1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

For Type 3 and 4 restoration projects, interesting history, adventure trips etc
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937carrera
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by 937carrera » 6th July 2017 - 9:11pm

Oh well, if you don't want to take credit for the work, better tell us about the kit (I have a 412 fasty and T25 to get round to) :)
David
1974 412LS Variant
1973 412LE 4 door Fastback / Saloon

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broady_6
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by broady_6 » 9th July 2017 - 10:58am

Heres the bit of kit, you cant buy it any more unfortunately

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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by broady_6 » 16th July 2017 - 11:38am

Time ive gave you ugly lot another update, With them holes filled up I decided to do something more mechanical. The NSF was more or less on the legal limit so I got out one of the wheels I painted a long time ago and fitted it with one of my spare tyres. I dont really like them as much as I thought I did. It has been about 4 years though. Never mind eh, its road legal so it fits the bit for this summer.

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One more welding job was needed. So this week I hit it hard, in from work changed an straight out there till 9 4 nights in a row.

My spare bonnet was in good order apart from this

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Not sure why it decided to fall apart there and no where else, but it'll do me for a quick repair. I attempted to make this from two pieces, the lower with a little drain channel and the top with its edges folder round to grip it.

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As you can see, with the lower skin removed there really wasn't much of a top skin left. Luckily there was enough to use as a pattern.

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To get the folds ive got a piece of plate which I clamped it under and bent it round.

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Quite a rough shape, but after some thumping I got it roughly right

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But not quite, the radii is just a little too tight and it catches on the scuttle. Ive also found this bonnet is about 5mm longer than my old one, the missus had to come and help me free it off as it stuck in the catch, so in order for it to fitch the bonnet catch is so far back it hits the scuttle panel when I open it. Something else on the body work list for winter.

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They don't look as terrible as I thought once on the car, but I still dont like them.

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Lots of other little jobs have happened, re calibrated my speedo, fitted seats and belt, cleaned up a little bit of wiring. I give the engine a light service, the old oil want pretty. Then I ended up here

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And the old girl passed, though it was running a bit rough on the way there, it would cruse ok but if you went passed half throttle it would hesitate, as if the accelerator circuit wasnt operating. So last night, having checked the tappets, points and timing I pulled the carbs to bits. and found old crappy petrol lumps.

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With them cleaned out and reinstalled it runs a lot better, but its still a bit iffy, I know ive got leaky carb spindles so that's like the cause.As it was gone 10 last night I thought id leave it for this afternoon to tune it up.
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Chino
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by Chino » 17th July 2017 - 8:49am

Great stuff, must be nice to be back on the road after all that? :)

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broady_6
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by broady_6 » 18th July 2017 - 10:33pm

you'd have thought so wouldn't you, the engine still ran poorly at best, 50mph was flogging it hard, like it was driving up hill. I took the distributor out and checked it over, it was very rattly so I assumed the mechanical advance had failed. I got a second one out of my stash, the dual vac can had failed. So I made a good one of the two. Having checked the vac worked and the plate moved freely I fitted it and timed it exactly as per the book to 0 degrees, the engine sounded better, but drove even worse. Kangarooing and unable to get past 2nd gear. So I advanced the timing to what I thought was 7.5 degrees, off I went and with in 10 miles it got a bit smokey, fortunately I was nearly home, I parked up and left it too cool. I suspected a thermostat failure, but the flaps were fully open.

Once it was cooled I got the strobe out again and it read 12.5 at idle. Woops!!!

Anyway, no damage was done but it still didn't run well and I was starting to remember why I lost interest in the car. Still certain the issue was ignition related I had another dig in my distributor box and got an SVDA out. Cleaned, checked, tested and fitted. I blanked the manifold port, timed the dissy to 7.5, checked max advance and road tested. It drove as I remember all those years ago, 60mph was effortless and the engine stayed cool.

So questions that remain unanswered, where should the vacuum hoses go? I have one from the vacuum side to the port on the carburetor as you would on an SVDA, the retard side to the port on the manifold. both vac cans work and when I check with a strobe its timed correctly and as I rev the engine the advance is smooth and levels off nicely.

