The Red Thread

[hiho]

Nice work Peter being able to attend the needs of so many Mistresses

[Jarred]

Good one Pete! I must do for any mk 1 I think.

[Peter Jones]

An update from the work Jodie did over the weekend.

Finally finished Red's Dynamatting today. First, strip down the doors
and give them a cleaning





Next, lay out the Dynamat in the sun to get them extra sticky and
flexible, then trace the plastic cover onto a sheet to get the door
shape. Work out the holes you need to cut and start a sticking.



And voila!





And yes, there is a discernable difference in sound now!

Now to get this black crap out from under my fingernails...

[Peter Jones]

An update from Jodie!

Red's been losing power and slipping his clutch for a few weeks now,
time to replace it before it gets worse.



First, hoist up the car and drop the box out.



Yee olde clutcheth. Turns out this is the original clutch SEAT
installed into the Cordoba the motor came out of in the mid nineties.
A fabulous motor that came from Matt of Camden GTI some years ago, and
has turned my little Red into a speedy little car!



One new clutch kit, courtesy of the wonderful Matt at Camden. Thanks
Matt, for the speedy service!



The old clutch is looking worn, but hey, not a bad run at 15+ years of service.



Time for a jacuzzi.







*checks torque measurements in the Bentley's "30nM and a quarter turn" Hmmmmm*



The quarter turn requires the regime and skill of a gymnast. Plus
always remember to brace yourself!



Mmmmm newness of joy.



New and old. Can you tell the difference?



Loctite is your friend, use it!



Look at that, all lovely and new!



Boom, there it is.



And now Red's raring down the road again! Woo!

[Peter Jones]

Red went to the 2012 VWCV Christmas party.

[Peter Jones]

Red got some attention today, I had to sort out a mystery suspension clunk and adjust the handbrake.

Adjusting the handbrake turned into swpping out the shoes and replacing the wheel bearings.

Here's Jodie's recollection of events.

Good old reliable Red. Just keeps going and going, without complaining. Although lately he's had a bit of a knock coming from the front, passenger side, suspension. I thought it was a wheel bearing at first.



Jacked him up, tested the wheel, bearing's fine. Ok so what's going on? Is it the shock? It moves a lot, so took it all out. Then discovered the cap that locks the shock in place had actually undone itself. Tightened it back up, no more knock!

Ok, job done there, no need to change anything, pop those Konis away for another day. What's next? Well the hand brake's slowly giving up on Red, let's have a look.



Bum in the air, wheels off. What do we find? One destroyed wheel bearing, and worn shoes.



Take these out.



Give them a clean out.



Get a new set of bearings.....



and some new shoes....


Yeah, it's time to move on.


Pop those in there.


Do the same over here. (Wheel bearings were shot on this side too.)


Lovely!


Whack the old bearings out and then whack some new ones in.




Don't forget to get lots of grease in them!


Just like that.


Pop the lid back on.


And back on his feet, ready to play again!

[Peter Jones]

Words and pics by Jodie.

I kept the hubs and strut housing together so as to not lose the wheel alignment.

Red's recent suspension shenanigans made the strut mount finally give up the ghost. Seeing as we had Konis on the shelf here for ages, it seemed a good time to get them sorted out and ready for installation. Had those rebuilt this week by the wonderful people at Top Performance in Nunawading (if you need your Konis seen to, go see them, they are the experts and do a great job).

Front shocks on a Mk1 need the whole assembly out. Disassemble and have a press handy to do this.









Look at these, feast your eyes. Fantastic shocks.



Bearing pullers are damned handy tool for this job.



Giving the parts a good wash, they had gunk, grease, dirt and brake dust all over them. Gave them a lick of black paint afterwards, after all the red paint fell off in the wash.



This is where a press comes in handy, to remove the old bearings and to get the new ones in.





Assembled, ready for returning to the car.







Back shocks are far easier, no need to remove wheels.



The old rears, these were a tad knackered and into the scrappy bin they go.





Now just bolt these back in and you're done.

And the difference? MASSIVE. Incredibly precise handling now, and no back end 'skittering' or body roll to the side, when going around a corner. Why on earth did we not do this years ago. Don't bother with Ebay cheap shocks, just put some Konis in, they're brilliant.

[golfmeup]

Top stuff! I'm sure it must handle a tonne of a lot better too

[Peter Jones]

Red's Toyos have finally worn down enough to not be street legal any more, so it was time to change them for a new set. Not bad use though, he's been wearing them since January 2012!

Time to visit our favourite tyre man, Craig at Trackside in Kilsyth.







Alignment was still all good even after the Konis were installed.

[Peter Jones]

Red's engine is getting steadily smokier and leakier, time to do something about it.



Disgusting.



Start pulling stuff out of him.



Mmmm tooter.



Yoink out this greasy mess.



Eugh.



Double eugh.



Grimace at sight of gunge buildup everywhere.



That is just revolting.



That will not do.

Roll car to end of driveway (can't have that grime dripping out all over the concrete) and get to degreasing and hosing down.



Oooooo! It does get in!



Much better!



Now that's an improvement!

But how to get car back up driveway?



Winching time!



I once caught a rabbit thiiiiis biiiiiig.



Is winch, is good.

More tomorrow.

[Peter Jones]

Work on Red continues, even in 38 degree heat! Today it's time to replace the gearshift linkages with new components.











Wheel was filthy thanks to torn CV boot





Got a good scrub:



CV got a new packing of grease before replacing the torn boot.













Red also got a new heater core. The old one was showing its age.



Tooter got a clean and polish.

[morgs]

I gave up working on my car at 11am prob 30 degress by then...too damn hot for me..

Love the work Pete! Great pics and info as usual...

I am sure Craig said he was closing up shop in Jan.

[Peter Jones]

I am sure Craig said he was closing up shop in Jan.

He probably did, those tyres went on in March!

[dubstar]

Hi Pete, can you take a close up pic of the carb linkage if you get a chance?

[Peter Jones]

Dusted off a spare motor I had lying about and popped it in.