50 years old today!!

It is 50 years today since my Type 34 rolled off the production line at the Karmann factory.  Since leaving Germany it has lived in Denmark, South Africa and England.  In August it went back to Germany as part of the 50 year celebrations.  Lets hope it survives another 50 years.

November 2011 update

I just got the speedo back from Speedy Cables. I had to send it to them as 50 miles from the end of our trip to Germany it started screaming like a banshee.

They have stripped it and serviced it using some parts from a spare unit I sent them and then fitted it with a new correct style chrome bezel. Looks great, only down side is they used the case from the spare unit and now my 9\61 stamped case is on the wrong unit - ah well its only me that knows!

They also made me up a new LHD speedo cable; the outer case had split and I wondered is water had got into the mechanism through that opening. The new cable has a hole for a split pin like later cars rather than a circlip but identical otherwise. I'll fit everything back together over the next weekend or so, should be ready in time for the cars 50th birthday on November 20th.

Belated September 2011 update

After the trip to the 50th celebration in GMH I had a number of tasks to carry out on the car. The first was to replace the oil pressure switch on the oil cooler as it had been leaking in a big way; easily done.

Next was to cure the bake light switch on the master cylinder from being affected by rain water. On the drive around GMH water had got into the electrical connections leading to no brake lights. The early cars don't have a stone shield under the master cylinder and no rubber boot was fitted either to seal the master cylinder brake switch from the elements. I sourced a suitable type 4 one from VW Heritage and again solution achieved in about 2 minutes.

On the way over to GMH the drivers door window fell out of its end guide rail leading to it coming out of the window lifter mechanism and jamming half way down. I took the door apart and discovered that the captive nut on the lower adjuster for the window lifter at the doors trailing edge had sheared off. Some quick grinding and welding had it quickly re-attached.

A source of irritation has been a dent which has appeared in each door close to the door locks, so whilst the door was in pieces I thought I would do something about it and also the other door. I decided to call in a paintless dent removal company to tackle the problem. (I had no idea how these could have happened as the panel work was perfect when it left the body shop and I certainly haven't damaged them). After a couple of hours of trying they had to admit defeat - the centre of each dent appears to be a spot weld which fixes the re-inforcing plate behind each door handle\lock and they just couldn't improve\solve the problem. Again no idea why this problem should occur post completion of the car and it looks like live with it or repaint both doors.

Good news is it looks like I will now be able to keep the car so thanks to all those who expressed an interest in it.

Video of T34 cabriolet

Here is a short video of the silver T34 cabriolet seen again at the old Karmann museum at the 50th celebrations of the Type 34. It is a 1961 body on a 1969 chassis\dash. Wonder how many other 'small' volume producers kept unused non series production bodies and turned them into working vehicles 8 years after their intended production date?

Video of the 1600 TC fastback prototype

Here is a short video of the aborted T34 prototype developed in 1964 and never to enter production. Video taken at the old Karmann museum.
An interesting observation is that with its completion in September 1964 the TC appears to have been a year ahead of the existing coupe in terms of engine size which had a 1500 (1493) cc engine and was not increased to 1600cc until the 1966 model.

Video from old Karmann Museum of the Sartorelli 1959 Ghia prototype

Here is a short walk around the Sartorelli 1959 Ghia protoype seen at the old Karmann museum during the 50th celebration of the T34 in 2011. Interestingly VW have it displayed as 1960 on the car.

The badge on the lip of the rear boot has disappeared I think since I last saw the car. Looking at the dashboard instruments it also looks to have a later 160KPH speedo fitted as well - wonder what the original looked like?

Toolkit

I have made sure that our 62 is as close to original condition and specification as possible. One of the areas I have looked into is the toolkit. All of the early cars predominately had slotted screw heads rather than Phillips or Posidrive screw heads to fixtures and fittings.
This is reflected in the specification for the toolkit in the owners manual; it shows 1 screwdriver 0.85 and 1 screwdriver 0.5, both with black painted wooden handles. Recently I was looking for tools to go with my Mercedes 190SL as the toolkit is missing from it and saw a toolkit advertised as being for a 190SL on e-bay with really low bids. Not surprising as it consisted of half tools for 190SL and half for VW including the correct early screwdrivers for my car. I put a low bid in and secured the toolkit. Here is a photo of my toolkit showing the screwdrivers and also of the toolkit from Johannes Krassenbrink's early 62 as well.
Interesting observation is that my toolkit (middle photo) is made from the early small grain 62 seating material whilst Johannes one is made from the material used to line the boot\trunk areas. This probably backs up the idea that the toolkits were made from off cuts from any material available at the time. Strangely our 65 has a toolkit made from the material seen on door panels from low light T14s.

