New Bits

I located a few new bits for the car during the last few weeks through the ever Trusty The Samba site.

managed to find an NOS horn and an NOS distributor vacuum advance unit. The vac advance is on the way to me from the US with help from Jason Weigel who kindly acted as post box as the seller wouldn't ship to the UK. Thanks buddy.

I had to rob the engine of the 62 of its nice shinney new generator, the one on my 65 packed in. Giving it new bushes and a general strip and clean did no good so must be a fault in the windings. Charlie Harlock had a recon/boxed one for sale so i have bought that for the 65 and the shinney one will go on the 62 soon. Charlie also had a side draft carb mounting nut spanner so i relieved him of that at the same time.

Hey Charlie, I'm not only recycling yours parts, but the pictures from your blog as well - but wait a minute, isn't that the early air cleaner I sold you!!

1969 model auto T34

Here is a photo of John Figg's Sept 68 Automatic. It is a really nice car, total rebuild before John bought it and with some nice personalised touches on it. It's also right hand drive, making it a one of the few RHD autos surviving.

In about 1984 I sold a 1968 auto on behalf of the widow of a guy who used to be connected to Doyle Dane & Bernbach. They were the advertising agency that did all the great 1960s VW ads. the car had been a gift from VW to the owner and it was in reasonably good running condition when I sold it on for the owner. The owner was Nigel Miller from the south of England, I think Croydon - are you still out there Nigel?

Toolkit

Here are a couple of nice shots of the original period tool roll i picked up at the VW classic event in California during 2004. the tools mostly came from my own stash of spare ones and make a complete and correct set.

Oil thowers fitted (nearly)

I decided to fit the oil throwers to the rear drums as it was an easy job. The right rear went on with no problem, other than the anti-rattle clip for the spring connecting the top of the brake shoes together got in the way of the thrower as it rotated with the drum. The fix was to slide the clip to one side of the spring, a better way might be to take the clip off and reverse the direction of fit from the norm. (the eagle eyed amongst you might notice the hand brake balance bar is upside down as well - it is the for the other side and i still need to source the correct one)

When I went to fix the left rear I discovered that the drum, which was a new one and about the best mechanical part of the car when bought, was a later one with no drain hole for the thrower to fit into. I shall have to machine one in before the thrower can go on. Here are some photos of the fitted item, and thanks Doug for the free gift of them!

Work planned for February

I have a few small things on the list for Feb. I will be installing the rear drum oil throwers that I have just stripped and sprayed and also the new upper and lower ball joints that I got from BerT3. In the meantime I am slowly starting to mount things back onto the bare body work to check everything fits and make the mounting holes for various badges etc. Should keep me busy!

Flaps & Flashers

Not a great deal to report in January. Main piece of progress was buying a pair of the correct Hella indicator side repeaters. Scott Taylor kindly took delivery of them in the US and posted them on - thanks Scott.

I had 2 other sets, which i lost temporarily, but both were repros and not the right colour and would have looked wrong on the black bodywork.

My mate Charlie Harlock has acquired some white chevron mudflaps and was asking if they would fit T34s. I dug out the original factory option ones that came with my 65 and the new white VW ones that I have lined up for the 62.

The bottom dimensions of both of these and the ones Charlie has are all the same, as are the pieces that wrap around the wing. The main difference in my two pairs is the iron work. the original ones have a taller upper section and a cross bar fitting, the later ones have a shorter upper section and a side clamp - I have fitted both to my T34 and they both work as well as each other.

So if you want a pair of these click on charlie's link at the side of my blog (White Notchback) and send him a mail. You'll just have to make your own brackets by the looks of things.

Happy New Year

The car is now back from John's bodyshop. All the minor remaining repairs are complete including fitting the headlight bowls, repairing the roof, mending the rear boot which was distorted when blasted and adjusting the passenger sill to fit the new door (profile of the sill was poor and the NOS door had some distortion in it as well)

Many other small repairs were needed and John then spent hours lead loading the panels to get good panel gaps etc.

In the meantime I have been stripping down 6 volt horns and rebuilding the decent ones, so far only one has been good enough for re-use.

On a small down side Charlie Harlock (White 62 notch) had spotted a NOS rear drivers side early overrider for sale on the Samba and mailed me as he knew I wanted one - unfortunately late nights from work meant I logged on after it was gone. Thanks Charlie.

My next activity is going to be trial fitting all lights and as much trim back onto the car to make sure everything fits.

Body work update

I went over to the bodyshop earlier this week. John has now repaired the rear boot lid that the blaster managed to distort and also repaired the hole in the roof above the drivers side windscreen pillar.

The new door acquired in Germany last year also required a little adapting to give a good fit along with some alterations to the fit of the front wing.

Various minor holes, revealed by the blasting, have been addressed and the headlight bowls have been fitted after some minor adjustments to the wings to ensure a good fit.

It just remains for some areas to be lead loaded and then the car will be ready to bring back home in the next couple of weeks.

It's come a long way from the state it was in shown in the above photo, I now can't wait to get the paint done and will be firming up my choice of paintshop over the next few months.

This is what it should look like

Thought I would post a couple of pics of how the car originally looked in solid black and how it will look once it is finally finished back in its original colour scheme.

Having a car that is the same as in a brochure makes it easier to imagine what the finished result will be when it started its restoration so far a way from this.

Wanted - roof gutter trims

I have managed to acquire 5 roof trims lately from Lee Hedges and Sam Manis in the US. Unfortunately my anodiser says he cannot get a good result on any of them due to various dents, twists and deep scratches on individual ones.

Does any one have a really good pair, without dents, bends, twists or really deep scratches that they could sell to me? post me a comment on the site if you do and I will reply.

A few new mechanical pieces sourced

Doug Gray has kindly donated a pair of the oil throwers fitted to the rear drums to my restoration - thanks Doug! Does anyone have any photos of these fitted, with the car away at the body shop I am wondering how they fit in.

Just bought a set of the 62/63 early ball joints with greas nipples from BerT3 for the car. I can't detect any great play in the existing ones, one of which is an original nippled one, and will decide if to replace them all when the car comes back from the bodyshop and I start stripping down the torsion bars, it would probably be daft not to replace them at that stage.