Good to here from you Johnny, and good to get tips from a seasoned pro. I was thinking of a Rotary bias valve in one of the centre dash holes, or would you suggest down on the centre tunnel near the gearstick / handbrake? Dash would be easier to reach but mounting & plumbing would be simpler on the tunnel. I take your point about a lever type being easier to select and adjust and also easier to reset repeatedly to the same settings, in which case on the tunnel is probably best.

Question for you: When i looked over your car at Apex last year i saw you were running 944 spring plates. Do you use the 944 torsion bars as well? And what torsion bushes do you use? I think you had trimmed down 944 end caps as well to retain everything - yes? I have a set of 944 plates/bars/caps i could use but at the moment I have my own adjustable spring-plates in place that take the short torsion bars and (at the moment) 24mm bars. Any reccomendations?

bias valves and Wallace and grommet..
 

Hi Moog, Good to have another build for the circuits, as to bias valves, a rotary has more range and is more secure i spose, but then i like the quick 'repeatable' settings the lever type offers, mines just ahead of the shifter base plate, i fitted it so pull back is for more rear, forward for more front, fitting it there is good for visual reference and is easy to plumb too, remember kiss mate,,,,
your 24 mm 944 bars are fine with the Porsche s/plates, the grommets are red urethane T1, i just had some existing oversize bug smooth type outer grommets turned down to go in the housing with a collar left on the outer face to space the s/plate out a fraction to stop travel interference on the shock tower frame, the inners are just bug knobby ones . ive run what you suggested, short 1200 type 22mm bars with T1 adjustable s/plates? worked really well, felt just a bit stiffer than the long 24mm ones as regards balance, understeer being anathema to me. one slight thing was inside rear lift, i went to drop spindles with stock length front shocks and a stiffer rear bar and its mostly cured, but it will spin up (free diff) if i get clumsy on the gas pedal, it need limslip i spose in reality, i cant just boot it, and it has scary throttle response even with just the little DJ wasser 2.1 up it... :)good man, hope this helps you get some ideas for it all, get to it now... regards Johnny.:) Just re read, you meant short 24mm bars, i tried 26mm short bars, and it was like a drift car, but im a late and trail braker, so not my style, i would try them moog, it wont understeer, which is good, and they may suit your style, for me they were to stiff... J.

Just got a pic from the paint shop :-)

http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...4.jpg~original

Looking good :) now the fun begins!!

So, today was THE DAY to go and collect the shell from the paintshop - boy was I excited. So dropped the kids off at school and shot into town to pick up the trailer. Off up the motorway in the Passat with a very rumbly wheel bearing (must fix that...) and I pulled in to the yard - there it was, resplendent in its new shiny yellow paint! Outside, inside, and underneath!
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The WRONG Yellow...
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Remember, i am the second owner, having bought it in completely unadulterated condition in 1986. I gave it a exterior respray in original colour myself in 1993 - i consider I am pretty hot on knowing L16M at a glance, and this was wrong. In the boot of the Passat I had one of the original bonnet hinges that had never been re-painted, and it's quite a different colour to what is now on the shell.
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Bugger...

I can see how it happened - since the regulations changed about paint formulation a few years ago, not all the old colours have been re-formulated into the new mixing systems, especially those that were limited usage, and a one-year-only special edition colour falls squarely in the rare camp. Plugging L16M Tunis Yellow into the paint systems draws a blank on both ICI and Sikkens. It seems the paint supplier cross-referenced it against another mix to get the fourmula, and somehow it went wrong - too Yellow, not Mustardy enough.

So that was an expensive day - trailer hire & 150 miles of fuel, and a day off work, all for nothing.

He is totally mortified and embarrassed & unhesitatingly said he will sort it out. We just need to sort the mix. I tried another paint supplier on the way home and they found it on their system but no formula listed - looks like we will end up getting it matched to the inside of the glove-box lid which is original paint and not sun-bleached. I think some places can scan the paint, while another says they have a "Resident Genius of Colour" - time to pay him a visit I think...

Oh well, these things happen...

Hi

What a let down, I feel sorry for you. Hopefully it can be sorted. Is it painted in the new water based paint or the old nasty two pack?

