New Owner, 70' Fasty

[wdollie6]

Colin, at some point need you back in NY for an Itinerant Call. Maybe we can sync up our timing with the Ticonderoga trip?

By the way aren't you the one telling me to stay with original parts when possible? My pictures are of the coverings I removed over 5 years ago, while dirty they are in reasonably good shape. If I can't clean them to a respectable degree I will then contemplate replacements, I see ISP West has now added these to their repertoire.

While the Fastback will look okay from the outside the nose area is still pretty beat up on the inside. At some point it will need another surgery but for now the damage is hidden from those who ever get under the hood (the spare tire will be my friend if I can squeeze it in).

My new FI harness will be delivered this week in NY, hopefully, when I get the car back from the painter (might be a while as we apparently have a couple of large snow storms coming to upstate NY), I am confident I will be able to get the engine running properly again. Replaced old leaking injectors, as mentioned new FI harness, and had the distributor rebuilt (several years ago) also bought an affordable Bosch rebuilt ECU just in case my existing one has issues. The MPS holds vacuum, fuel pressure holds at 28 psi and all potential vacuum leaks have been addressed, this engine should run like a top, but we'll know soon enough.

Since I haven't really driven this as of yet I still don't know the condition of the transmission. I did drain the oil from the case which looked remarkably good, no metal shavings on the plug and oil appeared not be contaminated. I replaced the real seal, put in a new throw out bearing, new clutch plate, the flywheel was fine other than some light filing in a few spots on the teeth. Also replaced the needle bearing and felt. When I reinstalled I also put in a new ground strap. Should be good to go but again, we'll know soon enough.

Happy New Year to All! Hopefully Ticonderoga is in my future.

[Amskeptic]

Colin, at some point need you back in NY for an Itinerant Call. Maybe we can sync up our timing with the Ticonderoga trip?

By the way aren't you the one telling me to stay with original parts when possible? My pictures are of the coverings I removed over 5 years ago, while dirty they are in reasonably good shape. If I can't clean them to a respectable degree I will then contemplate replacements, I see ISP West has now added these to their repertoire.

While the Fastback will look okay from the outside the nose area is still pretty beat up on the inside. At some point it will need another surgery but for now the damage is hidden from those who ever get under the hood (the spare tire will be my friend if I can squeeze it in).

My new FI harness will be delivered this week in NY, hopefully, when I get the car back from the painter (might be a while as we apparently have a couple of large snow storms coming to upstate NY), I am confident I will be able to get the engine running properly again. Replaced old leaking injectors, as mentioned new FI harness, and had the distributor rebuilt (several years ago) also bought an affordable Bosch rebuilt ECU just in case my existing one has issues. The MPS holds vacuum, fuel pressure holds at 28 psi and all potential vacuum leaks have been addressed, this engine should run like a top, but we'll know soon enough.

Since I haven't really driven this as of yet I still don't know the condition of the transmission. I did drain the oil from the case which looked remarkably good, no metal shavings on the plug and oil appeared not be contaminated. I replaced the real seal, put in a new throw out bearing, new clutch plate, the flywheel was fine other than some light filing in a few spots on the teeth. Also replaced the needle bearing and felt. When I reinstalled I also put in a new ground strap. Should be good to go but again, we'll know soon enough.

Happy New Year to All! Hopefully Ticonderoga is in my future.

I look forward to visiting you and your Fastback, and your bus, and your bug ...

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[wdollie6]

A montage of updates, more to come! Now that paint is done I can move forward at my own pace, sometimes fast, other times not so much. As I said biggest part is finding parts in my garage after 5 years, good example is long trim on dashboard...aaaaahggg! Where did I put it for safe keeping, hmmm... A wrinkle free headliner has been a challenging quest that I have yet to meet, can't seem to get rid of the nuisances. For now I'll have to live with them, headliner wrinkles go with forehead wrinkles, right?

The re-pop plastic dash fits ok, had to do some dremel work in the forward, passenger side corner but other than that fit up ok.

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[wdollie6]

Fasty work continues slowly but surely. As I continued to mount the fenders, etc it became quite clear that the paint job has a lot to be desired, didn't get under the nose or rockers far enough, dust, and a few runs. I was planning on a cut and buff effort anyway so that will begin once I have the glass installed. My goal is to get all the large parts and pieces on the car before maple syrup season begins as then it gets a bit hectic and bumps/scratches are known to happen.

I am still searching for the hood release cable plastic guide/cover as my original had cracked and broken in a few places. Not sure the best place to locate a bicycle shop maybe? In my pictures you will not that my hood is not down all the way, can't latch as of yet.

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[wdollie6]

Solved the hood release cable issue by remembering that I had an old drip irrigation kit that had the small black tubing (luckily same size as the original white tubing), unfortunately didn't have the stop surround piece that goes around the old tube at the bulkhead. Used a cable tie and then reinserted the slide washer, locking everything in place. Also took the latch mechanism apart (forgot to take pictures), cleaned it up and realized that it is in very, very rough shape, original slots for the moving pieces look like crosses.

I will need another at some point but for now re-greased and reinstalled and made the necessary adjustments (over and over), now the hood release works great. The many adjustments were mainly caused by a missing clamp that goes around the tubing at the shelf of the nose, prior to the latch. Found the information in the parts manual, actually found the part in one of my, slowly reducing number of bins, surprised myself.

Also have wired up the lights but am waiting on some self sealing butt splices to finish the effort for the headlights. Rear lights are assembled (the Tail Lights actually work) but still missing one bulb and can't get the brake lights to work, will dig into that this weekend. I have a guy who does auto glass locally who is going to stop by at some point in the next couple of days to help with the install of all glass. Hopefully we won't crack anything which is what happened on the bus.

