Huey - RHD Single Cab

[ProfessorWheeto]

Well had the post mortem on my engine.
Luckily my crank, cam, heads, pistons and barrels are all ok. Basically the bearings have just spun in the case. Found two more problems with the engine as well, one was my fault, I had a problem with the oil pump cover leaking so put some gasket sealant on the cover. Unfortunately I'd put a bit too much on and it had squidged out into the pump. The other problem was when the previous owner of the engine had done the rebuild he'd obviously struggled to get a piston or barrel off and had solved the problem by battering it with a hammer. This meant I had big shards of metal hanging around in the case :roll:
Anyway, at least I won't have to spend as much as I expected to!

Finished off sound proofing and insulating the roof..

Just got the front panel left to do now.

And finally my American size plate turned up, also trial fitted my Notek Roadmaster.

 

[gninnam]

Doing a cracking job there 8)
Glad the engine hasn't turned out to be too bad

 

[easy]

Quality work fella 8)

 

[ProfessorWheeto]

Thanks guys!

Glad the engine hasn't turned out to be too bad

Me too! My £700 parts estimate did look a little scary, I think my land lady is happier now I can pay the rent on time as well :lol:

 

[ProfessorWheeto]

Bought some patches the other day that I plan to have stitched onto the seats once they are recovered...

Got some plastic back on the doors to stop the door cards going soggy

Cleaned and painted all my tin wear with high temperature paint

Got some new shiny things to play with as well

 

[ProfessorWheeto]

Been busy lately so the van had been put on the back burner a bit.

Also more investigation into the engine has showed that the main bearings on the crank had been moving inside the case causing some wear. This means once assembled there is up and down movement on the crank rather than the usual fore and aft endfloat movement.
I'm not really keen on having the case linebored as want replacement bearings to be easy to get hold of. I wasn't too keen on splashing out on a new case and I remember hearing a while back of a dodgy batch of cases in circulation.
Luckily the boss has aquired a vehicle for breaking with a case. As its for breaking I could make some modifcations for ease of engine removal....

Top bolt was a tad tight, but a doddle from this angle. When I get another beetle I'm definatly going to make an access panel here in the load area.

And now I have two complete long blocks to try and make a good one out of...

 

[ProfessorWheeto]

Ok so yesterday I stripped the new donor long block down to a case...

The conrods felt alright on the crank and although there was a bit of endfloat I didn't really see why the case should be split. This meant I could transfer my 1600 b+ps etc and start rebuilding my engine...

Fitting the barrels without removing them from the pistons

One side done....

Then started to refit tinware and ancilleries

Also got this...

and some stickers

Today the valve gaps have been done and I was shown how to set the end float. I built the engine up fully and refitted it..

Fitted the exhaust and got it to fire, did have some problems with the fan running but this was due to the alternator moving slightly.

Got a few bits to do tomorrow and should be able to drive it

 

[gninnam]

Looking good so far 8)
Not sure about the snap on stuff though - i'll make sure it gets the correct home :wink:

 

[ProfessorWheeto]

:lol: I'm intending to hang on to all my snap on gear, my first lot of it all got nicked about a year ago :roll:

So this was wednesday night..
http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j268/professorwheeto/?action=view&current=12112008001-1.flv" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thursday got the fan sorted out and drove it to get petrol, then home and then over to my dad's.

All was going fine until heading to my dads the clutch started slipping, once parked on his driveway Huey decided to dump half a litre of oil.
I diagnosed this as a **** quality flywheel oil seal, so drove it back to the workshop.

In the morning I was greeted with a very good impression of a snail...

You put your engine in, your engine out, in, out, in, out and you put your back out. You do the engine hokey cokey and you want to cry, thats what its all about....

Got a new friction plate as well

And saturday morning it was sitting on the drive at home

 

[ProfessorWheeto]

Been getting some use out of the van now.
Got my drop sides down from their hiding place and took all the hinges off. I added some bolts to them and they are now anchor points to strap things down...

