Side window trims + Remote rear hood release

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Michael

With the headliner and rear parcel shelf now installed the next things to get installed are the trims that fit around the side windows. The whole area has an extruded aluminium trim that sits in a rubber channel, this fits from the base of the A Pillar, along the roof, down the rear of the C pillar and back along the bottom of the aperture to the door opening.

The trim section helps to hold the roof lining in position and finishes the roof lining off. I had previously sent the aluminium trims out to be polished.  Normally these trim sections are plated with a bright finish similar to anodizing (but not the same), however I decided to polish them which gives a shinier finish. The trims were then waxed to prevent oxidation.

There are a few articles in the library about trim refinishing and from memory at least one Registry member has had their trim re-plated in the correct finish (the name of the process escapes me at present – maybe they will chime in!?). With my restoration not being concourse this gives me license to do things a little differently, which in some cases makes things easier, but in other cases does not :) .

With the trims refinished, I also purchased a new length of rubber trim from Rudiger Huber (www.karmannghia.de) a great source for those hard to get parts. The rubber is sold in a single length long enough to do both sides of the car.

Originally the trim is nailed into position, the nail is simply driven through the trim and rubber into the steel surround (the carpets and several other trim pieces are held in position in a similar manner) I opted to replace the nails with a low profile stainless steel screw, partially as I did not have the correct nails, but also so that if for some reason I needed to remove the trim in the future, it would be easy to do so.

With the main trim in position I then fitted the front A pillar cover trim. I had also had this trim re-polished. The cover trim sits underneath the aperture trim and tucks under the front screen rubber, it covers the complete A pillar and gives the appearance that the A pillar is made of aluminium.

Next I fitted the B pillar in position. As with the rest of the brightwork I had these re-chromed. The rubber trim at the top needs to be trimmed to allow the B pillar to be fixed into position. At the bottom there is a small rubber trim piece that sits underneath the B pillar itself. The B Pillar is fixed with a single set screw at the top and a self tapping screw at the bottom. Unfortunately this is about as far as I could get with the side windows as I had to order the door and quarter window aperture seals.

Remote Boot Release

As the theme of the car is a mild custom, there are a few things that I’ve done here and there to ‘improve’ or customise the appearance. One of these is to remove the rear boot release. I did this to tidy up the rear panel, which I always considered to be a bit spoiled by the addition of the rear hood release. Other modifications include shaving the passenger door lock, welding up the sill (rocker) trim holes, welding up the badge mounting holes and panel beating the front badge protrusion to smooth it out.  I did at one stage consider removing the spot lights (same as on my old ’69) but decided against it.

Originally I had considered fitting a solenoid type rear hood release but then decided to do something more in keeping with the car. I purchased a generic cable pull hood release kit and obtained a broken front hood release knob. The idea here was to use the longer cable but fit the correct style pull knob.

Changing the knobs over was relatively easy, and would also work for repairing a broken cable. I simply cut off the crimped part of the knob, re-drilled the end to accept the cable and then re-crimped it using a combination of vice top, cold chisel and hammer.

The release cable was mounted in the front of the rear seat base, the cable was then carefully threaded through to the back of the rear wing (you can just about poke it through the ‘razor’ line of the wing – there is a bulkhead separating the two areas).

From inside the wing space I then threaded the cable through into the bottom of the air dam area where I drilled a hole in the bulkhead adjacent to the oil filler. The cable then exits into the engine bay area where it loops around to go back through the bulkhead to meet up with the hood catch.

The hood catch was drilled to allow the cable to be fitted to it by the use of a cable clamp (supplied as part of the hood release kit), and fitted with a return spring so that the catch returns to the correct position.

All in all it only took a few hours to get it up and running and works perfectly – including the retaining hook which prevents the hood from simply flying open. It’s completely unobtrusive too – unless you are sitting in the engine bay, the cable is completely hidden from view.

With the rear hood release fitted I can actually close the rear hood, which means that apart from the rear quarter windows the car is now weather proof.

Posted in Exterior, Interior | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Rear Parcel Shelf Installation

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Michael

As with assembling most things, whether an Ikea flat pack, or a classic car, the order in which things are put together is pretty important. This is especially true of the Type 34 interior. The interior trim is installed in such a way that each part must be fitted in the correct order. The headlining is the first part in this jigsaw puzzle, it fits underneath the front and rear screen rubbers and also the side trim around the door aperture and so needs to be installed first. Next is the rear parcel shelf. This also fits underneath the rear screen rubber, much the same way that the headlining does.

