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that's definitely the kind of thing to start asking around about. give it 8 months and something will

Quick update. I'm getting the original Tripmaster from the car. If the Twinmaster still exists, I can have that as well. Pretty cool! I should be getting some old rally notes, course books and photos within the next month to add to the scrapbook. I did work on it a little today, we got it one of those portable garages to live in so I had to get it so it could move. Wasn't as bad as I feared, just popped under it and cranked out the brake adjusters to negate the ebrake being stuck. Worked. While I was under it, scraped off some crap off the shocks to find them yellow and blue...not Monroe but Bilsteins. They still have good action, I'm impressed. A guy over on Second Stage can rebuild them for pretty inexpensive so I'm going to clean them up and have them rebuilt.

One thing that I haven't seen before (but maybe people do it on their OR rides and just don't mention it) is here the ebrake cable comes out of the chassis all the way to the backing plate is inside a split heater hose for protection. I'm gonna use that on my baja as well. I'm going to try to focus mainly on the baja but I'll probably tinker with this one from time to time. I hope by mid-summer to have the baja on the road so I can spend more time on this one.

maybe they rigged the brake cables that way to help with the high speed bat turns?

So I was talking to some rally people about it and they asked me if the hose was free to rotate or was it tight on the cables. Free to rotate. They said if it was tight, it was to help stiffen it for better response, a common thing attempted back then, if it is free to rotate then it was more for protection, the hose would keep it from getting snagged if you went over something. A rally car uses the ebrake a lot on stage, this was critical.

I've gotten the worst of the rodent mess out of the car, this weekend between tasks on the baja, I'm going to start disassembling parts of it. I already have it moved into the temp garage. Fenders, bumpers, doors will come off first. I'll pull the seats and carpets next...then decide where to go from there. I've been letting the motor soak in Marvel Mystery Oil for a few weeks now, I might just toss a battery in it and see if it will spin:)

Sneaks wrote:I've been letting the motor soak in Marvel Mystery Oil for a few weeks now, I might just toss a battery in it and see if it will spin:)

Turn it over by hand not the starter.
Edit
With the spark plugs removed if it turns over freely then use compressed air to blow all the crap out marvel mystery oil included.

An update: I have been sitting on this for a while but it looks like things will be moving forward so I'll share it now. A few months ago I was contacted by a writer interested in the car. We talked tonight and she is submitting next week to proposals to her editor. At minimum she hopes to get approval for an article on the history of the car and my relationship, but what she is really shooting for is a multi-part series documenting the restoration of the car. I've been waiting on doing anything with it until this gets settled, I should know soon. I'm going to enlist the help of a fellow local VW guy to help out, he built a really sick Superbeetle Volksrod and has mad skills. I think I need to have fusername and namelesswonder pitch in between projects and make it a true STF ORF effort:)

I did get a vintage UHF radio to go in it and finally got all the acorns and mouse turds out of it. I'm itching to get started, I should have my baja rolling shortly.

Sneaks wrote:An update: I have been sitting on this for a while but it looks like things will be moving forward so I'll share it now. A few months ago I was contacted by a writer interested in the car. We talked tonight and she is submitting next week to proposals to her editor. At minimum she hopes to get approval for an article on the history of the car and my relationship, but what she is really shooting for is a multi-part series documenting the restoration of the car. I've been waiting on doing anything with it until this gets settled, I should know soon. I'm going to enlist the help of a fellow local VW guy to help out, he built a really sick Superbeetle Volksrod and has mad skills. I think I need to have fusername and namelesswonder pitch in between projects and make it a true STF ORF effort:)

I did get a vintage UHF radio to go in it and finally got all the acorns and mouse turds out of it. I'm itching to get started, I should have my baja rolling shortly.

wow that would be pretty badass gl! I hope it goes through.

sounds very cool, keep usupdated! so how aboutthat baja tho? I may just have a bus to play with...

