Wow! 

Apologies one and all, but I`m going to have to put you all through some of my ramblings on here for a second time, as due to a recent moderator error this thread recently got deleted by mistake, and some of it is now going to have to be rewritten.

So . . . .  Where was I . . . .

. . . Ah, yes . . . I remember now . . . .

Sit back and here we go again   

Volkswagen Owners worst nightmare - and it happened to me.

You know that little bubble you see in the paintwork that you put your finger on, to find out that you go through it, to then find that the paint flakes off, so you grab a screwdriver to chip away the loose rust, and before you know it, you are left with something like this.





Luckily for me , I have an Adam at the end of the road, and although I could already see daylight through my beam, he decided to make the hole even bigger with a deft bit of grinding. Panic was really starting to set in by this stage.





But I didn`t fret for long, as by the time I had remembered why I had gone to see Adam he had fabricated this little panel and welded it in place. Luckily for me, the welding that had been done on the other side many years ago was still good and strong.





A quick undercoat of black hammerrite (run out of blue) and I could then drive back home in the rain.





Once I got home, I tidied it up a bit, filled it full of grease and gave it a nice liberal coat of blue hammerrite.





Job done, and very relieved that this did not result in a replacement beam.   

With the minor irritation of the beam sorted, I could now refocus my attention to what has become a monumental task of getting this alternator right.

The belts and pulleys are perfectly in line, tension is good, but every time I start the car there is a very brief squeal coming from the back as the engine first turns over. The noise disappears as fast as it is heard, and does not come back if the engine is revved. Worryingly though, was a minor layer of black dust that was starting to form across the face of the alternator.

I soon discovered that there was a slight imperfection on the face of the alternator pulley, but the trouble was that I had no idea what the pulley was off, making sourcing a replacement nigh on impossible. However, from trawling the local parts factors, I managed to obtain a slightly larger diameter pulley which was also a lot thicker too. After a quick session on the lathe, it was reduced to the same thickness as the old one.





Rather than copy the exact size of the old pulley, this one was left slightly larger, as it would then mean that I could now utilise a standard off the shelf sized belt for my engine.





All fitted, and squeak has gone away.   

The alternator appears to be working just fine now, but I am very aware that it is somewhat exposed and could do with some sort of guard on it. Eventually, I will look at doing something fancy, possibly even in stainless, but I have many other things to deal with at the moment, so the priority is really about working with what I have here as a temporary measure.

Using the original mesh style fan guard, I chopped it about a bit, sliced a few bits off and made a rough pattern ready for it to have some bits welded on to it, and that meant heading back over to Bills workshop, which does appear to be my second home at the moment.





I`m sure I left yesterday with Bill in exactly the same position - not sure if he is working or has simply fallen asleep. Still, big respect to him, he worked his nuts off yesterday with non stop welding and I`m fairly certain I can hear snoring. Seems a shame to wake him, but there is still a hell of a lot more to be done yet.

Didn`t take long before this emerged. I know its only supposed to be temporary, but I must admit that I quite like it





It fits a treat around the oil filler pipe too, and I am a bit stumped at the moment as to how to tackle that particular one, but with so many other bits to finish on the car, designing a new oil filler is way down on the list of priorities.





But what is fast approaching the top of the priority list is that exhaust system. Apart from being the ugliest exhaust system on the planet, its actually not mine, and has been graciously lent to me by Farmer Rob, so that the Buggy can at least drive about under its own steam.

Dave
know the oil filler isnt a priority but it does show a bit 
Have you considered a bit of stainless tube that just fits over it? Wouldnt be perfect but even with the existing black screw top much better.
With your new found stainless welding skills (or mate who does it) could even get a top made to cover the black filler

My welding skills are still somewhat limited as you know and Bill is still concentrating on the exhaust at the moment - last I saw he was chopping the ends off the silencers and told me to bugger off and leave him to it - more on that later.



However, I agree that oil pipe does look somewhat out of place - It actually looks a lot worse in the photos looking up at it than it does when looking down. I would ultimately like to relocate it somewhere different, but that really depends on how the exhaust pans out and how much space is left. It would be good to make something shiney out of stainless though, and I still have a few of the aftermarket oil filler necks from the old setup that it would be good if they could be utilised. Because the plastic tube is tapered with a big flange at one end, a makeshift sleeve is not as easy to attach as you suggest.

Priority at the moment though is just to get it back on the road for Stoneleigh and IBW.

Mid February 2015, I got offered one of those opportunities that you just cannot say no to, and it involved the Buggy returning to a former home. Many years ago, my mate Bill was kicked out of a large Main Dealership workshop in Torquay due to the site being purchased and redeveloped by a supermarket chain. Several years later, despite the emergence of a large retail unit next door, one of the less accessible workshops had been stripped out and simply abandoned. Not much in the way of electrics, although the single plug socket still fed the kettle and the ramps were easily commissioned. No water, no toilet, no tools and a very rickety wooden door that was about to fall off. But there was one good thing about it, Bill was once more in possession of a lease (and the keys) and over the next few months, he plans to rebuild it and open it up once more as Powercraft Engineering. But in the meantime, I was more than welcome to park the Buggy on the ramps for the duration and leave it on them to work on. Brilliant !





And first up was one of those messy jobs that is so awkward if your car is not in the air. The underside had not received much attention since I painted it all those years ago, and with any luck, the liberal coating of blue hammerrite should mean it can go untouched for another few years to go yet.





