Bug Update

Tick, tick, tick goes the clock. Flip, flip, flip goes the calendar.

This car hasn't moved under its own power since late June, but that's about to change. I finally finished the brake job, and I'm ready to take a test drive. Unfortunately, this is one of the busiest weeks in the school year, and I'll have to wait a few days until I can cruise around the neighborhood.

I spent most of July and August under the Bug's rear fenders. 

Once school started, work on the car slowed to a glacier pace, but by the end of October I was seeing some progress. Everything black and tubular is new:

Pull the camera back a little, and you can see my new brake hardware. That black ring in the center is an axle seal that also had to be replaced. I screwed up the first seal, so I had to wait a week for the new one to arrive. I got so sick of the smell of transmission oil.

I also learned that when you replace anything having to do with the brakes, you have to do it in pairs. So any work performed on this side was repeated on the other. Obviously, this doubles the size of and the time for the job. 

Hmmm. Four months of work quickly summed up in three pictures and a handful of sentences. That doesn't seem very impressive, but since I'm spending only one hour a night on the car, it takes me awhile to get much done. I'm just glad I hung in there and kept plugging along, even when I had unexpected problems.

My "oil slingers" had holes worn into the tubes, and I couldn't find replacements for sale online. Sometimes 50-year-old parts can be rare. I ended up taking my slingers to the Village Blacksmith in Valley Junction to be repaired. The work was high quality, and the price was right, but these things take time.

When I was finally ready to install the brake drums, I noticed the inside of one the drums was pitted and scored. I posted this picture on the Samba forums and asked if I should get the drum "turned" (i.e. the inside of the drum is ground down to a smooth surface).

I was told by many members that the drum needed to be replaced, and turning wouldn't cut it. I needed a brake drum from 1964 or earlier that would have the correct hole for my repaired oil slinger. Through the Samba classified ads, I found one for sale in Whittier, California. Here's the "new" drum installed.

The axle nuts that hold these drums on are notoriously difficult. The nuts require over 217 pounds of torque to remove, and they are often overtightened and/ or rusted to the axle. So, no, they're not coming off with a pair of pliers. I soaked my nuts for a day in Kroil penetrating fluid, and then used a socket the size of your fist, a 1/2 inch breaker bar, and four feet of pipe to get them to turn loose.

Early into the brake job, I ordered the "Torque Dude" tool to help me tighten the nuts back to 217 pounds of torque. But by the time I was actually ready to use my "Torque Dude", I discovered that the holes in this Chinese-made tool didn't line up with the holes in the German drums. I was well past the date I could return the tool, so instead of wasting $84, I spent the next evening with a hand file slowly enlarging the holes until they matched the drum's. After that, the Dud was back to being a Dude.

Luckily, time and labor are free at the "Bent Wrench Garage". Plus, I'm getting better at handling these delays and disappointments. Instead of throwing things against the wall, I first try sitting down and figuring out a solution to the problem. Sure, I'm learning about car repair, but I'm also becoming less impatient, better at problem solving, and maybe a little more mature.

Or not, I did giggle after I wrote, "I soaked my nuts".

I have only made one cosmetic change since I began this project. In the early 90s, I opened the hole in the dashboard and installed a crappy, AM/FM radio that needed a voltage converter to work with the Bug's weaker 6 volt system. The converter drained the battery, and the Chevy radio looked out of place in the painted dash.

I must have thrown the original "radio delete plate" away when I installed that dorky radio, but I found a replacement in the correct color (pearl white) for sale on the Samba. I'm really happy to see the dash look like this again.

Years ago I couldn't imagine owning a car that didn't have at least a radio. Now I don't really care. I want to drive this car. I don't want to be distracted from it.

That's all for now. I'll write more after I turn that key and shift into reverse.

Fingers crossed.