Dave's new 1969 mild GL build...

[Bogara_ZO]

Congrats Dave, car looks superb, well done!

Concerning the front spoiler I would avoid color matching as it would make the front end optically higher and narrower which is no good on a - already narrow - standard. A friend of mine did it on his silver car and it looked awful (I am trying to post pics later). After he went back to black and the car looked ok again. If you wish to highlight it somehow I would rather put some solid red stripe (a la GTI) on it or just a KAMEI sticker wich contains red as well.

Hope you solve the rubbing issue soon. Check your PMs

[H2OSB]

Dave, couple things. First, the car looks A-MAZE-ING! No two ways about it.

Edit: Only one thing. I decided the other part wasn't appropriate for your build thread. I copied and pasted my question directly from here to a PM.

[owdlvr]

I haven't had much to post for a month, because I've been driving the German Looker as much as possible, and broke my whole shop down to do an epoxy floor treatment. Emptied the bigger half of my shop into the single-bay side. Cleaned the floor, ground the floor, primed the floor, epoxied the floor and then top-coated it. My concrete is in poorer shape than I had hoped, but overall the floor is so much better than it was. Sweeping actually brings a smile to my face. Without everything in the shop, there is so much room for activities!!







Almost 4,000km of testing done on the German Looker. Took it camping in Ucluelet this weekend, which is on the very western edge of Vancouver Island, and the western edge of Canada. It's a twisty, remote, 100km highway betwen Ucluelet and my house and I had a surprisingly open highway on the way back. I've been running with a self imposed 5,500rpm limit for break-in purposes, and finally decided to open it up to 6,000rpm. The cam, with 1.25 rockers, should still be making power to 6300 so I was curious to see if it would keep pulling. It sounded GREAT...and then it didn't.

The bolt holding the end of the rockershaft on the #2 exhaust end backed out, and was set free to roam around the inside of the valve cover somewhere between 5,500 and 6,000 rpm. I found the bolt, the rocker shaft end, a shim, and two lash caps floating around when I pulled the cover. One of the pushrods and tubes was quite badly damaged. The pushrod was significantly more banana'd, but this is after some work trying to straighten it on the side of the road so I could limp home. I, probably wisely, decided that it was far smarter to tow the car home instead of limping it with a badly bent pushrod.

While waiting, I got to figure out pulling the front spoiler on the side of the road (requires removing the oil lines).



And, just as I finished, the flat-deck arrived for my ride of shame back home. 



That was yesterday. Not being one to wait around, today I drained the oil, pulled the motor, and tore it down to get a full list of parts I'll need to put it back in service. There was nothing suspect in the oil, filter, or sump plate. All lifters ride their bores smoothly, and without any damage. Dodged a bullet on this one! New pushrods, new pushrod tubes, and it should be good to go. I'm picking up new rocker assemblies as well, but might end up putting the same ones back into service.

[H2OSB]

Bummer. Coulda been worse, so count your blessings.

[effvee]

Isn't the push rod bent? What caused it?

[owdlvr]

push rod is very bent. That photo is after I worked to straighten it enough to limp home, but decided otherwise.

Bolt on the end of the rockershaft backed out, and went bouncing around the valve cover. Rocker moved off the lash cap, it too went flying around. Total damage is one push rod, one push rod tube, one valve keeper and a nick on the rocker I need to file/stone out today before reassembly.

[H2OSB]

But hey, Dave, the garage floor looks nice

[owdlvr]

Haha, the floor is awesome. I seriously don't know how I lived with it before.



Engine is reassembled and back in the car. I need to remount the front spoiler, and then fill it with oil for a fire up. Here's hoping we're good!

-Dave

[effvee]

Concerning your garage floor, what kind of coating did you use?

[owdlvr]

ArmorPoxy Ultra, with the military top coat.

[effvee]

Thank you

[owdlvr]

So, after suffering a valve-train issue, and newly installing the engine into the car...what would be the best way to ensure it's strong and ready for use? Why, a 5,148km road trip...right?!

The trip was needed to create the rough notes which will become the route books of four different Classic Car Adventures events. I can't post exactly where I went, as my routes are usually kept a secret until the event, but I did make it all the way out to Calgary and up the Banff corridor for an upcoming Hagerty Touring Series event which I am producing. The engine performed on the entire trip flawlessly, using only a litre of oil for the entire run. Most of that litre is either under the motor, or on the inside of the engine lid as I didn't realize until day two or three the oil pressure sender was leaking from the threads! Whoops.

The starter, however, was giving me fits for the entire first half of the trip. When I built the car, I used a brand new "rebuilt" AC-Delco starter. Back when I was machining the front face of the starters to fit the Rally Bug and 901 trans swap I was using AC-Delco rebuilt units as they were cheaper. Failure rate was about 1 a year, so I was sure with the starter being less than two months old it must be the ignition switch. First I wired a hot-start relay, then I wired an all-new ignition switch, and then I wired a 60amp pushbutton direct between the battery and starter. Even that failed to engage the starter reliably.

Mid trip, I stopped at my best friend's house and pulled the starter out. At that point, I discovered the solenoid was faulty...and would both jam, and/or heat soak. Fortunately Concept-1 in Calgary was only a day away...and Ken fixed me up with a new WOSP high-torque starter, and thanks to some mutual friends I managed to borrow a hoist to install it instead of doing it in the Concept-1 parking lot! Once the new starter was in, the whole trip was perfectly flawless.























Now I have to figure out how to get 9 days of bug guts off the front of the car...

[Wally]

Amazing scenary! Thanks for sharing. Car must be in top shape to make such a journey without problems, so well done!!

[DORIGTT]

Dave,
Do you have any issues with tires rubbing / contact under bumps and such?

[owdlvr]

Originally Posted by DORIGTT

Dave,
Do you have any issues with tires rubbing / contact under bumps and such?

hahahahahahaha. Do I?!



Short version, yes I do. But in order to solve the problem I either need to narrow the wheels, or fly to Germany to get the CSP fenders I want. One of which I will do over the winter months.