0003 Work begins on Clementine

0003  Work begins on Clementine
27th September 2019
So far so good......

Clementine

The last 2 weeks have mostly been spent working on Clementine, with a view to trying to get the engine out and under repair ASAP, stripping out the interior to find out how bad any rust is, and to locate the source of the terrible rotten smell in the car, and to start working out what parts are required to get the car mobile so I can use her.   A lot of time has been spent finding out where the best aircooled VW workshops and parts suppliers are located, and talking to people to learn about what I have here, and what is possible.  2 weeks work - And I am still smiling !!

Blanket & speakers in seat back

First thing was to find the source of the rotton smell in the car.  I was pretty sure that it was all the carpeting as it was even damp in places, but before I could take the carpeting out, the seats had to come out.  Once I had got the front seats to slide with judicious use of a hammer,  (I don't think they had been moved in years) it took a while to find the knack for removing the front seats - Google helped me find a spring clip that was hidden and had to be

One mourse nest !

depressed to enable the seat to slide free.  Once the fronts were out, I worked on the back seat, and again I found out that things were just a bit different from my Beetles of the past. I had to take the side panels and integrated armrests off first to enable the seat base and then the seat back to be removed.  A few rusty screws held the seat back in place, but eventually it came out.  Speakers wired into the back of the seat ?  Facing backwards ?  Weird !   An old blanket stuffed inside the seat back ??  With a mouse nest in it ?   How intriguing !

Floor pan in good condition

I then started ripping all the carpet out - That was so rotten that much of it fell apart in my hands as I pulled on it - That was certainly part of the smell problem !   Under the carpet was a type of tar sound reducing matting stuck to the floor, and to check on the rust I had to pry all that off first - Quite a job, but the more I took up, the better the floor pan condition seemed to be.  Yes,

Rust under battery

there was some rust, but it was pretty minor, and a lot of the pan still had the original black paint on it - Excellent.  Then I moved to the small floor area under the rear seat - Removed the battery, and took up the tar matting - and there was more rust there.  However this was to be expected as it is the lowest part of the floor pan, so if any water gets in, that is normally where it ends up.

Then it was into the rear boot, above the engine.  I couldn't even lift the floor covering out in one piece - It was so wet, heavy and rotton !  And underneath, on the main panels, water was puddling in the grooves in the panels - But there was hardly any rust on the main panels !!  Lots of smelly material, but little rust.  The liftable engine cover that forms the central part of the rear boot

Working on the engine cover

was a different story.  Once I got the sodden covering out, the steel access hatch was REALLY rusty - rough, flaky, and quite deep - Hmmm.  So I got the grinder out, fitted a coarse wire brush, and got to work - And an hour later the top of the access hatch was clean and rust free - Lot of rust pitting damage, but the plate was still sound - It had been saved just in time.Treated with phosphoric acid rust preventer, then brush painted with 2 coats of a rust inhibiting primer, followed by two coats of black rust inhibiting top coat, and she looks fine.  With the underside heat resistant covering repaired, and new sound reducing matting and carpet in place, she will be just fine back there.

Rubbish bin full of old carpet

By now the house rubbish bin was full of stinky wet carpet and underlay, and the bad smell in the car was mostly gone.  I removed the brittle and disintegrating rear shelf under the rear window, and realised as I did so that the water ingress in the back was coming in through the rear window !  I knew the window seals were very brittle and perished, but it was obvious they were also porous - Whenever it rained, water seeped in all round the back window.  So, a few problems solved.   Now the smelly carpeting was out, I started to prepare the engine for removal - I had agreed with Classic Car Clinic to use their hoist to make the engine removal easier, and a truck would come to carry the car over there, and it was coming at 10 am on Friday, so I needed to get as much of the engine anciliaries removed as possible before then, so I could minimise the time (and cost) spent at CCC.