The day after I was helping my house mate clear the garage out and got four double matresses on the back.

Anyway been doing slight tweeks to the van as I've been running it so its constantly improving.
Bought a bike stand from Halfords the other week and today was the first time to see if it worked how I planned it too....

 

[ProfessorWheeto]

So this afternoon I went and got some mdf...

Finished off sound proofing..

And then started making a back panel to fit my 6x9s to

 

[Tiki-Al]

thats a really original looking bus you got there dude... i love it! where did you get the cool number plate surround. 8)

 

[Grazy]

Come on ALOT recently mate and lookin good . Shame about the few teething problems but we all get em hey . Keep up good work dude , If you have any stickers left drop me a PM please as I am after all the sticker i can 8)

 

[ProfessorWheeto]

thats a really original looking bus you got there dude... i love it! where did you get the cool number plate surround. 8)

Cheers dude, I found it in the for sale section on VZi. Think the guy was having a bit of a clear out of stuff he'd collected.

Come on ALOT recently mate and lookin good . Shame about the few teething problems but we all get em hey . Keep up good work dude , If you have any stickers left drop me a PM please as I am after all the sticker i can 8)

Well yeah its to be expected I guess! Before it got put on the boat the van had been sitting for a while and as you can see from the beetle my donor crankcase had been laid up for over a decade as well!
Your a sticker fiend as well then? http://www.sherwoodsigns.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; is my dad's company so if you need anything bespoke making up I'm sure we could sort something out. If I come across any spare stuff I'll hang on it for you anyway.

And todays update...
Finished off the back panel and mounted the speakers...

Nice and discreet

Started making the headliner, luckily we have at genuine VW one to use as a template

The passenger side door card was kippered at the bottom so made one up

And the passenger side kick panel was missing to used the drivers side as a template

The drivers side sun visor was manky so stripped it all down and made a wooden one. I made the visor slightly taller as I tend to slouch on the wheel so the stock visors don't really block the sun out

The passenger side visor was polystrene so I just stripped the manky old covering off it

Fitted the door cards, the plan is for the speakers to be covered over by the door card material. I chose to screw the door cards in as flappy door cards annoy me and those bloody clips are a nightmare!

Just need to fit the headliner.
On the lookout for some material now!

 

[ProfessorWheeto]

Headliner didn't quite work as planned, in a normal bay there is a bit more metal to fix the back edge to but in this there is next to nothing so rather than the wood sitting outside the metalwork next to the headliner clips I've had to chop it down and fit it inside. When I fit the material I'll just leave the few inches at the edges unglued and pull them tight into the clips so it will look smooth.

Also dug my heater pipe out, primed it and painted it so may even have the luxury of heating soon!

 

[ProfessorWheeto]

Done a few little bits and bobs today...

Got a new switch to act as the "ignition" live feed for the stereo, got another one for when I wire up my fog light. Thought they were perfect for the job as they light up in the ON position

Off to the diner tomorrow so wired up a cig lighter so I can plug my sat nav in. Cost me nowt and its genuine VAG, I liberated it from an audi 100 that was off to the scrap yard

Wired in the sub, although now I'm not sure about it. Can't really hear it that much in the cab so probably going to have to get rid of it and buy one that I can fit in the cab.

This really didn't want to fit, I think skippy pushed the metal work related to the air vent in when he bounced off the front panel. So its a bit of a gash way of fitting it but I didn't really have much choice (Unless I'm being a div and there are two types of early vent as the van didn't have one when I got it?)

And plumbed the heat exchangers up so I've now got the luxury of tepid ankles :lol:

 

[combideluxe1969]

good job :wink:

 

[panalvan]

Heater pipe is upside down mate may fit then

 

[ProfessorWheeto]

Heater pipe is the right way as the mounting tabs are on the top, holes line up with stock kick panels and the louvres face downwards.

Last week saw the first 1000 miles rack up on the speedo.
Fitted some new shiny bits, just need to do the wiring now.

 

[ProfessorWheeto]

Managed to find another Notek for a bargain £12!