The Road Trip

[Bruce]

Al, it was about 10 min after I left that I thought about his hat, so I didn´t get it.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/SGnefTZ4cFE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/SGnefTZ4cFE</a>
In the background you can see two police trucks, and 2-3 cops in dark blue.

It is very hot here.  High humidity all the time.  When you sweat, the breeze doesn´t cool you.  Yesterday was 38°

Yesterday and today i spent time at Mario Posada´s VW workshop.  He was telling me about how difficult it is to get parts.  Shipping is the problem.  Something that can be delivered within the USA for $25 will cost over $200 to get it here.  He gave one example of a guy who needed an air pump for the suspension of his Lincoln Navigator.  After he paid the supplier in the US, he was hit with incoming charges of $2000.  Corrupt customs officials know that anyone with a car like that has money.

As in other C.A. countries, there are almost no VWs left.  Today we drove by the empty building for the VW dealer here in San Miguel; Continental Motors closed a few months ago.  There are no more VW dealers in this country.
  
The Beetles are gone due to stupid government regulations.  They are very anal about engine numbers.  Your engine number is on your car's title.  Every 4 years when everyone must get new licence plates, they also do mechanical inspections.  If your engine number does not match, they confiscate your car.  It is almost impossible, and very expensive, to get your car back, so most are crushed.  Mario said every 4 years, the majority of VWs are destroyed this way.  Now, you're thinking, it is legitimate to buy an engine and install it.  There is a process to change the number on your title.  You must take proof of purchase to the DMV and pay a fee.  But the fee is $100 to do this, so most can't afford it.  Mario's shop truck is 94 Rabbit pickup, and it's original diesel engine was replaced with a 2.0 GTI engine (on propane!)  He said that when he transfered it into his name (fee for transfer), plus changed the engine number, and the body colour, the total fees were $400.  Isn't that F'd up? ? ? ?

[Bruce]

...........

[karl h]

really like your stories, bruce!

[ALB]

You missed it. You'll only get so many opportunities, and you have to come home with a hat! Glad to hear it's still going well. Al

[Bruce]

Part of the reason for including San Miguel on my trip was the claim by Mario that he had a ZF diff.  I met his friend Chito in Guatemala City a few weeks before and Chito thought Mario might have a diff, so Chito sent Mario a pic of the swing ZF I had in the car.  After arriving at Mario´s shop I asked about the diff.  That´s when he admitted he didn´t have one.  But wait, there´s a twist to this.  When I was looking around his shop, I saw a SSC IRS gearbox inside a Combi for storage.  When I grabbed the output flange and turned it, the other went the same way!  Then I looked at the filler plug.  Yep, the special ZF filler plug was there.  Then there was the final proof, AW was the letter code.  The ironic thing was, Mario did not know it had a ZF.  He said he checked many online lists for gearbox codes and AW was not on any. 

After San Miguel, El Salvador, I went around the capital of San Salvador to Santa Ana where I met up with the guys from the Santa Ana VW club for their cruise night on Friday.  I think there´s good hunting for parts in San Salvador, but I am running out of time.  I must be home before June 15, so I now have to skip some destinations.

Finding a hotel in Santa Ana was very difficult.  All I could find were the $8-10 hotels without AC, and I really need AC here.

On Saturday, Chino, one of the guys in the Santa Ana VW club, was my tour guide of the local shops.  Chino is unique here in that his car is a Type 3 Sqbk.  Parts for him are extremely difficult here.  At the second shop I found a couple of rare Super Beetle parts to drag home.  Then at a VW parts store we found a complete ZF equipped IRS gearbox from a VW Type 181.  As expected, the seller would not sell the diff out of it, so I had to buy the whole thing.  Normally I extract the diff right there, but it was so damn hot that day we wrapped it up in a giant sugar sack and put it on the right side floor of my car.  I thought I could take it apart here in Guatemala City (where I am now), but now I may just drag it all the way home.

[posada]

 hello friend bruce! I'm happy! know that we're back home how lucky you found another P / R strong a taste! Here the power assist you and will be watching! on your journey! Blessings! and you send a photo! of your stay over here!

att. mario posada..

[Bruce]

Mario!  I`m surprised you found this site.  You will find lots of good info here and many will help you when you are ready to build your 2180.