My rear parcel shelf was too badly warped to be reused, but I had carefully stored it for use as a pattern. Unfortunately I could not find it, and so had to make one from scratch. My guess is that somewhere between the UK and here, and several moves in between, it simply got lost. Not too worried, I set about locating some suitable card.

Finding a bit of card large enough was not an easy task, the overall dimension is larger than most art suppliers stock (it’s bigger than A0), fortunately I managed to find a stockist that had some oversize stuff in stock. The card I used was 2mm thick, which is thick enough to retain it’s shape but thin enough to bend up to the rear screen.

Cutting out the shape was simple enough, I simply laid the car over the rear parcel shelf and cut it out oversize, allowing me to trim it down to size afterwards. With the shape determined, I cut some ‘darts’ around the bends to allow the card to bend into shape. The idea here is to get the card to sit so that it wedges into position between the front lip of the shelf and the rear edge. After a small amount of trimming It looked pretty good. At this stage it’s important to go and find the vent trim cut out the aperture for and make sure that it fits by screwing it in position. once you are happy it’s time to cover it.

I decided to use the same material as the headlining to cover the shelf. This is not technically correct as originally it would have been covered in the same vinyl material as the door cards, which incidentally would also be a lot more forgiving to fit as it is a little heavier than the headlining material. But being a custom, that’s what I wanted.

I started by clipping the material in position in much the same way I did for the headliner – as I blogged about in this post. Using the same technique I started in the middle and worked my way outwards until the creases had been removed. Once happy with the fit I un-clipped one side at a time and applied the contact adhesive.  I used the same glue that I did for the headliner, a special automotive contact adhesive that is heat resistant and will not come unstuck on hot days.

The trick is to apply the glue to the face of the card and approximately 3/4 of the way up the card. The last part of the material is not glued and naturally forms the remainder of the curve. The material is then glued to the window seam in the same manner as the headliner was. At this stage the front edge of the shelf is not glued, it is simply left clipped in position.

Once you have done both sides, it’s time to turn your attention to the inside. The material should be glued tightly to the inside of the front edge of the shelf, to the face of the shelf and then underneath the shelf. One thing to note here is that on the top in the centre there is a hook mounted to hook the seat retaining strap to. I checked before fitting the shelf that I could access the holes from underneath. This made it easy to poke the holes through from underneath to locate the position that the hook mounted in.

[installed rear shelf]

The hardest part of the whole job was removing the creases from the material around the part where the glass curves forwards, the material has a tendency to ‘gather’ here and the excess material is hard to stretch out. I managed to get almost all of the creases out but was still left with one or two. I’m sure that there is a technique to help get rid of these – perhaps using a heat gun, or entrusting it to the professionals, but despite the creases, which are mostly hidden beneath the window rubber, I’m pretty happy with the results.

Posted in General, Interior | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Not every Ghia has a silver lining

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Michael

It’s been a few weeks since I posted a progress update,  not because I’ve not done anything, but simply as I’ve been too busy to be able to to spare the time to blog about it. If you’ve been checking my photo stream you would have noticed that I did manage to upload some pictures of what I’ve been up to and you would have noticed that the build is ticking along nicely.

The main work that has been carried out since my last update is the installation of the headlining. I had originally booked this into the same trim shop that trimmed my seats, but after several postponements, I got fed up with waiting for them and decided to do it myself. I had already purchased the headlining material when I ordered my carpet set from Spirit of the 50′s this must have been some 10 years ago and unfortunately both the carpet set and headlining material had been folded up in the original packaging. Whilst not a major issue, this did leave some creases in the material.

I decided the best thing to do was to try to iron out the creases and so set about it with the iron and ironing board. Unfortunately, the heat required to remove the creases also flattened the pattern in the material (it has a raised textured pattern).  In spite of this I decided to press ahead, I’ve previously installed convertible hoods with similar creases and they eventually drop out, so decided that it wasn’t too much of an issue.

The material I chose is a non standard material that is not perforated and has a textured pattern to it. It’s a silver grey colour to match the car and interior (grey leather and carpets). One great thing about this headliner is that it stretches in both directions meaning that it is much easier to fit than a standard headliner which only stretches in one direction, this makes removing ripples and creases much much easier. This is not something that I knew when ordering it, but would advise anyone wanting to fit their own headliner to consider.

