going to make a small change at the back end. I don't think that I'm going to fit the number plate up-light.

After a good chat with a chap call John, I think that I will fit one of these at the back - http://www.brightplate.com

Available in the age related style of silver lettering on a black background. It may seem a bit steep for a numberplate but it's less than 1/2 the price of the up light,a little different, saves some weight and is much closer fitting to the lovely curved back end

[cubist]

Impressive detail H-G... keep it coming!

[shoestring7]

Enjoying this - keep the updates coming. One point; dampers are key to any car's ride and handling, I'd be wary about using 2nd hand items of unknown condition.

>C

[H-G]

Couldn't agree more Shoestring. The ones I got are too short of the car so haven't/won't be fitted. Will look to get some cheap standard ones of testing etc and then get some better ones once I know what the ride hight is likely to be,

[sladey]

Looking good - enjoy this sort of thread

Are you going for a stock or outlaw/hotrod look?