Made a little bit of progress. Got pretty much everything for the brakes, fuel, ignition, cooling, and charging systems either here or on the way. I'm just missing an alternator, radiator, carb, and a few gaskets to get it running. The drop spindle/disc kit will be here tomorrow. I found the new tank locally for $50 and already had the old chrome reverse wheels, air bags for the rear, and bumper guards with matching patina. When I sold the other blue '66 I kept the '66 Farm Truck tag that I had on the front of it, so I'll reuse it on this one.
I pulled the tank and cleaned up the back of the cab where the old tank had leaked. I soaked it in Purple Power, scrubbed/rinsed, then scrubbed off the surface rust using CLR and steel wool. I'll coat it with Penetrol to seal it back up and bring back some color before the tank goes in.
I pulled everything that was going to be replaced and did a quick scrub down of the engine compartment. The firewall and engine need to be repainted but I'll make sure the engine is good first.
A couple of bolts were stubborn and broke off so I had to weld washers and nuts on what was left to extract them.
Mating surfaces cleaned up with a wire wheel, then flattened with a file.
Bolt holes chased and flushed with brake cleaner. Gasket surface cleaned to bare metal with a wire wheel.
I still consider myself an aircooled VW guy so all this water pump/radiator stuff is still kinda strange to me
I used Permatex Aviation on the gaskets, it keeps oil in a VW block and it seems to be working on the watercooled stuff I've used it on so far.
The carb is a lost cause. I'm looking into using a newer Rochester Monojet instead.
I've had a pair of old aftermarket chrome reverse 8" wheels for a few years, plus a single 6" and single 7" but never could find a either a 6 or 7 to make a front pair even after running multiple wanted ads. We had a leftover pair of 8" barrels so I started cutting the centers out of rusty original wheels to swap into the 8" barrels.
I pressed the centers in pretty much all the way to the front edge of the drop center so they'll have about 1.25" more backspacing than the rear pair for a staggered look. That's still more lip than I wanted up front so I might find a pair of 7" hoops instead. I want the big and little look but with a wider width to stretch/support the sidewalls better than the stock wheels. I also don't like the way the wheel center is more inset in the drop center on the rear pair- that shrouds the hubcap, so I might build one more 8" like this, use those on the rear, and build two 7's for the front.
