Sixty Years Apart

In my last post I explained the departure of our last family car. A pug 307 hdi wagon. What I'm guessing is that most of you are wondering what the heck I replaced the French terror with.

Ok, time to fess up...

Volkswagen Golf TDi 110 wagon.

A few of you will say, "of course you bought a VW". Well that's the weird thing really. Coz I didn't hit on the Golf straight away. I tried a Hyundai i30. In fact I was super keen till I dealt with the local dealers. I got lied too, and the fleet buyer we got our car through advised we pick the 2016 spec Golf. We were keen for white, but that would have taken 4 months longer, so we've got silver... or is that just fancy grey?

So there. Least that's my excuse now. I'm a lot more excited about the car a few months after delivery than I was when it arrived. When it arrived, it was just another car. If reminded me strongly of the BMW we drove in the UK in May this year. I will say though, I do really like it now.

We found about the emissions fiasco the day before it arrived. I didn't care then. I care less now and car is not effected anyway. On that note, if VW were guilty you can bet there were/are a number of other manufacturers doing the same thing. You can be sure of that.

The weird thing is I now have TWO grey VWs. Two grey VWs, SIXTY years apart. My wife and I have been laughing about it. That was not the plan. Still, it's an opportunity to compare how driving has changed in that time (or not).

Whether you agree with me, I think comparing the Judson supercharged 56' beetle to the 16' golf wagon is actually pretty fair. Let me qualify this. Both cars are/were;

1. Budget family cars.
2. Designed to be frugal.
3. Designed to be comfortable.
4. As safe as anything else in the period.
5. Respected by the public and motoring experts of the time.

 

What has changed about motoring in sixty years?

Some will be tempted to say, "everything". I'd say actually there's plenty that remains the same but lets compare for a moment.

Differences; I could talk about tyres, suspension and metallurgy, but really the electronic nature of the new car is the biggest single thing. Everything else on the golf is jazzed up 50's or pre-50's technology. Everything, well almost everything on the Golf is electronic or automated. There's a key on the key fob, but I have no idea where it even goes. Everything that is electronic is also connected in some way to the ECU. Lots of cars have engine computers, the golf also has a very complex computer for the gearbox and clutch. The beetle on the other hand came with few electrical things, all summed up in just 4 fuses. That's right. No transformers, no relays even, just 4 simple circuits and 6 volts. The beetle highly mechanical and sounds like it compared to the quiet hum of the golf. Mechanical things kill beetles, electrical dramas will kill the golf, probably.

Same, same; Curiously, having noted so many differences (and having left a bunch out), there are still so many similarities. The beetle was curiously ahead of it's time in lots of ways. Both cars are at their best at around 80km/h. Sure, both can go faster. I'm confident the golf could sit on 100mph all day for the next decade. The inside of both cars can best be called cozy. Sure there's more room in the new one than our old pug, but it's not huge. Neither car makes you want drop a gear and give it a bootload. Instead, what they seem to enjoy is that smooth, torquey push, style of driving. I'm sure VW didn't do this, but somehow there is some of the same philosophy left in the new car from Heinz Nordhoff's prime. I'm also confident, they're in about the same price bracket for their eras.

I'll leave you to agree or disagree with me about all this. In the meantime, there'll be a few people asking...

"so what is going on with the beetle anyway?"

Update

The good news is. Plenty. The whole car has been rewired and 99% of the engine work is finished. Let me put up a few pics...

Engine in, intercooler mocked up.

Exhaust done, it's painted now too.

Headers and boosty things.

Intercooler radiator and fan.

We're in the throws of getting sensors sorted out while I finish off custom tinware to try and seal the engine bay... which is a pain btw. If I did my time again, I might have used a wasserboxer and turbo charged that... but then I'd need a proper radiator up front I guess.

Till next time...

Sorry, not again France...

After nearly 10 years and just over 200,000km, I gave up the ownership of my Peugeot earlier this week. 10 years of ownership, driving and daily use have given me lots of time to think about our experience with this car. More specifically, it's given me an insight in owning a French car.

Let me start by saying, in so many ways I really liked the car. REALLY liked the car.