August update - safely to the celebrations in Georgemarienhuette and back

Theresa and I drove both of our type 34s to the 50 years of the Type 34 celebration in Germany - I don't think there was any other husband and wife partnership doing this or indeed taking 2 cars from the same family. Our daughter joined us to show the depth of our obsession!
Well the 62 made it all the way without any major mechanical failure. I view this as a major achievement; it had only completed 300 miles before setting off on a 1200 mile return journey and had experienced a challenging life in its' attempts to get back fully on the road over the past 2 years. If I wondered why this car struggled to get back on the road I only had to look at the photos of the early stages of its' restoration and the pile of scrap it actually was - no mean feat to get the car to GMH in as original condition and to be the oldest car present as well was fantastic. The restoration was truly a huge task involving major transplants of pieces to bring it together.
To follow the same medical theme it did suffer from what I will call 'organ rejection' during its journey with a number of pieces being determined to drop off or become unglued along the way. All were quickly repositioned without major fuss.
It was great to travel to GMH with John & Lyn Figg and Mike & Astrid Kelly and fantastic to stop at Johannes Krassenbrink's in Altenberge and stay with him and Andrea there overnight before being lead by his outstanding 62 T34 to the showground at GMH via some great countryside. Thanks Johannes, your car was an inspiration to me during my own rebuild and looked outstanding.
I will cover off the event at GMH in some separate postings, absolutely fantastic event, even the rain and a fall whilst at the event, which lead me to crack a number of ribs, didn't deter me from keeping driving and enjoying the event. A huge well done to my wonderful wife Theresa for driving our 65 all the way to GMH and supporting me through the restoration and ensuring I continued with it as a panacea for a chronic ongoing illness.
So at this stage I am wondering whether to keep the blog going or draw it to a close as the car has now achieved my goal of getting to GMH - any views?
Due to a change in circumstances I may also have to consider selling the 62 - this is not definite yet and would be done only as a last resort. I would be looking for it to go to an exceptional home and at an appropriate price to reflect its' condition and early production date and my lack of desire to part with it. No customisers will be considered!

July Update

The front torsion bars have now been successfully reset and the camber of the front wheels done at the same time. Handling and ride are much better.
Next up has been an unwilling heater control, it didn't want to turn the heat off and with a long trip to Germany approaching fast I thought I had better tackle it. It turned out that I hadn't positioned the plastic collar that the heater cable attaches to properly within the tube. Within the tube there is a locating pin and the split in the tube passes over it to keep it in the right place and allow it to move up and down; get it wrong and no adjustment is possible. What had happened was that the split at the bottom of the plastic collar had closed up stopping the locating pin being correctly positioned. I took a file to the split, opened it up and this allowed correct positioning and easy heater adjustment.
Finally on this batch of never ending adjustments I tackled the passenger door where the window would not go all the way down and the door lock mechanism wasn't working correctly. With the door panel stripped off it was easy to see the problem. The sound deadening material I had fitted to the inside of the door panel had dropped part way off and was blocking everything. With it stripped off all now functions OK.

Activity on the mechanics of the car

The hand brake (emergency brake)was taking a few clicks more than normal to activate and I decided rather than just adjust the rear brake shoes that I would take off the drums and check inside. No major problems, the shoes were a little glazed in places which I carefully filed off whilst wearing a face mask so as not to breath in the dust as they are NOS with asbestos in them.
The rear hub seal on the drivers side had been weeping a little but this was being taken care of satisfactorily by the internal oil thrower; I will keep my eye on it.
I had been experiencing a clonking noise from the back of the car when cornering and when I jacked up the car to do the rear brakes I found a simple solution, it was the fire extinguisher kept under the back seat that was simply moving around - I like easy solutions.
I also took the car to have the wheel weights moved to the inside of the wheels and have the steering alignment and rear wheel alignment checked out and laser aligned. My trusty contact at GM Tyres in Buckingham soon has it sorted and said how much he enjoyed working on something different and something that was clean and not rusted up.
Of a more major nature was the ride height of the front end; during the rebuild the front axle was taken to pieces, both to clean and check for wear and also to correct the lopsided set up I had inherited it with; easy to do as there are more splines on of the torsion rods than the other rod.
With some miles on the car the front end now seems to have settled by about 1" or 2.5cm and gave the appearance of slight customisation - actually looked quite good! However I decided I better get it back to stock ride height. So I have now removed the shock absorbers, tie rods and brake drums\steering knuckles ready to adjust the torsion bar arms on Saturday morning.
To do this I have borrowed the correct VW tool number 261 from Mike Dempster and will set the arms back to the correct factory settings. I will also set the castor and camber angles back to proper settings using the same tool - I had got these right at the rebuild by just looking at the arrows on the bottom of the ball joints of my 65 and copying to the 62 - the laser alignments showed I had them set up within tolerance.
Whilst working on dismantling the front end I noticed that one of the retaining rings around the ball joint boot had disappeared - I have replaced with a plastic cable tie and will trim back and cover in grease so you can't see it.
Finally a poor starting issue was traced to the replacement terminal I had fixed to the main positive cable going to the battery. This was made of brass and was reacting badly with the battery terminal producing clumps of corrosion within days of fitting. I found a non brass one and fitted it and now no further problems.

