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Along with that last glass of cabernet.....I'm starting to giggle and drool on the keyboard. Hey!...I hot 6,000 posts! Ray

6000 posts is impressive, Ray, though hopefully not an indicator of the quantity of cabernet you consume!

Actually, on the terminology front I was raised with a fairly pukkah grasp of the same English terms - I have never owned a mole wrench but have a few pairs of vice grips. I have no wrenches but quite a lot of spanners, and a pipe wrench is a stihlson wrench to me.

My father was a relatively English colonial South African, so gudgeon pins and gasket compound were the order of the day - jointing compound was probably something that hippies used as far as he was concerned.

Gas is what you get after eating baked beans and petrol goes into the petrol tank. Of course, cars have bonnets and boots, hoods and trunks are things that cobras and elephants have. A cobra, naturally, is a snake.
Some cars have their engines in the bonnet, like MG's and Rovers, and some have their engines in the boot, like old VW's.

Which is what brings us all together here and has Ray soaking in fine cabernets, which are enjoyed universally as simply that, fine cabernets.

And the effects therof are similarly universal - I would also no doubt 'hot' however many posts after however many glasses!!

I have an image of a bloke with a handlebar moustache sipping tea and munching scones whilst resetting the gudgeon pin clearances on his Wolseley 4/44 with glass paper. I can't stand it Wallace and blokes, you've really tickled my Monty Python funny bone here. Maybe the Bass pale ale I consumed last night helped...

BTW, how's the alternator coming, Wallace?

MGVWfan wrote: I can't stand it Wallace and blokes, you've really tickled my Monty Python funny bone here.

OH GOD dont get me started..................

BTW Ray, what's this Cali/French sterno squeezins you're swilling, cabernet? Any good German car driver should be imbibing a Riesling Kabinett at a minimum, preferably a good Bernkastler Spaetlese from the Mosel valley. Doesn't make you drool on your keyboard as much. Or how about one of those nice South African wines, eh Wallace? Cabernet, yeesh .

Or a nice Bitburger Pils. Abends Bit, Morgens Fit!

OK, I've hijacked this thread long enough. Now for something completely different!

Aaaah...sadly....being in far too many factories in the last 15 years, and working around too many chemicals....I have ..since 1995 developed a wide range of insidious industrial allergies. All kidding aside, I can no longer drink white wines. They give me asthma...like quick. Nothing lide threatening, but when you swill half a glass, and then sneeze 45 times back to back...and start scrambling for the benedryl...it gets ugly. The range extends to almost any pilsner or lager (light in coloration beer).....fortunately for some odd reason, dark ales...stouts and porters give me no problems. Thank god for Guiness, Fullers ESB (the lightest I am able to partake of...and one of the best)....and the wide range of porters I love. Also, heavy red wines give me no problems. But, when they start to get light...I get the sniffles...like shiraz.
I used to love German wines...but with my cabernet poisened pallatte....they are all much too sweet for me now even if I could drink them. I actually prefer some of the exotic odd cabernet varietals...like the carmengere. If I could get away with a wine glass holder in the car....and not wreck or get arrested....I would. Of course, I would also need a holder for my imperial pints as well. Ray

Well yes - the alternator is looking good if a little naked for want of a new pulley.

New brushes and bearings all quite easily replaced, and the unit now has an output of 45 amps.
The hunt for a replacement pulley continues, as we have had a ridiculously long long weekend here.

Rays observations regarding the industrial allergens is real - I have developed allergies to epoxies and isocyanates from too much unprotected playing with the stuff during the boatbuilding years.
And yes - one of the effects is a rash which develops inside my one ankle after the wrong beer, wines and even whisky!

Whilst useful, the petro-distillates are really not good for the general health of mankind. And on that note Ray, can you point me in the correct direction for information about casting 'urethanes in order to make replacement couplings for the oil filler and dipstick? I have found another set on one of the old cars on the farm, and thought i ought to make a set of new improved ones to set aside and save for a rainy day.

So I need to know the type of material most suitable as a replacement, and the mould material you used. Release agent? I havent ever cast urethane before, so this should be interesting........................

http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp ... D119%2D245

That's the dipstick tube, but I've not found the boot for the filler myself...any ideas?

oic, i dont have a wagon. Would the type 3 version work?

Urethane will do OK. What you really want is castable/pourable silicone. Usually die making supply companies sell them in cans. The industrial supply company, W. W. Grainger sells a two part urethane thatworks decnt, but you need to also buy the additive that reduces the durometer, or they will come out about 80 duro which is too hard to keep from cracking.