Another small job which needed some attention was the fuel sender, after my hard work rebuilding it, it read at half scale. so I checked the internal earth to find it was poor. I cleaned the contact for this and re-soldered the nichrome wire, it now reads about bang on. which is as good as a new one!

a decent road test in order and proper tune of the engine. then just a few small jobs to tidy up loose ends and rattles for the summer
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by broady_6 » 22nd July 2017 - 1:15pm

Just a small update for you all, something odd going on with the steering, I centred the steering wheel. But after covering a few miles its gone off centre again. That combined with the front end knock suggests I need to get under there and find out whats going on. Weirdly on the road it feels very smooth and under control. But something to do in the coming weeks.

With the need for an easy job and having used gaffer tape to blank off the fan housing to get me on the road, I fitted this elbows.

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Although its the height of the English summer, you never want to be with out heating :D

Another small job for a sunny evening, the horn occasional sounds when turning, I assume the wires bare somewhere and catch so ill pop the wheel off and check. Small jobs make me look forward to the work.
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Editor
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by Editor » 23rd July 2017 - 1:51am

Check there's a small gap between the wheel and the switch housing below. There should be a couple of mm gap, which you can adjust by loosening the big allen screws in the housing and moving it down slightly. Mine has a tendency to sound if I have to stop suddenly, and my arms push on the steering wheel.
If you remove the wheel, make sure it is centred before, and put it back in the same position or the self-cancelling lugs can get broken.

BTW, those elbows prevent cooling air being lost from the fan area - they are very important.
Dave.

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broady_6
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by broady_6 » 23rd July 2017 - 6:43am

Ah, I will go for some steering wheel adjustment! Yes I set up the front suspension geometry with my optical tracking gear, then removed the steering wheel to centre it. It drove 30 miles bang on, now its rotated anti clockwise.

Yer, as a very temporary measure id blanked the fan ports with gaffer tape. But I didn't leave it too long to fit these elbows, knowing how important they are 😃
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by broady_6 » 13th August 2017 - 7:58pm

Nearly a month since I said anything! Ive been enjoying driving the ole banger, but the front axel rattles like a bugger. I must have a loose bush or something. Ive pumped it full of grease today, so ill have to see how it handles its next drive. The last month has seen a few odds and ends. It was getting embracing beeping at people every time I turned left, so I decided to have a look.

I was missing one of these anti vibration washers which sits under the horn push mounting screw. But having recently bought another steering wheel I found it had a spare one :)

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I also sleeved the wire as the insulation had split, removed the steering wheel, made sure the stalks were secure and seated. With it all carefully rebuilt it would seem Ive sorted it!

The next issue I was having was clunky steering and a sloppy center. I went to adjust the box, but it was all very stiff and the screw for the idler was a bit chewed up. I dug out my spare and its screw was in a better state of health.

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While changing this I noticed that it had quite a lot of play, and after consulting my Bentley book found out it should be all but solid. I had some 0.05mm shim stock, so made a couple, very hard to do with something just thicker than tinfoil. But I clamped it between two blocks of wood and drilled 10mm holes.

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I then marked the outside using the original washer and then cut that with tin snips. They weren't pretty, but the took up the slack, this then allowed me to carry out the steering box adjustments properly, after a road test I can confirm it goes where I point it now! I need to set up the rear axel, but it looks quite involved in the book so I might save this until the winter. Experience or advice anyone?

Some other advice I wouldn't mind involves the speedo. I took this to pieces. Including twisting the two metal tabs and removing the drive portion from the clocks. I now have it reading the right speed again. But distance wise its only shows 1 mile for about every 4 or 5 covered. I assume that There must be a specified gap between the drive and the clocks. As its like a viscous coupling with the magnet driving the dish. Does anyone know the gap?

Although I had promised myself I would stop spending on this until the winter hits (though you wouldn't tell it from winter now) I saw these NOS air intake boots and had to have them from Mr Kelly.

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They've gone in the rebuild stash, something which I have worked through this last week, sorting my best parts from what will be come spares and the 3rd pile being for sale. So ill have a small trickle of stuff up for sale soon.