There is however a minor inconvenience to this current arrangement, and that is that I have to remember exactly what tools to take with me to cover every eventuality, else its a return trip back to Paignton for something as simple as say a screwdriver for opening the tin of paint.

Something that has become very apparent during this engine swap, is the extra weight of the new 2 litre block. A lot of weight is also carried within those heat exchangers which are to be ditched obviously, but even without them fitted, the rear end of the Buggy is noticeably lower than it should be and although I have not yet driven this thing in anger (or even above 30mph) the uneven road surfaces around here are clearly highlighting that I also have a fair degree of bounce going on.

I could have gone down the simple route of raising the back end on the splines, but I figured that while I was playing with that many bits, I may as well go the whole hog and fit adjustable spring plates while i was at it. For those that are unawares, the idea behind these is that they have a large grub screw that can be screwed in and out, with the rear suspension being raised or lowered as a result. I figured that this would also be a sensible option to take considering I have also been known to tow my trailer tent.

With a total lack of emergency tools here, and a gut feeling that this could go spectacularly wrong, I decided to drive back to Paignton to visit a mate of mine, and boy am I glad I did, because yes, it did go horribly wrong and my friend came to the rescue.





A word of caution to anyone contemplating this popular conversion. You see, despite several calls to Heritage to confirm that I was ordering the correct one for my car, and that all I needed to change were these actual spring plates and nothing else, it turned out mid way through the conversion that they were talking utter rubbish. The torsion tubes on the IRS back end are much longer than the ones used for the swing axle, which is why I have the small tube sticking out just in front of the rear wheels, and the muppet at Heritage (who has obviously never done this) assured me that these tubes were correct for this conversion. My mate took one look at them and informed me that I needed the shorter torsion bars, which then meant new spring plate covers and bushes. I didn`t mind the bushes so much, as I had banked on replacing those anyway, but replacement torsion bars were not something I had factored into this conversion.




Anyway, he had all the bits I needed squirreled away in his Aladdins Cave, and promptly fitted it all and then adjusted it all up for me. 

Right then, car is now on autopilot back to the other workshop. 

Dave as you found out the longer irs torsion bars are more progressive and softer to start with than swing axle ones, i must admit I have considered swapping the kango back to stiffer swing axle bars as it is soft and wallows like a 2cv but it does smooth the bumps out.
You could have got some standard used beetle bars instead of new ones also looks like the summer chrome end plates of which there are 2 sets here you could have had but guess time was against you.
The other problem with buggies is year of registration generally does not coincide with chassis year but even then things get welded on and modified to add to vw's build changes over the years

At least it is nearer completion.

Snoopy,

I hadn`t actually realised that there was a difference between the longer and shorter bars in their performance, but thinking about it, the extra length does kind of make sense. The ride quality pre-engine swap was really nice, and I do hope that this will not have spoilt it too much.

The bars Adam found me were indeed used, (those things new are quite pricey) and yes, I can hear those summer end plates fizzing as we speak - I will pick up a set of the stainless ones that I saw someone on here with ( Shaggy? ) in due course.

Thats a good point about year of registration, and chassis, especially as those of us with IRS conversions fitted may actually have these from a different vehicle completely. Not for the first time have I been told that my engine cradle and mounts look like they may originate from a Karmann Ghia, where I was always under the impression that they may have come from a Type 3.

Oh, the irony.
Many moons ago now, I picked up a Karmann Ghia tow bar for my Buggy, and it was quite an extensive job to shorten it to fit the Buggy. Who knew that a few years later we would be extending it again by four inches. This was done a while back over the Christmas months, but I have been unable to fit it until now because the length of it fouls the rear silencer.





The tow bar has been extended in front of the gearbox lower mounting, meaning that all the other bolts and fittings remain as they were.





Its good to see the bar back on there again, and I`m so relieved that it is still centralised





Due to the extension in length, a new cable had to also be run for the electrics, and this time I have put a waterproof socket in place so that the bar can be quickly unplugged and removed if needed again in the future.





I keep looking up at that oil filter there, so think that could be a quick and easy job to get out of the way too   

When the rear suspension was being upgraded a few weeks ago, I also researched into putting some new shocks on there too. There is much debate over whether the rear mounts are strong enough to take coil over shocks although when you hear that people like Snoopy have fitted them to the back of his Kango which has a heavy Fiat lump in, you do tend to question what the fuss is all about. Anyway, rather than raising the back end using coil overs with adjustable ride height, as you know, I instead went down the route of adjustable spring plates. What was called for now, was a nice set of shocks, preferably gas assisted with adjustable damping, so that I could fine tune it if necessary.

Researching the net, I quickly came across the GAZ website http://www.gazshocks.com and after a quick phone to them was pleasantly surprised to find that they would custom make me a set for around £55 + vat each - thats cheaper than many of the standard off the shelf ones.

All they needed from me was the mounting sizes of the bolts and rings, the distance of travel from extended to closed, and of course, payment. Three weeks later, these arrived and took but a few moments to fit.





Something I had not considered though was that when fitted, the adjusters are located within the lower box section of the arms making it a little tricky, but not impossible to alter. Whilst the adjusters are still free to turn and set, I can just about get my fingers in there, but if they ever sieze up, then it may be another matter.

Thats pretty good value Dave. Re getting at the adjusters I would have thought once you have got it right then you wont need to get at them or are you thinking adjust when trailer on and off? Get the nose weight right and you should be OK on your normal setting (I think).

Looking forward to seeing this at Stoneleigh, then the bright ideas for that oil filler will pour out - bring a note book