I haven’t updated any of my blogs in a while, but I have been working on my Ghia. At around this time last month, I accomplished the landmark step of getting the body and the pan separated. I had been waiting for some help to do it, since an easy way is to just have a few people over for beers, and have each grab a corner and lift it off. Since I couldn’t get enough people for that, I built a couple saw horses, jacked the car up as high as I could get it, and slipped boards in between the wheel wells and the pan. Propped up with the saw horses, I was able to lower the pan out from under the body until it was sitting on the ground.
Once the two parts were separate, I was able to see that there was minor rusting in the heater channel, which I should be able to repair but cutting out the bad metal and welding in patches. The rust is in an area that will be impossible to see when the pan and body are bolted back together.
I then took about a week break from working on the car while dad finished insulating and sheeting the inside of the shop. We also got things cleaned up a lot, and there’s a ton more room in there now.
Last week, I decided to tear into the long block that I bought in January. There was a lot of grime in it since it had been sitting outside for a while, but it seems like everything was in pretty good shape. There’s some definite wear, so it will have to be align bored, but the case is only on the first oversize bearings, so it should have plenty of life left.
When I finished tearing mine apart, dad put his up on the work bench. As soon as he popped the valve covers off, we noticed a big problem. One of the push rods was inside the case. After getting everything off and the case apart, we found that a connecting rod had snapped, throwing itself at the lifter, snapping it out of it’s housing in the case. His case was toast, so we have been breaking little bits off and lighting them on fire. On of the unique aspects of the VW case being made of magnesium alloy, is that you can get it to burn pretty easily. It burns with a very hot, very bright white flame. You definitely don’t want to stare at it while it’s burning.
Today, made a simple roller for the front part of the pan, and removed the beam. I got the right side of the beam mostly disassembled. It’s really worn, and I wonder if I’ll be able to re-sleeve the parts I have, or if there too far gone. Goal for this week is to get the beam completely torn down and cleaned up. I don’t know yet what I’ll do for finish. Probably just paint it with POR 15.