Being a sunroof car, the headliner would have originally had a zipper parallel to the rear window to allow emergency access to the sunroof motor, I obtained a correct length zipper some time ago and set about fitting it. Whilst my sewing machine skills are not exactly up there with the likes of Bernard Newbury, I can usually turn out a reasonable job with stuff like this. Sure it will not be 100%, but it’s all my own handiwork and is still better than some professional jobs I’ve seen. I did a few trial runs to work out how the material behaved and found that it was almost impossible to replicate the way that the zipper had originally been installed. The main issue was that originally the zipper was not sewn into a seam, but into the middle of a solid piece of material. This left relatively little material left to hem the zip in.

After battling with this for some time I decided that I had two options – Install the zipper in a seam, or leave it out altogether. I decided the latter. My reasoning is that if the motor fails, I can simply remove the rear screen to get access, and if the sunroof is stuck in the open position and I need to get access to the gearbox to close it, I will simply cut the headlining and replace it.

So, with this small issue  solved, I finished making the headlining (it has one seam sewn in for a headlining bow) and pegged it to the washing line in the sun to heat it up a little and hopefully assist in removing the creases from storage. It also allowed me to easily fit the support bow.

Installing the headlining involves patience, and a LOT of bulldog clips. It’s not a hard thing to do, and probably much easier with a non-sunroof car. (If you are not of a patient disposition, you might want to entrust this to the professionals). The first issue that I found was that the headliner bows that I had were all the wrong length. There are three different length bows on a standard coupe, and whilst the rear one should be the same length for both the coupe and the sunroof models, I found that the one I had appeared to be too long. Easily fixed – I cut some off of the end of it, only to find out that now it was too short :( Fortunately, I managed to find a suitable length of steel and made a new one – to the correct length.

Being a sunroof car the sunroof aperture is fitted with a thin foam surround to help soften the appearance of the headlining material around the aperture.  I glued this into position using a contact adhesive. The contact adhesive that I used was a proper automotive trim glue, this is good for higher temperatures and will not come unstuck on hot days. It’s an aerosol spray glue made by Auto-Parts and is by far the best stuff I’ve used. The stuff generally recommended is 3M Super Trim Adhesive, Part No. 051135-08091 but this is not available here in Aus. I got the Auto-Parts stuff from Rare Spares – just up the road to me.

With the glue dried, foam bits in position and the bow fitted in place into the holes in the roof, the next job was to roughly peg the material to the roof. I used bullldog type clips, which I purchased from a local ‘cheap-as-chips’ shops for something like $2 for a tub of 50 odd clips. The trick here is to work from the centre of the apertures outwards. Initially I fixed only the front and rear screen apertures, and then when I was happy, I did the same for the side apertures, using the roof gutter to clip the material to.

I found that the corners were the trickiest, the rear corners being the worst.  The issue here is that the material that has been stretched from the centre has a natural tendency to want to crease, and so these creases need to be ‘worked’ out by carefully tensioning the material on each side of the roof support. I also found that it helps to trim the material to the correct length as the excess material has a natural tendency to crease up, but make sure you are happy with the rest of the fit before you cut, as once you have cut it there is no turning back.

With the headlining stretched into position, I left the car overnight to let the material settle. A good trick here, especially if you are in a colder climate is to do this is a heated environment or place a heater inside of the car. I did this when fitting my convertible hood to my old Triumph. Fortunately the weather is better here in Australia.

In the morning I found that the headlining was still looking good so decided to leave it and move on to the pillar trim. Originally the front and rear roof pillars were covered with headlining material. I decided to cover the rear pillars but leave the front ones painted. Fortunately I retained all of the old trim and so made a pattern from the old covers, I then stretched these into position the same as the roof lining – with plenty of bulldog clips. Happy with the fit, I applied some contact adhesive to the pillars and the rear of the material and fixed them position.

With the rear pillar trim pieces in position, I turned to the headlining itself. The trick here is to do one aperture at a time and let the glue set before moving to the next. I started with the rear screen aperture and undid the clips to apply the glue. it’s important to remember that the headlining sits under the window rubber and needs to wrap right over the window flange. When the glue had become tacky, I started at the centre and worked my way outwards – in exactly the same way that I did originally. I used a continual row of bulldog clips to ensure that the material was held tight into the window flange.

After the glue had dried, I then moved on to the front aperture, and after the sides. The trick to remember is always work from the middle outwards.

