Yeah. Kind of a bummer.
Let's rewind a bit. I've been working rather manically on this project recently... with good reason. I wanted to finish the body work and paint before moving. And it was possible provided I put in the work and nothing went grossly wrong. And things were going well.
Last week on Wednesday I cleaned, degreased and primed the rear of the chassis and on Thursday I topcoated the chassis and finished priming and then painted the body on all parts that are not visible but that still need protection. And like that I was done painting except for maybe touch ups. I got a call from the powder coater that the parts were in. That would have to wait because I was up to the Bay Area for a wedding.
Here' s the painted area underneath the gas tank:
You can see that I opted for a yellow that would be close to the final color of the car instead of the black I did on the first coat. It's all aesthetics, but the price is the same, so why not? Here's the chassis in its finished state next to the original before all the painting and cleaning:
Not bad. Not bad at all. And look at that shiny new crankshaft pulley... more on that later.
As I saw it all I needed to do to finish on time was make a couple gaskets for heater ducts underneath the car, reinstall those parts, undercoat the car, weld the rear apron, touch up paint, reassemble the engine tin and assorted parts, and get the body on. The plan was to have that done in a week, with the biggest unknown being Matt S's schedule for welding.
On Monday I returned from SF, low on sleep. I picked up the parts and put a first coat of cold galvanizing on the sandblast only parts - intake manifold and heater boxes. Matt S says that it will withstand exhaust temperatures well. I got screws, gaskets, etc that I would need to reassemble the engine parts. Then it was off to spend a night in the desert to see a meteor shower.
Tuesday I had to go into work, but I went to the store, got more cold galvanizing, and finished coating the engine parts. The heater boxes look much better than before:
Now, on Wednesday I didn't have too much time - training, moving-related errands - but I got in in the afternoon. Before arriving I made some gaskets at home for the heater ducts. I installed them and finished undercoating. Here's the undercoating underneath the rear bulkhead:
Those two ducts sticking out of to lower edges are the heater ducts I was talking about. This was the most important area to undercoat because it will be inaccessible once I put the body back on - the transaxle will be in the way. I'm very happy with how well protected this area is. Here's one of the wheel wells:
Now, this area is not as important because it's accessible after the body is back on, but I thought that it would be easier and cleaner to do at least part at this stage. You can see that there is still an unfinished area near the row of bolt holes for the fender bolts. I'll finish once the body and paint is done and the fenders, bumpers, and rubber are back on.
Matt was gonna help me weld either that afternoon or the next morning, so I needed to fit in the new rear apron and do surface prep. And this my friends, is when the needle slid across the record.
At first sight, the part seemed to fit, but I then realized that the groove for the engine seal was not lining up. I measured the parts and sure enough, there was a dimensional mismatch of about 1" between the new and existing aprons. You can see it here:
Note how the groove for the engine seal is right up against the edge in the existing part and set down a bit in the new part. I checked the part number and verified that I bought the correct part. I then went to Vee Parts to ask about it and the guy was all like "oh, whatever, just cut the engine seal into three parts - it doesn't need to line up.... and we never heard about this before and we sell this to body shops all the time." Well, the parts aren't the same and I don't want to compromise the integrity of the seal that keeps exhaust heat away from the engine. That's not how air cooled cars work. Maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist, but it annoys me when people aren't interested in things being done right. Anyway, I called Matt to tell him he was off the hook on the welding job.
Not one to be easily dissuaded, I tabled this issue and got to work on other things. There's lots of engine shroud to reassemble. It's an easy task, really. La-di-da... install the piece in front of the pulley. La-di-da... install the pulley (the powder coating is well done - it took repeated blows from a hammer without leaving a mark). La-di-da... install the cylinder covers. La-di-da... install the lower air flow parts... and here goes the needle scratching over the record one more time.
The parts just weren't mating together.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm quite aware that I can make mistakes, and that's the first thing I assumed, but eventually, it became clear that the problem was that the new cylinder covers were just not the right size - about a half inch too short on the vertical faces. Seriously?! Why do people do this? And sure I could have concocted some fix, but the bottom like is that without the parts mating together, the engine is gonna run hotter, and I'll spend waaaay more moolah on a rebuilt engine. Arghhhh!!!!!
So what's the solution? Well remember that I got new cylinder covers because the old ones had a slight crack, so why not just get new ones? Why not? I'll tell you why not: because after market parts suck! Especially Brazilian ones. I much rather have a slightly cracked part that fits than a new part that doesn't... but this implies another trip to the powder coater and another delay. Having learned my lesson, I'm also powdercoating the other old parts that I was thinking of replacing (the ones that go next to the heater box come in sets of three - one was broken, but the other two were OK). I'm gonna use the old ones now.
Phew! OK. I'm done ranting. Sorry, but this was a big disappointment. Needed to get some frustration off my chest.
Thursday I got into the garage to do some work on the heater boxes. There are few little holes in them that I sealed with high temp putty. There are a few larger holes due to corrosion where the box mates with the curved part of the J-tube. There's no way putty will work on these. A thread on the samba suggests these can't be welded because the metal is too thin, but Matt says he can do it, and I'm willing to trust him. But he's out of town till about 10 days from now, so that's another delay.
That's it for work. I pretty much just took stock of where I was. I cleaned the garage.
So where am I? Well, the main task is to get the body back on the chassis and loose parts packed up either back on the car where they belong or in boxes for movers. I need to wait for the engine to be rebuilt before I drop the body back on, and that means waiting for the powder coater.
I need to resolve this issue with the rear apron. If I do it really soon, I might be able to get the body work done here in SD. Otherwise I'll have to wait for Oregon. This will involve dropping the engine to gain access to the weld locations. If I do this they'll be able to paint the engine compartment all nice and pretty, so maybe this is the best way to go... provided I find a good place near Corvallis.
As to resolving the issue with the rear apron, I need to figure out if there are better after market parts that actually fit. If so I can go that route. Or I might be able to scavenge a part off of an old car either at a junk yard or a reseller like Interstate. I'm leaning towards the latter route.
A couple things to resolve/do prior to replacing the body:
- Figure out whether the rubber body-to-chassis gasket is enough or whether I should use an additional sealer material
- Touch up some paint I pulled off with masking tape for the undercoating
- Replace a rubber gasket for the battery to starter cable - it will be much easier now
- Replace the foam pad around the heater duct inside the car - again, it will be much easier.
- And like I said, replace the engine shroud
- Repair a few stuck/broken bolts in the fender-to-body connection
- Get the welding done on the heater boxes.
That, in painful detail, is where I'm at. In some ways, this is a blessing in disguise, since now I don't have nearly as much to do on this project prior to the move. Suddenly I don't feel as pressured to get a million things done.
Sour grapes.
Wednesday: 5.5 hrs, Thursday: 4 hrs, Monday: 3 hrs, Tuesday: 1/2 hr, Wednesday: 3.5 hrs. Thurs: 1 hr.
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