32.000 Hits

Here is your 32.000 hits babe or should I say babes? And there even a little something if there should be some femal readers out there. And if we get back to what it´s all about, then check out the nice accessories in the car.

Accessory brochure from the 50ies

In the fall I traded some parts for a pretty cool accessory brochure from the mid   50ies, it´s from a dansih VW dealer located in Aalborg. I decided that it just was to good not share, so I will post some scans of the pages each month. Here is an appetiser.
Once again I wish I had that damn timemachine in the garage, how about batwing hornring for a little under 5 euro´s. Or a complete Motometer rally gauge set for 30 euro? Or finnaly a collapseble gear shifter for under 6 euro, by the way I really need one of those shifters for the oval, so please send me a email if got lying around.

The oval project part 3

Well even though that christmas is over us, it doesn´t mean that we have stopped working on the old german metal, far from it infact.
Yesterday I was checking Jens´ work on the oval out and it looked stunning!
He even sprayed some of the tricky corners when I was there. It was exiting to see new color for the first time! And hopefully the hole body will be finished before new year.

I wish all the readers of this blog a merry Xmas, and I hope there will be some vw inspirated gifts for you all under the tree.

31.000 Hits

It´s alive....

After some intense nights in the John Doe garage, yesterday was the night to start up the Express engine. I really hate those start up sessions! There is a lot of "What if´s" rumbling around inside my head. But after putting the engine in the start bench, turning the engine over with the starter with no ignition until there was oilpressure, and a few drops of petrol in each carb I was releaved that it pretty much fired right up! And after some adjustments to the carb´s and the linkage today, it all sounds pretty good I think. I can´t wait to get it in the back of the oval now.

30.000 Hits

Fitting the skirts

When I bought the Foxcraft´s I didn´t know when they were going to be put on the car. I figured they would look nice in my little office in my house. And afterall I didn´t have useable a right side dimpled rear fender.
But sometimes things change, after much pressure from Jens telling me almost everyday, that those skirts should go on the car before Hessisch Oldendorf, I decided to do something about it!
After looking high and low here in Denmark without any luck. I stumpled over an advert on thesamba, showing just such a fender, but with a major non repairable dent from the middle and backwards. After some emails back and forth with the owner, we agreed that I bought the front half of it.
On the pictures you can see how I used a nos rear quarterpannel as template, so that I was sure things lined up perfectly with my old fender and the new front half, and not at least the Foxcraft skirt.

Express progress part 2

As you can see by the missing blog updates,it is not behind the computer I spend most of my time. No I am working pretty intence on the Express engine these days. The other day I got the carb´s acceleration pumps adjusted. Since there normaly is only one of these carb´s, you would literally drown your engine in petrol, if not adjusting them to the correct 0,25-0,30cm3 pr squirt.
The only set back is that the guy that should redo my dynamo, got fired after having it stored for 2 months, so friday I handed it over to what appears to be a more serious guy. I should get it back this upcoming week, so now we are ready for some serious chrismas wrenching :-)

The donor part 2

Monday evening I went crazy, and cut that poor old 54 body up pieces. Luckyli all useable parts will help other cars being on the road.
The only things that get thrown away is the damaged roof, and the rear apron. which was a never repro unit, that was so rotten that it almost fell of only by watching the car.

29.000 Hits

29.000 Hits gives you this vw factory babe.
Who knows maybe is she the one who insstalled the headliner in your car from new.

The donor

This week Jens and I bought a 54 oval together. The car had been scrapped years ago and then placed in a kindergarden. So the vin number in the floorpan was grinded off, and some idiot with a truck had lifted the car, using a strap through the door holes. These things meant that this was better of being used for spareparts.
There are actually many parts we both could use in the car, just look at that almost rot free floorpan, correct 54 fronthood and decklid. And what about complete seats and door panels in the correct green cloth for Jens´ car. And a correct front apron for mine. Not to mention all those little parts that you always are missing and you just don´t know were to get.
Most of the parts that we won´t use for our own cars are almost already sold, but if you need anything feel free to drop me an email, maybe we still have it.

28.000 Hits

New member of the Albert family

My friend Christian suddently (like many others) fell in love with the classic Albert mirrors. But he being the guy he is he couldn´t settle with a set of reproes, hell he couldn´t even settle with a used set of originals. No he went all the way and bought a nos set!
They really suit his 64 ragtop.

