Bella - 1958 Australian Beetle

don't give me ideas....

I'm waiting for Bella is finished drives like a dream and no longer scares the crap out of me

Dub Mayhem wrote:

I'm waiting for Bella is finished drives like a dream and no longer scares the crap out of me

I'm waiting for that too....

I managed to get the broken bolts out of the flywheel worryingly easily after advice from Moby:


Painted the rear tinware:


Refitted the flywheel and clutch:


And fitted the firewall, engine bay seal and routed the wires so they were in the right places:

Thankfully the clutch bolts came out really easily when tapped with a screw driver - so the flywheel went back on and the new clutch was refitted - this time without breaking any bolts!




Then I put some POR-15 on the over gearbox tin:


Fitted the firewall and engine seals, and tidied up all the wiring.... went from this ('scuse the crap pic):


To this:


Bolted the rear tin on:


Finally got the release bearing on, and fitted new rear mounts:


Next I looked at the decklid. It's never shut very well, and always been a bit wobbly.... and now I know why!




Not quite sure how this happened, as the rest of the decklid is straight and rust free... odd! The other side was the same, except it has a long late pop rivited over it.

So I welded the hinge on - not the best of jobs, and I couldn't finish welding up the stress crack because it was heating up the lid and burning the paint on the outside, which I didn't really want to do - but it's now it's not all wobbly!


Then with Steve's help we refitted the decklid complete with spring which I haven't refitted since I took it off not long after I bought her, so the decklid has been held up with a broom or some string tied from the roofrack!..... however, Bella didn't want it and took a chunk out of my thumb in anger! so we gave up for a while, then when I (stupidly) went back for more, she took another chunk! there was some crying, things got thrown (at her), ebay was threatened.... at which point Steve came in to help and we managed to fight her and win! I'm never taking the decklid off again, and now my thumb really hurts! But still - look at how pretty it looks holding itself up!


I'm a little worried that she likes the taste of my blood... I always seem to end up bleeding when I work on her... devil car!

Anyway - she's ready for me to fit the engine back in once Steve is feeling better (man flu!). I daren't attempt this on my own - if she can eat my thumb with her decklid, I don't want to think about what she can do with an engine!

Ever since I've owned Bella, she's had 'issues' with closing her doors. They would only ever do the first click, and refuse to do the second one needed to secure them properly. Infact, it was so bad when I first got her than when I took her for a drive around the lanes where the garage was at the old house, the passenger door would actually fly open each time I selected second gear! As you can imagine, this wasn't ideal!

After a lot of faffing around with the help of friends adjusting the hinges and catches, the driver's door gave in and started to go to the second click, but the passenger door remained defiant. We could get it to go to the second click after adjusting the catch, but if you opened the door and tried again, you'd be back to square one, and unless I wanted to carry screwdrivers around with me and adjust the door each time someone got in or out, or wanted to keep it permanently locked, something needed to be done!

When trying to adjust the door we noticed that the gaps were.... well... you could see though them into the inside! And the hinges had some damage which indicated that at some point the door had swung open too far and bent the area around the hinges.

How on earth was I going to get round this? My door was too short! Tugging on it didn't make any difference, and I didn't want to get a replacement door because otherwise this door is good, and I'd never be able to match the paint on the new door!


At the bottom the gap was fine, but there was a large gap at the top:


I measured this gap at 10mm!


Here you can see the metal behind the bent hinge is creased:


And a close gap all the way down:





So I asked in tech, and Moby came to the rescue with what sounded like the scariest plan in the world - I had to trap some wood in the top hinge, then shut the door with it in there.... *gulp* this would then bend the hinges back in the right direction and pull the door closer to the B pillar.

I left it a day or so to build up some 'brave' and went out armed with my block of 20mm wood.... took off the catch on the body and took a deep breath..... closed my eyes and slammed the door.... there was a big crunch from the block of wood... or at least, I hoped it was the block of wood! Opening one eye at a time I peered at the door gap... and it was smaller! It had worked! Another couple of slams of the door and the gap was about right:


Remember this was a 10mm gap before?