And as today was actually like a summers day in the middle of august I wet sanded the whole car to remove the rust, and grinding swarf from it. Who says you can't polish a turd! Ill get a photo next time I'm out in the banger
Last edited by broady_6 on 15th August 2017 - 9:57pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by broady_6 » 14th August 2017 - 9:16pm

So after some reunderstanding. The magnetic cup jobby only drives the needle. The ODO is causing bother. It will spin freely for a random amount of time, then lock up, and I cant see whats causing it. After a rock back and forth, It frees up and spins happily again. Needless to say this isn't doing my nylon gear any good
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broady_6
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by broady_6 » 21st August 2017 - 8:08pm

I spent some time dismantling this during a few evenings last week. Not exactly sure what I did but I cured the spinning issue. The reason for the low mileage count became obvious when i looked at this gear.

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Under the mangnifier you can see the small piece it had eaten from the nylon gear. This was just enough to let it jump about 75% of the time.

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I had a spare speedo so tried to dismantle it an remove the gear, it was in better condition but not perfect.

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Rebuilt with this and I built the gear up with araldite and then filed it to the right shape. it now seems to be reading correctly again. Ive recalibraded the speedo too. It reads 1mph slow. So thats damn good enough for me and the milometer is bang on!

After an 80 mile run too and from skegvegas at the weekend it was driving nicely. Just got to get the front axle rattle sorted this week!
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muddy
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by muddy » 24th August 2017 - 9:10pm

Fantastic work there. I may be firing a few questions your way when, I start building mine back up. That's a day I'm looking forward too.
1971 VW Type 3 1600 TE Fastback. Body off Resto completed, now just bits and pieces and niff naff to do.
Volksworld Magazine featured car 2013
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by broady_6 » 24th August 2017 - 10:12pm

Ta very much, always happy to share knowledge and keep these old bangers going!

I've got 5 weeks left till I make a start on mine. The other day i found a bonnet corner in my stash, that'll make a much better repair than I did! Im also making progress on my front end noise, full story when I've finished the job.
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broady_6
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by broady_6 » 2nd September 2017 - 9:28am

A good few weeks have flown by since I had anything of real note to say on this, but there is a happy ending. Since recommissioning the ole banger it has sounded like a ball joint was loose. Having been over all the joints, arms and beam mounts I found nothing loose. So i decided it was time to take the beam to pieces and build it up from scratch and find out what I missed first time round.

Up on stands and wheels off, I proceeded to remove the shock absorber only to find that although the bolt and nut were tight the damper its self was loose and sloppy. Once removed I found out why. As these were nearly new KYB's i was surprised.

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You can see what the problem was, the nearly new dampers top bush was far to big for the bolt going through it. Something which should have been noticed at the time of fitment, but being damp dark and cold. I seem to remember rushing to get it together.

As baldrick once said, I have a cunning plan. I was gifted this pair of scrap shocks from moler with the idea of taking the bushes out and fitting to my shocks as the inner diameter of these bushes fitted very nicely on my bolts.

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The next challenge was to press them into my shocks. The top two pressed in after a little rust clean up, but the bottom two original bushes were a much smaller hole.

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Little action shot of me turning down the inserts to press into the bottom two eyes. I turned them down to 14.1mm

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Then opened up the bottom eyes to 14mm

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With a slight lead on the new insert

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And driven home with the vice

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I then cut the excess bush off and rand a reamer down the middle to make it concentric again. Once refitted to the car I went for a nice little drive down some bumpy roads the sound of silence was beautiful!

A little treat for myself, I took a few bits to the powder coaters so I can now have the correct heating system set up. The rest goes in the loft store.

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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by broady_6 » 3rd October 2017 - 8:45pm

Well lots has happened in the last month, but no conclusions to jobs. I dont normally like to post until a job is done. But here goes.

Ive covered a fair few miles to get some enjoyment from the old banger. roughly 250 this month. Its now off the road for winter. During the month ive taken advantage of the mild weather weve had and got on with some sand blasting.

Having neatly boxed up all the bits I plan to use. I then went in the loft, 1 box at a time and removed any rusty items to suitably improve.

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The blasting rig

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Dangling away all in etch primer and then one little clip im quite pleased with getting.

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I had what i thought was a great pair of scuttle corners, after a lot of blasting this is what I had left.

