The Cal-look Lounge

Since I like reading everybody else's build threads, I thought I should do my own.

I have a 1972 1200 Beetle - this was bought new by my grandfather who passed it on when he stopped driving in 1988. It was completely and utterly stock back then, all the mechanical stuff was perfect (my grandfather was a police driver and i think that made him pay close attention to maintenance), few scuffs here and there on the wings. All I definitely remember doing was replacing the crossplies with radials plus a load of polishing and a little bit of filling.

I drove it around like this for about ten years before it became clear work was needed. So in 1999, two months before I got married, I tore it apart and Paintbox worked their magic. New doors, wings, dechromed what chrome there was, 2" narrowed beam, '61 short axles, lucas indicators. The suspension work was to allow me to fit the set of American Racing Equipment LeMans rims I had bought which is what really started the whole thing off. I totally blame Keith for this as he had them for sale at Slough Swapmeet. At this point the rims weren't ready and the new motor was still just an estimate. But off I went and got married:

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About a year later I had the rims on, motor in and I showed it at Volksworld 2000:

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Showing cars turned out to be hard work, so I concentrated on driving instead. I don't use it a lot, but I use it when I can and all year round. The annual inspection started to get a little stressful as a result of some rather annoying rust in key places, so it's rebuild time!

Motor is 69 x 90.5; Fumio Heads; Engle 120 cam; Dellorto 40 DRLAs; 42mm Python exhaust with 1.75" cone and 42mm heater boxes; Mallory distributor.

There's lots of tidying up to do, not an awful lot of modifications to make because I'm pretty happy with the way it is. I am finding that sourcing standard parts for this standard model car can be tricky at times and impossible in other times (especially for the aftermarket parts). Hopefully some of the these things will be interesting and possibly useful to other people.

nice car, lets see more pics

Your car looks spot on!

How do you find the exhaust diameter at 42mm, too big, too small, just right?

 thanks,

Andrew

Thanks - i'll sort some out.


Thanks. It's always had a 42mm header (well with the 1776cc motor!) - initially that was a Berg merged header with dual mufflers, then with a Bugpack Turbo muffler. The collector on the Python is quite a large diameter (maybe twice the size of the Berg's collector) and after switching to it, there was a much stronger sensation of the cam coming on. It did not feel like any more power, so I figured what happened was that the larger collector was not drawing the exhaust through so well at lower engine speeds. After I added the cone, which is nicely shaped to reduce the size of the collector, it felt like it always has - the sensation of coming on cam is much less but no obvious reduction in power.

It is a bit big for 1776cc, but it seems to work well with the cone and i've got some options for the future.

I have a Talbot Berlin side mirror. I mounted it in the right place - meaning it cleared the quarterlight window - but it doesn't give a great view behind (notice the angle I have it set at). You can see that the plastic gasket between the mirror and the body has fallen to bits.

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I know you can find new mirrors (they are really expensive) but I couldn't find a replacement gasket. After a bit of searching I found 'grommet strip' in clear plastic. This is usually used to cover the edge of cut metal - for example inside a desktop computer. It's really cheap - I paid £2.75 for a metre.

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So I measured the right length, cut it and put it on the edge of the body. You can see in the back of the above picture a mirror glass - I found a convex mirror in the right size (100mm) which was mounted using stick on pads after carefully cleaning the existing glass. This glass wasn't expensive at all - £5.

Now it looks like this:

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Which I'm pretty happy with. The convex mirror is definitely better although it could be a bit more convex!

I replaced the trailing arms on the front suspension earlier in the year and I have a couple of tips.

About a year ago I noticed I could hear a slight ticking sound when taking left hand corners. I could see that one of the wheel weights inside the front right rim had a clean line on it - right where it passes the lower ball joint. The boot on that joint had split and I guess the loss of grease / addition of water had caused the joint to wear, introducing play and that was why the wheel weight was now touching the ball joint. I could not find a local shop to replace the ball joints, so I went for exchange arms.

Lesson #1 - these can take quite a long time to arrive. It was about a month for me. Not a big issue as I have a second car, but something to bear in mind.