That's more like it!

Gap's a little bigger at this end now, but I can live with that as the 'lesser' of 2 evils.


And for the first time since I've had her, both doors now shut to the second click!

So, will you be driving Bella to the cruise on Sunday??

not unless someone wants to refit the engine, sort out the other bits that need doing, MOT her, register her, tax her etc in 4 days lol.

But no I'm not putting her back in for another MOT in Jan because I can't afford the £50 for a test! So she's got to wait for a while. Besides, CTTP is going to be her first show... one year lol

Well I've not done any work on Bella this weekend.... so she decided to go for a swim instead!


Her engine also went for a swim!






Yep - we got flooded Bella looked a bit shocked to see this strange liquid stuff around her.... she's not seen water for at least 3.5yrs! Then she had to sit outside in the rain whilst we cleared all the flood water from the garage and saved our new kitchen which had been in there waiting for us to fit it!

I'm hoping I can save the engine - it looks like the water only got into the exhaust.

Not good news, im sure the motor will be fine if its just gone in the exhaust, good luck hun

yeah I think it'll be ok. We took the rocker covers off and there wasn't any water in there.

Still a pain in the arse though i bet, curry riveal is flood capital of somerset i reckon lol

I'm getting Bella a new set of 12v semaphores so I don't have to worry about leaving them on and burning them out. I'm also going to convert her to dual circuit with a Volvo resovoir as I keep knocking the pipe from the reservoir to the master cylinder out... which a) wouldn't be safe if it happened whilst I was driving and b) strips all the paint off my framehead! Plus dual is much safer, which is nice!

I've also ordered her a new gearshift coupling wotsit. She doesn't like to go into 2nd and as far as I can see it's not been replaced before, so it might as well get done now!

What happened with the beam in the end?

Dave's building my old one up for me

porsche 944 master cylinders do the same job as the volvo ones, bug a little better, as they have a larger piston Easy (ish) to do, check out my bugs thread..

would that not be a bit over killl on drums?

I recieved a new gear coupler for Bella today from Heritage and thought I'd get round to replacing it. Now I have the new clutch in, she moves nicely and doesn't slip - she can also get up the drive under her own power now But selecting 2nd is a bit hit and miss. Sometimes it goes in, but most of the time I get a horrible grinding noise.

So I went out to the garage to replace it - spent a while trying to get the carpet out of the way so I could undo the 2 13mm bolts holding the gearstick on. Then that was removed and I noted the location of the lock plate:




Then went to the coupling:


Removed the wire and undid the 2 bolts.... and that's when it all went horribly wrong! The gearbox end came off easily - no suprise as I've had the gearbox out before so I knew it would be ok. Then set to the other side of the coupling.... it was a bit stiff, so I went and found my trusty hammer to try and persuade it to come out... that didn't help....

So I cleaned it up and bit and found that the Aussie bodger had got there before me! And welded the rod to the coupling.... if you look hard enough you can see it:




Not quite sure what to do now. I'm guessing I can't get the shifter rod out with the coupling still on it because it won't go though the bracket near the gearstick... so I either have to hope that adjusting it will cure the selecting problem, or that I can find another one and then saw the old one up to get it out....

Why is nothing ever simple?!

if you cut the end off ......can you get an end made .....weld it back on ....and fit the new coupler?

Or ....cut the end off ......grind off the weld ......re-weld the end back on ....then fit the new coupler?

yeah i'm going to have to cut it whatever happens. New ones are less than £30 so that's not as bad as I thought. It might reweld, but then again, I don't want to end up with it slightly off line otherwise the changes will still be dodgy.

Oh crap, might be easier to get a spare gear shaft from FBI et al?

yeah I think I'm going to get a new one from Heritage for £30 - then I know it's not worn or anything.

My new gear sift rod thing has arrived!


Also got some new rubbers for the pedals. I've bought these before, but the garage pixies have run off with them it seems!

NICE SPOTTY SOCKS!!!!!!!!!