DW's (slow) rebuild thread - 2001 Speedster

Starting with the easy stuff first, most of the lights don't work!  Oxidised wiring connectors and faulty bulbs, along with dirty/missing fuses.

Decided it best to strip out the fuse board and clean up all the connectors.  I do plan on stripping most of the wiring later, but need to keep things mostly intact at this stage so I can get the car running and start the compliance and certification process.

After a few hours of changing bulbs, cleaning connectors and polishing up the fuse box all looks good and more importantly works well with new fuses and a new cover.

The mounting plate is a little bit 'agricultural' so that's on the job list to be remade in the future.

I do have an issue with the front headlights, in that they are secured correctly by the metal tab at the top and single bolt at the bottom but there's a lot of lateral movement.  On a Beetle there is a rubber seal which fits over the metal headlamp bowl protrusion, but on the Speedster there isn't a protrusion and the seal doesn't fit.  I guess I could 'glass in a rim for the seal to be installed around, but surely there's a better option.

Anyone got any ideas?

On the headlight movement, at the top of the headlight bucket you've found the tab sticking out that the top of the headlight bezel catches.  I had to futz with mine up/down/in/out/filing off to a crown until I got the headlight assembly to hang on it and push tight against the rubber headlight seal (giant O-ring).  I used (afaik) a VW headlight gasket/O-ring.  The cross section of mine is a "T" whereas I have seen some (maybe for a real 356?) with a cross section of an "L".  Either one works, but the VW "T" seems easier to get on there.

The trick there was to get the spacing of the headlight assembly and the body just so, that you could get the rubber gasket between them at the top where the hanging tab is, then slowly push the assembly into position while you gently pull the gasket into place around the light assembly.  That sounds easy, but it isn't - keep messing with it and you'll get it to go.  Once it's on and the bottom screw tightened, there should be enough pressure to keep the gasket in place and not pop into the bucket somewhere.  Yes, It's a pain in the backside.  Don't let it beat you!

Oh!  And Fantastic work on the electricals!

Ditto, your clean up of the electrics looks great.

It's icing on the cake, but consider putting a small dab of dielectric grease on points of contact on connectors or fuses. I'd definitely do it if there were some with substantial corrosion and you want plenty of time to do your rewiring.

Congratulations on getting started and welcome to the group!

On the inside of that chrome trim, there are these funky clips that hold the light bucket to the trim. One of them could possibly be interfering with that tab. Maybe....

The rubber gasket does fill in the gap some. I always thought that the headlight assembly/body interface was pretty crude on these cars.

Looking good, Dan!  The fuse box came out really nice. Your garage pics are quite well composed- the lighting is soft while highlighting everything and not looking dark and dingy.  What are you taking pics with?

Great advice @Gordon Nichols thanks.  I've got 4 new VW light seals (wasn't sure what to get so ordered a pair from Sierra Madre Collection and a pair from CIP1 !) and they seem too small to install onto the light HOWEVER I didn't think to use your technique. I'll give it a go at the weekend.

The corrosion wasn't too bad on the electrics @Michael Pickett but I'll definitely pick up some of that dielectric grease; hadn't thought of that.

I've replaced the sealed beam units with semi-sealed which looks to be much brighter, and in doing so did mess around with those retaining clips. I'll take a look @Carlos G and see if the light unit is fowling on the tab.  

@ALB: I'm mostly using my trusty old iPhone 7 under the garage LED strip lighting, with the occasional use of a Nikon P1000.  The garage door is always open and there are windows also which gives good overall lighting.  I've just picked up a LED Lenser head torch for working on the car which is probably going to help with some photos in the future!

I've finally given up on my trusty Pentax DSLR and usually just use my iPhone for just about everything.  Once you get to know it, it's capable of some amazing shots.

New phone camera technology is truly great, but I'm holding off upgrading from the i7 for as long as I can! phones are so much more convenient @Gordon Nichols The P1000 is really my 'binoculars' due to its ridiculously long zoom lens and more convenient than a spotting scope.  I live near the coast and like to check out the wildlife occasionally. There's something awe-inspiring about watching dolphins and the occasional orca in the wild. Catch some amazing sunsets as well.

@Gordon Nichols your technique for the headlight seal worked a treat, but as @Carlos G mentioned the interface is a bit crude. Having installed the seal (which it seems I actually ordered 6 of!) I'm not happy with the look, and the headlight still moves laterally.  Took a measurement and it's 10mm of play side-to-side and the seal doesn't really improve the situation.

I could glass in some steel beetle headlight buckets so I could use the seal correctly against the protruding rim, and although 3M make an epoxy for bonding steel to fibreglass I'm not sure I want to introduce more steel into the car than necessary.  The tab which is currently installed is well fitting against the headlight rim, just not sufficiently wide to prevent the lateral movement.  Think I'll fab up a partial or complete steel rim to replicate a bug, that way I can install the seal hidden behind the headlight rim.  I have to remember my stage 1 plan is to get the car operational and begin compliance, so this improvement will be put on hold for now.

Another job I've recently put on hold is the interior refresh.  I started with the easy job of swapping out the old Flat-4 banjo steering wheel for a replica speedster one from MSW.  Rather an indulgent purchase, but I really didn't like how flexible the banjo was despite fussing with the metal tensioning tabs.  I also really like the look of the original wheel, and although it came with the snazzy stainless horn ring (which I believe should actually be a headlight flash ring), I think I'll remove it for the clean simple lines of the bare steering wheel. The only thing I don't like about the MSW wheel is the centre horn push. The logo isn't very authentic (for copyright reasons) and not very symmetrical. That'll be getting swapped out for one from SMC.

You'll notice the moulded dashed, which was added due to the ADR compliance requirements when the car spent time in Australia.  Later in the project this will be removed and replaced with a more traditional version.

I've since moved on to cleaning the interior. I will be re-trimming at some point, but in the meantime had a go at removing years of storage grim. Here's a before-

It was really ground into the vinyl and after trying all the product I had lying around settled on the best results from some Ultra Clean from the Furniture Clinic UK left over from a job I did some years ago. After-

It took way too much time and effort, so after some research I placed an order for a Tornador Black Z-020 RS which, if the interweb is to be believed, will make the rest if the interior clean up a breeze. Of course I have to wait till it arrives from Germany so another job on hold for now!

When the car arrived the engine lid was held in place with duct-tape, so I set about designing some suitable hinges.  One hinge was in a box of parts, but having made a plywood copy so I could try it out, the geometry was all off and clearly needs a complete redesign.

Here's the hinge that came with the car along with the plywood mock-up -

Looks 'neat' but not very robust, and will only allow the lid to open just off horizontal so just not suitable.

The hinge mechanism is also very unrefined, so that will get rebuilt in due course. I tried re-drilling the pivot points further forward but the lid wouldn't close, so took some careful measurements and plotted it out on SketchUp. Trying various hole locations was much quicker and easier this way and resulted in a design I could try out.

Having finalised the fixing hole locations I set about trying to laser cut a mock-up to try. Having access to a laser cutter is great, but won't cut metals so went with some acrylic, just for the tests.

Here's the first iteration of the laser cut hinge. I had to laminate a couple of 3mm thick pieces together to give enough strength to test (just using scraps i could find!)

These worked really well in that the lid closed well and opened giving a full 500mm of opening height measured at the catch, but man are they ugly!

Tried a few more modifications, using cardboard to improve the mock-up and over a range of tweaks arrived at something I'm happy to lock-in and make in aluminium.

Here's the final design-

Laid out on some 6mm thick aluminium ready to cut-

A combination of angle grinder, holesaw, drills and files and here they are ready to test fit-

They still need to be polished and refined, but look good and work superbly. I'll take care of the finishing touches and rebuilding the firewall mounted hinge plate during the full rebuild, but this'll get me close enough for STAGE 1 - getting compliance and certification.

Next I think I'll tackle the poorly running Weber IDFs and sort out the timing, etc.

Well done Dan, they really look great!  I do see room for a couple of smaller holes, though... 

Nice one Al, perhaps just one more....I wouldn't want to overdo it!

Great job on the hinges. Looks like someone did nice work lining your engine bay as well.

So, about this engine bay badge……would grinding away THAT phrase be considered sacrilege?

It’s either for sale or I’m going to spend some time with the die grinder carefully removing the ‘offending’ text, but wouldn’t want to cause offence by modifying it. Wha-da-ya think?

Sell the badge and find something that's perfect for YOUR car.

Wow that badge took a beating getting to New Zealand!  It's got some real patina. They are quite rare but a little off setting to many.

Round the edges and corners along with a polish and your hinges will look great.  I sent you a PM.  Al

@WOLFGANG posted:

Wow that badge took a beating getting to New Zealand!  It's got some real patina. They are quite rare but a little off setting to many.

I always hated that badge. I received one as a "gift" with my JPS, and took it off the car as soon as I got it home.

I haven't lived that fast and I'm past young. The corpse won't look that good either.

Not the badge for me.

The hinges look great.

I'm in the same position as Panhandle Bob.

@Panhandle Bob posted:

I haven't lived that fast and I'm past young. The corpse won't look that good either.

I've always wondered who the target demographic was for this badge. This hobby has never been populated with very many young men or women. When I joined, I was the youngest guy by 20 years (at least that's how it felt). Regardless, if you are young enough that "live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse" is anything but irony, you probably have children you'd rather not encourage to follow the motto.

In '02, when the badge was new, I had 3 kids at home - ranging in ages from 12 to 18. The last thing I wanted was a pie-plate on my car encouraging them to be idiots like their father was and would be.

... at this point, my 2 year old grandkid is calling me Santa Claus. Dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is about 30 years in the rear-view mirror. Regardless, I'd rather not advertise any tendency I have to be in a hurry to the constabulary (who are just now staring to call me "sir" when I get pulled over).

I'd feel like an idiot with something like this on my grill.

I agree. I joined Spyderclub in 2001. I arrived here in the mid-2000s. Read all the George/Jake wars. Got my rolling kit in the garage in 2002.

I'd bet the badge was originated by a "Deaner" or James Dean fan. Ewww. He did own a Speedster and race it for a couple years, then died after less than 2 weeks in a Spyder. It would make sense that some fan made the badge up, but maybe it was just some guy who thought it was funny.

I'd rather not be associated with that whole Deaner "thing" but it does follow all of us around, whether we want it to or not.

Agreed, Stan.  That's not a badge I have ever considered having on my speedster.

These cars are close to the line as it is.  Why encourage it?

My car's an outlaw. When I'm in it, it makes me want to go off diet and get an ice cream. This is the badge for me:

I may be misremembering this but I'd swear that when I first started lurking here, around 2010, the "corpse badge" was in very high demand. Guys posting here looking for one, guys who had them saying "no." Guys saying maybe they'd do another run of them?

Interesting how badge fashion shifts over time.

Speaking personally it's not the badge for me, but I'd never take a dremel to it—no way you can grind off some words and have it look good.

There haven't been that many SOC badges commissioned - surely not enough to go around to all the new owners. I'm sure that was why there was demand for the corpse one. It just seems to poke a finger at fate.  I'd like to see the eagle PCCA one produced.

“I'd like to see the eagle PCCA one produced.”

Count me in.

Ditto, I'd buy a a 'real' eagle PCCA badge and retire the home-made one. I used Carlos' artwork for the sticker I think. Who's done this before?

@Michael Pickett posted:

Ditto, I'd buy a a 'real' eagle PCCA badge and retire the home-made one. I used Carlos' artwork for the sticker I think. Who's done this before?

http://arniebrown.com

https://www.rallyeproductions.com

Seems the Owners badge causes quite a stir of emotions and the majority don't seem to like it, but it is part of the groups history and I didn't want to attack it with a grinder before gauging sentiment. There are a couple of people interested in buying it (no names to protect their identity ) so I'm still undecided.  

Does anyone know the significance of the red pentagon?  I've used WOLFGANG's image and been playing with Photoshop...

I do feel as though @edsnova maybe setting me a challenge by stating there's 'no way you can grind off some words and have it look good'........

I'm quite liking the first image and the last two.  The ONLY thing holding me back at the moment is the fact I'd be permanently modifying a piece of historic memorabilia, but I'll get over it!

@DW posted:

I'm quite liking the first image and the last two.

I'm not fond of the  badges with a pentagon. You did a nice job with this design:

I wonder what it would look like with a red background in the center circle?

@Michael Pickett the red background looks good; really sharp-

although NZ has a strong gang culture with red and black being synonymous with a particular bunch of toerags!

@DW posted:

@Michael Pickett the red background looks good; really sharp-

although NZ has a strong gang culture with red and black being synonymous with a particular bunch of toerags!

Wow. This isn't your first attempt at Photoshop. Nice job. I'd like to see a bunch of gang bangers in speedsters...

@DW posted:

The ONLY thing holding me back at the moment is the fact I'd be permanently modifying a piece of historic memorabilia, but I'll get over it!

Wait, what?!?

We're a bunch of imaginary interweb friends, talking every single day about overgrown Little Tykes Cozie Coupes propelled by lawn and garden equipment engines. The only people who care about us is us.

Most of our wives tolerate our oddball proclivities because it keeps us amused, and gives us something to fixate on. It's better than talking about politics, or "kids these days", how fat we've become, or our growing irrelevance. "Longsuffering" is an apt adjective for most of them.

As such, there's really no "historic memorabilia", no certificates of inauthenticity, no provenance, no cachet, no respect from Porsche guys or car-show guys. Classic car guys won't let you join their clubs, eBay won't even let you sell one, and insurance guys don't know what to do with 'em. VW guys tolerate us (begrudgingly) which fits, because everybody in the genpop thinks we drive Karmann Ghias. In automotive terms, that's a bit like being included at the loser table in the cafeteria in high-school.

_{(Inside scoop: I own two vehicles with ACVW engines, and I'd like to own at least two more. I'm every bit as cool as my choices in vehicles. Make of that what you will.)}

We're popular on BaT of late, but Jerry Lewis was a big deal in France. It didn't make him funny. This too shall pass.

For this guy, the evil clown is (and forever will be) "the badge". If you wanna' take a die grinder to a 20 year old corpse badge, "permanently modifying a piece of history" should be the last thing on your mind. The Mona Lisa it's not.

You do you. Rock that Dremmel tool.

Awww, Uncle Stan, now I feel ripped off!  My Big Boy Little Tykes Cozy Coupe didn't come with eyes on the front...

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If bright red won't work, here are a few other colors to consider:

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Good job, Mitch. I like all of your options, except for the brown, a little better than the bright red.  I'd probably go, red, blue, green as my order of preference.