some mock-up pictures

As I didn't show some actual pics of the Streaker for some time, here are some mock-up shots:
rear view:

a (very dusty) body... gives a first impression of the aubergine / gold color combo

the interieur: almost done!

Seats, sun visors, carpet, padded dash, door boards, Raid steering wheel - all finished!
and: the chromed hand brake lever - of course!

new rubber

Yesterday the Volksstreaker got its new tyres. Yokohama Geolandar in the rear - a good compromise between on + off road:

  They look beefy enough on the 8" rims

bad quality doesn't pay ...

After more than 1 week I finally got my money back from the dealer which sold a cheap brasilian made part under the label of VEWIB - which was a scam! In the mean time I found a used orignal VW part for a fracture of the price of the aftermarket part!

Confirmed: I still believe in VEWIB quality!

In the meantime I got a personal reply from the Managing Director of VEWIB - which I contacted as well. He confirms that this is definately NOT a VEWIB part.
He sent a real long and interesting mail, explaining some of his business and the market for low cost reproduction Beetle parts in Brazil. This is what I call customer relationship!
Thank you Mr. Kalff! I really appreciate your feedback.

Sailing under false colors!
My personal opinion is that the dealer claimed that this was a VEWIB part intentionally. A behavior I absolutely detest!

I already sent the part back to the dealer and hope he returns the money soon ...

frustrating, bad spare parts quality ...

I am already used to find a lot of junk whenever I want to buy spares for aircooled VW's.
The latest addition to my list of crap is a reflector for the tail light - the dealer claims it is a VEWIB part - but I don't think so... I was always under the impression that VEWIB cares about quality, take a look:

first impression: not too bad

but: mounting tab too wide -almost 1,5mm to 2 mm

 measurement between the domes: original part: 48,90 mm

spare part:  measurement between the domes: almost 53 mm

as a result it doesn't even fit in the housing!

on top of that, the mounting tab - which should be Z-shaped is crooked

So it is a useless piece of junk which I send back to the dealer!
I really don't get the point, Someone invests a lot of time and money to set-up a stamping tool and when he reaches 70% archievement he just stops and sells this shit?!?

interior clean up

It is about time to take care of the interior. The door cards I bought awhile ago were full of gunk and bird poo, here is an example of a rear panel with the classic before/after comparison:

looks brand new again!

major steps!

Today my friend Rui helped installing the motor, here is an overview of what I put together beforehand:

... finally at home:

... all electric connections are done, the starter works,  oil pressure is existent - tomorrow I will fill up the tank and crank it over for the first time!
I am not sure about the clutch - feels a little strange...We will see!

Oh, and here are some pics of the rest:

Raid steering wheel; Speedometer; padded dash and seats installed, all switches wired, the body is polished and waxed and stainless steel trim is installed.

finally, an update!

After I received all the cooling tins for the engine, I could continue to assemble it:
all of the satin black powder coated stuff + the dog house  fan shroud (not shown)

assembly of the geberator tins and fan:

the engine so far: intake manifold, generator, coil and header + heat exchangers installed

of course, I installed a brand new clutch 

here it is, on the lightened flywheel, an old (but cad plated) input shaft helps locating / centering the disc:

Engine mock-up / Header headaches:

This is the current state of the Streaker engine:

 The Baja header had to be reworked quite a bit, this is definately one of the reasons for the "world known" EMPI quality:

 Some of the tubes were far too long and I had to grind off a lot.

It was more than 2cm on the worst tube!

Now it looks much better:

Hannover 2014, parts hunt completed!

Unfortunately, this year the weather was not as expected, we had a lot of rain showers and dark skies. Which didn't stop me from spending all my time in the swap meet area - just like in the past years...
Here are my findings:

a lot of engine cooling tins, a set of stainless beetle side trim, an air filter with a new insert, some knobs for the Streaker dash, choke block off plates for the Volksback, a brand new Schleicher camshaft for the Volksback as well (in the cardboard box), a new dizzy cap, a 50 HP carburator and intake manifold and type 3 rear brakes, redrilled for 5x130 Porsche wheels + some misc. stuff like a steering column cover piece, some air vents and the annual coffee mug...
P.S.: It took some time to gain access to my blog due to some odd pop-upwhich I had to overcome, that is why this comes so late.

oil cooler thread repair - the sequel...

I wasn't too sure about the thread repair, so I borrowed a Helicoil repair set:

 ... drilled and tapped the special thread size...

... and inserted a helicoil insert, now I feel safe:

this will last forever!

and here another pic of the oil cooler adaptor with the M6/M8 bolts already inserted and loctite'd:

During the assembly I noticed this problem: No thread for the oil pressure switch:

 but a few hours later I had this: a nice, clean M10x1 thread:

 next on the list was a new oil cooler:

... more soon

.. what I didn't mention yesterday...

During my bolt repair action I had another incident which I forgot to mention yesterday:

... as if there wasn't enough trouble, the drill bit also broke! fortunately I could safe it with a plier!
At the end of day the I wasn't to sure about my repair and re-did it again - more of this later...

cylinders, heads and oil pump - and some headaches...

After I found out about the too high compression ratio, I had to use 0,5mm shims under the cylinders to reduce the compression to a final and healthy 9,3:1

 I also managed NOT to forget the (type 3) cooling tins!


a set of new push rods 

and of course, new push rod tubes with a slight drip of sealant

just for the record: cylinder head details and valve sizes:

a re-surfaced oil pump cover (original VW part - which is still the best)

a new oil pump followed soon:

with the slimmest available paper seal, to keep the oil pressure on a good level

oil pump finished!

a mechanical fuel pump was next on the list.

Next task: the oil cooler - which gave me headaches...
The upright adaptor has M8 threads, but the holes in the case are for M6 bolts - then again, the threaded bolt in the case is 6mm and the adaptor has a hole for M8

too fat bolts...

 o.k., first step: remove the bolt from the case - easy- isn't it?

Damn - this wasn't suppose to happen!

How could this happen? I used an extractor tool?

This is the problem: The cheap tool broke and in turn the bolt snapped!

 So, after some swearing, I drilled out the remains of the old M6 bolt...

 Here is the remedy for the thread problem: Bolts with M6 AND M8 threads. A special thanks to Thomas for a nice and fast job!

Here is the new, stepped bolt already loctite'd into the case

The other 2 bolts will be used in the adaptor...
Thanks to this trick I can later use the engine in original Type 3 configuration again!