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I guess I wont be wasting my time grafting those in. Bugger! Anyways I will return to that area come the dark nights.

Next I decided to tackle the crash bar as it has been sat down the side of the garage for a number of years.

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Spot welds still out.

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A rough cut pattern. This took quite abit of a forming for a reasonable simple looking panel. Lots of stretching

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The final shape with pressing roughly right.

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This wasnt a job I did. But took this out of storage to find out what state it was really in. For the princely sum of £25.

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I rushed a fetched it back within a couple of hours to get lots of primer on and stop it browning off. it was a nice dry and mild day, if a little windy.

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its a good solid base, and the repairs have been done pretty well. So just a bit of tidying up to do. its lots better than what I currently have fitted.

Unfortunately the same cant be said for the cash bar, the found a few little holes. I backed them will ally and welded them full. This will go back to the powder coaters for a reblast and then satin black.

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Wanting a little change of scene I tended to the driver side door card which was water damaged.

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Hardboard is a sod to drill and get a clean hole. So i trimmed the swraf with a stanley blade and then a pass over with a blow torch

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All mounted all, im quite happy with it, but not 100% so we shall see if i come back to that.

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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by broady_6 » 28th October 2017 - 3:48pm

Ive had a short break from this and now gone head on into the winter project factor, the original door was in need of so much repair work that Ive decided to make my spare fit after some repair work.

Just to confuse you, the original door isnt the fitted one.

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The original having done this.

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This was the worst of the replacement, Luckily it hadnt made it on to the skin, just the weather strip mount.

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Rather than trying to make a much more complicated shape, this is the second section. Which will but up to the first repair.

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I had intended to buy a powerfile to blend the welds in, but moneys gone else where this month and this is very unlikely to ever be seen, with the seal over the top of it. Ive just use a die grinder.

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Next step was to weld on the lip for the weather strip, something which i dont seem to have photographed.

You can see the two spot weld dimples here which is where the tab for the door handle mounts on the earlier door. Ive drilled the spot welds off the old door and welded it on.

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Naturally where ive repaired the bottom of the door the heat has distorted the skin slightly, a few gentle taps took the worst of it out but not being a panel beater I decided it was time I had a go. After some filling and sanding down to 240g

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Im about 75% happy with it after putting some primer on to see what it shows.

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As you can see the bottom couple of inches still needs a fair slog of work.

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Having had enough for sanding and shaping I took a little break and sorted my 1/4 lights out. This was the best I found.

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I sand blasted it and gave it a fair few coats afterwards. its a good solid one so thats an easy job done! I just need a new seal for it now, they seem to be £30 or £130! Are the £30 ones any cop?

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broady_6
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by broady_6 » 28th November 2017 - 9:00pm

It seems its becoming a regular monthly update for me, I'm quite pleased with how ive got on with this now. The car is now safely in the garage and that means when ive had enough and need to walk away I can down tools, lock the door and focus on something else. Much better than the last resto on the driveway from august to January! Far too cold and miserable, with the fun of getting the tools out and packing away every night.

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So ive got some big jobs a head, first thing to do was strip the car down, label and box the bits up. I took the N/S wings off and decided to tackle fitting a sill.

I was greeted with this sinking heart. So a new sill became a new heater tube too. No such a simple task.

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With the whole tube out, the rest of the section doesn't look too bad fortunately.

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Just as a mood lifted I offered the sill up

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So I wanted to reinstalled the footwell heater vents, something I didn't do years ago in my parents open garage, time, skill and temperature against me. First task, find out where the hole should be.

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I cut the slot and the vent hole.

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The flap is slightly inset because of the notch for the wiring loom. So I have to put this closing plate in to give the flap something to seal against.

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Before I could go any further I had to replace the choob as it has to seal around the flap and also have a 90 degree elbow to connect up to the heater tube in the A pillar for the winscreen heater.

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I bonded some high density foam to the back of the flap to help with the seal.

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I had hoped to just remove a small amount of the tube to complete the corner, but it got a bit more involved as I was fighting myself in such a tight space as you can see here.

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As I'm going to be re doing the inner arch with one sheet, I hacked a lump out for some extra room, and reluctantly I took the door hinge off too.

