The Resurrection of Foam Car - 63 T6B

[Phil Planck]

Justin
But you missed the special, very expensive black paint. Not painted in China but by a well paid, insured, vacationed US citizen, in a building with high overhead costs. Where I worked it was called a burden rate.

[roy mawbey]

Got to say Phil, you are doing some great work on this car, such a varied amount of jobs. I hope sometimes you just stand back and clap yourself on your back and feel happy the the way its going. Its a nice feeling to know your car inside out.

Roy

[Phil Planck]

Thanks Roy

Have not felt like clapping myself on the back yet. It's been a too slow journey. But, yes, I have gotten pretty familiar with many parts of Foam Car. The latest hold up is one of the front control arms. I have also posted this issue on the R forum, hoping to get some input from John Bunin and a few of the other experts over there who do not participate here. The passenger lower control arm is from a C and has just one 20mm needle bearing that is loose in the axle tube because the outer end of the tube is deformed:





Here are the 2 lower arms, one correct for a B:



I called Jim at EASY and he has plenty of upper arms but no lower ones. I asked if he knew what located the single C needle bearing and he did not know. There is a step in the axle tube that looks like it could be a redundant stop for the flanged, original bearing. I am thinking about reshaping the end of the tube round and possibly installing 2 bearings just using the inner as a locator for the outer, then add the Stoddard "spacer".
I found my biggest socket is 51.8mm OD and fits fairly snuggly in the axle tube. Using this as a dolly, thought about heating the deformed area red hot and trying to pull it back to shape with this exhaust pipe clamp. If that does not work, use a BFH and the socket as a dolly.



Phil

[merbesfield]

Try Adam Wright. GL
adam@unobtanium-inc.com

[JTR70]

I think I might have a spare lower control arm for you Phil. You need the one with the wider bearing race correct?

[John Pierce]

Hey Phil,

This guy on TheSamba is selling some, but he is always WAY overpriced. I'm surprised he sells anything at all and he is unwilling to bargain.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1963086

[Phil Planck]

Thanks for the tips for finding a B arm. John, you would think that guy on the Samba would at least clean up his parts. The one on the left above is the B arm. It uses a double row needle bearing(NLA). The current bearing solution is 2 single row bearings with a spacer. Not sure why the C went to a single row bearing providing only half the bearing load as before. Maybe they decided the old set up was way over engineered as no one was ordering replacement bearings.

Justin, I would gladly trade my C lower arm for a B lower if you have one, plus whatever price difference. Let me know when you have time to look to see if you have one.

I often lie in bed at night hashing over Foam Cars current issue. I am thinking someone did not have the rare, expensive factory bearing removal tool and ground off the flange of the original bearing, then tried to pry it out, thus deforming the end of the axle tube.

Phil

[JTR70]

John, That seller has been peddling his stuff at a premium for years on Samba. I just looked at that link. 650.00 for a set of stock used VW bug control arms.

Claims they came from a '57 356A. Maybe from a box that was sitting in a 356A. No needle bearing races or sway-bar mounts. Stock bug arms... Buyer Beware!!

I'll take a look this afternoon for you Phil. I feel your frustration in dealing with damage that would otherwise have been avoided by using the correct tools. Hopefully you can get it close.
Justin

[JTR70]

Hey Phil,

I found several...



These are later version arms as they only have a VW logo without the embossed part# found on early 356A arms.

I can give you the one with the best races as for being straight I don't have the tool to confirm that but I'll make sure you end up with a good arm before the deal is done.

I also found this later style needle bearing casing which would solve your deformity issue at the end of that tube.
Let me know...
Justin

[tperazzo]

I have the P70 tool if you want me to check your arms. Seems like you should be golden thanks to Justin.
Tom

[Phil Planck]

Justin
So that's where the world supply of lower arms is. Wow. You can email me at planck pw @ charter .net so we can work out a plan. I am not picky about the numbers on the bar, so pick the worst, decent(is that an oxymoron) bar you have. I can ship you mine, or can make available to a needy C owner.

Tom, thanks for the offer to check. Stay tuned.

Phil

[JTR70]

That's very nice of you Tom, Thanks!

I'll shoot you an email here shortly Phil. Thanks for the trade offer but I have no need to have a stray C-arm floating around my shop;Trying to reduce my clutter.

[Phil Planck]

Well, the muffler clamp didn't work. Applied map gas heat, quickly installed socket/dolly and clamp, tightened down clamp and nada. So, used the BFH technique and it is now sorta round:



Now the question is: Is this outer portion of the axle tube originally a little larger diameter than the inner portion where the 2nd row of bearings would be? The 20mm bearing slides in easily until it gets to the area of the second row on the 40mm bearing. So either this outer area has been stretched(from normal 30 year abuse or turkey prying out original bearing), or it was always like this from the factory. Or, is my 20mm bearing shrunk? It measures 51.9mm.

BTW, the torsion bar end weld had separated, so I think I will use my NOS bar:




Thanks for all the help - Phil

[JTR70]

Looks pretty close Phil! At least in that shot.

[Phil Planck]

Not much help on how to fix this problem from the R forum, so went to Allmetalshaping.com and got plenty of great tips. The ones I used were a little heat shrinking but mainly the use of a shaft collar to compress shrink the end of the tube. I had ordered 2 20mm needle bearings so added a 2.25" shaft collar to the order. Picked those up Friday on the way downstate.



The shaft collar was a tight(as in a little too small) fit on the tube, as the OD of the tube is slightly greater than 2.25". Using a good tube as reference, I kept tightening and hammering the collars with a large brass hammer. Getting closer:



I put the collar on twice, 180 degrees apart. Still too big of a hole as the old 20mm bearing could still just slide in. Resorted to more of the tips from allmetalshaping by adding some shim stock over the originally distorted area and using a big brass hammer to whack on each side of the collar. Slow process, but with each whack the bolts could be tightened a little further. Came in for a lunch break and left the collar on during lunch. The gaps at the collar ends were definitely tighter:



During lunch, Justin's arm arrived along with a good original 40mm flanged bearing. Went back out and removed the collar. The OD was now very consistent and matched the upper good tube. I could not insert the old 20mm bearing or Justin's. But could just get it started. Foolishly, I went ahead and drove the bearing in with a 2x4 laid flat against it. Definitely a press fit, but not that hard to drive in. Installed the newly arrived control arm and it is a little tighter fit than the other bearings, but not that hard to rotate. I suspect it will loosen up after a few road bumps. Here it is finished up with Justin's bearing:



Thanks so much Justin. You really bailed me out on this one. Now on to final paint and undercoating.

Phil