For it's year and model it was quite simply the best diesel wagon we could buy. I was adamant that we'd get a diesel and I don't regret it... mostly. The fuel economy, even after 10 years of use, was better than most smaller cars. I do not exagerate one bit when I boast that it managed sub-6.0 litres/100km fuel economy over and over. Of course it needed to be driven carefully to do this, but it wasn't that hard.

We drove to Brisbane on ONE TANK OF FUEL, doing 5.4l/100km.

The boot area was 150% larger anything else on the market when we bought it. It swallowed huge amounts of luggage, car parts and music gear. It had lots of cool compartments to store tools and other bits. It was really, good to us. That said...

I'm never buying a French car again. 

You might be shocked, but this is conclusion we came to. There are some good reasons for this. Let me list the big issues in the middle of all this...

1. French cars are famous for intermittent electrical issues, especially as they age.
Headlights, exhaust sensors, half the airconditioning, tail-lights, and of course a weird engine sensor issue that we're still yet to find a useful answer to. All were looked into by competent french car techs and specialists. The worst one involved being on holidays towing a camping trailer with the engine in limp mode and NO TAIL LIGHTS AT ALL = Holiday from hell. Even the local dealers could do nothing to help us. 

2. French car parts of nigh on impossible to get through the regular channels.
A particular exhaust sensor took 4 months to arrive on our shores. Even the dealers were astounded by this issue and at a loss to know what to do about it. I needed new connectors for the headlights to replace the burnt out contacts. Yeahnah, not in Australia and certainly not outside of a dealership. What it comes down to is most of the parts are made in Viva La France. Good on ya France, but surely it should be easier to get them.

3. French car parts are a total rip-off through the regular channels.
ALL the parts were expensive. All of them. For instance, a new clutch cost $3500 (before installation). When my wife complained about my old beetle, I informed her my whole gearbox and clutch cost less. It's chock full of custom bits and hand built. Tail lights were $500 each after Peugeot designed the earth tag so it melted under load. Even after we found a specialist who has contacts that don't go through the dealers, the parts still cost a LOT of money.  Starter motor, $600 installed. You get the picture.

I'm not hammering the dealers or our French car specialist. Both were very good to us and did their best to address all our issues. The dealers once replaced the whole steering wheel under warranty because the leather was starting to blister a little. Very good customer service.

Don't get me wrong, if I lived in the UK or Europe I'd love to own another Peugeot. I like their styling, motorsport program and aesthetic. I just can't live with a car I can't fix or get parts for without selling a kidney to terrorists.

Sorry, not again.

Spannerin', not polishin' (again)

It's August. A stack of things have been done... but maybe there's not much to show for it. Even still here's a few pics and a little write up.

Oil cooler mounted

Engine bay seal channel repaired, seal installed.

Late dog house cooler and tinware repaired and painted

Inlet manifold fabbed up. There were some awful things done in the name of TIG welding and I managed to waste a whole bottle of gas by accidentally leaving the tap open, but lesson learned. The pipe on the right is for the idle air solenoid input that bypasses the throttle body.

Deep sump installed. Sure it leaks already, but it's installed, I've got some more work to do there I think. Have to love EMPI stuff. I also tapped a hole for an oil temp sender in it.

Fuel/air mixture and oil temp gauges mounted. No extra holes needed. :)

Degree wheel mounted. In the pic below you can see how. Basically it's a 1/2" threaded rod piece tapped into an aftermarket pulley bolt. It took me ages to find a local machine shop to do this, but in the end it only cost me $20.

Initially I was going to use the standard pulley as seen here. However, after more consideration I decided the best way was to go with an alloy pulley. In the first pic you can see two cad plated screws that index the degree wheel in the right spot. In the end I went with this setup because the stock pulley had all sorts of the curves and I couldn't be sure I could get the indexing screws right in it. I was also worried the steel pulley with interfere with the signal. 

Having said all that, if I had my time again I'd just buy one of these from the Dub Shop. Sure it's not cheap, but it would have saved me a heap of time and stuffing around.

https://www.facebook.com/Thedubshop/app_125376930904526

On other fronts the wiring on the car is close to being finished, but we still need to work out the ECU and wiring the engine in. Emil has been very good to me, but he's also been flat out at work. So things are not really done on that yet. I'm also trying to find a decent alternator at the mo... or organize to have an older one refurbed.