Work on my 65 T344

On the last couple of trips out both myself and Theresa noticed that the steering seemed rather vague. I stripped out the petrol tank and spare wheel well so that I could adjust the steering box. First I checked the oil level in the box - nearly empty! I topped it up with the correct EP90 oil and then adjusted both dimensions on the steering box. It is now back to the correct feeling\level of play.
The body work was restored in 1992 and unfortunately I now have a number of issues appearing. There is bubbling around each torsion bar hole, some small areas under the right hand rear bumper corner, bottom of the right hand door and bottom of the right hand front inner wing where it meets the front panel. All of this will have to wait until after the 50th celebration, not what I would have wanted but I would rather do it properly when time and cash permits than rush it.

UK celebration of 50 years of the Type 34

Here is a link to some photos from our celebration last weekend of 50 years since the launch of the Type 34 (looks like you need to copy and paste) - we had a great time and some fantastic T34s came out to play.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16163315@N07/sets/72157626690969234/

Double celebration

The 1962 managed to complete a 200Km return trip to the Stanford Hall meeting last meeting without any problems and on top of that to win the Type 1 & 3 Karmann Ghia class, so a double celebration.
We took the 1965 and it formed a small part of the 50 years of the type 3 celebration alongside the cars of Dee & Mike Shaw, Janet & Clive Richardson and Mark Poulton. We have a larger meeting coming up next weekend at Stratford\Gaydon - numbers won't be large, probably about 8 cars over the 2 days. More pictures after next weekend.

Visit to Dave Ball's

As I have a bit of spare time on my hands at present I took a trip to see Dave and look at progress with his car. Those who have been reading my blog since the early days will recall that after completing a restoration of his car and driving it towards the VolksWorld show some years ago it caught fire on the motorway and suffered severe damage to the rear end, Dave escaped without injury.
He has been slowly getting the car back together, not easy as it is an automatic and whilst I was at Dave's we had fun refitting the rear bumper, various badges and rubbers which made the back end look more complete. There is still a way to go and Dave is juggling work on the car alonside restoring his 50's cabriolet and type 2. Dave showed me a very interesting chassis\make plate from a French supplied T34, here's a photo of it and the normal VIN plate from the same car.

Overriders for my 65

I got the original aluminium overriders for my 65 back from the chromers and have refitted them for the first time in over 25 years and they look great. At the same time I removed the tow bar and was amazed at heavy it was and also how heavy the later metal overriders are compared to the earlier aluminium ones. I might save a mile per couple of gallons and be able to save for a holiday on the fuel saved!

Mechanical update

Problems with smooth running of the engine have continued. I identified a couple of issues contributing to the problem - the linkage for the automatic choke was bottoming out on the tinware and stopping proper function. Also the right hand heat riser has also come slightly loose.
Having rectified these and still experienced poor performance I decided to take it to a local\modern VW specialist who has an employee who new about the cars from the 60s; they kept it for a week and have managed to get it running much better.
When I got the car back there were 2 noises coming from the engine which were rather worrying - one was from the generator (which actually belongs to my 65 1500S) and another which I couldn't identify immediately. I removed and stripped down the generator and identified that the central rotor\armature was rotating out of line and rubbing on the side fields. My engineering neighbour identified the problem as the end plate which holds the brushes; this had some side play which allowed movement over time and resulted in the problem experienced. I took an end plate off an old one, rebuilt it and placed it on my 65 where it is now functioning without problem; I have put the NOS one from the 65 back on to the 62.
The other noise took a little tracking down, it was a definite mechanical\rotational noise and was from the drive shaft from the distributor. using a screw driver I ran some oil carefully under the plate holding the points and the noise stopped.
Finally an exhaust leak has started from cylinder 3 and this is as a result of failure of the gasket between the head and the exhaust flange. I have fixed with sealant for the time being and will remove the exhaust to replace after the next 2 weekend's events.
On top of the mechanical issues the passenger door then decided it didn't want to open from the inside or the outside. I stripped of the door panel and released the door mechanism and think I will have to do more work to resolve.
Fingers crossed now for a couple of weekends of trouble free motoring.

