'79 diesel LHD

I absolutely love this man. I love diesel.

Hi,

I picked up a new gearbox a couple of weeks ago, in fact a whole front end with a 1600 diesel, 5-speed box, drive shafts, etc. The box is a type 4S, with a 0.76 top gear, which should help with cruising over 90 kph!

Fitting the box was simple, with just the end mount switched from 4-speed to 5-speed, but the linkage was a little more complex. Luckily I had a great website to refer to, and another car to 'borrow' and compare parts from:


With much checking and measuring, the only big difference in the linkage seemed to be the upright lever at the front of the main shaft/rod, which was 5cm taller on the 5-speed. A quick chop and weld, and all was well:


Now I have a spare 4-speed, very rare, which I will swap for anything you don't want…


I've driven it to work twice this week, with minor juggling of the sleeve adjuster in between, and all gears select nicely (although a linkage rebuild kit will probably be on the cards to firm things up a bit) and the noise difference is amazing.
I'll have to see if it makes any difference to fuel consumption, but it certainly feels a lot better.

Wheels next!

Robin

Nice work Robin. How long did it take you?

smudger1980 said

Nice work Robin. How long did it take you?

A few days to gradually clean up the parts, check a few measurements and work up the courage, then two hours one morning to remove the old box and two hours to refit the new one, single-handed.

I used two trolley jacks under the engine and under the box, and a ratchet strap over a wooden bead on the wings to line things up.

Setting up has taken another couple of hours over the last few days, mostly because you put the car on ramps, undo and adjust the sleeve, retighten, lower the car, start up and realise that first and second are too close to the reverse gate, or that 5th is too far over to the right, then start all over again.

Someone more experienced would have done it in a morning no doubt, but I was taking it slowly and carefully.

I put new bolts on the driveshafts and degreased and threadlocked them, changed the clutch plate for a better one, all in all a good day's work.

Robin

Well done mate, a top job.  

Hi,

had a go at the new front spoiler this afternoon - I broke the old one on a snowdrift two weeks ago.

£10 from GSF for a cl spoiler and £5 for ten clips from Eurowagens, decided to do the cab first, as it had never had one since I purchased.

Before:


After:


Only problem, the new aftermarket clips are made of quite brittle plastic, and are slightly shorter that the originals. As a result, I broke five out of the packet of ten fitting the first spoiler, so the poor old diesel will have to make do with a screwed-on spoiler… as soon as I've cut off all the odd screws and bolts which held the old one on:


PS: I may even have a go at straightening the front valence

Robin

Nice work Robin. Looks better.

A couple of cosmetic changes this weekend. A picked up an absolutely essential accessory from a local classic car meet and fitted it:

From this:


To this:


Also put some orange paint on an odd Polo gearnob to make driving more exciting:


Finally, fitted the ugliest possible wheels to my daily, from a Renault Laguna, but with good Michelin tyres:


The steering wheel is VW stamped and looks just like the GTI one, but it's missing the centre horn push. It was a real bargain at only 20 euros, so I'm not complaining. Any idea where I can get hold of the centre with horn button? For the moment I've modified an old Simca horn push to fit!

Robin

HI,

it's been a couple of months since I updated this thread, but things have been moving on, and now I'm on holiday so the car can be taken off the road for more than a day at a time!

Having said that, it has covered 12000km since September when I bought it, so it's very much a running restoration.

Here are a couple of updates from the 'what did you do today?' thread:

RobinFromFrance said

Took them to a show, along with my Bedford. Got a lot of nice comments too:



Robin

RobinFromFrance said

Fitted the spoiler de the Diesel - to replace the one I broke off in the snow.



Quick tip: If you don't want to break the cheaper clips from Ebay, put them in hot water to soften the plastic and round the ends of the pins with sandpaper before you try pushing them in. A little WD40 on the pins helps too.

Robin

RobinFromFrance said

Fitted some better (less ugly) wheels with good tyres - this time in 185/60/14 on Seat wheels:



The good news is that there were holes for the hubcap clips, and they fitted perfectly. I can now drive at 120kmh without gritting my teeth at the wheel wobble.