[finished headliner]

With a coupe, at this stage the headlining would be finished, but being a sunroof car the sunroof aperture needed to be trimmed. To do this I started off by removing the trim pieces and sliding the side rails out, leaving the sunroof cables free.  I then carefully cut a hole in the material leaving a 2 inch excess to fold back around the aperture. I cut ‘darts’ into the material at the corners and folded it back around the aperture using the tried and trusted bulldog clips to hold everything in position. Once happy with the fit I removed one side at a time and glued the material in position. With everything glued in position, the only part left was to cover the sliding panel with the same material and then carefully reassemble everything. With everything now dry, I trimmed the excess material back with a craft knife, and removed all of the bulldog clips to reveal my new headlining in all it’s glory. So whilst not every Ghia has a silver lining, mine now does :)

Posted in General, Interior | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Type 3 EFI trigger wheel

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Michael

If like me you have wondered how or where you can mount the trigger wheel for your EFI Type 3 engine, well ponder no longer, the answer is here :D

I stumbled across this thread over at the Samba, where supersuk outlined an idea to make a trigger wheel that mounted directly to the front of the fan. A stroke of genius really, and simple too.

In a previous blog post I had already considered somehow using the fan as the trigger wheel (it kinda looks like a trigger wheel) but never got past the fact that the VR sensor would not work on the cast aluminium.

The solution is to make a trigger wheel that has no centre and can be bolted to the front of the fan. Just ensure that it follows the form of the fan, thus not impeding the airflow. A head smacking moment really – one of elegant simplicity.

But. Unfortunately it did not look like supersuk’s prototype would be very forthcoming so I drafted up my own version.

I will get some quotes for getting these laser cut from 5mm steel. Drop me a line if you are interested in one.

Posted in Engine | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Rolling, rolling rolling…

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Michael

Rawhide references aside, this weekend broaches yet another milestone in the build. For the past 5 or so years the car has sat on axle stands whilst I tinkered about with different suspension setups, but now, after deciding to postpone my plans for the crazy suspension and fitting a stock (ish) IRS setup, it finally stands on it’s own four wheels again.

After experiencing a few hiccups over the past few weeks, I must admit to being a little disheartened with the build. The first issue I came across was having to finally admit defeat with the wheels I had chosen and source a set with a greater offset, this was the topic of conversation for my last blog.

Well, since then, I have had more bad news. Last week I dropped off the flywheel, crank, fan etc to the engine balancers to get balanced, only to be told a few days later that that crank had a 5 thou bend in the middle. The crank had come as part of a kit that I bought from a mate, who had in turn bought it from one of his mates.

After a bit of detective work I managed to get hold of the original receipt and called up the supplier. The supplier in turn called up the manufacturer (scat), who said that they would straighten it provided that I paid for the postage. Realising that postage to and from the USA would run into a pretty penny (about $500 worth), I opted to find out how much the guy doing the balancing would charge. He advised me that it was not a good idea to straighten the crank as it was very bent and could still possibly be fatigued enough to break / crack. So with this in mind I ordered another crank, but this time from a local supplier.

The original crank was a scat 4130 ‘Volkstroker’ a budget forged crank with 78.8mm stroke. I decided to go with an AA performance 82mm 4130 forged stroker, mostly as the case I bought is already clearanced to accept it, and it was the same price as the shorter stroke. The crank duly arrived earlier this week and currently is with the engine shop being balanced.

The issue I reported on in my last blog post relating to the clearance between the master cylinder and the steering arm has now been fixed. I purchased some bump steer bushes to allow me to flip the ball joint upside down, only to find out that they were for a late model bug when receiving them. Not one to admit defeat easily, I decided that the only course of action was to turn some more down of my own.

I started off by boring out the existing steering arm to 16mm. I then turned down an insert with a shoulder that could be pressed into the hole. I then drilled the insert out to 10mm and turned a 7.5 degree taper into it so that it fitted the ball joint.

With the insert finished, I pressed it into the steering arm, and TIG welded it in place.


With the steering arm finished, I refitted the steering box, steering arms, steering damper and other steering components, and checked that the tracking was roughly correct and that the steering wheel was aligned centrally.

I also removed the engine and gearbox from the car. I will rebuild the gearbox and add some uprated side plate covers, this will then get refitted along with the new engine.

With the front end finished and engine removed, I finished off fitting up the rear end and bolted some wheels in place. it was then time to let it down off of the jack stands. I rolled the Ghia out into the open and decided to give it a quick wash down. Over time the car has got very dirty, from what I’m not 100% sure, but it was mucky to say the least. A quick wash over with a sponge and bucket of warm water did the trick.

