Good news from down there then, gearboxes with oil in and boots in good condition to stop water and dirt ingress are generally fine

Yep, I must admit, I was very surprised. I really thought it would look like my steering box. It was also 3-400 kms inland so a bit dryer than on the coast.
 Ill hold judgement until I actually get it running but so far so good.

["DUMB WAYS TO DIE"]

"DUMB WAYS TO DIE"

I am slowly figuring out that working on Volkswagens requires a small amount of ingenuity and thinking outside of the box. I nearly learned this the hard way with the spring plates and a much to close call with stored kinetic energy.


I had no sooner finished congratulating myself on how smart I was when the ratchet strap snapped, sending a spinning propellor of sprung doom my way, narrowly missing my knee then my face.
Not being a quitter and not being willing to
A. spend the money on the correct tool
and
B. waiting for said tool to arrive,
it was off to my local hardware store (Bunnings) for the Aussies out there where I came up with this contraption.





Very crude yet very effective, safer, and cheap at about $8 bucks.

And while I was there I thought "why not buy a new ball joint splitter" as I also put one to many ugga duggas into the rattle gun that morning also just missing my face and risking my rugged good looks. No one said you needed to be smart to build a car. 

With the rear end sorted, it was onto the front Beam assembly and mounting the shocks and Disc Brakes.



The original plan was to go with the Red beam and components but Black looked so much cleaner.



I now know the purpose of the holes in the rear support arms, Thanks Volkswagen - you really thought of everything.

Yep..... There have been a lot of serious injuries when folk have been too close to spring plates when trying to get them off. I was lucky back in 1970 on my first try. Just by chance my body wasn`t in the way of a spring plate that came off it`s stop like a rocket.

It's not just VW springs.
Always wondered why spring compressors are sold in pairs so the spring can ping out when a set of three makes it safer

And the Stoltswagen has an Engine. Now for the tear down and rebuild. It is running so wont be doing a great deal to it, just a freshen up, clean oil, new gasket set and push rod rod tubes. May go for dual port heads down the track but will get registration done first.

Disc brakes have been the topic of discussion in my household, do I stick with the drums all round, go with a combination disc front drum rear or just go all out and put discs on each corner. After doing the numbers as everything needed to be replaced any way, the Disc brakes are now on all-round. I'm just hoping my fasteners holding the fiberglass body are also good enough to stop the body with the brakes applied.





With the disc callipers installed, my attention shifted to the installation of new brake lines. The rear callipers needed a much longer brake hose than the drums had so I ended up fabricating and welding on a new rear mount to keep the flexible brake lines to a reasonable length.

I'm not sure how everyone else manages this but I work away from home and fly out for 8 days home for 6. While I'm away, if I haven't times it correctly I get a notification that my shiny things I have bought are about to be delivered while I'm away. Now this is very exciting for me but also brings a shred of terror because I am not home to be able to take delivery of said shiny items and hide them in the shed before Mrs Stoltswagen finds them. All I can hope is that they arrive early in my swing and she has to calm down before I get home. 



Coming together nicely





I couldn't help myself I had to pop the body on and see how it looked. I just need to start some fiberglass work and lengthen the body to fit the full length pan.

The stance with the body on looks really good and should incentivise you even more.

Could you get some of your shiny bits delivered to a friendly discrete neighbour. Or think of something fairly big (a BBQ, say) that you can suddenly produce to your dear wife saying you have been buying this large item in many small parts over recent months and have now assembled it ?

Good to see progress being made, you may find the coil overs make it too hard so it bumps and bangs when driving.

The stance with the body on looks really good and should incentivise you even more.

Could you get some of your shiny bits delivered to a friendly discrete neighbour. Or think of something fairly big (a BBQ, say) that you can suddenly produce to your dear wife saying you have been buying this large item in many small parts over recent months and have now assembled it ?

You may well be onto something there. we certainly are a devious bunch are'nt we ha ha.

Good to see progress being made, you may find the coil overs make it too hard so it bumps and bangs when driving.

Yea I think I got caught up in looks and being a two wheel fan as well I love the look of coil overs. After reading a lot of info in here, I have now also bought a set of normal ones just in case.

The springs are easily removed from the shocks then they are fine but here in the UK water and road salt means the piston chrome rusts and peels as there are no dust covers.