Engine cleaning and painting

Over the last few days, I have been cleaning parts, media blasting and etch priming engine tins and generally cleaning and prettying up the engine for re-assembly.  My parts came in from Appletree Automotive, so I am ready to do the re-assembly as soon as things are cleaned and painted.

Teardown

Last Saturday I rolled the engine on it's new stand out into the driveway and spent an hour pressure washing and de-greasing.  It really looks great.  I rolled it back in, blew it off with the air hose and started taking it apart.  The engine is in remarkable great shape.  The clearances are very good.  The cylinders have virtually no ridges, there is still hone marks visible in the cylinders!    The gaskets and seals are all hard, but the mechanical stuff looks great.  This looks like a rebuild that was done a  long time ago and it has been run very little since.
I checked and poked and probed to find out if the previous builder had left things un-done like the torques on the left hand head nuts, but my search turned up nothing.  Everything was touqued perfectly except the left hand head nuts.  I am forced to conclude the previous builder did a wonderful job of rebuilding this engine and simply got distracted while torqueing the heads and missed the left one during the final torqueing round.
I also found out that the engine is not the original 1600 that came with the bus.  The engine code tells me it's from a 73-74 Beetle.  I wonder what that story is?  I will never know.  Anyway, I ordered new gaskets, seals, exhaust clamps, hoses, some miscellaneous nuts bolts and screws and a new set of rings.  I don't think the engine needed the rings, the end gaps were pretty good, but I am in this far, I might as well re-do those as well.  I checked the bore, and it is as close to nominal as I can measure.  Should be a great rebuild.  Now for some serious cleaning and painting!

An evening in the garage with a cool drink.

I went out to the garage last night poured myself a little drink and sat on my stool looking at the bus, I decided to take out the bolts that held on the rear apron to see what was under there.  They came right out and I could now crawl right into the engine compartment.  Pretty cool, I refreshed my drink and sat back down.  There was a wire dangling off it's clip.  I couldn't help myself, It had to be removed for the engine to come out anyway.  While I am under here, I should just label and disconnect the rest of the wires to the engine.  I sat back down, have another sip.  The pliers were laying next to the stool so I clamped the fuel line and disconnected it and the throttle cable (You know where this is going!)....

The next thing I knew it was an hour later and the enigne was sitting on the jack, the engine compartment was empty and my drink was now warm.  Actually that was a pretty easy job.  It was obvious that someone has been in there not too long ago.  Many of the engine mounting bolts have been replaced.  I can't tell anything about the condition of the engine yet, all I can say is it is pretty packed with crud.  I think the engine and I are going to have a little "come to pressure washer" meeting tonight.  The engine being out will certainly make it easier to paint inside the engine compartment.

The dash is complete

I finally finished the dash this weekend. I repainted the top of dash, and began putting the thing back together and I got to thinking: when will I have this dash apart this much again?

I decided I had better top-coat the rest while I was this far in. I removed the rest of the dash parts and wiring and cleaned the front pad with lacquer thinner. I also wiped the glove box cover down, but don't use lacquer thinner for this, it is made of ABS and the thinner will attack it. I used hot soapy water for this. I sprayed it with a vinyl paint. A couple of light coats was all it took. I am really happy with how it turned out.


While I had the rest of the instrument panel out, I decided to fix the crack in the top pad as well.  I had a leather/vinyl patch kit from long ago, so I thought I would give it a shot.  First I cleaned the top pad with lacquer thinner and let it dry thoroughly.  Then I patched it up according to the instructions.  It looked pretty good.  I then put a top coat on this pad as well.  This made the glosses even and also made it match the rest of the newly painted dash parts.  It's not perfect, but it sure looks better than that nasty looking crack/split.  I am sure if one was willing to put in several hours to make it really perfect, it would be possible to make it look even better.  It's good enough for now.

 I re-installed everything I took apart and cleaned under the dash as well. Even the back side of the dash parts are clean now!
I re-glued the cracks I had in the fiber/wood glove box and that will be reinstalled as soon as it dries. Maybe tonight.
After a quick ride to be sure everything was working correctly, I decided it was time to pull that engine to check torques and completeness of re-assembly (see previous post) I put it up on jack stands and removed the rear bumper and battery so far. Let the engine work begin.