I made it back to Guatemala City after Santa Ana in El Salvador.  When I went to my friend Jose's shop, he said, "Hey, I have a friend......"  Everything starts that way here.  This particular friend had a Type 181 with no engine.  Located south of the city on the shores of Lago Amatitlan, about 30km away.  Jose's friend Sylvester went with me to see the car.  It was just about the dirtiest car I have ever seen.  Spider webs out of Raiders of the Lost Ark covered it and there was lots of junk stored in it.  Many household pets and barnyard animals have also had their way with the car.  This car is swing axle with reduction boxes, and when I cleaned away the trans code, it was AL.  But I don't know the swing axle codes, so further checking was needed.  After jacking it up on both sides, it failed the ZF test of turning one wheel and watching the other.  More looking said the car was a Mex Safari, made in 1973.  But it was not like any 73 Thing I have seen.  It has the 71 and earlier steering wheel, and Bus tail lights.  Then on the dash to the right of the speedo, there was a label stating this car was equipped with a "diferencial de bloqueo".  A ZF!

After I returned to Guatemala City, I talked to Jose about it.  I also needed to verify the code and the existance of the diff.  The code said yes, so the only way to know for sure was to return to the car and pull the drain plug for a look.  Meanwhile, Jose talked to the owner.  He didn't want to sell the diff or the gearbox, it was all or nothing.  OK, you'll just have to accept my offer of what I would pay for an unknown core diff.  He agreed, so Jose jr and I went back to the car, prepared to drag it back to the city if it had the diff.  And it did, so we tied it onto the dolly and towed it back.  The ride back was painful.  Jose would not go over 30km/h, so it took an hour and a half!

Yesterday I started pulling the gearbox out.  Good thing the shop had a roof because it rained hard for most of the day.  I ran into a couple of problems.  One axle nut was missing and the other rusted on very well.  I could also tell rust was securing the drums too.  Today, Jose took the cutoff wheel to the nut, then after a good workout with a BFH, the drums were off.  The reduction boxes had to be split to remove the axles.  Finally, the diff was out.  Once the ring gear was off, I had a closer look.  It seems like some "Chapoose" has worked on it.  The heads of the bolts holding it together are stripped, and by looking at where the fulcrum plates live, I could see there were no discs inside!  That explains why it acted like an open diff.

Here's my VW Safari and the diff extraction on the sidewalk.
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[Bruce]

Hey drag racers, the R/P turned out to be a Klink 3.88.
Obviously I can´t bring the Safari home, so after talking to Jose, I gave the car to Jose jr.  He´s going down the wrong path in life, constantly looking at all the lame watercooled VWs, so maybe this project will straighten him out.
The car is in surprisingly good condition.  The only rust it has is the bottom of the spare tire slot, the left rocker panel you can see, and the usual battery area.  The windscreen frame has zero rust.  Most I see on restored cars are rotten, so this one got lucky.  In the pic the car is pretty clean.  That´s because of the heavy rain while we towed it home.  A free tropical wash job!

[Bruce]

Here's a 67 I saw last week as I was passing through Nacaome Honduras heading towards the border with El Salvador.
Can any of you Fuchs experts tell me what's very rare about this wheel?

[javabug]

Three-prong center?

[Bruce]

Correct!  That makes it an original 73 Carrera RS front wheel.

[Bruce]

More break-downs!
As I was checking out a hotel in Huehuetenango Guatemala, I came out to my car no more than 5 min later to find the offside door's window broken.  Must have been a rock spit out by a passing car tyre.  I cleaned out the broken bits of glass then made a feeble effort to find a window right there.  The rarity of VWs made this a waste of time, so I drove on to the border with Mexico.  Unfortunately, we are now in the rainy season, but at least it's not cold.
After crossing the border, I started to see Beetles-a-plenty again.  In San Cristobal de las Casas I began looking.  None of the VW parts sellers have windows, only new repro parts.  Several kept telling me to go to one guy who has glass.  When I got there, he didn't have any used windows, but said he would in 10 min.  Shortly, a guy drove up carrying a window.  It was an aftermarket repro.  I broke my rule of inspecting carefully any repro part and bought it.  MISTAKE!  The glass was too thin so it would not stay stuck in the original metal channel from the old window.  The seller said to use RTV, but I don't have time for crap like that, so I left. 
Near the edge of town I found a paint shop that had a couple of dead Beetles, one had a window.  I asked the price and got the "gringo" price of 500 pesos (about $40).  I let him keep it. 
Heading towards Tuxtla Guiterrez, I found another paint shop where the owner had two VW Safaris.  Of course I had to check them out (one had a ZF) and I also asked about a window.  He had one at half the other guy's price.  When I told him about the other guy, his eyes opened up really wide in amazement.  All is now well, and the genuine VW part fit perfectly as expected.

