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Mystery Solved
It turns out this
thing is part of the gas heater system. As most of you know heat
is completely futile in a VW and I don't expect cold weather
will ever be an issue for this car again. The gas heater is therefore
not a priority in this restoration.
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More Painting
I masked off the ball
joints and suspension arms and painted the front beam to match
the chassis. A coat of epoxy primer and two coats of hardened
enamel make things really nice and shiney.
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Transmission Clean
up Begins
I've started degreasing
and prepping the transmission for painting. I'm kind of afraid
of removing the swing arms, so I'll work with them on for now.
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Still Cleaning
The degreasing process
is a slow one. Here I'm using a stiff brush and Varsol to scrub
the grease off. You can see the rear wheel bearings in the forground.
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Looking Better
After allowing all
the gear oil to drain out of the casing, I flushed it with new
oil and allowed it to drain overnight. The transmission has now
been sandblasted down to bare metal (magnesium?) and I have applied
a coat of high heat enamel paint.
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Finally....
All components of
the transmission are painted and ready for reattachment to the
chassis. It seems like I've been working on cleaning this thing
forever. You can see the floor/chassis in the background.
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Stainless Steel
Any part that comes
in contact with the outside world will be held in place with
ever-shiney stainless steel hardware. It took a while to hunt
up some of the odd sized metric bolts, but I eventually got what
I needed from various local stores.
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The Old Rims
These are the rims
that came with the car. I'm a little disappointed with them,
but they will serve their purpose for now and will get the car
rolling. They are all slightly warped and dinged up from years
of curb-bouncing. I plan on replacing them before putting it
on the road this spring.
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All Cleaned Up
After I cleaned the
first rim up, I noticed that it was different from the others.
In fact, on closer inspection I noticed that two of the rims
are different from the others. I feel better about replacing
them this spring and I will not spend much time cleaning the
other three up.
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