At the same time I was repairing the engine bay seal, I came cross this rust behind the bumper mount brackets. It was on both sides of the car. It's about the worst rust in the car. I know this, because just before I went to the UK I cavity waxed the heater channels and they're pretty great. Still it was a bit of a blow and a lot of work. 

Having drilled out all the spot welds (which took ages) I found this. Nearly 60yo bright steel in some places, but rusted out in the bottom where moisture has sat. Not bad really though I guess.

The panel itself was pretty thin and lacey behind that bracket.

Cut out all the crappy metal.

Weld in some new, non-rust metal. I used a bonnet from a 76 volvo. It's still a bit thin really, but it got me out of trouble so I'm not complaining. Even finding this metal was a bit of a mission.

The repair panel is not strictly right for the year. It is however, bigger, stronger and most important, I could actually order it. There are period correct replacement Autocraft brackets, but they're out of stock even in the UK (where they are made). I had no hope of getting one out here. In the process all the panels were sprayed with weld through primer. Having finished it, the metal was painted with killrust style paint and then I cavity waxed the inside of the bracket as well. It's not super pretty, but it's not going to rust again any time soon.

I'm still yet to buy a turbo and intercooler. My poor wife keeps asking, "is it working yet". Hmm. I guess I better go back into the shed and get on with it. If only work and family wouldn't keep interrupting key building time. And of course I got sick yesterday cutting out another day off. Still I'll stop sooking and get on with it.

Understanding car culture better

I spent most of May in England with my family. This has meant next to no work getting done on the beetle, but the holiday was excellent. So much cool stuff to see and I even managed to fit in a few cars shows. I'll tell you about them first, then give you my reflections on driving in the UK.

Powerfest

This event was held at York Raceway about 20 minutes out the historic town of the same name. We saw a bunch of cool cars there, the most interesting ones being drag cars really. My youngest son loved all the racing.

This beetle was the first aircooled VW in the UK to do a 9 sec quarter mile. On the track he was pulling 10 sec quarters. I'll explain why later.

This black golf was a whole other story...

Where has the engine gone? Well may you ask...

The whole back end of the car was ripped out and replaced with an Audi transaxle and healthy V8 of some sort. I suspect it's a rover, but I can't be sure. It was the nuttiest thing that day.

Behold, the ONLY kombi in the world my wife likes. I had to take a picture. In the camping area, there were a shed load of kombis. Split, bay, T3, T4 and T5 campers. This surprised me as I saw 4 kombis on public roads in the whole time (apart from shows) and no beetles.

York Dragway was interesting to say the least. I'm pretty confident it's an old WW2 airfield and to be fair, it looked like it. It was literally surrounded by fields being ploughed by tractors. The track surface was another thing altogether. The first 20metres of tar were sort of ok... but only a car width wide. The rest... werl it got worse the further down the strip you went. It was literally falling apart. The most powerful car at the strip almost ended up spinning just off the start line. I think this was down to two things. First up, the surface. Secondly, it was bitterly cold. I had to take my hat off the to the Poms. They don't give up when it gets cold.

Tatton Park

This was a HUGE standing show. Every make, car, etc, etc. To be honest, except for a few cars I think I found it a little ho hum. But there was some amazing stuff there. A 1950s Allard for instance and this car...

Mercedes 300SL.

I don't know if there is even one in Australia. I tried to explain to my boys that if they touched it, they'd die. It was driven quite some distance to get to the show, which was just outside Manchester. Amazing stuff. Although, like I said before, I don't have much patience for the "polished to within an inch of it's life" crowd. I talked to one Lotus owner asking him what it was like to drive a mid engined car on the edge of grip. He had no idea, saying something along the lines of, "I've never pushed it that far". *sigh* Colin Chapman wouldn't be impressed. In the end, my fave car at the show was this...

 A ratty old triumph. Everything on the car was original, patina-d and looked like it was driven. Perfect.

English roads

English roads are a LOT different to Australian. EVERYTHING is smaller, with the exception of the motorways. Every other road however, is narrow, tight and often surrounded by stonewalls and hedges.