Quick VolksWorld 2011 update

Just back from the show where my 62 won one of the top 20 car prizes and where best in show was won by the amazing CSP drag racer. A big thanks to Ivan, Adrian and all the team at VolksWorld for a fantastic show; it was amazing to win an award at a show that is predominately focused on the custom scene and which is full of cars of such a high quality and finish that they take your breath away.
There were 7 T34s present, both Clive and Janet Richardson had their cars present, Steve Wright's car was there, Mark Poulton had his restored 68, resplendid in marathon Blue\dark blue with marathon wheels to give a take on what a car might have looked like if production had continued through to 1972. Mike and Dee Shaws car was also present along with my 62 and of course the CSP car.
Clive's car was used as a photo opportunity for show attendees who wanted to celebrate 50 years of the T3\34 by having their photo taken in the car. My car was featured on a revolving stand as part of the celebration of 50 years of the Type 3 model range with 2 other amazing T3s and also set amongst a collection of other fantastic T3s including Mark Poulton's car. More in a few days and here are a few photos meantime.

Engine problem progress

I might have found the problem with the car. I was doing a compare and contrast between my NOS carb which I fitted during the rebuild and the one that came with the replacement engine and which I removed at the rebuild but have now refitted to the car.
In the lower half of the carb casing there is a drilling in the side wall that feeds fuel from the accelerator pump to the top half of the casing and onward to the various venturi. Missing from this was a small brass plunger that presumably amplifies and\ or regulates the flow of fuel through the drilling. Presumably its absence could have led to flooding of the carb and its' cutting out; Paul Medhurst at Type 3 Detectives has confirmed could be possible.
I have taken the brass plunger out of another carb and it has now been re-tuned following which the engine seems to be going OK when really warm but still stationary without any load.
Here is a picture of the NOS carb showing the brass plunger resting outside of the drilling in the top right hand corner.
I won't be able to test drive it until Thursday now and so I have a neighbour on stand by to get the car to the VolksWorld show by trailer on Friday if I have further problems. I don't like having a trailer queen for a car but having committed to get it to the show that's what I'll have to do.

The Bad, Good, Bad news - Engine problems

The engine in the 62 has never run as smoothly as I would have liked. I have spent hours resetting timing, tappets etc and still it feels lumpy and juddery once warmed up. My friend who built the engine with me came around yesterday and we logically went through tappets, timing, points etc but it made little difference. We concluded the problem lay on the fuel side and so today, one at a time, I replaced the fuel cut off valve, fuel pump and then all that was left was the NOS carb that I fitted.
I dug out the original carb for the engine, took off all the crud from the outside and then stripped it and cleaned every part of it. As soon as I put it on the car and started it then the car sounded as I would expect it to with no uneven running. It was smoking heavily so I rest the idle and volume settings and the rich running and smoking disappeared.
I took the car out for a quick spin, what a transformation - it ran like a train all the way to the next village, I turned around to come back and then 150 yards away from home the engine just died. I managed to get it around the corner into our road and could not get it to restart.
After fiddling with it for over an hour and changing the wire from the coil to the points as it had a crack it it (desparation as there was spark at the points!) I managed to get it going again and into the garage. It started OK later on but I have no confidence in it and have a journey to make on Friday morning around one of the UK's busiest stretches of motorway to the VolksWorld show where it is due to be on display.
Potential culprit at the moment if it remains as a fuel problem will definately be the carb as I swapped back the fuel pump\cut off jet and so could be:
- May be the accelerator pump - I'll strip the top off the NOS carb and look at how much fuel it pumps up through the drilling compared to the one on the car and change the diaphram if needs be.
- The float needle valve - I put in what looked to be a good free moving one when I rebuilt the carb as the original was sticking but it was also stuck shut when I took it apart again - only problem is the carb was full of fuel so it is unlikely to be the problem. It's an easy change so I will do it anyway.
- probably crap adjustment of the idle\volume screw settings by me, although I followed the VW manual for the settings.
Anyway, keep your fingers crossed as I don't want to let the guys at VolksWorld down and have already found a trailer in case I have to resort to that to get it to the show.

