1967 1600-2 : Some Assembly Required

[dasfrogger]

Got to put in about 3 hours this afternoon on the project and was excited to have my highschool age brother in law join me. First order of business was to finish painting the gas tank. He scuffed the top of the tank with a wire brush in a drill and then we sprayed two coats of gloss black and a coat of clear. The tank isn't perfect, but I'm very happy with the results.

The texture on the bottom from the truck bed liner looks nice but it's greyed out in some areas. I may spray the bottom of the tank with a light coat of gloss black after sealing the tank.

 

Since I'm using the VW recaro Trophy seats i needed to enlarge the bolt holes on the e21 recaro mounts 1/16th of an inch to fit the larger bolts. Super quick job with the drill and then scuffed and hung to paint. Not sure what it is about these mounts, but the paint job looks terrible. Of course no good pictures, just one post drilling:

 

After getting the mounts in paint Elijah went to work sand blasting the chair sliders and I started rehabbing the trunk boards.

 

Started with:

 

Sprayed some POR-15 Marine Clean degreaser on the board and let sit for a few minutes, then scrubbed with a damp microfiber cloth.

 

 

Done with scrubbing. Much better, but still not great.

 

 

I took a page out of Ben Younce's book and used some vinyl paint.

 

 

Here's a shot before completing the first coat. You can see how well the dye covers with one thin coat. Remember that giant black smudge at the top of the board?

 

I ended up doing about 4 coats and I was pretty impressed with the results. Of course I don't have any proof to show you because I didn't take pictures. You'll just have to take my word for it.

 

Happy thanksgiving everybody!

[dasfrogger]

Almost zero progress on the car since Thanksgiving. What am i doing with my life? Hopefully I'll have some time to get over there next weekend.

 

In the meantime the very talented Jake B. is building me a fancy Limited Slip Diff. e36 pumpkin in an e21 case like Andrew did a write up about. The case and cover have been freshly powder coated and are awaiting a bearing from Germany to arrive. Assembly should begin next week.

 

[katmandu]

For a Dynamat roller, see if you can find a laminate / veneer roller at a woodworking store.   It looks very similar to the cheesy one you broke.  I think it's "official" name is a "J" roller. 

 

http://www.woodstocksupply.com/j-roller-jr-3-vitutex.html

[dasfrogger]

For a Dynamat roller, see if you can find a laminate / veneer roller at a woodworking store.   It looks very similar to the cheesy one you broke.  I think it's "official" name is a "J" roller. 

 

http://www.woodstocksupply.com/j-roller-jr-3-vitutex.html

Thanks for the recommendation! I'm going to have to keep that in mind for the next time I work with dynamat. It would make life much easier!

 

Finally got a little bit of work done after almost two months away. We put the rotisserie to use one last time to install some of Andrew Adams cunifer hard line kit and the fuel hard line.

Started by zip tying the doors shut and popping off the hood. that cart i built is getting a lot of mileage.

Loosened a few bolts and the car turned like a dream per usual. I'll never get tired of seeing a car rotate on a rotisserie.

Installed a few of the hard lines from Andrews kit. These are really well done, and the cunifer is super easy to bend by hand. I'll finish up the other lines once the car comes off the rotisserie.

 

Next up plumbing the hard fuel line. 25 foot roll of 3/8" line

Drilled a few holes  to allow entry to the trunk by the gas tank. we used a bit of low pressure fuel hose to insulate the hard line in the holes. will need to caulk around the hose to keep it water tight.

attached the line with proper size rubber insulators via rivets. Rivets were a last minute change and have a much cleaner appearance than the screws we had originally planned on using. We will likely go back and add more rubber isolators later on.

 

That's all for now. I hope to have an exciting update next week.

[dasfrogger]

Also, Happy production day to Babar...year 48 is going to be a good one.

 

(photo credit Jake Weese)

[dasfrogger]

Yesterday was the 1600-2's "delivery date" and we celebrated in a big way.

 

Started off by finishing the second hard fuel line.

 

Then started to clean up a spare steering column to go in the car. I have a NOS door handle and ignition set that are key'd alike that i plan to use. I figured it would be best to keep the column with the ignition that was keyd like original door handles together. When the time comes I will take this column apart for blasting and painting, but i was able to do a lot with a wire brush and a bottle of purple power .... it'll do just fine for now.

 

With the car back right side up we positioned some jack stands to prepare for descent.

Excited.

 

8 bolts later and the body was free of the rotisserie and resting on jack stands. It was unbelievable feeling to have it on jackstands - it's been on the rotisserie for 22 months (since April of 2013).

 

With the rotisserie out of the way we got the front subframe into place for install. struts went in after bolting the subframe to the car to prevent them from flopping around and hurting paint. I just got my struts w/volvo brakes in yesterday and they are in need of reconditioning. We just used some nasty struts from a parts car as place holders.

I've been staring at this suspension on the floor of the shop for a LONG time, and it's awesome to finally have it on the car, even if it's going to come out again for new struts and IE reinforcement plates in a few weeks.

 

Next was the rear subframe. Got it all lined up and installed, but just like the front, it'll come back out once i get my fresh LSD from jake b. We'll use all new hardware and proper torque settings for reinstall once the diff comes in.

 

I'll bet you guessed where we were heading with all this...

 

Back on four wheels after nearly two years! So. Cool. I'm really excited with everything we were able to get done yesterday.

