Gold is a bit different to the norm. I always like the Oettinger beetle with its gold sports wheels: Spent a while with the dremel grinding the bolt holes in the floorpan slightly to get the mounting bolts in as some were 5mm out. Great fun lying in a small dusty gap between the wall and the car getting covered in grinding dust.
Got the remains of the body to chassis bolts tightened down this afternoon. Steering column needs a little tidy up as 15 years of sitting in the shed had left it a little tatty.
Would it be possible for you to give me some measurements with pics of where the floor pan goes as im ready to fit floor pans but my chassis had no floor pans in nore does the body have it's heater channels.... so I'm not sure where the pans go it would really help me out cheers Steve
I think the easiest way is to find the centre of the front bulkhead and the rear under the back seat and do the same with the floorpan spine. Bolt the new floorpans to the heater channels and lower the body on. The outside of the rear 1/4 panel dictates where the channels will fit, the same with the A post bottoms. The problem you'll find is repro pans and heater channels don't have the same dimensions as the original ones so measurements might vary by quite a lot. I bought 2 heater channels at different times and even though they're from the same manufacturer the captive nut positions on one side vary by 5mm or so compared to the other side. I used this diagram of the chassis bolt holes. The holes in the floorpan edges are a lot bigger than the M8 bolts so there is some wiggle room. I still had to grind the holes a bit to get everything to fit anyway.
Cheers for that. I didn' know there was a drawing like that that will do me i know what you mean, repo panels are rubbish had to modifie the frame head bottom plate to fit.
Sanded the inner column and gave it a coat of red oxide. Still need to get some satin black for the outer column.
Steering column painted black. Did the coupler in gloss black too. Test fitted the kick panels and kamei centre console again and they seem to fit OK.
Bolted the column into place and it looks like its got a slight bend at the bottom of the collapsible section. Definately not central in the column tube. Steering box is where it should be. Bolted the steering wheel on to make it easier to turn the steering box. Just need to find the keys so i can turn off the steering lock.
Bolted the steering wheel on to make it easier to turn the steering box. Just need to find the keys so i can turn off the steering lock. View attachment 59994 [/QUOTE] You could try looking at the glovebox, for your keys
They're just the ones for the glovebox lock unfortunately. I know i had them when i rebuilt all the door locks and engine lid lock but that was 6 months back and they were put somewhere safe.
I found one set of keys. In a door handle I'd cleaned and rejigged. Managed to straighten the steering column out. It only required a slight tap with a hammer to make an adjustment. Took about 1/2 an hour to get it completely true though. Nothing catches and no wobbles now. The steering box still could do with being moved about 5mm to the drivers side to get it 100% but I'll have to grind the notch in the steering box clamp a little (or turn it round as it seems to be offset).
Got the axle gaitors bolted on today. Trimmed down the solid fuel line and connected it to the fuel filter with some ethenol resistant hose. Steering bolts all torqued up and the lock tabs bent over. Not sure how many turns lock to lock it should get but theres about 2 1/2 which doesn't seem a lot.
Got the steering box mounting clamp fitted the right way round. It rotated the box upwards by about 5mm and also across towards the drivers side by a few mm which aligned the column in the tube in the bulkhead nicely. The steering coupling is now bolted on with the right sized bolts and all torqued up. I even remembered to fit the spade connection for the horn earth which runs down the column. Its now back on all 4 wheels with the body bolted on and all the suspension and steering too for the first time in who knows how many years. Wing gap at stock height. It might come down a touch with the doors, glass and fuel tank in.
Received the new brushes for my grinder so had a go at the peeling lacquer on one of the EMPI 8 spoke followed by a quick go with my polishing kit. Not too bad considering the condition the lacquer was in. I only did one to see how it worked but now theres another 3 to do.
Found a bit more info about where my bug was sold in May 1970. Centre of Carlisle showroom: Now an Age UK shop. Workshops and later on the showroom: Inside in the 1980's: Now a Wickes. Wonder if it still exists?
3 hours of my life I'm never getting back. Fitted the anti roll bar and the clamps weren't playing ball. Got it done in the end but what a PITA of a job. Bought a gallon of gearbox oil so filled the box. Hose pipe is the right size to fit on the end of a 1L gearbox oil bottle.
Opened the garage doors this afternoon to be confronted by an oil slick Exxon would wince at. Luckily i've got a bucket of sand so i created a mini beach. Turns out i didn't torque the hub nut up on this side as it was just finger tight. Inside of the drum is dry and oil free so its now bolted back together. Fitted the rear shocks while i was under there. Couldn't find the right length bottom bolt so its got nearly an inch of thread sticking out.
Its getting there slowly. Only 79 days until Tatton though. Gonna put some more gearbox oil in and hope it stays where it should this time. The hub nut needs to be 217lbft and my torque wrench doesn't go above 150, so i've used a length or scaffy bar, some basic maths (note to the Americans: maths with an 's' ) and a heavy duty 36mm slogging spanner my dad 'borrowed' from work years ago. Been making up the wiring loom adding wires for the HRW, fog and reverse lights, oil temp, pressure and rev counter gauges, klaxon horn, uprated headlight loom, modern radio and a 12v socket for sat nav etc. Probably doubled the amount of wiring in the car now and theres 6 or 7 new relays too. Still need to get a pair of front flexy brake hoses and banjo bolts and some pipe to make the low pressure brake hosing from the reservoir to the master cylinder as the original steel set rotted out. Not willing to spend £32 for 4 bits of pipe from Machine7 if i can spend just £4 on a metre of stainless steel from ebay and cut my own.