Five years ago many of the items that I am addressing now were not working, so this is all new territory for this car.

[wdollie6]

Brake light mystery solved. Previous Owner had a wad of electrical tape over the wire junction between one brake switch plug to the other, guess what I found! The good news is that once I separated the mess and jumped one of the switches the brake lights worked fine, the bad news is that for some reason when the wiring is attached to the switch itself, no bueno. I had originally purchased these switches in 2018, along with a new master, installed late last year, bled at all wheels and the brakes are solid.

I have heard that there were a series of these screw in switches which were no good from the factory, can anyone confirm this? I connected my meter to one switch and there was no change between the before and after working of the pedal, assume resistance would change, but nothing. Anyone know of best way to test switch?

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[wdollie6]

Glass is in! A little problem with one of the pop outs as the pop out frame studs were in on the bottom but I missed on the top. Will have to pull the seal back out around the top and reposition, I hope... Glass makes it look very close to completed. Still working on brake switch wiring and the signal assembly but not show stoppers as of yet.

Getting closer.

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[Amskeptic]

Man, you get so far ahead of me ... I have a great headliner trick, too late. Window rubber made it past the new headliner OK? I hated that part.
Brake light switches are a team, If one closes and the other stays open, that triggers the warning light.
82a black power
81 to brake lights black/red tracer?
81a to warning light K?

[wdollie6]

All is good with the headliner. I used the contact adhesive that you told me about several years ago, Weldwood, good stuff. Unfortunately those wrinkles will not go away at this point but I continue to persevere over other challenges on the car. The drivers side pop out is fully installed, works great, but I still have to put the very small nuts on the studs. The passenger side, not so much, as I need to pull the top of the gasket back out (mentioned previously) and reposition the studs through the frame. Since I am currently in rainy/cold FL it may be a week or so until I get back to it.

At some point I am going to post my trials and tribulations with my signal assembly, much more complex than I thought. I now have all the parts and pieces but am struggling putting it back together. I found a ball bearing and small spring at ACE that may work okay but holding everything together while assembling is a daunting, frustrating task. I have watched the classifieds on the Samba for a replacement but nothing yet, apparently 1970 is a one year only. So now I am focused on methods of assembly that will keep everything in place while reinstalling in steering column.

On we go. The doors will go on once I get the rest of the insulation in place, followed by the carpeting. Soon will be back working on getting the engine to run consistently. I have had the distributor rebuilt, new FI harness, new injectors, new plug wires, and so on but still can't get the engine to run consistently. Will refocus my efforts on that once I get the interior all reinstalled.

[Amskeptic]

I will be interested in seeing this car in person.

[wdollie6]

During my ongoing search for a new 1970 signal switch, ran across an online seller called Parts Geek. Searched for the 1970 turn signal and the result was not what I needed. Searched 1969 and it appears that what they are offering is an exact match (we'll see if that is what they ship me...). Not sure of the quality of the part but it was worth $30 to find out. In the mean time I will continue to work with my old switch to determine if it can be reassembled, oh, and operate properly.

Link to the website and the 69 signal switch:

https://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/1969/ ... witch.html

[Amskeptic]

1970 Type 3 switch is a 1 year only unit and very hard to find
The main difference between 69 and 70 is the quick disconnect wire plug.
In order to use a 68-69 switch you need to solder / transfer each terminal from your original switch to the new one.

[wdollie6]

These are pictures of the signal switch before I "operated" on it. It is the same configuration as the new one (at least based on the pictures), should have it in my hands Monday. The configuration of the '69 part is exactly the same as the original, the 70 part was not, however it did have the plastic, quick connect chaseway that I will have to test my soldering skills on. If this doesn't work out then fortunately I still have the original to work with.

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[wdollie6]

Last night, while boiling maple syrup, I was able to correct the brake light issue, so all is good now, even the brake warning light on the dash is lighting up when pushed (this was after determining that it had been miss-wired by a PO). An accomplishment since I've never had one work on my other VWs. I also was able to install the second LED headlight vs. the old GE I had installed originally to test the wiring, will keep that as a backup.

Still need to remove the seal on the passenger side pop-out so I can realign to allow the studs to come through. Once I have that done I will move on to the addition of noise insulation under the back seat area, installation of carpet and seats, along with a few hundred other odds and ends that need to be completed. Also still need to install a signal switch of some sort, hopefully the one I receive Monday will work (even if it will require soldering).

[wdollie6]

As always the easy things become the most difficult. Thought I would install the dome light through the new headliner, should be a 5 minute job, right? Anything but. I put the small slit in the headliner and fished out the wires, ground, check, multi-colored wire, check, red wire, uh oh didn't notice but it became obvious when I pulled it out, mice had eaten the insulation off several inches of wire. So first thought was fish a new wire through, couldn't get a cable to come up from the bottom, and because the headliner was in couldn't fish a wire from the top. Solution; unplugged the double red wire at the fuse box (the other wire went to the fuel pump relay I believe) and then pulled as much as I could through the dome light hole. After checking closely determined that I had good wire after a couple of inches so cut and butt spliced in a longer section followed by heat shrink. Attached wires to the light and back at fuse box and all tested good. Have a bulb on order so couldn't light it up as of yet.

Now on to the rear view mirror, HELP! The very same mirror I pulled out when I ripped the headliner out (literally) refuses to go back into its slot. I have smacked, rocked and rubber malleted with no luck, even after adding a dab of lubrication. I have hit this as hard as I dare and yet can't get it to seat. If anyone knows tricks of the trade with regards to this please let me know as this should have been easy!