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Now you can really see what I'm up to, I opened the tube up further.

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And starting to create the 90 duct into the screen heater.

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Now I had the tube end is cut to the right shape I know what and where. I cut the tail end bend from the original piece, the only bit that was any good and grafted it on to the end of my new tube.

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While the tube was removed I opened up some holes on the inner sill. These will be for rust in habiting in the future. They will then have a rubber bungs in and be under the carpet.

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With that done the tube went back in and I finished mocking up for the ducking.

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I rushed ahead as we suddenly had a cold snap over the weekend and I had free time, I was in there Saturday afternoon and all day sunday. a whole 4 degrees tops, but its stitched together and with a hot air gun blowing down the inlet I get a decent flow out of both outlets depending which is selected. very please.

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kaddy
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by kaddy » 29th November 2017 - 7:08pm

Nice outcome. tricky little spot the heater channels, especially the corner up
to the screen.
Good result

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broady_6
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by broady_6 » 29th November 2017 - 8:31pm

Cheers very much, I wasn't looking forward to it, but quite enjoyed it in the end, been a while since I got into any fabrication
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by broady_6 » 29th November 2017 - 9:00pm

Found this in my documents folder! Never been used and the valid till date hasn't been filled it. Maybe I need to pop into the local VW dealers

I got this with the car nearly 10 years ago but ive only just realised what it is. Ignorance of youth eh

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Last edited by broady_6 on 20th December 2017 - 9:20pm, edited 1 time in total.
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kaddy
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by kaddy » 29th November 2017 - 10:54pm

Seeing as its lasted 45 years, whats another 5 year
they'll surely fill in 2022 for you as its expiry date :)

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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by broady_6 » 23rd December 2017 - 11:25pm

Lets have a fair chunk of an update then, Ive been a little more social than I ought to have this month, along with a lot of study outside of work which has cost a fair bit of garage time. Ive had the past week off and got the Christmas crap out the way early and that let me focus on the car. I will start by clearing up the loose ends from the last post.

I clamped the new sill skin on and offer the front wing up. It look this good in person so, I'm over joyed, its going to take some serious persuasion, but as I am fitting a new front clip to the car I had a ctrl alt del and thought to myself. Lets start at the front of the car and get that square and work back from there.

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One quick job which had to be done was to reinstall the lower door hinge. So I got some 1.2mm plate and got it all lined up.

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So here it is, a new face. although not perfect it was 90% better than what's installed. This needed on repair of an old repair. Otherwise its straight and strong enough.

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It was very time consuming, but some steady going kept the deformation to a minimum.

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I then gave myself a pair of straight edges to work to.

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With that out the way the serious work began, at the very least I wanted to give myself a rough idea of where to park the new front. This shows the patch work seam sealed mess I and the pervious owners has assembled over the many years.

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I conservatively cut a big lump off.

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This is the first offering of the new face, I used a few points of reference, the two mounting bolts through the front beam clamps, the dimensions of the fuel tank rails and spacing between wing mounting fasteners.

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At this it is about 20mm too far forward, but its much easier to cut it off than it is to glue it back on.

All the while I was checking the bonnet shut. Which was pretty close to spot on here, the NS was a couple of mmm too far forwards but, small fry compared to the wings.

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After 6 hours of removing,

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filing, refitting and realigning we got to this.

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I think I could have only made it worse from there! And not only had I got the front 4 panels to align, id got the door fairly close too.

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So before I had any chance to spoil it I welded up the tank supports.

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Due to the tolerance on parts, the new front end was about 2mm wider than my car, so I had to use a little hydraulic assistant to align the vertical faces.

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And the tank still sits nicely in there!

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Ive done much more this week, but that's all you get for now resto fans
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by purplepeter » 24th December 2017 - 11:08am

Looking good, & You'll forgive Me for asking this... What about the inner web inside the sill?

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broady_6
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Re: 1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

Post by broady_6 » 24th December 2017 - 11:25am

Is that essential? i only saw it as something else to rot away and leave lots of rust hanging around inside my sill. No forgiveness needed as the outter skin isnt on yet so it can easily be added.

(assume you are referring to this)

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