My '71 Late Looker - bringing it back to life.........with 2276, IDA's - It Runs

[Jo Clifford]

This car was fully restored at The Paintbox, including a Bernard Newbury Interior,  in 1996, it was then enjoyed, used & abused for the next 15 years, after the engine expired it was offered for sale less engine in the condition seen below.

I bought it with the intention of a fun weekend and warm weather car, these are my plans for it:-

Build a fun go anywhere, reliable street engine, tidy up the interior and exterior and return it to it's original look.

So far I have had Bernard Newbury repair a couple of damaged areas on the seats and redo the interior panels to match the seats.

I also had the good fortune to buy the exact same style wheel it had back in '96, a few month before the car was offered for sale.  
4 of them are really good and one is a little scruffy, but will be perfect for a spare.
(Thanks Taylor, they went to a good home   )

[Jo Clifford]

So the engine plans are to use some parts I already had, just buying the extra pieces needed.

It will be a 2276cc:-

New Mag case
Scat 82mm Crank
Scat 5.4 rods
Genuine VW Flywheel - lightened and 8 dowelled
Mahle 94 b's (from my Red Bug)
Steve Tims Stage 2 heads with Skat Trak IDA manifolds (Thanks to Dean Kirsten)
Engle FK8
Scat 1.4:1 Pro Rockers
Scat Lifters
Empi 3.5 qt sump
Kennedy Stage 1 and Super Daikin Disc
Black Ceramic coated header with Raw Dual Mufflers (to allow us to make them fit the car)
Shadeck 26mm Oil Pump, tapped for full flow, with Scat full flow cover
IDA's (un-decided if to use Italian or Spanish)
German 009 Distributor and Blue coil

The case was originally designated for my Gold Type 34, but had a small flaw that would show when used in a Type 3, but is covered in a Type 1, so was perfect for this, it was already stroke clearanced and full flowed, but only machined for 90.5's.  It's now opened up for 94's (Thanks to Pete @ Cogbox for doing this for me and all the balancing work)

So after everything was balanced I assembled the crank and rods, etc  Checked it in the case and it all cleared, then when we trial fitted the cam we found it needed some clearancing on the cam, this was done, everything cleaned and I started the assembly.  The short-block is now done, the sump fitted, next I have to set the end play then the flywheel and clutch can go on.

[tikimadness]

You guys did a lot more then yesterday

Michael

[DKK Ted]

Coming along pretty nice Jo!

Ted

[Jo Clifford]

These are the wheels as I got them, the 145 XZX Michelins will be perfect for the front of the car, they were on the Gold car when it was first shown and have been waiting for the correct car to be used on ever since.
Going to use these Fast Fab T'bars as the car is a 1200 model so factory with blade bumpers, thinking about powder coating them to make them fit the rest of the car better, as these isn't really any chrome or shiny stuff 

[Jo Clifford]

Here's the heads and manifolds, heads have 60cc in them at the moment and we are aiming for 10.5:1 compression.
Pistons already have a small notch in them so I need to get the heads fly cut down to 49cc to get the compression we want.

[Jo Clifford]

First job today was to set the end play after the 2nd attempt we ended up with 0.005 thou, which is perfect for this, next to go on would be the clutch.

Here's the Stage 1 clutch cover and Super Daikin Disc about to go onto the engine, as the gearbox uses the late style release bearing I had to remove the centre from the cover.

I am using one of Fast Fabs Oil Filter Head Mounts, this had manufacturing flaw so was rejected for retail, but will do perfectly for this car.

[rick m]

You do nice work Jo. Cool to see a VW Lady doing her own work.  My daughter Shanna is deep into this stuff too!

Rick M

[kev d]

Not had much R&R since you got home eh Jo?
Looking good!

[Nico86]

Cool car 

[BossHogg76]

I went to look at a Bug that was the spitting double of yours about 4 years ago, it was in North Yorkshire, had a big rust patch on the rear passenger 3/4, and the headlining was starting to sag.

[61ragtop]

I viewed this for Ian gale who bought it, I've got loads of pics from when I viewed it if want them jo

think we saved it just in time

Cheers James

Ps great to se it finally getting the attention it deserves

[Jo Clifford]

It could be the car from N. Yorkshire, I don't know it's recent history, it does have some minor rust issues, but nothing that will stop me enjoying it and can't be fixed down the line 
James any pics would be appreciated, I'll PM you my email address to send them over to.


So with the previous owner unable to find the locking wheel bolt removal tool and the local wheel and tyre shop having no solution, we decided we had to do whatever it needed to get them off. 
Due to the bolts sitting so far in on the wheel fitted we were unable to get anything onto the bolts, so Richie carefully drilled out the centre of one of them, going up in size until the head came off, he then was able to make a tool that would fit on the other 3 and they then came off without any problems.
I then removed the old wheels and put the 'proper' wheel on.

[Jo Clifford]

Got the Fast Fab T'Bars back from the Powder coaters today, so decided to bolt them on and see how they will look 

[Jo Clifford]

So at last I got some time to get back onto my engine, 1st job was to measure deck height, work out what shims we needed, then check it again, we ended up with 0.044 thou one side and 0.042 the other due to some poor machining of the case originally, but it was close enough to be happy with.
 