Steve

Nasty 2-pack... We have at least found another supplier (Autopaints in Brighton) who use multiple manufacturers systems & checked on different ones - they found it in a MIPA 2-pack formula, mixed up a sample, and it's apparently a dead match for the original glovebox. So hopefully it's all hands on deck next week to give it another blow over - at least the base is all smooth and just needs a good keying back :-)

that is totally a big let down. im a painter and i just checked my paint system and yep...no code. sucks to have the wrong color. like you said tho, a quick scuff of the new paint and she will be all ready for another respray in the "right" color. my green bug is viper green, and when i bought the car, it was also the wrong color. now its the correct color for my car. best of luck man!

That really sucks! My colour wasnt on the paint shops system but they phoned up ICI directly who faxed through the formula... just a thought?

We have the formula now in MIPA paint, so he is cracking on with it and it shouldn't take to long to blow it over again, but going to be a few weeks before I get it back. So it's 8pm on a Saturday night, Mrs Moog is swotting up for a job interview & doesn't want to be disturbed, & so I have the evening in the garage... With no car... Time to work on those brakes maybe?

So with a little bit of work the 996 calipers fit BoxsterS rear discs on Steel 944 rear arms inside the 6x15" Teledial :)

http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...F.jpg~original

http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...3.jpg~original

The mounts I made ages ago for standard 944 rear discs have been spaced & flipped - I may make new adapters or just run with these spaced. This is with a 10mm wheels spacer - hopefully that will clear the bodywork. I'll wait until I have tried it all in the chassis/shell before giving it all a good clean and repaint. I need to do something to centre the BoxsterS disc properly as the centre of the Boxster disc is larger than the 944 disc, so at the moment it just locates on the wheel studs so can move a couple of mm each time I have it apart. I think a centring ring between the two should do it and then drill/tap the hub to use the retaining screw hole in the disc

It's been a few weeks so time for an update, though there is not a great deal to show at present. I've not seen it, but have been told the shell is now painted again in the right colour. Apparently it was a real pain to flat it back again - with it being so fresh it just clogged the Wet&Dry - but he's finally got there with it. Hopefully I will have it back in the next week or so.

Things were also delayed as he had a photoshoot for Volksworld magazine on his "Jurgens Autovilla" so that was his main focus for a week or so.
http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...A.jpg~original

Anyway, back to mine - I have at least now got the gearbox sorted - Welded 1.04 4th gear, 4.375 R&P, and T2-size output flanges.
http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...0.jpg~original

I also found time to lay a new garage floor - last seen going round and round under Dave Forders car at the Volksworld show :D

Might get Sam to repaint mine, when he has some time:lmao:

So, still not got the repainted shell back yet, partly due to work commitments, but in the meantime the boss kept me busy with something with slightly less power:

http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...l.jpg~original

Only 4800miles from new. All the pushrod seals had deteriorated with age, so I had the heads off and gave it a top-end refresh - all lovely and clean inside, with the VW logo still visible on the piston crowns. It was a delight to work on.

Put it back in its rightful home on Monday evening - a '56 Single-Cab - and it ran beautifully. Having managed to then get it registered Tuesday, and the plates sorted on Thursday, yesterday I took it to the Apex Festival at Lydden Hill. Didn't miss a beat all the way there - with an average of less than 85miles a year over the last 57 years, but not turned a wheel in decades, we thought of just having a few local trips in it first, but in the end we thought what better thing to do than a 200 mile round trip to test it? We even overtook a Bay-Window on the way!

http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...3.jpg~original

While at the circuit I thought it would rude not to put it around the track - no seat belts, very slippery seat, 30hp, Crash-gearbox... Brilliant fun! Managed to hit 50mph on the main straight before dropping into 3rd and braking to 40mph for the left-hander where the back stepped out :lmao: Myself and my mate sliding around on the passenger seat were in absolute hysterics - he reckons it was almost as much fun as his 911! I wonder if the boss will let me build an Okrasa engine for it?

The single cab looked lovely at the show but didnt see you go round the track unfortunately!

It was a great show with some very interesting cars! (not just dubs!)