The car is now ready go go off and have the headlining fitted, which will hopefully happen Monday week. Then once this is done I can start refitting the interior.

Having rolled the car out of the garage, another thing I managed to take a look at this weekend is the jacking beam that I bought from ebay. This is to fit into my pit and allow me to work a bit easier. It’s probably a bit late for the Ghia – especially considering that brakes and suspension are mostly done, but will no doubt come in very handy in the future. Unfortunately the beam sits a bit too high at the moment, so I will need to add some ‘rails’ into the side of the pit for it to run along. This will allow me to drop it down, I will set these at a height to allow the top of the jack to be flush with the floor.

Posted in Brakes, Engine, Exterior, Suspension | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Wheels and Deals

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Michael

The weekend I turned my attention to getting the rear brakes sorted out. The new backing plates and hub centres finally arrived from the states and so I could fit them up and check out clearances and offsets.

After trial fitting the hubs and taking some measurements I finally conceded that the current wheels are not going to work without some major modifications to both the front and rear ends, which is something that I am currently trying to avoid given that I am trying to meet a September deadline. The offset of my current wheels (ET30) puts the rim too far outwards and the result is that the tyres do not sit inside the arches, not a look that I personally like. Originally Type 3′s are fitted with an ET46 wheel, but most wheels popular in the VW scene are in the ET25-35 range. Whilst this can be made to work with stock braking setups, the 944 Turbo brakes that I have simply do not work with many wheel styles as the wheels foul the calipers.

I pondered a few solutions – modifying the wheels that I already have, by machining the centres out and welding them into other rims was one solution. And whilst certainly achievable (I found a company interstate that could do the work) I decided that I did not want to modify them as they will eventually end up on my 356 (when I have one :D ).

I also looked at the lozzio 17 and 18 inch Fuchs. The Fuchs are a classic wheel and one of my first choices for this project. Unfortunately the 16″ Fuchs I originally bought did not fit over my calipers and so were sold on. The Lozzio wheels would work as I can custom order an offset to work with my brake setup and they have generous clearances for larger calipers, but they are not a cheap option, and have already been fitted on a Type 34 (The KCW Type 34). Whilst this may seem daft to some, I am determined to do something that no one has done before.

The old wheels fitted this bill perfectly, the style generally only being seen on Gary Emory’s outlaw 356′s, and the identity of which he kept a closely guarded secret (well he refused to tell me at least :D ). When I finally managed to source a set, Gary had only fitted painted sets, so to be different I had mine polished, which is a story worthy of a blog post itself. Ironically I now much prefer them painted, but after the trouble it took to get them polished it seems like a sacrilege to paint them again.  The thing I like about these wheels is that they remind me of the old Dunlop wheels fitted to C and D type Jaguars, a favourite car of mine, which is probably why I prefer them painted. The other thing I like about these wheels is that they conceivably could have been a stock fitment, they style suits the car and they are relatively ‘stock looking’, well at least in their painted form that is.

Another wheel that I always considered would look great on a Type 34 is the edelbrock / halibrand wheels fitted to GT40′s, Cobra’s and ‘Eleanor’ in the film ‘Gone in 60 seconds’. Whilst these were only originally available in small sizes, there are plenty of companies making repro’s in a variety of sizes. I did inquire with a few companies, but the offset that I require and the brake clearance required poses a problem due to the wheel style.

So, after much looking I did finally managed to source a suitable wheel, and am shipping a set over from Europe. They’re 16″ same as the old wheels and have enough clearance to fit over the calipers. For the moment I will keep you guessing as to the identity, but they are a little off of the beaten track as far as wheel choice is concerned, and whilst not as period looking in style as my original wheels, they are still plain enough in design to suit my taste and overall design idea for the car.

My second choice was the 928 ‘Gullideckel’ wheels, these are very reminiscent of a ‘mag’ wheel with the elongated slots around the perimeter, They also will fit over the calipers as the 928 uses the same brembo calipers that the 944 Turbo did. These wheels are also pretty readily available, and not generally favored by most due to the massive offset, which in my case is actually a help. Again they are plain in style and look quite good polished up.