Then I test fitted a head to measure head stud length.
 
With the studs cut and fitted I assembled my push rod tubes.

[Jo Clifford]

Final clean of cylinders and pistons and they were fitted, along with the heads and torqued down.
 
Then we figured out rocker geometry and push rod length and fitted the Fast Fab push rod tubes.
 
With the rockers set in the correct place to match the valves, and the push rods cut and fitted we checked our overall lift again and checked for coil bind, it is all good 

[Jo Clifford]

This is the header from my red car that Ii no longer was using so it will be used on this instead.
 
Pulley bolt loctited and torqued up.
 
We had these slightly tatty Italian IDA's sitting on the shelf for a while, so they are getting checked and made good to go on this car
 
Then we are trial fitting the tin and clearancing it for manifolds etc This is what it looks like now, getting there 

[TomJ]

Looking good Jo! Look forward to hearing it running,

[Jo Clifford]

Had another good day on the car today, had managed to find some of the pieces I needed for the engine and with the weather being good I got the chance to drag the car out of the garage and refit the nice interior.
I started off fitting the oil cooler to the engine, then the alternator to the shroud, which was then fitted onto the engine  My IDA's had been apart for a good clean and check over they are now jetted for a good starting point so I put some studs in the intake manifolds and fitted the IDA's then bolted them all to the engine. 
Next we sorted out the carb linkage to use and fitted that, with the distributor timing set, spark plugs and wires fitted, oil filter lines added the engine was removed from the stand ,I added the oil now so I didn't forget and less a couple of real minor things it's ready to fit in the car.

[Jo Clifford]

Made some more progress over the last few days, the engine is now in the car 
Unfortunately, there are lots of little jobs still left to be done before I can drive it.
First job was to mount the coil, so the carbs and linkage were put loosely in place to check for clearance, we then marked and drilled the shroud and fitted RivNuts in the holes and I could bolt the coil on. 
Next we did the same thing with the Fast Fab Breather Box, using RivNuts again, I now could get my lengths for my breather lines, so with some help, made those up.
The last job today was to modify the small flange Dual Mufflers to fit the big flange header, with took this opportunity to fit the mufflers to the car, tucking them in further and higher.
Then when I was happy with the fit, the flange was welded on.

[Rocket Ron]

Looking good Jo

I do like the flared tips on the muffler

[javabug]

Those muffs look good with a little tweaking. Had to do the same with mine.

[Jo Clifford]

Thanks Guys 

Hopefully won't be too long before I am out driving it   

[Rennsurfer]

Great choice on your wheel finish, Jo. They look nice.

[Jo Clifford]

We had moved on to the fuel system and while underneath with the wheels off decided to change the rear bump stop rubber mounts, seeing rust like this makes me realise how good my California '59 is, you would never see a SoCal car with rust in places like this.
With that done and the fuel system at the back finished I filled the oil filter up ready to help get oil pressure quicker.
Next the fuel tank came out (while it was out I also gave the beam adjusters a couple of turns lower) and we mounted and wired a Carter fuel pump with filter and renewed all the rubber hose at the same time.
The last job then was to wire the MSD in, with that completed the battery was fitted, connected, fuel put in the tank and we were able to prime the fuel system and check for leaks, everything was good, then we thought we were ready to start it   
BUT there was one last hurdle to overcome, with the ignition switch on there was no 12v supply to the back of the car, a few minutes of head scratching and checking wiring revealed nothing, then inspiration, a previous owner had fitted an immobiliser, a search through the 'junk' drawer and I found the magic key, after locking/arming then disarming the system we had 12v, a turn of the key and almost instantly it fired to life.
A quick check of the timing and it was turned off, then the idle was set for around 2000 rpm, timing adjusted and engine started again, this time everything was perfect, so we were able to seat the cam to the lifters.  We ran the engine for over 20 minutes with no signs of any leaks. 
We then left it to cool down for a while, fitted the last of the engine tin, a small adjustment to the throttle pedal as it wasn't sitting straight and was sticking, with that all done it fired straight up again and I got to actually drive it under it's own power, even if it was only to the end of the drive and back 
First thing tomorrow I will get the pads to attach the new number plates and then my first drive will be to visit the MOT man.........

[Russell]

MOT Man..... not sure your ready for a 500mile drive, but if you are, I will put the kettle on. 

[Jo Clifford]

Update, So first thing I gave her a good clean to remove a couple of years worth of dirt, spiders webs and who know what else and then took her for the maiden voyage, after some running around I had all the paperwork sorted and a tax disc in the window and was able to put a few miles on the speedo.
The engine felt really good, but a little lean low down so we went up 1 size on the idle jets and also took 2 degrees total advance out as there was a really small hint of detonation, it now seems much better, today I took her out for the afternoon to visit 'The Paintbox' and then on to Sainsburys to do a food shop. 
I have now got 100 miles on the speedo, so far so good, with no leaks, seems to run cool, good oil pressure and nothing has fallen off 
and  I'm really surprised how quick it feels already, it's gonna be a lot of fun 

[j-f]

Looks like to be the ultimate daily driver