[Bruce]

Al, I have my trophy!
When I passed this at 110km/h I knew exactly what it was.  Veracruz State Police.  The police here use pickup trucks and it is common to see them standing up in the box while at speed.

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[j-f]

Al, I have my trophy!
When I passed this at 110km/h I knew exactly what it was.  Veracruz State Police.  The police here use pickup trucks and it is common to see them standing up in the box while at speed.

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An Harlequin Bug! Special edition from '96. A nice collector to have.

[ALB]

Excellent, Bruce! Who needs a blanket when you can bring home one of those? I've seen the police in a couple of different places (in Mexico) use pick up trucks with guys standing in the back, so I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't happen more often. Glad you got the window sorted out. Give me a shout when you get back; I've got a 5 speed for you to look at... Al

[Bruce]

An Harlequin Bug! Special edition from '96. A nice collector to have.

Right!  And this car was in extremely good shape, living in the holy city of Puebla where it was born.
Friday I went into Mexico City and spent Saturday with my friend Antonio Trejo driving around buying NOS Genuine VW parts from various independent suppliers.  If any of you guys need genuine VW Type 1 parts, look up user "Antonio Trejo" on the Samba, he can supply a lot of top quality parts.  There are also OEM parts he can get, like Hella and Bosch.
One item I need is a front bonnet, and surprisingly, VW now only supplies the one for the Ultima Beetle.  What a bunch of dummies they are.  Only 3500 of them were made and they turn their back on the last 6-7 years of production.  It is so easy to convert a normal one for Ultima use, and so much more difficult to go the other way of welding up the holes and metal finishing it.  I remember seeing NOS old ones in Guadalajara on the way south, so tomorrow I´ll go and see if they still have them.  Then I´ll figure out how to get it inside my car.

Just ticked over the 20,000km mark today.

[K-Roc]

Pick up the pace man!  Camaeron and I will meet you for lunch at El Camio Real ( by Bills house )  Friday at 1:00,  then will head over to Nicks!   

[cameron shorey]

Pick up the pace man!  Cameron and I will meet you for lunch at El Camino Real ( by Bill's house )  Friday at 1:00,  then will head over to Nicks!   

Yahoo! Real Mexican food! I'm looking forward to it.
I'm sure Bruce will be tired of it, by the time he gets into SoCal.

[cameron shorey]

Pick up the pace man!  Cameron and I will meet you for lunch at El Camino Real ( by Bill's house )  Friday at 1:00,  then will head over to Nicks!   

Yahoo! Real Mexican food! I'm looking forward to it.
I'm sure Bruce will be tired of it, by the time he gets into SoCal.

Bruce!
You did not show up for tacos.
What happened?

[Bruce]

I'm now in SoCal and many of you know I made it here for the Classic weekend.  I arrived at Nicks just before dark after leaving Yuma AZ at nearly 110F.

Backtracking a bit.  In Guadalajara, the seller that had the front bonnet a couple of months ago still had it.  And it does fit inside a Bug behind the seats!

