04.03.08
Disassembly — Operations 18 & 17
The Bradley plans have you assemble the basic kit car in 18 “Operations.” There are additional Operations for the electric version of the car, including modifying the kit-car body, installing the sub-chassis (which holds the battery racks), installing the traction motor and its subsystems, and modifying the wiring to the car (mostly changes in instrumentation). As such, I’m going to disassemble the car pretty much the same way – except backwards.
Operation 18 — Windshield Wipers
To remove a windshield wiper arm, use a small screwdriver to bend out the small spring clip located at the end of the wiper arm. Then lift the wiper arm off the knurled adapter. The knurled adapter is held in place by a nut. Once the nut and adapter are off, you can pull the rubber boot off the shaft. I’ll need to get new boots and wiper blades. It wouldn’t hurt to get new wiper arms either. The adapters and nuts can be saved.
Exterior Mirrors
The rubber boot at the base of each mirror hides two screws. Once these screws are removed, the mirrors can be removed from their mounting brackets. The mounting brackets are screwed to the front fenders thru holes, with the bolt heads in the fender wells. A rubber gasket is positioned between the fender and the mounting bracket. These mirrors look out of place on the car. They mount in an awkward way on the fenders and look like they were just thrown on as a last-minute addition. I need to find new mirrors – preferably some that are electrically operated – and I need to make a pair of custom fiberglass pads to mount them on either the fenders or just ahead of the gull-wing doors.
Antenna
The radio antenna needs to be replaced. Let’s see if I can find a good spot for an electric powered one.
Cover Panels
These are located in the wheel wells and are held in place with 4 Phillips-head screws each.
Front Wheel Well Panels
These have not been removed yet, because the job will be easier to do once the wheels are removed. I need to get the car up on jack stands to do this.
Aim Headlights
Not required during disassembly.
Finishing Touches
I need to get two license plate frames. The kt car has you mount the license plates on fiberglass extensions that protrued from the bottoms of the bumpers. Mine were pretty badly cracked — as if they had been hit on numerous occasions. I think we can do better than that. I also need to illuminate the frames on a separate toggle switch. There is only one licence-plate light and it is contained within the rear bumper. I need to think about building some sort of fiberglass air dam — integral with the body and extending down about six inches below the front bumper — to conceal the bottom of the front battery tray. As is now sits, the front of the front tray protrudes about six inches below the front bumper and it looks ugly. Perhaps the front license plate frame could be mounted in the center of this air dam.
Some final items to attend to — all during the reassembly…
• Balance the Wheels
• Front End Alignment
• Brakes Checked
Operation 17 — Seat Pans and Seat Positioners
Apparently, the seat positioners that came with this car are very different from the ones shown in the plans. Perhaps someone replaced the original seat positioners in the past. The ones in the plans mount to the seats with four brackets on the sides of the seats. The ones that I got mount to the seats with four straps on the fronts and backs of the seats. The ones that I got are better (they’re less likely to jam by racking) but they are still woefully inadequate and are rusted tight. For this reason, some of the parts shown in the parts list aren’t going to be found on this car. I need to get a new pair of low profile positioners – preferably electric.
On my car, the seat positioners are bolted thru the floor pans. A pair of 1-inch-wide straps (1/8-inch thick), running side-to-side under the car, reinforce the four attachment points for each seat positioner. A second pair of straps (similar dimensions), running fore-to-aft inside the car, also reinforce the four attachment points. The seatbelts are mounted with hex head bolts and are positioned at the aft ends of the inside straps, between the straps and the carpet. Very large fender washers reinforce the seat-belt attach points under the floor pans. The plans don’t describe any of this. It looks like a kluge-job that someone added later.
Removing the seat positioners and seat belts was easy on the passenger’s side of the car but it was a pain in the butt on the driver’s side. I had to get out the grinder and cut off two bolts to remove the driver’s side seat belts. Also, when mounting the positioner for the driver’s seat, some idiot had drilled the holes for the positioner in such a way that the aft inboard hole interfered with a frame member under the car. To correct this, he bolted the positioner to one of the fore-to-aft reinforcing straps inside the car. I had to cut off the seatbelt bolt to remove the reinforcing strap. Only then did I discover that the positioner was improperly mounted. What a mess, to say nothing about it being unsafe! The floor pan has been so compromised on this car (it has more holes than a Swiss cheese) that I will probably have to replace the pans.
Lester Charger
At this point, I opened up the hatchback and removed the Lester Charger. This is one heavy sucker — weighing more than 100 pounds! I’m going to set the charger aside, in case Gail wants it, and replace it with something more modern.
Seat Belts
The ones that came with the car need to be replaced, along with the mounting hardware. Perhaps I can gin up a mounting system that mounts them directly to the frame instead of to the floor pans. The original ones had black webbing and each of the four parts (2 male and 2 female) had roughly a 36-inch-long piece of webbing.
Instrument Panel (Pictures Above)
I needed to remove the instrument panel in order to get to two screws that held the center console in place, so I did that next. There was a lot of evidence that someone had been mucking around with the wiring. Eeewwwww…….. I had suspected that I’d need to rewire the entire car. Now, I know why.
Center Console:
The center console was held in place by a set of sheet metal screws and trim washers located along the bottom of the console and screwed into the Volkswagen’s chassis tunnel. There were also two large lag screws that held the console to the dashboard, behind the instrument panel. The center console was not attached at the rear. The handle for the brake lever needed to be removed in order to remove the console so, right now, the car has no emergency brakes.
Floor Carpets
The floor carpets come in two sections:
The aft section covers the aft panel of the hatchback area, the floor of the hatchback area and the vertical surface behind the seats. It was underlain by 1” foam (contrary to the plans) and had a cutout that fit into a recess where the Lester battery charger was mounted. The foam and carpet were just glued in place with one exception. At the aft-most edge of the carpet (at the top of the vertical panel on the aft end of the hatchback area), there was a thin strip of metal that held the carpet in place. The strip was located UNDER the carpet (i.e., the carpet was folded over the strip) and was screwed to the fiberglass with a set of small Phillips head sheet metal screws.
The front section of carpeting was one continuous piece, joined over the tunnel aft of the center console. There was a cutout in the area of the pedal cluster. It was also mounted over some 1” foam, contrary to plans. All of this stuff was bagged up for storage. Later, I’ll draw up a pattern so that I can discard the old carpet.
The floor pans were painted with some kind of silver paint (Heat resistant? Rust resistant?) and showed a lot of corrosion pitting. I definitely want to have new floor pans installed.
