Today was one of those days where everything seemed to fight me.
With a glorious sunny morning I pushed the car outside so that I could open the doors fully and decided to take the knee roll back out.
Since fitting it a couple of weeks ago, I wasn’t happy with the way it now bolted in to the car. The knee roll was sitting ever so low and the stainless trim had a small 2-3mm gap before the basket weave panel. After some thought over the last week I realised the new vinyl used to re-trim folded over and glued behind the knee roll whereas originally it stopped on the edge. With the roll bolted in the new vinyl “return” was sandwiched between the roll and dash which was holding it down 2-3mm; particularly where it was folded over itself and 3 or 4 layers thick.
The only solution was to unbolt it and cut it back.
There was also an issue with the dashcap that was fitted to the dash before fitting the dash back into the car. This when put back in was pushed down ever so slightly on each end above the vent grilles as it squash back in between the windscreen pillar trims. This also pushed the knee roll down and added to the gap along the bottom of the basket weave.
Anyway I spent 4 hours on it this morning, cutting back, trial fitting, taking out again for more fettling and refitting a few times before I was 100% happy with it.
Once back in the stainless trim was close up to the basket weave and I could finally fit the rebuilt speaker grilles and test the Blaupunkt. All good!
I also fitted the repaired false cubby to the passenger door. Again it fought me for a while trying to get the 3 screws to find the holes in the steel of the door. I had to take it on and off a few times and add a little vertical pressure and use a scriber down the holes to guide it in. I didn’t want to drill any more holes in the door for the screws but after a frustrating half hour I got the first one in. After that the remaining two followed with ease.
All that’s left now is the steering wheel and the interior will be complete.
I also completed another job that's been bugging me over the last few months. The door hinge bolts. Taking them on and off, in and out, had chipped paint off the bolt heads and washers, so I carefully removed them one at a time (to keep the door alignment) and cleaned any chipped paint edges before putting them back in and then repainting them with a modellers brush. Over the course of the day I got two good coats on each bolt.
After a bite to eat I decided as it was such a nice day to wash out the engine bay. Since going into the paintshop, despite being covered it was absolutely full of dust from sanding down the original paint and flatting water mess from the primer, plus general dust from filler off other cars sharing the paintshop. It took a good couple of hours to get it half decent using 3 buckets of water, sponges and numerous detail brushes. Paint & filler dust is really difficult to clear as every time the water dried the white stains returned.
With it eventually clean, I pushed the car back into the garage and placed it on four axle stands.
This was a small milestone in the
restoration. I’d wanted to get the wheels refurbished for a long while now but having to have the doors wide open refitting interior I need to be able to keep pushing it in and out of the narrow garage so the wheels had to stay on.
The plan now is to take them into work and get the tyres off at lunchtime so they can have the anodising electrochemically removed for selective polishing.
In the meantime while they are away over the next couple of weeks I hope to clean and refresh under each wheel arch and complete a few remaining mechanical jobs.
One small request....
Has anyone got a single original
914 wheel bolt for a 74 with Fuch ???(radius cup fit, hex head with machined on small shoulder to look like a washer and shallow dome head)
The car came with a single rogue Beetle bolt in one wheel which doesn't match.
Please let me know if any of you have a spare bolt that I can purchase.
)) kind of retro !??