While driving towards the Mexican drug capital of Culiacan, there was a pretty big dip in the road.  But it wasn't the dip that was alarming, it was the road rash at the end.  Sure enough, the engine hit pretty hard.  Then the next day, a large oil puddle made it necessary to do another involuntary oil change.  But first I needed supplies.  Wal Mart is about the only place I can find oil instead of the tar they like to use in Mex.  (who really needs 25W-60?)  Finding the Wal Mart took some time.  Then, they only had crappy Fram filters, so I set off to try and find either the Ford or VW dealer.  Instead I found the Chevrolet dealer and bought a filter to fit the common Ford.  Yes, AC Delco makes that filter, and it's a heck of a lot better quality than any Fram.
The damage: three studs and nuts sheared off leaving mostly glue holding the sump plate on.  Luckily, I had found another NOS genuine VW plate the previous Saturday in Mexico City.  It only took a few minutes driving around to find a shop where the guys were willing to do the work.  Working through the hole, the guy was able to remove the busted studs and thread in a M6 screw from the inside so it extended below the plate like stock.  When I pulled out the 5W-30 they were pretty surprised.  But for some reason it wasn't the 30 that alarmed them, it was the 5W.  Somehow I don't think he understood it's only a 5W when the oil is cold and that it doesn't really matter in a warm climate.

That made for a late start leaving Culiacan, but I still made it to Hermosillo that night, despite the community event going on in Obregon.  The highway passes through the middle of town, and I was following the signs when I came to a point of the main highway that was plugged solid with parked cars.  The event wasn't even on the highway, they just used it for parking!  A cop came over to me as I waved my intention to drive through that mess.  He told me I had to take a detour and sent me back.  There were absolutely no signs anywhere and now I had to figure out how to get to the north end of town around that mess.  Drive a bit, stop and ask.  Repeat 20-30 times.  This took two hours to find the main road again.  Oh well, at least I was able to go around a toll booth in the process.

The next day north of Hermosillo is Santa Ana where you can continue north to Nogales then onto Tucson, or you can go north-west towards Sonoyta.  After a previous difficult crossing at Nogales (8 hours at US Customs), I now always cross at Sonoyta where they are much more lax.  At Sonoyta, I ask around to find the place where you have to turn in your car permit. 
The Car Permit:  If you want to go deeper into Mexico than just the border towns, or other than the Baja, you must buy a permit for your car.  They fill out some forms and require a photocopy of all your docs.  Then they make you pay a fee and a deposit to ensure you take the car out of the country within the 6 months the permit is good for.  The root cause of the need for this bureaucracy is the corrupt cops that won't do their jobs.  While the USA may have millions of illegally imported Mexicans, Mexico has millions of illegally imported US cars.  Mexicans bring cars into the country and don't want to pay the stiff duty (100%).  So instead they just drive around on expired US tags.  When the cops pull them over, $8 will get them going again.  If the damn cops would seize these illegal cars, people would stop bringing them in.  Then legitimate tourists wouldn't have to spend hours getting dumb permits.
When you leave, you must turn in your permit, otherwise they keep your deposit, and put you on the list of people who can never bring a car into the country again.  When I asked at Sonoyta, I was told that the place was back up the highway in Caborca.  TWO HUNDRED km AWAY!  What kind of a moron would put it there?  Since my original plan was to drive north from there to Interstate 8 then head west to Yuma, I asked if there was a place to turn in the permit at the border town near there.  And there was.  It took a while to figure out where and how to do it since they don't put up signs, and I found it odd that the Mexican customs officials, who work all day a stone's throw away from the USA, don't speak any English.

After crossing the border and driving towards Yuma, I thought there must be an In-N-Out here.  Consulting my out of date location guide confirmed my guess.  And I was able to find it without a map!  After a Double-Single, all was well for the day.  The next day I was greeted by temps of around 45C.  With a cold (?) engine I headed west on I-8 at only 90km/h to try to keep the heat in the engine down.  After about half an hour, the oil was at 230F.  Then as the road started to climb, temps went higher still.  A couple of times I got out and poured water into the cooling fan with the engine running.  That really brings things down quickly.  Just make sure your feet aren't anywhere near the underside of the engine!

[modnrod]

The next day I was greeted by temps of around 45C.  With a cold (?) engine I headed west on I-8 at only 90km/h to try to keep the heat in the engine down.  After about half an hour, the oil was at 230F.  Then as the road started to climb, temps went higher still.  A couple of times I got out and poured water into the cooling fan with the engine running.  That really brings things down quickly.  Just make sure your feet aren't anywhere near the underside of the engine!

The water works really well, I use it out here as a last resort for when it gets really hot. I use a micro-mister (like for your greenhouse garden) aimed into the fan, water pumped from a washer kit.
I'm sure Rick M and others in AZ have used similar tricks. 