When it came to fitting the new arms, the top ones went on by hand, but the lower ones were a nightmare. I tried a number of things before getting them tightly wedged on with about half an inch still to go. This was annoying. After taking a quiet moment, I removed them (large hammer, piece of wood, swearing) and thought carefully.

Lesson #2 - it is difficult to see inside the beam tubes and the torsion arms, so make a light. I bought three bright white 12V LEDs, wired them together and attached them to a piece of wooden dowel about eight inches long. You can put that all the way into the parts and then see really well.

Which is when I noticed all the junk inside the torsion arms and the grit between the torsion leaves. I cleaned the arms with a toothbrush [ in the kitchen sink - worked well, but took a while because I had to wait for my wife to leave the house for an hour or so  ;) ]. I went through every leaf in the torsion leaves making they were totally clean for the first six inches. After greasing the leaves and arms I could then push them on by hand.

Lesson #3 - clean parts (really well) which fit tightly together. And cover clean parts!

I had the car on stands in my garage whilst waiting for the exchange arms. My garage door has a gap at the bottom and all sorts of rubbish was being blown in. I should have done my usual trick of using cling film to cover things up so they stayed clean.

Once it was all back together, the play was gone and I was happy. I can tell that the inner bushes (I think) don't precisely match the replacement torsion arms. I don't know if there is a successful way to resolve this, I would have haul all the current bearings and bushes out, buy new bushes, somehow match them to the arms, then reinstall the lot. I could maybe use the urethane style bushes, but I've never been keen on those for no particular reason. Unless a solution presents itself, I'll just keep the front beam properly greased and keep an eye on it.

This was an awful task - especially cleaning out all the old grease - but it's done and doesn't need doing often.

Lesson #4 - be really careful with boots. A tiny split caused me to have to do all this work. I've no idea when I did it, so I'll have to check them more often in the future.

Next - sorting out my camber compensator...

Really good looking car! Can't wait to see more

cool looking car! and a great story behind it :)

Thanks for your kind comments.

I've been looking in my photos and I really need to take some better photos! Here's a few for you:

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The exterior isn't massively different from stock: shaved the thin side trim and indicators. And those rims. I love my rims. One thing I am going to change is the centre caps: the centre has the more modern logo and I have a new set with the older American Racing logo with red and blue stars on.

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Not a radical change here either. My grandfather bought that parcel shelf - I don't even know who manufactured it. There's a fire extinguisher, Berg shifter, gauges. Eagle eyed observers will know that the seat belts weren't standard equipment in 1972, my grandfather specified that option. I've added static belts in the rear: that was to secure the seats for my kids. I really like the 1200 interior. I replaced the driver's seat cover last year as it had ripped. Other than that, it's just plain old stock.

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Motor. I could write a lot about what I've done in here. Notice the air hoses for the heating - works really well with CSP heat exchangers. I replaced the 009 with the Mallory Unilite because the 009 advance mechanism failed - and I liked the ability to adjust the advance cure via different springs, which I have obviously never done!). There's no mechanical fuel pump - after a variety of failures I moved to an Autometer pump, which was way too loud, and then to a much quieter electric one (can't recall the brand at the moment) and that's doing the job very well. Notice the Autometer fuel pressure regulator mounted where the 'diagnostic socket' used to be? I am planning to replace the rubber hoses with braided: I have the banjos to fit the carbs already. I had to rebuild one of the carbs (reversing the throttle spindle) as it was the 'wrong way round' - the return spring was at the front of the engine rather than the back. I remote mounted the oil pressure sensor because I added a oil pressure sender and I didn't want the added weight to cause any breakages. I could go on....

Nice car!

I'd completely forgotten about those wheels! Found them at pomona, I think. A loooooonnnng time ago!

Those wheels were pretty much the reason I went through the car!

You can see in the side on photo that the design of the wheels are slightly different front to back. That's because the front wheels are 5 1/2" wide and the rears 6". I can't remember then details anymore, but between Keith and Kobus I made up the narrower front and wider rear set.

I have a camber compensator fitted. I believe I bought it in late 1995 from Type 3 Detectives. When I fitted it, it still had the white lettering on it "patent applied for" you see in some pictures. That was 22 years ago (which completely amazes me!) and the bar itself has become fairly gnarly, but what was worrying me was the eyelets were starting to pull out of the axle straps and the 'bushes' inside the end of the bar were degrading. Definitely time to refresh things. Given finding compensators isn't that easy and finding spares appears to be impossible, I had to get creative.

There is a piece of rubber on each end of the compensator which bears on the bottom of the axle: I found some 5mm neoprene sheet on Amazon and cut it to the right size to replace the old rubber. Two holes drilled to use the original nuts&bolts to secure them to the bar. Done.

To replace the axle straps, I had some suspension limiting straps unused (I bought these from CB years ago). I cut the straps to the required length and used an eyelet kit I bought to put eyelets at the right place for the bolts. The eyelets were a slightly strange size so I had to open them up a little and use 3/8 UNF bolts.

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Next was the bush which sits inside the curled ends of the bar. These looked like a piece of hose and they had degraded badly. I couldn't find anything off the shelf which would fit, but I did find urethane rods. I like to set my brother little challenges every now and then, so I asked if he could machine urethane into the correct size and drill it so the mounting bolt would fit. After some careful measuring and more careful machining I had two perfectly sized replacement bushes. Having a brother who is a machinist is really useful!

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After cleaning up and repainting the bar itself it all looked pretty good. It fitted right back on and will hopefully last another 22 years.

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I like the car, nice and clean!

are those rims 14"?
do you notice any difference in driving or handling with and without the camber compensator?

Thanks.

They rims are 15" - I have Toyo 155x15 on the front and BF Goodrich 205s on the back. The BFGs are way too old, so they'll get replaced with something else over the winter.

It definitely corners better with the compensator on. If i'm too enthusiastic in a corner now, If i'm too enthusiastic in a corner now, I can feel the rear slide and it didn't do that before, it just felt like the whole car was going to tip over! It actually feels a little stranger right now because i've just binned the gas-a-just shocks for Koni Red shocks. They are currently at their loosest, so i'll tighten them up half a turn and see what difference that makes.

To start with I had the compensator with the original front sway bar. Then the compensator with no front sway bar (after I fitted the narrowed beam, so the original sway bar didn't fit any more) and now it has a 3/4 sway bar and the compensator. The current setup feels the most balanced front to rear in terms of body roll, understeer/oversteer. It might be kinda interesting to take both bars off to see what it used to be like, but that would probably be terrifying and i'll likely crash because I am so used to how it handles.

It'll be interesting to see what changing the tyres does too - they are really old so new rubber could make it quite different.

My car, being a standard model, has silver painted quarterlights rather than chrome. Both needed replacing as the frames had rusted. I did find one NOS window, but no luck for the other side. There were plenty of chromed versions available, so I had the idea to paint a chromed one silver to match the other one.

I bought a pair of quarterlights (ok condition, but not good enough to use) from eBay to experiment with.

I had to work out how to remove and replace the glass from the window.

The frames didn't seem super strong, so I didn't want to bend them during removal. The only thing you can hold in order to remove the frame is the glass itself, so more care was needed. Firstly, I sprayed oil along the seal between the glass and frame and let it soak for a day or two. Then I cut two pieces of wood to match the glass and glued on two pieces of rubber (from a bicycle inner tube). Then I clamped the glass (carefully!) between the wood and used a small wooden drift to tap each end of the frame. The frame came away fairly easily. Here's a picture of one of the wooden pieces:

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Next, I needed a method to replace the glass. I made a wooden jig to match the shape of the frame. This required bracing so it held its shape and to keep the window catch off the bench. I had to make cut-outs for the small rain gutter, the top and bottom pivots. I then put the frame in the jig, pushed the glass in by hand and then used two clamps to slowly pull the glass in. This worked pretty well - you have to put quite a lot of force on the glass, so go carefully! Here's a picture of the frame in the jig having just installed the glass:

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Now I could remove and replace the glass, I had to work out how to paint the frame. After some research on the internet, I found that chrome could be painted by sanding the chrome and spraying with epoxy primer. Then they can be topcoated with the right colour. As I trial, I sanded and painted with ordinary primer and it came right off. I tried using Smoothrite and that seemed to work really well. I haven't tried the epoxy yet.

I have a question though - the quarterlight frames on the car had rusted, so they are steel. The chrome frames I have are too light to be steel and a magnet doesn't stick. Given their age and the fact that there isn't a single piece of rust on them - I think they are aluminium. Does that sound correct? Important to know before I start painting.

HT Leads!

I have been running Taylor "409" 10mm leads because they were the biggest I could find and had "RACE" written on them and so must be the best. They do have a problem: I couldn't fit a standard HT lead seal on the end by the plugs, so I had to bodge together a seal. Given the huge gap around the crappy seal I made, I needed to replace the leads for something more useful. I put them on almost twenty years ago, sometimes it takes a while to get things done!

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First job was to sort out the distributor: the way it was installed left #1 at front right (#1 leads has the green tag on it). It should be rear right. Should be? Well that is what the manual says and it makes the HT lead layout simpler. So I bought a distributor drive puller and then thought carefully about the washers on the end of the drive shaft. If they got out of place and fell into the case, I would be in trouble. I made a small light using three 3mm LEDs heat-shrunk together. I was able to feed this into the hole where the fuel pump stand used to be and I could see the distributor drive shaft clearly. Using the puller, I raised the drive shaft enough to turn and rotated it the right amount and dropped it back down. The washers had moved a bit. So I had to pull the shaft up again and wiggle the washers over with a long screwdriver. Drop the shaft down again and wiggle a bit and it dropped right into place. This took a little while and a lot of concentration!

Here's the 'after' shot - see the #1 lead (green tag) is is now bottom right.

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The new HT leads came with the spark plug end fitted and the other not. I didn't want to buy the proper crimp tools as I doubt I will be making up any more leads for a while. In this next picture: the ally tool on the left came with the Taylor leads and the green tool on the right I bought for making these leads up. It is plastic and was advertised that it would be ok for 1 or 2 sets of leads, no more. In the end I think I managed three crimps and it wasn't really working anymore. I found that using the Taylor tool first and then the green one gave me a solid crimp of the right size, so that's what I did.

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Looks ok to me. I routed the coil lead a bit more neatly, ran the leads through the manifolds (checking they didn't foul the accelerator pump mechanism on the bottom of my Dellortos). Notice I use a pipe clip on the engine block for #1 and #2 leads? This is to keep those leads well away from the throttle linkage. After running the motor for five minutes the plug seals were warm enough to move into place (it's about freezing here today) - they make a much better seal than before. I'll keep an eye on the cylinder head gauge to see if there is much change: not that I had obvious overheating issues - I just wanted to get the sealing right.

nice write up and a nice car especially with all the history you have with it

I've been working on my fuel lines and now I have a little spare time, I though I would get this job written up in case it might be useful to anyone.

I replaced the fuel lines at the front of the car some years ago when I moved to having a pump up front. Now the aim is to replace all the lines from the frame horn backwards. I was using standard fuel hose from the frame horn, via cheap inline filter, to a Holley regulator and then to the carbs (with single hose banjos each side). Since I had previously seen the fuel line go rock hard (and leak) where it passes through the front engine tin (it is right over #3 exhaust manifold), I had already made a hole in the bodywork to the left of #3 for the fuel line to pass through.

Now I like to use the right tools for the job - they are quite expensive for this job. The tools have specifically for this are:

• Magnetic Soft faced (Aluminium) jaws for the vice to hole the fittings/hose.
• Aluminium adjustable spanner.
• Imperial deep sockets for assembling straight fittings.
• Angle grinder with 1mm cutting disc to cut the hose.
• Koul Tool.

The Koul Tool is just fantastic. Makes the worst part of the job so much easier.

You don't "need" these tools, but with them, all the tedious parts of the job are gone and you can focus on making the hoses up well. I highly recommend these tools.


First task was a bulkhead fitting to take the line from under the car into the engine bay. Just bolt it in.

I used a "Flareless Tube Nut & Sleeve" on the end of the line through the tunnel. They feel like they are the wrong size at first. Then after a little tightening, they suddenly clamp on properly and make a really good joint. Very impressed with these fittings.

Then make the hose up to go from the tunnel line to the bulkhead fitting. Because I wasn't doing this job in one go, I bought some caps for the fittings and capped them off to stop any rubbish getting in the line.

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Next part was in the engine bay.

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You can see I ran adaptors into the regulator. On a previous occasion I have had these joints leak and so now I use Form-A-Gasket. I just run a small bead around the fitting before tightening it down. I don't know if this is good idea overall, but it means I don't have to make them super tight and they don't leak. So I use it.

I wasn't sure what combination of fittings I would need to clear this part of the bodywork, but a straight bulkhead fitting and a 90 degree hose end worked perfectly.

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For the right side carb, I have a fuel pressure gauge mounted on an adaptor. I couldn't quite get this to sit level - it was so tight already, another quarter turn would have ripped the threads. Are there any tricks to get these to sit where you want them?! In the end I settled on having 3psi pointing straight down, so I know not to have the pressure higher than that.

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Further along towards the carb, you can see I used a clamp (there's a rivnut behind it). This clamp holds the hose straight across the bulkhead and means the hose won't rub on the paintwork.

These banjos came with plain metal washers. I've never been keen on the paper/card washers whcih come with the stock banjos - they work ok, but they tend to stick to the banjo/carb and can be difficult to clean off again. I almost always have to replace the washers when I take teh banjos off as they get in a right mess. So I found teflon washers and put them on (they are on in this picture). Well they don't leak, but they don't really grip either. So the banjos would move. So I did them up tighter, but because teflon is slippery, the washers get distorted and then they leak. So in the end I used the metal washers which came with the banjos and guess what? They don't leak and they hold the banjos in place perfectly!

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The left side hose was shorter and you can see I have the metal washers on here.

Once I had refitted the air cleaners, I turned the ignition key and checked for / adjusted pressure and checked for leaks. All ok. When I came to look at the hoses again, I decided that the left hose was too short and the right side was too long. So I took them off and made adjustments. For whatever reason, I decided to remove the banjo on the left side hose rather than the 45 degree fitting. This was not a good idea. The banjos are a different type of fitting to all the others - they cut into the hose. That makes a decent joint, but when you disassemble them, the piece of hose the fitting cut into gets torn off the hose and remains in the fitting. This is annoying. There was a little bit of the rubber sticking out so I figured I might be able to work it out.

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The blue tool I have here is a small plastic tool which I have from a set of tools for working on mobile phones. I found that if I used that to grip the rubber I could ease it out of the tiny gap it was in. I also found that I could press the rubber down onto the inner piece of the fitting and turn the banjo. Doing that whilst easing it out worked pretty well. After following this procedure I eventually managed to get all of the rubber out in one piece. Then I could re-make the hose to the correct length and remember to never again disassemble cutter-style fittings!

There was a further issue. The Dellorto banjos have a small plastic filter in them and these don't fit in the Goodridge banjos. I've search around and found nothing to fit, so I have no filters in here now. I would like to, so if anyone knows where I can get some which will fit, please let me know.

Jez, I like the methodical way you approach things. With regards to gauges, I once saw a rally car with the gauges all clocked at different angles - it looked really messy, but the driver said that in normal operation, all the needles pointed upright. It was far easier to watch for a needle moving off vertical than trying to read a number. Something to justify the fuel pressure gauge?!

Alright, some garage time!

The transmission has been moaning at me for a while now and on the way back from Santa Pod in September it really was louder than the motor. So time for a rebuild.

This trans has done 104,000 miles with the original 1192cc motor and about 20,000 with the current 1776cc. Running on the original ratios meant it was a bit of a madman from the lights and then revving far too high on the motorway. So it needs better ratios as well. No idea what typical life is for these things, but for me 124,000 miles was pretty much it.

Everything came apart pretty easily - the snap rings holding the diff side gears in were a pig until I bought a better set of circlip pliers. Nothing seized, snapped - just lots of filth. I am a bit of a pervert with anti-seize grease and stainless fittings - does make disassembly so much easier, Worst thing of all was that my garage isn't big so I had to take the axles off the transmission with it on the floor under the car. Not convenient or comfortable.

I've given the trans a fairly good going over with degreaser so it is ready to ship. In the meantime, I have some parts to order, some cleaning and painting to do and the heater control cables to replace (one end had rusted through).

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No fun parts here anymore.

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Looks very empty!

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Got some painting done over the weekend when we had some warmer and dryer weather.

The bump stop bracket is interesting. I replaced the other one a year or so ago: I happened to notice one day that the rubber bump stop was missing - on inspection the 'peg' the bumps top fits on had rusted away and had fallen off. I got a second hand replacement and painted that one before fitting it, so the one in the picture is the original.

Since the transmission isn't quite ready yet, I took the wheels of for some machinig and a freshen up.

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Took ages to clean off the gunge from where the tyres were sealed!

Well, this came back home.

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Fitted the cradle and mid mount. Trial fit of the axles to sort out what gaskets to use took a few attempts.

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Quite liked working on this outside - the car is in the garage! Having some nice weather and being able to work on a table rather than the floor was great.

The axles went in easily and then the tubes. I had to do all this with the trans on the floor. My garage isn't massive so there was no way I could get the trans with axles and tubes on in. So I had to bring each part in separately and put it all together under the car. This wasn't a lot of fun.

Today I managed to fit the gearbox back into the car. I managed to get the front mount upside down, but easily fixed. It wasn't easy lifting the gearbox off the floor and up onto a piece of wood and a jack to get it back into position. Quite annoying at times - have to just go and brew up, have a think, and then have another go!

Looking forward to some fairly straightforward bolting on of shocks; spring plates and so on before I tackle the brakes.

Oh yes, the wheels also came home.

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My brother machined the bolt holes to a larger size so that I can use studs / nuts rather than bolts so they are much easier to fit & remove. The old bolts were in a bad state so I'll have nice shiny nuts now. The bolting faces were also spot-faced as they were a mess. Doesn't sound like much work, but this is all precision stuff. Notice the fronts are narrower (5.5") than the rears (6")? Well the centre of the wheels were also different thicknesses making the machining tricky. My brother did a fabulous job.

And, just look at them now! The new paintwork (front, back and on those drums) is staggering. They are obviously far too good to put back on the car and actually use. I'm still working up the courage to take them to the tyre shop to have the tyres put on!

I have some 'old' style American Racing centre caps for these, which I bought five years ago whilst on holiday in California - I didn't think it would take this long!

Jez, the wheels look amazing - although I've always liked them since I first saw them (a lifetime ago back in WPS when they were at Colonels Lane!). Great work on the gearbox too - it's all coming together swimmingly - keep it going!!

Oh, and anything worth doing, always takes a bit longer than you thought it would :D

Thanks! Yes, it was 1999 the last time I properly tore this car apart and then it went to WPS in early 2000 to get the big motor in ready for VolksWorld 2000 two weeks later. I haven't driven this car since December 2020, so I am very much looking forward to that first tentative where every sound could be imminent disaster. Can't wait!

Yes, the wheels look really good. Reminds me of my old 67. (https://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/222426.jpg)

Well those three months just flew by   :o

I do have a working car again. Took me over a year! That first drive is terrifying - absolutely everything seems unfamiliar - but also quite exciting. I have a long list of tidy-up items to address:

• Rear brakes and/or handbrake need tightening
• Clutch is a little loose
• Front pressures way too high
• Top off the gearbox
• New centre caps for the rims need to go on
• Front tracking is still a little off
• Valve clearances need checking

There were two reasons why I started this last round of chaos. Firstly the trans was whining very loudly. Secondly I still had gear ratios for an 1192cc mill rather than the 1776cc I have now. There is no more whining, which is amazing. I think I had been ignoring it for so long I'd stopped remembering that it isn't supposed to whine. The ratios are longer and feel better, although I have not run it on the motorway yet. I am really happy that I've got it all back in one piece and I just now need to drive.

Some things I learned over the last year:

• Cramped garages aren't very much fun for this sort of thing
• I'm not getting any younger - rationing garage time makes sense
• You can put one piece axle tube boots on over the bell of the axle!
• Remember that the VW distributor turns clockwise. I forgot this and so got the plug leads in the wrong order. Two MASSIVE afterfires reminded me to check the leads!
• Label plug leads - I used a Sharpie but I might look for something easier to see.
• Check the orientation of the front gearbox mount BEFORE installing the gearbox.
• Wiring a (temporary) remote starter for use from the back of the car is quite handy.
• Cranked ring spanners are really useful.
• Taking the time to have consistent wiring colours from the front of the car to the back of the car makes life so much simpler.
• Gearboxes with no oil in sound really gnarly. I did fill it before driving, it just sounded horrible when rotating the wheels during assembly.
• CSP make great parts: I installed a set of https://www.csp-shop.com/en/exhaust-heating/heater-hose-fitting-csp-255-165-csp-27591a.html (https://www.csp-shop.com/en/exhaust-heating/heater-hose-fitting-csp-255-165-csp-27591a.html) these and they're so good!
• Now I am running studs & nuts rather than bolts, life is better.
• Look at your plug leads before putting them on. Pull the connector all the way out and check it is in good shape. Push it back in, but only so far that it will fit the spark plug perfectly.
• Cars get filthy just sitting in a garage. Buy a car cover if your car will just sit inside for months on end.
• Tyres/rims look weird without the engine installed. I thought my new tyres were definitely too wide and would foul the CSP Python exhaust. They didn't.
• Fuel hoses change length - when they have fuel in, under pressure, they get longer. If the hose feels tight when cold & empty it might well be ok.
• People tend to stare at 49 year old cars.
• I missed driving my car more than I realised. I was grinning like an idiot all the way home. Go drive your car.

A running engine: [attachment=1]

Just been reading some of the build threads on here - very inspiring stuff - I need it at the moment.

I headed out to the Volksworld show a month ago on a beautiful day - first proper drive after having replaced the gearbox and all the other little things. Never made it to the show because whilst I slowed down for the traffic the car behind me didn't. Nobody got properly hurt, for which I'm very grateful. Those low back seats...are not awesome for the neck.

My car did a decent job of soaking up the impact. Which is another way of saying that all the bodywork behind the rear window (and a little bit in front of it) is wrecked. The engine didn't stop running (until I killed it) and the rear tinware, although pushed forward, didn't touch the pulley. Car was ok (well, you know...) to carry me the 80 miles home and felt absolutely fine.

I'll have to wait for the insurance folks to do their thing, so I'm in limbo for now. Keeping up with all that you folks are doing is quite a nice way to spend some time whilst I wait to work out what the future might be for me and this particular car.

what a shame  :P
hope you at least get some money to repair or for a new project

really rough news but glad youre ok - hope you are able to either repair or rebuild something to get back to that excitement - best

Ahh man that SUCKS..
Sorry to hear that Jez. Was just catching up on your thread and looking forward to seeing how it was going!!

Marc

that sucks indeed! glad to hear you made it fine, cars and parts can be replaced! Hope it can be repaired

Ok, I did get some insurance payout. Adding some other cash kept for a rainy day means that this car is getting rebuilt.

I don't have particularly wild plans - I was more than happy with what I had. I'm going to ditch the bumpers (the rear one looks like a pretzel!) and dig out the t-bars I ran just once when I showed the car at VolksWorld 2000. Apart from needing a new decklid (the current one looks like it has been turned inside out) and probably painting the headlight rims, I think that's it body wise. I'm sticking with the 1776, I have a couple of little mods to make, but nothing exciting. I'm going to try a center pull linkage as I like how it cleans up the look of the engine, and might be a bit easier to adjust. The manifolds are also going to be replaced - the ones I have are quite narrow so I had to 'modify' the fan housing with a hammer, and it just looks shite. That's all for the engine bay. Suspension will stay as it is. The wiring has become a little messy (for example, where wires were joined, they have a different colour at each end of the car which is irritating) and a bit too complex (several relay straps to keep the lights bright). So I'll be doing a lot of tidying up and also replacing all the lighting with LEDs.

I've stripped all the clean things (interior, under bonnet) and started on the oily bits. Not really looking forward to taking a saw to the rear apron - it got quite squashed so I'll have to cut it off to get the exhaust off and the engine out. Think of the bigger picture, I suppose!

I have quite a list of things to replace (seals, mostly). I have a few purchases already: set of wheels for whilst it is in the workshop; replacement fanhousing; linkage, new manifolds; NOS front wing; new other front wing; those t-bars (which will need a polish!).

Lots of ideas in my head for further things to do whilst the car is apart!

I have a tentative booking for early next year for the car to go and get sorted, so I better get into the garage!