With wheel choices made, and nothing more I can do until the wheels arrive I moved on to the rear brake assembly. The rear brakes, as per the front are 944 turbo brakes, this means a vented rear disk and four pot calipers. These are the same calipers fitted to the 996 and boxter models and are a lightweight aluminium monoblock style caliper. My advice to anyone thinking of a Porsche brake conversion is to use these calipers on all four corners of the car, they are easily up to the job and are much lighter than the ‘big reds’. A lighter caliper obviously brings down the un-sprung mass of the front suspension components which helps improve rebound and thus handling (the lighter the hub/wheel/brake combo, the quicker the spring can push it back down towards the road after it is deflected and the longer the tyre stays in proper contact with the road – the same principle applies here as does to valve components – lighter is better)

Stock 944 N/A backing plate – notice the mounting – same as VW IRS

I had to change from the original aluminium 944 turbo IRS arms to early N/A 944  backing plates and Stock VW IRS arms as the 944 Turbo arms increased the track too much. The N/A arm is almost identical to the standard VW IRS arm and the backing plate and spigot hub are interchangeable. The handbrake mechanism runs on the inside of the disc ‘top hat’ and acts like a drum brake, a very clever design.

944 N/A backing plate – notice the brake shoes

Inside of 944 disc acts as a drum brake

The rear brake conversion involves replacing the old backing plate with the 944 part, fitting the 944 hub, disk and caliper. It is almost a straight bolt on swap with the exception of having to make a small modification to make the handbrake cable fit. The Porsche handbrake cable uses a clevis pin to fix it to the brake mechanism in the hub, whereas the VW version uses a simple hook arrangement. To make the VW cable fit the Porsche mechanism it has to be modified. These parts are available to buy already done and are commonly referred to as ‘swan necks’. I opted to modify mine as I had the tools to do so.

Stock 944 e-brake mechanism – cable attaches with clevis pin

‘swan’ and part to modify it for use with VW cable

Modified ‘swan’ and cable adaptors

I opted to cut and shut my existing ‘swan’. If you choose to do this, beware as it is made of hardened steel, so it is imperative to use the correct type of metal, or it will end up bending or breaking in use.

With the ‘swan’ modified to take the stock VW cable the only other issue was to enable the VW cable to fit the Porsche cable tubes. This involved turning some adaptors to allow the cable and tube to align correctly. Again these are available over the internet, so no need to make them if you do not have access to a lathe. I have made a complete guess at the length of the adaptors (based on the photos of the commercially available versions) if there is not enough adjustment on the handbrake I can always turn them down a little more or make up some new ones. Hopefully they should be okay.

944 brakes on VW IRS

With the hand brake mechanism modified I test fitted everything to ensure that it fits. The caliper needs to be shimmed to fit the disk correctly, and I need to source some longer bolts to hold the backing plate onto the IRS arm, but other than these small issues everything fitted up nicely. All that’s left to do is to remove it for a good clean up, fit the new brake shoes and pads and reassemble it.

I still need to finish off fitting the pedal cluster, and also make up a few hard lines for the brakes which hopefully I will get to complete next weekend, then it’s time to add some fluid and get them working. :D

Locke, my 2 year old inspecting the progress. He helps out most weekends.

Posted in Brakes, Suspension | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Steering me in

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Michael

This weekend I turned my attention to getting the rest of the brakes installed. The pedal assembly needed to be fitted and the SACO hydraulic clutch kit installed. The SACO kit replaces the clutch cable with a hydraulic setup which includes a small master cylinder that locates inside of the ‘transmission’ tunnel, and a slave cylinder that mounts where the stock clutch cable normally mounts.

The first thing to do was to locate all of the separate parts of the pedal assembly so that I could trial fit everything together on the bench. I had previously completely removed and disassembled  the pedal assembly as I had the pedal arms chromed.

After rounding up all of the parts I set about refitting the pedal assembly together. The were some components that were still a bit dirty as they had not been cleaned up, so I degreased them and repainted them where necessary. I then reassembled everything to check that the pedals still moved freely and that there was no binding or stiffness – something which may have happened as a result of the chroming process. There was a little stiffness, which I managed to eliminate with some more judicial cleaning and fortunately everything then worked as expected.

Next up was test fitting the hydraulic master cylinder. This sits on the inside of the tunnel and affixes in position through the same bolt holes that hold the pedal assembly in place. To do this the existing captive nuts need to be drilled out, so I wanted to make 100% sure that the setup was going to work before drilling out the threads.

The cylinder is activated by the standard clutch pedal arm. The hook that normally pulls the cable instead pushes the cylinder. The cylinder rod is held to the clutch arm with a clevis pin. The whole assembly is a little fiddly to assemble – even on the bench. Assembling it in the car will certainly be a challenge.