The baja has been rolled out of its cage to finish the body work, that part should be done probably tonight. Saturday I hope to fabricate the rear bumper mounts and get the rear lights on it. Once that is done it is time to start wiring.
I can't play with the rally bug until I get the ok from Daryl, once that happens I'm going to have to dedicate some time to it so I really want to get the baja operational ASAP.

Quick update. The article series is a go, I am just waiting on some details/requirements to move forward. I've already enlisted a couple of friends to help, one who built a Super-based volksrod with a Ford front end and another who spent 20+ years in the kit car assembly industry. Both have some seriously crazy fabrication skills. Anyone in the New England area who wants to help out, the more the merrier, or if you are just in the area and want to check it out, just shoot me a message.

Doc has donated some STF stickers to go along with the ORF flag I bought so the website will get some exposure. I'm trying to locate some authentic vintage Cibie lights for it. I'm talking with Pirelli about some assistance with tires as well as livery since Uniroyal has no desire in the project or Rally, but Pirelli is still involved and the US office sounds like they want to help out. The car ran Pirelli sponsorship in the 70s and early 80s. I've contacted Bilstein about rebuilding the shocks. I'm hoping a few other doors might open up soon, once everything is finalized.

thanks for the update Sneaks...

Get a chess clock for $10 at a flea market. 90% of the people won't know the difference.

Maybe you'll get lucky and those parts will be in the NJ trove you still need to get?

Stray

Hey David, welcome aboard! I think you will find the people here much more to your liking than the other place. That door panel is going to work very nicely in it, fantastic shape, thanks!

So I started collecting more detailed pictures to prep for this project. Most of these decals are no longer available, should I be able to get them reproduced through a vinyl sign company?? The UNIROYAL one most likely will not return to the car, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be going with the Pirelli livery from a little earlier in the career due to 'issues' with Uniroyal.



This says 'COMPETITOR' under the green line


Since SCCA doesn't run a ProRally series any more, these will have to be recreated or found NOS.


Originally I thought this was part of the stripes but it is actually laid over the stripes...hmmm. Any idea where the RALLYE might be from? The stripes on the rear quarter are BLACK-WHITE-BLACK where the doors are just 3 black stripes.


These two I'm not going to mess with, hopefully they will survive the restoration. I suspect they will be hard to replace.



Multiple relays for the lights, thankfully I found a diagram explaining them all and the switches!




This should be fun to sort out




This is a cool little trick on the car. The switch under the plate works a light under the decklid. Slap the plate and it turns on, slap it again to shut if off. Slick little idea for DD as well. Stray Catalyst checked it out Saturday and thought it was pretty cool as well. He brought me a driver's door panel for the car, thanks!!





Suspect the sound quality of the radio won't be that great with this set up:)


This plate doesn't cover anything I can see, must be to keep the foot from catching on the carpeting?


Under the driver's seat, more flare clips


Under the navigator seat...fire extinguisher


After some questions about the motor, until I crack into it I don't know what it actually is. I've been told a couple of things, one that this is the stock motor and there is a modified one in NJ, the other said this is the modified motor (1641). This is not the original motor according to the number but that really doesn't mean anything other than it didn't come with it. It has a Weber replacement carb, an 009 and except for the sending unit for oil pressure, otherwise looks stock externally.









Got my STF window stickers...THANKS DOC!!

I thought the SCCA had all but killed Pro (stage) ralleys with some of their rules *even they finally admitted ....). I'm pretty sure that the two ralleys that were here are gone. I am not sure about the POR (press on regardless) ralley back in the mid-west.

I did some calling (talked to people I hadn’t seen in 25 plus years)and checking and found out that the SCCA did not kill Ralleying as I though but did bring it to its knees. That was about 10 years ago. I understand that they still have some as well as another organization who does also. http://www.rainierautosports.com/ is one of the local bodies for them. The last I heard there was a 10 year rule which seems to have been dropped if you can run a Baja. A lot of the people I knew are either gone, too old to take the beating, or are too feeble (body and mind) to play. Pro Ralley had gotten too expensive for most of them so they dropped out.

Good luck with your new adventure. It does look like fun.