Time machine

Who said that splits are rare?

I just found soem cool pictures surfing the web, and would share some of them with you guys. Seeing the pictures from the factory, really makes want to go out to garage and invent that time machine.
Just look at the picture with all those new bare metal split fenders, I guees the workers would have considered taking one with them home once a while, if they had known what such a fender is worth these days. Just so that their grand children would have something to inherit.

Ready for paint

After a couple of intence nights working on Jens´ oval it´s now ready for some paint work. We got some small extra holes that had been made in the past welded, and generally checked the hole body for unnececary holes and dents. And as you can see it´s in good company, that´s a 60 ragtop hanging in front of it.

27.000 Hits

Sprintstars´ in the works

Now that both Jens and I have our seperat sets of Sprint´s, we have started the restoration job on them. They have been blasted, and now they are all painted with black epoxy paint. Now starts that exhausting job of masking them off so that they are ready for some silver paint.
I really don´t know what the plans are for my set as I don´t think they will suit the oval, but the wheels are so cool that I will hang on to them.
Jens´ set on the other hand are going on his 60 ragtop, and that is going to look stunning!

26.000 Hits

Express progress

The other night it was time to make some progress with the Express engine.
I had received the heads from my friend Simon a couple of days earlier. He had machined the heads so now the compression ratio is set at 8-1.
And fellow club member Ulrik helped me all wednesday night assemple the engine to a long block.
I really feel that most of the pieces of this long time project are coming together, with the help of good friends, and hopefully there will be a test start of the engine before christmas.

25.000 Hits

The oval project

After a couple of hard days in the garage Jens oval has got some small holes welded , and one big cut in the roof.
Next up is blasting the wheel arches, and then weld the small holes that there properly will appear after the blasting.
Then it´s painting time!
Watch this space for updates.

Who said that skirts are for girls?

Regular visitors to this blog might remember that it recently was my 30th birthday, and I was even lucky enough to get some vw related presents.
But the other day arrived a present that I have bought for myself.
A NOS set of Foxcraft fenderskirts. These skirts have either never been mounted or only briefly. They have been painted red many years ago, and then stored since. And even came in the original box. As a matter of fact I was looking at these same skirts last year at Bad Camberg, but at the time I didn´t really like fenderskirts, but things change! And having my friend Gustav photoshop a picture of the oval with skirts on made me sure! So a deal was struck with Rinie from the Netherlands buying this nice set.
And having them trial fitted to the oval, really made me sure that they suited the car even more than I even dared to hope. Don´t worry it will fit better than showed on the picture above when I get my set of original dimpled fenders on the car.

Treassure hunt part 3

The other day I spotted an advert on the internet "garage clear out" was the title.
After looking through the pictures I decided that the parts needed further inspection.
So Jens and I jumped in his car and drove the 100km to the guys garage, and it was clearly worth the trip! Here is what we got: 1 set of 5 lug sprintstars 5*5 1/2"
1 split gas tank, a oval decklid in perfect shape, and last how about a 4 bolt oval front hood with the small reinforcements for free! -As the seller said it had a little rust so I could get it for free.
To say that we were happy all the way home, would be a understatement!

24.000 Hits

Birthday gifts

Yesterday it was my 30th birthday (altough I still claim that there must be an error in my birth certificate)
But such a day needs celebrating, and last saturday I had some of my friends over for some food and beers. At some point during the evening I realised that out the 14 people in the room, only 2 of them wasn´t into old vw´s, do I start to see a pattern here?
But back to the topic, some of them had joined together in a gift to me, where this cool picnic set with thermo´s was included. I think it is going to be cool in the oval this next season.
And yesterday my girlfriend really surprised me! She had bought a NOS set of hooded Albert mirror heads for me.... Offcourse I had to get them mounted to my original arms today just to see how cool it looked.
What do you think? Great friends and girlfriend or what?

23.000 Hits

Show me your badge.

As some of you might have noticed I´m not a big fan of repro stuff, but sometimes there is no way around it.
One of the things I needed for the Express setup was the ID badge that is riveted to the top of the linkage. But after talking and emailing with other Express owners I found out I wasn´t the only one who was missing the badge and the odds for ever finding one was very limited.
So I contacted a guy on the danish vw scene who makes a living of doing badges and plaques. After he got some detailed pictures, he made a limited run of the badges, they weren´t cheap, but I must say I think his work is stunning!
And it will really top off the engine!
So do you need such a badge, here is your chance to get one, and hurry up because I don´t have many. Contact me for price.