Now I'll have to get some paint on them and think about lowering the car a little - it's just so comfortable at the moment.

Next step, clean and polish some red rear lights and convert to fog lights.

Robin

And a very quick spray job from a supermarket rattle-can - they almost look like the orignals!

RobinFromFrance said

Changed the lights - well actually I just cleaned them and stuck yellow film on. Very easy job and it's legal over here.

From this:


To this:


In about an hour. You need a pair of scissors, some glass cleaner and a heat gun, that's all. I also took time to clean the grill and surround before I put it all back together.

Total cost, £2.99.



Robin

Here's the car on the new wheels. Spot the mistake with the tail lights!



Anyhow, like I said, time for a closer look at the rear arches…

Up on stands, drop the rear beam (no seized bolts thanks to lack of salt on roads, but one frayed handrake cable which will need replacing.)


A few more patches on the inner wings:


It looks like the holes arount the fuel breathers are supposed to be there!


This one is looking up to where the fuel filler is - but at least it can be done from inside the car:


More tomorrow, with the rear beam mount and a dent to be remover from the rear light panel.

Robin

Nice little update Robin, good luck with the repairs mate.

No real progress today - the heatwave is making me lazy - but I had a go at the rear bumper with the heat gun. It really does the trick, though a little more work is needed to clean up the splodgy edges:



I'm wondering what to use to keep grey bumpers clean - at least I think they are grey…

More tomorrow, I promise.
Robin

From this:


to this:


took three hours and five patches. At least I have the satisfaction of having managed to do it all myself, and it's all metal.

I'm very slightly worried about it all rusting through again in another 35 years, as I can only spray the inside of box sections with weld-through primer before closing them and finishing the welds. Is there a better way of protecting them internally?

Robin

Started on the inner arch top this afternoon - around the seatbelt mount doesn't look too clever:


Cut a bit out and cleaned up the inside of the fuel filler hole from the inside!


After that the boss said we had to go shopping for beach balls, trainers and bikinis, so no more time to play!

Robin

A hard day's welding today saw the inside finished:


Just one more bit to look at, but I've been leaving it until last as it's a bit more scary:


There's an inner skin which needs a simple patch, then the outer skin which will need a number of pieces due to its complicated shape. And the best thing of all is that I just love welding and grinding lying on my back under the car…

End of play tonight and it's half done:


Robin

Finished the welding and grinding at last:



The rear of both sills need looking at too, but that can wait. At least it can be done from the outside!

Robin

Back on its wheels again as the space is needed for an MG.


Just the brakes to bleed, one handrake cable to change, and the fuel filler to refit, then she'll be on the road again. A mate of mine (the MG man) made up some spacers for the rear wheels:


10mm, just for the rears, and the wheels are now where I want them:


Tomorrow the brakes, and refitting the trim, etc.

Robin

Going great guns with this one, particularly like your wheels and the can-do approach to rust repairs.

Volksangyl said

Going great guns with this one, particularly like your wheels

Thanks,

it took a lot of thought to get the right combination of original looks and better handling, but I think they're just right.

They are '95 model Seat Ibiza wheels fitted with 185/60/14 Michelins, and 10mm spacers on the rear. I've fitted the original hubcaps with their clips too.

Before these I tried a number of 13/14/15 inch wheels, finding 15 inch with 195/50/15 tyres reduced comfort significantly, while 13inch alloys with 175/70 tyres were lovely and bouncy but didn't really fill the arches.

Now I'm looking at fitting 14inch alloys to the cabriolet to replace the 15s…

Robin

Had a go at a few more bits yesterday, between the storms. First some more cleaning up:


Then decided that the whole of the rear panel needed derusting:


The tank vent pipes needed refitting - why are there four of them?


The repainted filler neck refitted:


All pipes in place:


New flexi pipe to join filler pipe to tank - just need to find some 50mm jubilee clips:


All clean at the top - I tried to fit a spare cabriolet plastic shield to this area but the shape is completely different. Did VW make a 5-door downpipe shield?


Finally a coat of filler primer on the rear panel after rubbing down and treating the rust (and welding up four more pinholes…)


More soon,
Robin