The other part that needed to be fitted is the master cylinder. To drive the larger callipers I’m using a 944 turbo master cylinder, this is a dual circuit master cylinder that locates in the standard VW mounting without any modification. Or so I thought…

My test fit of the master cylinder (some years ago) did not reveal that it actually clashes with the steering arm when on full lock. This is because I must have test fitted it with the front beam removed. After pondering the situation for some time, and trying various different fluid reserviors it was looking like that only solution was to convert to a rack and pinion – a project that I did not want to have to do at this time.

Dual circuit bus reservior

Bus reservoir fitted backwards

I then remembered that you can get ‘bump steer’ kits for lowered beetles that flip the ball joints upside down, reducing the tie rod angle and thus reducing bump steer effect.

I removed the ball joint and did a few tests and determined that this would work and even provide enough clearance to be able to fit the 944 brake fluid reservoir. I also determined that flipping the ball joint over would also have a minimal effect on steering geometry due to the length of the arm, this however would not be the case for the shorter arm, so this will get left as it currently is. So I ordered a set of bump steer bushes and will await their arrival.

Steering arm with ball joint flipped (stock VW remote reservoir fitting installed)

I also received some badge clips that I had ordered so decided to fit the badges. I bought the side marker badges some time back and intended to get them refinished as they are a coppery finish, but I kinda dig the look – they (nearly) match the gold plated Karmann Ghia script that I have on the decklid.

I had the script gold plated as one of the inspirations for my car was the outlaw 356 built by Gary Emory. The colour is an original Porsche 356 colour ‘silbergrau’ and the gold badges are reminiscent of the speedster badges fitted to the side of speedsters.

I also dug out the NOS ‘TS’ badge and pondered fitting it. Originally I did not want to fit it as I liked the clean badge-less look at the rear, but now I’m a little undecided.

Canadian side marker badges.

NOS ‘The Samba’ Badge.

TS Badge fitting instructions

NOS TS Badge

I think I will fit the TS badge, but will get it refinished in gold to match the other badges. I think it looks good against the silbergrau paint (of course I concede that this is not to everyones taste). However, the hardest thing is determining where to drill the holes, as the instructions do not refer to the Type 34, only the Type 3 models.  But at least I have  some photos as a reference…

An original TS badge

Posted in Brakes, Exterior | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Momentous Occasion

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Michael

I finally finished off the engine mounts today. I decided to bolt them in rather than weld them in, mostly as I feel that it will be a lot stronger. To do this I fabricated a plate to fit on the inside of the engine bay tin. This helps spread the load out and reinforce the panel. It will also prevent the bolts from pulling through the metal.

The plate needed to be bent to miss the recess pressed in the panel where the bracket sits, which was easy enough to do on the bender. I then spotted through some holes to allow them to be bolted together.

With the backing plates fabbed up it was time for a trial fit. I removed the engine bar and cleaned up the gunk and gunge from it (the donor engine had leaky oil cooler seals) I then bent the bar slightly rearwards on each side to allow the engine mounts to be fitted to a flat surface. Any further forwards and the engine bay metalwork starts to bend inwards due to the rear wheel well. I trial fitted everything to see how much clearance I had between the carbs and the engine lid, and also between the alternator and the engine lid.

To get the clearance I wanted between the carbs and the engine lid I’ve dropped the rear of the engine  a little, so to make sure everything fitted, I also trial fitted the bellows to make sure that I could get it in position. It was a little tight but eventually I got the bellows in place.

With everything in position, I could finalise the engine mount locations. I spotted through the holes on the brackets and then drilled holes in the engine bay.

With the holes in the engine bay drilled I bolted everything up and fixed the engine bar to the engine mounts.  I then let the weight down off of the engine stands – the engine is finally in!!! This is the first time in probably 20 years that the car has had an engine fitted in it, and a milestone in the build.

After double checking everything, the mounts were taken out again and given a couple of coats of enamel black ready for permanent fitting next week. There’s a couple of welds to do to refix the inner engine bay tin work into position. I had to crack the welds to allow the tin to bend out slightly to fit the mounts into position, I decided that this was easier than re-forming the engine bay tin, which was my original plan. The change in direction was partly as a result of remaking the brackets to be smaller and therefore require less modification to the engine bay tin to fit and partly as I decided to bend the engine bar backwards to allow the mounts to be fitted further back. In total the engine bay tin has only needed to be bent out by about 5-1omm and the overall result is that the mounts do not look too out of place. I’m really happy with the results, and can’t wait to get cracking on the engine build.