It's hard to explain it without having experienced it, but this road above isn't a lot wider than the BMW X3 soft roader we had. It scared the willies out of my wife. Keep in mind, this is what they'd call an "A road" in some places. That is, a main thoroughfare from one town to another. "B roads" are often just as narrow. Then there are country lanes... yep. There's barely wide enough to get 1 car down. The reason for this is the roads have been there for millenia. A hundred years ago they got some tar, but are much unchanged aside of this. Double decker buses drive down these roads. In many places in the country, with lots of trees, hedges and winding bits, visibility is down to 50metres on a nice sunny day. Which is when I began to understand old school british sports cars.

British sports cars

I'm sure I'm not the only one to notice that most old school English "sports cars" are about as wide as single bed, barely fit two skinny people in and have gutless engines no bigger than about 1.5 litres. There is a good reason for this. On B roads and country lanes, you don't need anything more than this. You never get much above 50mph, there are corners everywhere and you've got no room.

So, to Australians with mostly long, straight roads with smooth corners, a mini cooper S or lotus 7 seems like torture. In the UK, either of those cars are perfect for giving yourself as much room to slide around while still staying in a narrow lane on a winding road. Which is just as well because they also have ENORMOUS tractors that come out of nowhere on country roads.

The other upside of all this is, building a fun sportscar in the UK is significantly cheaper than places like Australia or the US. You don't need a big 6/V8, big expensive tyres to get the power down or huge brakes. Build it small, light and nimble and don't over-engine it coz you never get above 70mph anyway. In Australia, an MGB was a breathless hairdresser's car. In the UK, it was a fun fang in the country. Which is the other interesting thing. In most places outside of London, a fang in the country is only 20mins drive away from home.

Corrosion

The other that struck me, yet again, was the amount of rust in UK cars. EVERYTHING was in the process of rusting it seemed.

This Issetta bubble car was nicely painted, but I could see rust bubbling up under the lower door hinge straight away. This wasn't uncommon either. Everyone who owns a classic car in the UK is fighting to stop it from disintegrating each year. Yet again I came home super thankful for dry, warm conditions.

Having said all that, the English are better motorists. More courteous, generous and patient. We drove thousands of miles all over England and barely ever had anyone blow their horn... and I was an annoying tourist driver it a big black monstrosity. I'm looking forward to going back one day. Hopefully by then my wife's cousin will have his mini finished and we can go and have fun in that.

Mish Mash

It's not been a great week of progress on my car. There have been bits and pieces like this relay bracket, the shift mechanism, new handbrake cables and removing the old (horrible, greazy), engine bay seal and electrical work by my favorite wiring elf. However, nothing that screams, "we'll be driving again soon".

 
Despite LOTS of attempts to get the back end back together and the whole car back on wheels, brake dramas abound. For a cursory glance, I pulled down the rear brake slave cylinders to check for condition... and by golly I'm happy I did now.


They were full of brake fluid style mud.

Having tried to clean up one of them, it became pretty clear I needed some new ones. A phone call to a local VW parts specialist netted me 2 NOS units... one of which turned out to be wrong. I managed to fit the other one. Monday afternoon after a conference I dropped in for a replacement. Having been given one I fitted it to the car and all was going well.

Til I tried to turn one of the pistons and part of it snapped off. Seized solid.

You may see a theme here. So back to the shop this morning for a replacement. And wouldn't you know it but there's none in stock til tomorrow. Thankfully the shop owner is posting one to me tomorrow gratis. I told her...

"As much as I love you, four visits in one week is just too much".

Amongst all this I was buying things like handbrake cables and the like. Of course, about half the car's mechanicals are now non-standard. 99% factory VW, but non-standard. One of the great things about VWs is the "parts bin". Because they were in production for so long and gradually updated, things mostly fit.

So the 1973 gearbox I now have, bolts right up to my 1956 chassis... almost.

In fact it needed another few bits to help it along and some "clearancing". But mostly it's like lego. So here I was at the parts shop and the parts lady says to me...


"You need to put a book in your glovebox that has all the parts you've got on the car, like the 1300 handbrake cables".