Engine before starting to dismantle

Visually the engine was a bit of a mess - Just looked as though it had never been cleaned.  Or even
worked on.  So I started to remove some of the superficial bits  so the engine could be removed more easily.  Airfilter off.  Coil off.  Air intake connections off.  Coil off, and so on.  Just trying to get everything off.   Then I started to look at some of the things I

Dynamat sound insulation

could use in the rebuild - Carpet adhesive, Dynamat sound insulation, seam sealing tape since all the original seam seals were hardened and flaking and would need replacement.   I removed the two door trim panels, and after a quick look at the inside of the doors (which looked in pretty good condition, with minimal rust, I moved on to the door trim panels themselves.

Original warped door panels

Since there is a 3 month lead time for this option out of USA, I have already ordered seat trims.  I
have checked with my local upholsterer and he can recover all the seats with the new trim once it arrives.  The seats are both filthy and split, so are beyond repair.  But the door trim might be able to be saved - The worst part of it is the warped plywood backing that has got wet in the past, and is now warped and stained.  I found similar material in Bunnings,  then spent a while carefully taking

Working on door trims

the trim off the existing panels, and after cutting all the requisite holes in the new board.  All seems to look good and should fit ok, and should save quite a lot of money as the trim panels are quite expensive.  Only problem at present is that I need 3 mm staples in order to fasten the material to the board, but at the moment I can only find 6 mm staples.  Hmmmm.

Damaged dash board

Then it was on to the dashboard, that was all split and broken due to the exposure to sunlight,  I had
been given two additional dash trims with the car, but these were both broken as well - Just in different places !   Searching on the internet, I found a guy in S Africa who makes new dashboards, so I have ordered one and am waiting for it to arrive.  On the internet I also found a California VW website which offered windscreen and boot rubber seals much cheaper than similar items in Australia.  One has to be careful with USA sourced items due to LH drive, but for windscreen and boot seals, they are the same for all cars.  Since this site also offered a period rear window venetian blind in order to help keep the hot Aussie sun of the rear seat and uphostery due to the sharply sloping rear window, I took the opportunity to order one of them as well !

Original voltage regulator

Next out was the voltage regulator that is located under the rear seat, and once cleaned up, it turned out to be made by Ingrams.  The standard units are usually Bosch, so it has obviously been replaced at some stage, but it was interesting that the company is now called Ashdown Ingram, and has been for a long time, so this was obviously replaced long ago.  I cleaned it up and will see if it works in order to save further costs, but if needs be, can replace with a new Bosch unit later.

Cleaning up hub caps

Rust proofing hub caps

I then looked at the hub caps.  These were excellent on the outside, with virtually no rust at all, but on
the inside, they were a bot rusty.  So I wire brushed all the rust, treated them with phosphoric acid rust inhibitor, then painted them with red oxide primer.  I will look for a suitable top coat later.

Then it was time to send the car off to CCC to get the engine removed, so because 1/2 the engine was dismantled, I ordered a Cheaper Trucking flat bed to take her, and followed behind.  As this comany had previously moved Gidget a few times, it was interesting to see Clementine on the truck instead !   Once unloaded, Steve and I set to work, and within a couple of

Engine out !

hours, the engine and gearbox were out.  All bolts and screws undid easily, and it was all too easy.  We disconnected the gearbox from the engine in order to make the package less cumbersome for moving around, and explored the inderneath of the car.  It

Drive shafts

really is remarkably clean and rust free, and even in the engine bay at the rear, it is in reasonably good condition and should clean up reasonably easily.  We also took the two drive shafts off and after cleaning them up, found one had a bit of play in there, so will probably fit new CV joints to them just to be sure.  Starter motor also removed and will get that serviced   
                                                        separately.

After arranging for the now engine-less car to be returned to the house, I started looking for engine rebuilders - But that is for next time !

Remainder of the photos are here - And remember that a lot of them are for my own use in order to identify the location of everything, so they are sometimes repetitive - Intentionally !
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HbDsytk89GD1vNLV7