Great story Bruce, I've really enjoyed reading about your travels, thanks man.

[ALB]

  A couple of times I got out and poured water into the cooling fan with the engine running.  That really brings things down quickly.  Just make sure your feet aren't anywhere near the underside of the engine!

You learned that from experience?

[Bruce]

Done!
Arrived home a couple of weeks ago.  The total distance covered was 25,590km, or 15,905 miles.
I did notice that the engine was not running well for the final few thousand km.  Then driving around town at home it was rough.  So I thought I would check the valve lash.  This engine has been amazingly reliable over it's 140,000 km life so far.  After it's initial break-in, the valve lash would never change.  It was so stable that I simply stopped checking.  Sometimes I would go many years without checking.  A couple of days ago I found two tight exhaust valves.  No doubt it was due to the overheating I gave it while heading west from Yuma.  After resetting the lash, it runs just as good as it always has. 
This engine will live for yet another road trip!

[brian e]

Bruce,
Sorry for the slight hijack from an awesome story, but would you mind sharing your engine specs?  It sounds like an awesome running engine with enough power to be fun, and get decent mileage on a long haul. 

Maybe trans specs too? 

Thanks, Brian

[Bruce]

When I built this engine in around 1999 or 2000, I built it specifically for travel to Mexico.  At that time there were only two grades of fuel.  Leaded low octane and unleaded low octane.  Both 87 on the R+M/2 scale, so about 91 euro octane.  And that means low compression.  Unfortunately, on the very first trip to Mex with this new engine, leaded fuel was eliminated and replaced with high octane unleaded.  Oh well, at least I get to buy cheap fuel now.  Compression is 8.5:1.
Gavin (Nivag here on this forum) was upgrading to a bigger crank so I bought his 78mm DMS welded German crank.  Since I knew I didn't want to be tearing into the engine every 3-4 years, I went with 90.5 Cimas.  In all the years playing with these cars, I have never heard of anyone installing a set of 94s then driving the engine for 150,000+ km without having to re-ring them.  But I have heard of many exceeding that figure with 90.5s.  Currently, my engine has 140,000 km on it.
Heads are CB 044s with 40x35 valves.  They were ported by an idiot who knew nothing about porting (me), so they are far from ideal.  The exhaust ports are way too big and I think that's why it doesn't get great mileage.
The biggest factor for long life is the cam and valve train.  My combo is kinda strange.  The cam is an Engle FK-44.  A really agressive set of ramps there does not make for long life.  So to tame it down a bit, instead of using the prescribed 1.4 rockers, I gave it 1.25s.  My idea was that one day in the future I could put the big rockers in to make more hp if I wanted.  But I never did.  Steel pushrods and some reground vintage Eaton two piece hollow lifters rub against it.  At time I built the engine the only other choice was Scat cam-killer lifters (my previous engine only lasted 8000km with them).  Soft springs makes for long life in my engine.  I installed a set of well used VW dual springs.
The flywheel is just 4 kilos.  Even when the car is fully loaded, the light flywheel is no trouble.  Don't believe anyone who says heavy cars need heavy flywheels (for street use) unless you like to to big burnouts!
Kennedy Stage 1 and the extra long arm on the gearbox makes a comfortable pedal in any traffic situation (ask about this!)
Up top are a set of 40 Dellortos.  I previously had Weber 40IDFs, but the first time I went to Mexico City (3300m), the car was almost undriveable it ran so rich.  Swapping idle jets on the road is such a PITA with IDFs that I changed out the carbs instead.  On this latest trip I must have swapped jets 10-12 times.  It is so easy with DRLAs.
I used to use a common German 009.  Then I learned about the advantages of the vacuum advance.  The distributor I am using now is one I picked up off the ground at Pomona after everyone left (free!).  I cleaned it up and checked it's advance.  Really lazy on the mechanical, so I took it apart and compared it to the advance of an 009.  It had an extra spring on the advance weights, so out that came.  With only one, it's advance was exactly the same as the 009.  Max timing at part throttle is now 42º.

[Dave Galassi]

Bruce, check this out! 

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-ff-c1-last-vw-bus-20131126-dto,0,3352653.htmlstory#axzz2lraJkOTg


That would have been hard to miss in Copan......................