She's right. The car is now a mish mash. For purists out there crying, don't worry, it was when I got it. Even still I need to try and remember what's going on. So in an attempt to begin that process let's start a list that describes some of the "parts-bin" upgrades I have...

Trans:
Late AB case 1300 trans
Split bus trans nose cone

Brakes;
Late dual circuit master cylinder and reserviour
Late type 3 wagon rear backing plates
Early type 3 wagon drums
58-66 1300 handbrake cables

Course the point of all this is, when I need to replace parts down the track. Then I can ask for right ones on the car without dragging broken greasy things to the parts shop. Although that works I have to say, there'll be a time when I need to order everything online.

Anyway, enough yammering. Better go clean up the shed. It's not pretty.

The light at the end of the tunnel? + Andy's 62

It's been a long time since I updated this blog. It's largely because despite serious effort, I don't feel like I have a lot to show for my efforts thus far. Sure, the car has been up on jack stands since January, but it's April now and it looks like very little has happened. Still I'll throw a few pics up...

So, as you can see, the fuel system is about 70% finished. The tank is now baffled, fixed and lined and I've got a kafer bar setup and various other bits. But it's all taken AGES... and ages... *sigh.

I'm still trying to decide if I'm making progress or just throwing cash at a hole in the road.

So, by way of an offering to those feeling ripped in the "drivin" department, here's my brother's car.

Andy's 62' beetle

The car was bought some time back as a runaround for him and his wife. It's an original paint car that was mostly stock aside of dropped spindles, adjuster and a slightly narrowed beam (IIRC). It was running a stock 1300. That motor lunched itself after the car jumped out of 4th gear on the freeway. OUCH!

Just recently it scored a single port 1600 from a generator set. Between the 1600 and the tuckaway exhaust, it's a very fun little car. The single port has lots of torque and the exhaust makes it sound like an old fiat or renault. Euro cool.

We took it out on the freeway for the first time and it goes really nice. As it should too. The motor had done less than 50hours work on the generator set! It is however way too low.

The pan scrapes everywhere and it's pretty awful to ride rough roads in. As it is, it's getting a new gearbox soon along with some linkpins and adjustable spring plates. At the same time it will go up a little.

Then it's time for more drivin'.

Bye, bye Judson. Out with the old, in with the Tur...

There's been a fair bit of action towards the in end of the year. Sort of. That is say, my new motor finally turned up a few days before Christmas...

Sadly, it ended up costing a fair bit more than both myself and my engine builder thought.

Oh well. It's done. Sort of. The cam is broken in and it's ready to start installing in the car.

Here are the specs thus far for the long block;
Block; stock
Heads; stock
Rocker gear and valves; stock
Rods; stock
Pistons; 85.5mm factory dished top
Crank; stock, 69mm balanced
Cam; Engle TCS-10

Yep, that's right, it's basically a stock 1300 with bigger pots, dual port heads, balanced, with a snall turbo cam.

You read that one right. Turbo.

I've gone this direction for a few reasons;
1. The new supercharger was almost impossible to fit under the decklid with an intercooler and all the associated bits.
2. I wasn't confident about some of the parts and a decent pulley kit was the same price as a turbo.
3. Superchargers suck power off the motor. Turboes add it.
4. One of my best mates has been hassling me to go turbo.

The judson is also gone now... werl it soon will be.

It sold in just 4 hours on a facebook group. For stupid money too. I'm not sad to see it go. Let me tell you why...

Judson Superchargers Suck (not blow)
1. Vane style blowers need constant lubrication. This ruins the fuel mix and adds contaminants (oil) that cause pre-detonation (pinging). Because of the need to run the oil/fuel mixture through it, you can't use an intercooler either... or alcohol injection because that thins the oil and heats the supercharger up more.
2. Vane style blowers create lot of heat. This also is another active ingredient in pre-detonation
3. Vane style blowers are limited by the friction of the vanes against the house. So you can never get more than about 5psi out it and it runs out of top end very fast.
4. Okrasa style heads/dual carbs actually produce more top end power.

The first three points here are sudden death in Australia where the summers are hot.

Bye, bye Judson, we won't miss you here. You've killed this engine.

My next challenge is to organize a turbo header of some sort.