 

 

After basking in the glow for a few minutes we started a list for what to do next. My goal is to have the front and rear sub frames complete with brakes, new hardware, etc etc etc. Once that's done we'll start to think about installing the engine and transmission. That and all the other stuff that has to happen....

 

Oh yeah, and of course i sat in the car and made race car noises...because i'm pretty sure you have to. Click to play

http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/ss345/johndmetz/1600-2/General%20Reassembly/th_5A0F966E-5950-4914-BF7B-A2114EA94DE7_zps1hmglzrt.mp4

Edited February 1, 2015 by dasfrogger

[dasfrogger]

Started working on cleaning up the volvo brake setup and struts tonight.

The before. Believe it or not these brakes have less than a thousand miles on them. It's a shame isn't it.

 

did a bit of scrubbing with a wire brush on the rotors:

 

Put a rotor in the blasting cabinet for a few minutes, decent results, not great:

 

The bearings were replaced with the brakes and are still fresh. Since they were just done i'm going to do a basic wire brush/purple power job on the struts. Since I can't remove the backing plates i went ahead and at least removed the three bolts and coated them with anti-seize to make removal easier next go round.

 

Anyway, the before:

 

Unfortunately one of the bolts snapped off upon remova - on both strutsl. Will have some fun removing them later.

[earmenau]

Hey Jake,

 

I'm envious of your progress! Seriously great work. I'm also working on a 67' 1600. Going a similar route as you in terms of suspension and brakes, but keeping it ratty since I can't afford the body work yet.. I have the Ireland wilwood kit front and rear, but haven't worked out the brake master and booster setup yet. I have the same remote booster setup as you did, and have no idea how to get the BBK system working. I have a e21 brake MC but am slowly realizing that is not going to work and am completely stumped. I have no intention of rebuilding the ancient setup..

 

Did you decide to completely ditch the old system and use the Bavaria master cylinder, Tii brake booster, and IE Brake bias valve? Are the parts still available and are they a direct bolt on? Any help would be appreciated   Thanks in advance!

[dasfrogger]

Hey Jake,

 

I'm envious of your progress! Seriously great work. I'm also working on a 67' 1600. Going a similar route as you in terms of suspension and brakes, but keeping it ratty since I can't afford the body work yet..

I just read thru your thread again- very cool car, i'm excited to see what happens with it! What's your vin number?

 

 

Did you decide to completely ditch the old system and use the Bavaria master cylinder, Tii brake booster, and IE Brake bias valve? Are the parts still available and are they a direct bolt on?

 

I decided to ditch the old system and go with a more 'regular' 2002 setup. I don't have the parts yet, but i'll run a tii booster and a e12 MC. I was going to go for the bavaria since i have it, but i think the e12 will be better for four wheel discs. Everything should bolt up ok, but the key word here is should. Everything I've got planned for my system is available new except the tii booster. Honestly, a stock booster would be ok, i dont think there are any clearance issues with the m20 or m42 swaps, but it's been awhile since i've thought about that detail.

[earmenau]

I was just talking to IE, from what I understand, when they are dealing with early model cars they replace the old pedal box and booster with units from later model cars and then use the 320i MC... 

 

fudge, fudge, fudge... I was really hoping to not have to mess with the pedal box.. This is going to set me back another month. I just mailed blunttech and dave from aardvark to see if they had any advice and parts. I'll keep you posted if you'd like.

[dasfrogger]

Has it really been 4 months since I've done anything to the 1600-2. Wow.

 

Between getting Frogger on the road for mid america and daily driving duty and general life I have spent exactly zero time on the 1600-2. I plan on changing that this month. At least a little.

 

I'm excited to report that i got my diff back in from Jake B @Classic Daily. Lets think of this as the catalyst to get this build back on track.

 

First off, the diff: It. Looks. Awesome.

 

 

 

So from here the plan remains the same as my cardboard list above. I'll drop the rear subframe, install the new diff, axles, ebrake cables, and vw disk kit.

 

From there the order of operations gets murky. I need to prep and paint a few bits. Still need to install the proper front struts, but that will likely wait till i install the engine, which needs to wait until I've got the harness done. Should I start installing cosmetic bits now, or wait a bit longer? I think I've decided to switch gears from "rush to get it done" to "enjoy the process and do it right", but maybe that's just an excuse in sheep's clothing.

 

 

[jmr_1602]

First time looking through here. Babar looks awesome. I'd hold off on the cosmetic stuff if you're not in a rush.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jmanscotch]

Loving the color and the progress! 

 

- Jake

[dasfrogger]

Worked on painting some parts today. The last part with original paint was the hood support bar. It was pretty rusty, so i decided to sand it down and paint it.

 

Weapon of choice was one of those harbor freight wizz wheels. Worked pretty well, probably took about 45 minutes to sand the bulk of it.

 

To get maximum coverage I disassembled one of the ends. Since it's under tension, i decided to only do one side at a time. I only got thru one side this week. Photos of how it came apart for future reference.

 

I popped the small parts in my Harbor freight sand blast cabinet. For anyone considering one of those, make sure to sillicon caulk the crap out of every seam as you put it together. also plan on buying a nicer blasting gun, air hose and fittings. It was pretty miserable using the blaster until Chris made some repairs. The cabinet made quick work of the parts and they came out great. Of course i deleted the photos.

 

Sprayed self etching primer then some Derby Color. Should all be finished up next week!

 

 

 

[jgerock]

I am very jealous of your huge working area.