All in all a momentous occasion, and one that I’m now celebrating with a glass of red :D

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Over the top?

Posted on July 16, 2011 by Michael

I’ve been pretty busy the past few weeks, so much so that I haven’t even had a chance to blog about what I’ve managed to get done. I’ve really been getting a push on to get the car ready for the 50th anniversary celebrations that we are having in September, and so have been flat out at every opportunity.

If you’ve been reading the blog regularly, then you would recall that last time I had trial fitted the engine into the car to figure out a few things. One of the things that I needed to get sorted was the fabrication of some new IRS engine mounts. Originally the car was swing-axle, but I have changed the rear sub-frame over to a later IRS type.

With no frame-horns (IRS sub-frames do not have frame-horns) the only option to mount the engine is via the same method used with the later IRS cars, this meant fabricating some engine bar mounts to accept the IRS engine mounts.

I started off by making a pattern in card and using this to make a mock-up that I trial fitted into the car. This first mock up did not fit, mostly as there is a lack of space, so I needed to shrink the initial design a little, and make a new template up.

With the template transferred into metal, it was bent up and a hole cut for a stock VW engine mount. I flanged the edge of the hole for additional strength. After trial fitting this I decided to close in the back of the bracket and TIG welded another plate into the back of the bracket. This gave the bracket a lot more strength, and also will make it easier to fit .

Whilst I had the TIG cranked up I decided to weld up the fan. Stock fans are not designed to run at high revs and can run the possibility of exploding. The generally accepted solution is to weld the fan blades. Whilst the engine I’m building is not going to be a screamer, it cost nothing to weld it up and killed an hour or so.

I also picked up the new exhaust system and trial fitted it. A buddy of mine had bought the same exhaust for his Type 34 and had some fit issues. I decided to take the plunge and buy the same system with the expectation that I would have a little work to do making it fit. The system is an ‘over the top’ style system that has the silencer sitting between the collector and the fan bellows, this improves ground clearance and hides the silencer out of sight.

The exhaust fitted quite well but will need a small modification to the flange on the silencer to get it all to line up correctly

As well as exhausts, I’ve been busy with refitting the front end. I repainted the calipers, cleaned up the hubs, and clearanced them to fit new oil seals. Then I refitted them up with new bearings.

I picked up a Type 3 CB Performance IDF kit. This has stubby manifolds and short air filters so that it fits under the deck lid. These will eventually make way for an EFI system, but as they were ‘spare’ I’ve decided to use them. These are actually for my bus, but as that is a long way off of being finished, I decided to put them to good use.

Other goodies I picked up include a brand new AS41 case This has been pre-machined and clearanced by Stan Pobjoy for the 82 x 90.5 kit that I have, and just needs to be full flowed (go figure), which I will do when the NPT tap set turns up that I’ve ordered. I also invested in an engine stand as well, which I mounted as shown. All I need to source is some stainless steel for the bench top to create my clean area for engine assembly.

Other stuff includes… Rear anti roll bar…

…thermostatically controlled fan…

…a bug alternator for an alternator conversion…

…and probably some other stuff that I’ve missed out too.

Tomorrow I’m out in the garage again and plan to get the engine mounts fitted into the car. Assuming all goes well the engine will come out again and I will move onto something else.

I would like to get the pan rolling again but I’m waiting on some 944 backing plates. The rear spindles are fitted up with new bearings and oil seals, but until the 944 stuff turns up that’s as far as I can go on the back.

I might look at refitting the pedal cluster and master cylinder. I can get as far as fitting the front brake lines up, but without the rear hubs I will not be able to make up the hard lines and fill / bleed the system.

Might also look at partially assembling the crank. The crank, flywheel, fan etc need to go off to the balancers so I need to get it all together, this includes fitting the cam gear and distributor drive to the crank.

Will (eventually) keep you posted of the progress

Posted in Brakes, Engine, General, Suspension | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Engine trial fit

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Michael

With the 50th anniversary event slowly creeping up, I’ve got a renewed enthusiasm for the Ghia and I’m managing to get quite a bit done. This weekend I set myself the task of getting the engine in the car as a trial fit so that I could look to fabricate some engine mounting brackets up. Continue reading →

Posted in Engine, Transmission | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment