Restoring the "Stuttgart Express"

[bill stipe]

Thanks for the offer.  We have a 1 5/8" FourTune, something we had acquired for an earlier project that never happened.  We just need to clean it up and either paint it or have it coated black.
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Since the original engine is believed to be an 80x92, later changed to an 82x92, we found some fairly clean 92 NPR’s.  We will try to stay period correct with the exterior of the engine as best we can, but may deviate some on the inside pieces. 
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We toyed with finding a used case but decided to purchase a new one, stroker clearanced, full flowed, welded behind #3 and bored for 92’s.  I just couldn’t leave it alone, so I bolted some pieces on it, so it wouldn’t look so naked.  We could tell, from the HVW engine photo, the team built their own crankcase vent tube.  For the base, we found an old oil pump cover, rounded up some 1 1/2" tubing and found a cap at the local parts house.  The welding isn’t complete, it’s just tacked together.
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We had been looking for a crank pulley with four round holes, but haven't located anything to our liking.  So, in the meantime, we purchased a solid one from Scat, had four holes drilled in it and the pulley groove machined off.  We'll keep searching; anyone know who made those four-hole pulleys?

[bill stipe]

We have two oil sumps in our arsenal.  A Treuhaft came from David Crow.
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The second one came from Gary Shubrook, before his passing.  We had met him at the Texas Classic, last April.   Months later, I asked Gary if he had any interesting sumps for the gasser project.  He said "sure, I've got a Deano", and he started talking about a trade for some parts he knew I had.  Knowing Bugpacks sumps are supposed to be off the same molds, I quizzed him about how he knew it was a Deano and he told me, “because I know it is”.  That was the Shubee2 style.
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[bill stipe]

We had acquired some Skat Traks, about two years previous, so we're good to go since that is the manifolds used on the Stuttgart Express.
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The steering wheel, on the car looked to be a typical buggy type.  We wondered if it may have been the original or not.  It had a bit of rust on the chrome, so we thought we'd just get a new one, so it would be nice and fresh.
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But upon removal, we saw this on the back and now, there's no way we're not going to use it.  The tag says Sep 25, 1970.  It'll just get cleaned up the best we can.
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[Nico86]

Nice parts !

[bill stipe]

Thanks Nico.  We been lucky obtaining some of these parts.   Some came from friends who were gracious enough to part with them; some were found on The Samba and a few from swap meets and Ebay.

Upon our first visit to the body shop, to deliver the Stuttgart Express, we found the body shop had a different style of car dollies, to roll cars around the shop.
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We've made a trip back to the body shop, several times, to reinforce which parts of the interior needed to be painted in different colors.  Our last trip was this weekend.  Pablo has made some progress on our panels. 

For some reason, there were about ten pop rivets around the rear louvers.  These have been welded up with the filler and sanding complete.
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For Pablo, all of the body work follows the same procedure.  He applies filler and blocks it smooth.  After that, the area receives two coats of sanding primer, block sanding between each and he then applies the final primer.  Both drivers doors and the left side quarter are ready for final primer.
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[speedwell]

nice bill  car will be ready soon for burning  tires on dragstrip 

[bill stipe]

When we brought the car home in March of 2010, we had hoped to complete it by mid April of this year.  That's when they hold the Texas Classic in Fredericksburg.  The estimate, right now, is about three to four weeks for the body to be done, so it doesn't look good to make that show.  We might take it anyway, if it's a roller, because Lee Williams and Glen's two daughters live close by.

Here's a few more photos from this past weekend.  Remember those rear panels with all the welding?  This is how they look now after Pablo did his thing.
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The pillars were cut in two places when the top was chopped.  After media blasting, we could see that the line-up between the two pieces wasn't perfect.  These are now ready for final primer.
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That brings us up to date on the body work.

[bill stipe]

Talked to Pablo today.  The outside of the car is now ready for final sanding and some Plum Crazy purple.  He's now cleaning up the inside, getting it ready, as well.  On the inside, the front A pillars, dash, across the roof to the rear...and around the rear window will be black.  The roll bar will be painted white, as it was back then.  The rest of the inside sheet metal was, and will be, painted grey splatter paint.

Since we have a little lag time, thought I'd share some of the memorabilia that Glens brother, Lee Williams has sent to us.  This first looks like a typical Champion spark plug decal until you see the back side.  This is one of the contingency decals AHRA gave out at the national events, back then. 

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I kept pulling things out of the mailing envelope.  These are pit passes from each national event where they set a record.  Looking closely, you can see where they wrote, in ink pen, the year on each pit pass.
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[bill stipe]

And some more goodies from Lee Williams.  An AHRA (American Hot Rod Association) tie tack.
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And a cigarette lighter, never used.  It has a VW silloutte on the flip up lid and "Glens Service Center" on the front. 
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[Nico86]

Cool items 

[bill stipe]

A few more items from the 70's.  These also came from Glens brother, Lee Williams.  An original Auto-Haus sticker, a business card from the Glen's Service Center days and work shirt patches.
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We started reassembling the trans this past weekend.  Rancho cut the intermediate carrier housing for a Timken bearing on that end of the pinion.  They sent us the housing bare, so I went about assembling the rods and such.  I've never done that before, so I felt I learned something.  Oh yes, it did take a phone call or two to David Crow in Hutto, Texas.  Thanks David for the info about what those odd sized balls are for.
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While by friend Larry has done my tranny work for years, this time I'm trying to learn about assembling them as this one is built.  In pre-fitting the pinion, we learned some additional machining was required on the pinion shaft and the 3-4 spacer.  While those items are off to the machine shop, I decided to clean up the case; the gulf coast moisture and humidity had created a crusty layer on it.  It was purchased from Rancho, about a year ago, so we thought we'd use it for our build.  We used different size wire brushes in our corless drill.  After a "carb cleaner" clean up, we assembled the throw out bearing cross shaft and arm.
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[Micke H]

awesome bill great story

[Micke H]

We want more info  and pics Bill

[bill stipe]

Thanks for asking about the project.

Not a lot to update right now.  I'm going to the body shop this coming Friday to check on progress.  I know Pablo has finished the outside and it's ready for some purple.  He had a few spots to clean up on the dash left, as of two weeks ago, but he's been on vacation since then.

Our only problem area seems to be the passenger side door pins.  They are extremely worn, allowing the door to sag.  As we received the car, they weren't a problem, but I guess the media blasting loosened up things a bit.  This is one of the things we will attempt to work at when I go there, the end of this week.  I guessing a lot of heat on the hinge may get them loose.

We're also looking at getting a jump on the front suspension.  Since it partially attaches to the front bulkhead, we can't assemble it completely, but we're going to try to get some new bushings in the straight axle and assemble the link pin spindles, in the next few days.  Photos will follow asap. 

I made a call to Total Seal (the ring people) and inquired about a Total Seal sticker from the 70's.  The car had one of those stickers on both front quarters.  They replied the very next day and sent me this:
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[Nostalgiavw67]

Those period attentions deserve your project! 

I really love the way you're working on your car.

[Nico86]

Those period attentions deserve your project! 

I really love the way you're working on your car.

x2!

[bill stipe]

Thanks guys.  We are trying to restore the car as best we can to the period when it was in HVW's magazine.  That is the best information we have, except for the details that Lee Williams is remembering.  If we don't know which parts were used on some things, such as the deep sump, we're trying to stay period correct in what we choose.  I'm sure we'll deviate on some things, like maybe connecting rods.  The engine utilized reworked VW rods.  We have some new Eagle H-beams that may get used, but I'm still contemplating some Rimco Super Rods. 

The magazine article said the engine had a Pauter crank.  That would have been a Rev-True, welded counterweight crank.  This one is a 69 stroke and is getting cleaned up and will be sent out (probably DPR).  They've quoted me on stroking it to 80mm and doing a wedgemate.  Hopefully it'll pass the crack test.  If not then we'll just go with a decent 80 or 82 stroker from ?
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We have been searching for stickers (decals) since early last year.  Another one we found:
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It's an original, but not as large as the one on the car.  If we don't find the larger ones, we'll get a vinyl guy to enlarge this one for the car.

And another, not original, but we're still looking for the real ones.
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[bill stipe]

The front axle is back together with new bushings and king pins.  While at it, we assemble the radius and tie rods with new heims. [ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ]

We worked on the hinge pins at the body shop, but didn't make any progress.  We will tackle it again tomorrow or the next day.  We're having an attachment made for the hammer gun and will give it another go.  At the same time we're trying to locate anyone in the area that may have the actual tool to remove the pins.

[bill stipe]

We've purchased a "first" oversize and a "second" oversized set of reamers for the door hinge pins.  We're now waiting on the corresponding hinge pins to arrive from Wolksburg West.  Hopefully, we'll get the doors sorted by this weekend and get them back to the Pablo, so the paint work can get back on track.

Anticipating the body back in our possession, we scanned our best photo of the side of the Stuttgart Express and through some software, outlined the train mural on the door.  Armed with copies of some of our photos, we found a local graphics company who agreed to take on the porject, and they're currently manipulating the sketch, doing such things as making the smoke look like actual smoke, etc.

They are going to provide us a colored proof, we'll go through a few renditions and hopefully come up with a finished product.
Our sketch.........................
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[Baked Beetle]

We have been searching for stickers (decals) since early last year.  Another one we found:
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It's an original, but not as large as the one on the car.  If we don't find the larger ones, we'll get a vinyl guy to enlarge this one for the car.

And another, not original, but we're still looking for the real ones.
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Bill, If your looking for someone who cares about stickers like you do , this car. Send me an email.

I can reproduce these 'oldschool' white backing, installed on the inside of the glass, or any other way for that matter. the files you have are sufficient.

blizare@gmail.com

[bill stipe]

Baked Beetle, I'll keep you in mind on the stickers, although there's a local guy who will get the first shot at them.

Finally made another trip to Pablo's.
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[bill stipe]

If you remember, the interior paint scheme had black on the "a" pillars, dash and across the roof to surround the rear window.  The rollbar was reported to be white.  Pablo has chosen a Ford white to match our powdercoated seat mount.  The rest of the interior was painted a gray splatter paint.  Pablo and I played around with some splatter paint and decided to first paint the panels with a gray paint.  That way the splatter didn't have to be put on too thick.  After that, he applied some clear.  The first picture doesn't do justice to the finish, but the close-ups give a better view of the finish.
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The inside of the doors have also been covered with splatter paint.  Notice the jagged cuts on th inside....that's the way we found the doors, after removing the door panels.  We could have cleaned this up, but decided to leave them "as they were".
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Next Pablo intends to paint the rollbar (white).  After that he'll cover it with plastic and apply the black, as required, to finish up the interior.  The current game plan is to try to have the body completed by the middle of this month, around April 14th.  Can't wait to see some Plum Crazy Purple!

On a side note, we received by e-mail, the first proof from the graphics company of the Stuttgart mural.  You won't see a copy of that just yet, we have a long way to go to get the look we're after.  Comments were made and sent back to them.  We'll make a trip this Friday to talk in person.  

[bill stipe]

It's been a while since the last post, but we heard some good news from Pablo and made a trip by the body shop today.  The inside is done and the outside is sporting a fresh cover of Plum Crazy Purple.
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One thing we knew about the color, it's lighter in bright light and takes on more of a blue hue in a darker environment.  Notice the difference in the look; the roof versus the quarter panel.

Notice the front firewall, looks a nice shiney black but it had some clear overspray on it, causing some cloudy spots.  They're going to sand it and put a fresh coat of clear on it.  We're going to pick up the finished body tomorrow afternoon and will have more photos in a few days.

[speedwell]

thx for the updates bill  , it's cool to see the stuttgart express painted

rgd
fabs

[autohausdolby]

Cool thread

[bill stipe]

It has been a few weeks since we last posted.  We had a project in the shop that needed to get out of the way.  

The body has been sitting in the trailer and made it into our shop last week.  Updating from the body shop, we installed the doors before it came home.  I felt the drivers door would fit fairly well but knew we'd have some problems with the right side and wanted some help in getting the doors correct.
With the front end cut off the body, the right side window post was too far back.  This caused the top door hinge to be too far back, causing about 3/8" sag between the body lines.  We used a small port-a-power to move the top hinge and window post back in position which did wonders for the body lines.

[bill stipe]

Since the rear aluminum firewall had to be installed before the body was installed on the chassis, we knew the rear windows would have to be installed as well.  

The Stuttgart team had kept the rear window as the original glass.  This window was also the only one to retain the chrome ring.  With the rear glass window being replaced with lexan, some years later by the second owner, we found one within driving distance for our use.  The glass was in decent shape but was real cloudy.  We attempted to get some local glass companys to rid us of the cloudy condition, but they couldn't get it clean.  After some internet searching, we heard that "Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish" had worked for some.  After acquiring some, I must say it did an excellent job.  The glass has some minor scratches here and there from it's previous use, but looks much better than when I brought it home.
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The next window to go in was the right side quarter window.  I really thought the lexan windows would go easier than they did, but failed to realize, since the body was chopped, we would have to cut the seals.  That first window took us three hours to get in.  At least by that time we had learned what "not to do".
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At this time, we decided to install the rear firewall aluminum, since it had to go through the drivers side rear quarter window.
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After that, the front window was cut and installed.
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[jamiep_jamiep]

Looks great!

[speedwell]

good job bill 

[LP Angler]

Bill it's looking Sweeeeet, you and Brian do great work!