The Restoration of #1768

[vwdmc16]

Yes there are LEDs in the panel, it illuminates well.


Jon, there wasnt enough room between the wipershafts and the base of the windshield, i didnt want to force it an possibly crack tge glass, i cut it neatly at the wiper shaft and you can only see that its cut if you look really close.

[dmc6960]

The windshield cowl should remove in one piece no problem if you remove the wiper arms first (just a single bolt each).

[vwdmc16]

Right it should however mine would not, maybe the windshield (not original) is longer or something else strange.

[vwdmc16]

I have access to a sandblast cabinet now si ive been cleaning up parts from other projects, the parking brake really needed work on the D, It was the rustiest part remaining.







All cleaned up I found a large crack has formed, the whole bracket was pretty bent up too so a bit of hammering and welding was needed. Then some primer and paint before mounting up with new stainless hardware, the old mounting studs all broke off.





I also bought some more stock wire harness retainer clips to help hold up the wiring on the roof that was sagging badly, still need to finnish that headliner.

[jawn101]

I have access to a sandblast cabinet now si ive been cleaning up parts from other projects, the parking brake really needed work on the D, It was the rustiest part remaining.







All cleaned up I found a large crack has formed, the whole bracket was pretty bent up too so a bit of hammering and welding was needed. Then some primer and paint before mounting up with new stainless hardware, the old mounting studs all broke off.





I also bought some more stock wire harness retainer clips to help hold up the wiring on the roof that was sagging badly, still need to finnish that headliner.

Kickass, man. That bracket looks a ton better. What media did you use?

[DavidProehl]

Very impressive! Amazing what the right tools can do!

[vwdmc16]

Both lower door panels are off for an easy mod to help the door air vents flow air better, The ducting is pretty loose and there is a strip of foam that is attached to seal the gap. An alternative is to fill the gap with expanding foam for an even tighter seal.






After the foam cures I cut it down and spray some black paint on. Now those vents should discharge all the air they get.




Now back to the front suspension, as a test to see how much castor I could regain by modifying the suspension, I took one of the stock stay bar bushings and cut it down from 3/4" to 1/4" thick and re installed it.

This is bushing #32 in the diagram below, by cutting it down I effectively move the lower control arm forward 1/2" thus adding caster








The results are in after another quick measurement on the alignment rack. I gained about 4' on the driver side, Now I need to add shims to the front side of the passenger lower arm to reduce the caster 2' so they are equal.

For the first time since ive owned the car, it just about tracks stright down the road. But still more work to do.

[Ryan S.]

Wow. That looks amazing. Looks brand new.

[vwdmc16]

Jon came over today and performed a HUGE and much needed job, Replacing my Fuse box and updating the relays and breakers. It was a long day crammed in the passenger floor well, but great improvements were gained.




Before, a horrible mess that was actually quite dangerous:




A PO had done some rewiring, It looks like they cut off the original box 2" into the harness and then soldered in another box with its 2" of wire, then put thick and gooey heat shrink on each wire.






As you can see, some key circuits were just hanging on by a thread and others were just mangled, how the fuse plugged in I dont even know.




We really did this all just in time, Just as Jon cut the last wire, the fuse board burst into flame!!!! Oh No!





All labeled and ready for better heat shrink and new tips, a few wires could not be saved so new ones were installed.



Meanwhile I worked on my EFI conversion more, I found a possible W pipe replacement part from the intake piping of a 1992 300zX twin turbo. the center is 3" and the two outlets are 2.5" just what I need.



However no amount of heating would make the ends bend sharp enough without pinching shut, It seems I would have to continue with the scratch made metal one.



Grabbed my tightened bends and trimmed them to fit each other at the correct width.




Next I found a 3" ID to 3" OD adapter tube at the local auto part's exhaust aisle that would help the transition become smoother, I cut and bent that to fit in between the newly joined bends. An hour of fitting and trimming it was ready to weld.







I still need some silicone connectors but here is how the W pipe, MAF and airfilter adapter will go together.



I also mocked up some throttle linkage ideas, I will need to scrounge some volvo/bosch throttle body arms from the junkyard to make this work, but I still think the common throttle shaft idea will work.




Now does the new piping fit?





The thermostat housing interferes too much so it had to be cut down again, but it was still too tall. A bit of heat and hammering on the new W pipe to create a small indentation on the underside did the trick. Its very close to the thermostat still.



Not much was holding the Intake manifold in now so I decided to remove it and the K jet mixture unit so I could sand blast them, Im very tired about how dirty and corroded they look, I also did some sanding/filing on the manifold to remove the ugly casting flaws in the manifold and original W pipe.



The sun was setting and Jon was finishing up on the wires, Looks pretty good, final step was to re wrap the harness in the oem style non sticky rubber wrap, that really helps sanitize the compartment.

[jawn101]

Weird the way that box just caught fire like that, wasn't it?

Can't wait to hear if the car runs better as a result - I bet you'll see a lot of little improvements everywhere given the state things were in before, but some really big gains would be awesome!