The Good News - paint roof problems

I got the cat back from Frankie's paint shop on Thursday Morning and the roof looks great - big thanks to Frankie & Lee.
The roof trims went back on easily and I inserted a little dumdum paste into each trim to make up for the missing thin rubbers that usually assist with their rattle free fitment.

Chris Leonard

Chris - If you are reading my posts then just to let you know I can't respond to comments left in the guest book and you didn't leave any direct contact details so I can help you re the T34 Register. Leave me a comment against this post with your contact details and I will come back to you and put you in touch with the T34 Register and T34 World\James Kramer who is one of the Australian t34 reps.

Roof paint problems

About 6 months ago a crack appeared in the paint on the roof by the gutter at the rear of the passenger side.
Unfortunately Brackley Paint who did the paint work have now changed hands but the good news is that Frankie who worked there and knows the car well now runs his own paint and bodyshop. I took the car into Frankie's body shop today after removing the gutter trims and we popped out the rear screen. The roof will be repaired and resprayed ready for me to collect and bring home on Thursday morning, ready for prepping for next week's Sandown Park VolksWorld show. Here's a link to Frankie's website.

http://www.frankiespaintshop.co.uk/

Spring has arrived - hopefully

With some decent weather over the last few days I took the opportunity to check and reset the timing and valve clearances on the engine. The car ran very well for the first few miles, better in fact than ever. After a few miles I could smell oil; it turned out to be a split in the oil dip stick rubber bellows and oil was coming out in minute quantities and dripping on to the exhaust - easily solved with a new rubber boot.
On the way back after identying the oil leak it was running a little lumpy so may need to check the carb settings next.

Repro front bonnet\boot rubber

When restoring my 62 I could not find a correct profile front bonnet strip. the one I used was from our club, the KGOC (GB)and was not a very good fit, leaving the bonnet sticking up proud of the wings.
I noticed last week that Ruediger Huber at Eratzteileservice in Germany was offering a replacement strip so I sent off for one.
The price is euro 52 plus tax and post and it comes in 'yardage' i.e. not assembled to the shape required to fit over the raised centre profile section at the scuttle end of the bonnet.
This is not a problem as there is more than enough yardage, even if you get making the cuts\angles required wrong first time round.
The strip is an exuded dense foam that is sealed to stop water ingress, it is rather blacker and shinier than the original material which was a matt\grey finish and powdered. The god news is that with a trial location of the major part of the strip it was an excellent fir, allowing the bonnet to close correctly - this means I can stop stealing the original VW one from my 65 when ever I want to take out the 62 now.
I will make up a template to enable others to create a good replica rubber and post details when i have done it. Go below for details.

www.karmannghia.de
e-mail: info@karmannghia.de

Pre 66 model pointed bumper overriders

I thought it was about time I got the early pointed style bumper overriders from my 65, fitted to models up to and including the 1965 model year, rechromed.
These are made out of aluminium; many people think they are made of Mazak or pot metal but they are actually cast aluminium.
I had one rechromed when rebuilding the 1962 car by The London Chroming Company, it was them that confirmed they are aluminium and they made a fantastic job of refinishing it. These will be going off to them shortly and I am hoping they come out just as well and restore a correct feature to my 65 that has been missing for many years.

Scratches to drivers' side door window

The trailing edge of the drivers side door window had some very deep scratches in it; there were probably about 20 of them each up to 2.5" (6cm) long.
I found a company called glass polish who do commercial repairs to sheet glass windows etc. following damage\vandalism, they also offer a do it yourself kit to help car owners repair their car windows.
I bought one of their kits which consists of 2 grades of special sanding discs and a polishing compound plus pads to attach to your drill and a small water sprayer.
I have used the kit and it has made a great job in removing the scratches, which is all well and good as the early 62 door glass is 2cm longer than subsequent windows and therefore very hard to replace.
For more info go to www.glasspolishshop.com

March VolksWorld Magazine

It was great to see my car featured in the March edition of Volksworld; it will also be part of the 50 years of the type 3 celebration at the VolksWorld show at the end of March.