Fredericia swapmeet

Last saturday I went to the Fredericia swapmeet.
Even though I didn´t expect to find anything I went anyway, since half the fun is meeting familiar faces that you properly won´t see so much the next 6 months, and telling stories to eachother.
But neither Jens or I went home empty handed this time. Jens got a 6volt tacho with oval grill, and a nos right side pre 55 handle for his oval.
And I got yet another nos Hephos windshield washer set, and 2 sets of nos handle scruff guards for pre 60 doors made by Hüca.

22.000 Hits

They are still out there.........

They are out there..........
The good bargains that is. Yesterday when driving through my hometown, I spotted that it apparantly was time for the every other sunday fleamarked. I have been there several times before but never seen anything but real junk, but hey you never know. So wandering through the piles of worthless junk that people had emptied their garages for, I spotted some old model A Ford parts. I decided to take a closer look at the box that seemed to be filled with old semaphores. And there between them I found a 1 nos semaphore, 1 decent used one, and what appears to be a nos semaphore lens for a split. And all 3 pieces for only a symbolic price. So what does this tell you? Just be patient there are plenty of good bargains out there.

What´s your pressure?

Well after selling the Judson, and with that the boost gauge I suddently didn´t have any use for my original Motometer gauge holder.
And once again thinking this was too cool an accessory just to be lying around, and neither did I wan´t to part with it. I had to find out what kind of gauge I needed.
I really only had 2 options, either an amp gauge or an oil pressure gauge, I decided to go with the last one -afterall it´s a gauge that can turn out useful in the end.
Here is 2 pictures of how the gauge looks inside the car, and the mock up I did on a spare 30hp engine case I had in the garage. The tricky thing was to find a place for the oil pressure sender, since I also run a Fram filter on the engine -it wasn´t a stright forward job to find room for it all.

The fun is over

The fall is here in Denmark, and it won´t be long before the winter sets in so it´s time hide your precious german metal away from the snowy and salty roads.
Now the oval is parked at the John Doe garage, just waiting for the sun to shine again. But if things goes as they usually do, there will be plenty of work to be done over the winter months. And before you know it, it´s time to fire that old lady up once again.
Here is a couple of pictures I took one the last nights before the oval was put in storage.

Holbæk swapmeet

Sunday morning me and 3 other crazy vw heads, headed off to the other end of the country at 4.30am to get to what usually is one of the best swapmeets in Denmark.
But this year I would properly call it swampmeet instead.
The fall has really come to the country, meaning lot´s of rain and wind! And with the Holbæk swampmeet beeing held outdoors, it meant that not only didn´t there come many buyers (that was a good thing for us that did show up :-) ) but many of the sellers either didn´t show up, or decided to not unpack their things and instead headed back home.
This didn´t mean there wasn´t some good deals to made. Here are some of the best scores we did. 25hp fan shroud with generator, split window rear view mirror and sunvisor, nos right side Albert mirror, nos grab handle with light (you can see pictures of such a unit in a earlier post) nos 25hp voltage regulator and 5 issues of the danish magazine "Kør Godt" (it´s a danish version of the "Gute fahrt" magazine), so now I only need 13 magazines before my collection is complete.
So remember your wellingtons and rain jackets next year, I´m ready again guys.

21.000 Hits

Keeping the windshield clean part 2

I finally found the courage to open up the box, after all this was just too nice an accessory to be in a box put on my shelf.
I found a place for it on my dash, just to the left of the speedo. I know it was not here they intended it to be placed, but I think it looks fine here.
Now the next chapter will be to drill the 2 holes for getting it to work as it should.

What´s the time?

I found this Smiths mirror clock combo this summer, and have had it mounted in the oval since. It´s pretty cool with the clock and you can even turn on a light, so you will know, if you are running late on your way home at night.
After I found the mirror I found an old advert for it, in a danish car magazine from 1954, just what are the chances for that?
But now I have decided to part with it.
So if are you interested in buying it, send me an email.
You won´t find many of these at your local swapmeet!