I know I sound like a broken record....but I actually have been working on the castings. Until I can move all of my stuff out of storage next week, its difficult to do more than make the basic mold supports.

Here is what I am working toward. There will be several basic sets.
I am setting them up to mold in sets, so as not to have piles of dies layng around. Its easier to mold several parts at once under vacuum pressure and them trim away the "sprues" and feeders...carefully.

Set one: This is a front end suspension set. The silicone parts made in one pull are: Boots to cover tied rod ends and center links and new strut boots to go with new beetle bump stops, on rebuilt struts.

Set two: The urethane parts: That would be control arm bushings, subframe donuts, radius arm donuts, front and end sway bar links.

Set three: Front body: These would include...bellows with o-rings for wires to parking lights through fenders, gas tank boot with optional gas pump handle pad, seal cords for around headlight bezels, antenna bung for anntena cord through body, door handle gaskets,.....and...both early and late bumper stanchion rubber covers.... something sorely needed but never offered on the cars.

Set 4: There may be two molds. These are rears. Mostly engine. Include oil pressure sending unit gasket, the auxiliary air reg take off tee, manual shifter bellows, rubber cuffs for the chimneys to the heat exchangers, heater cable covers, rear tail light gaskets, license plate light gaskets, bellows for tail light wires, oil filler bellows for wagons.
And yes....a seperate mold for bellows for both fast and squareback for the air intake. Also, two different models of TB to aircleaner tubes. I will also make a seperate molding on the same box, to make intake tubes for to use a 1.7L boot on a car that has a 2.0 TB.

Other longer term projects include....acrylic fender welting by the roll...both styles. Rear trailing arm bushings of delrin with offset bores in 3 dimesnions to correct rear camber, door trim...copies of the original chrome...but cast of textured black silicone...with a stifner strip cast in...and held on by .040" 3M 486 adhesive.
The copper plate mold is done, just waiting to get the aluminum tube cut to make the crimp rings.

There are others too.......including....cast, hard bodied....felt lined, molded front end bras for 411/412.....ooooh baby!

If all goes well.....I should be molding in ernest in the evenings by may.

Yes.....I needt to paint and send out your centerlink this wekend. Sorry...my shop premises are just a little in limbo at the moment. Ray

Damn Ray, over 6K posts! That would make a dictionary for the 411/412 and more! So how do you start that whole molding process? Has anyone tried that dental stuff for molding? Do you make the mold from clay first or wax and then set it in a molding material? Then pour your end material in and then clean up the peices? I have heard of sand molding? Do you have to have a real part to start with? bill

Some start as clay, a few delicate parts will start as wax. The wax is expensive...but can be re-used, because until i start casting metal...it does not get melted or consumed. Some parts will be molded from actual factory parts. Most of the molds will be urthane covered plaster.
Yes...sand casting is common , but also has the highest shrinkage and distortion rate...and leaves a rough surface.
Take the rear intake bellows for instance. Just molding an identical one from the factory part...would not be that hard....but will be a 3 piece mold. First....the bellows is cleaned, coated with mold release, them propped up to give best advantage to bubble free flow of plaster or slip. Then....you fill the center in stages and let it dry. There must be a paster base under it.Now that its supported, you have to build an artificial parting line at mid point on the bellows to cast the outside half in two parts. That can be done with film, rsin...or several other ways.
Then insert locating pins into the base, then build teh surround box...then pour the plaster. A few other things to do. Some of these molds...that one included...I may make of polyester resin. We'll see.

Now..if you want to make an improved version of the factory part...and I do......i will need two external molds actually. A thin one..and a thick one.
The thin one molds...say pourable silicone or acrylic elastomer around the buck in the center. It will be ..say 1/3 of the finished thickness of the final bellows. Then....when its dry, I seperate the outer molds....wipe it down with detergent to remove the mold release from the outside.....then I wrap in in dacron scrim (cord cloth like you find in hoses and tires). Then slather it liberally with silicone....then apply the outer larger molds while its still wet....and vacuum pump in the final silicone.
What you get is a softer, more pliable boot...with higher temp rating...and internal cording so it won't rip. I am also contemplating vacuum applying a sheet of .005" furnace tin to the outside mold of the bottom sde of the bellows. Then...you will have cast/bonded on heat shield on the bellows underside. Thats enough secrets for the day! Ray

Oh, yeah, I'm glad you understand that casting stuff Ray...I'll be interested in seeing how it all comes together.

I need a new intake air boot (not the cooling air boot, the one that connects the air cleaner to the TB), I can make do with some RTV in the short term, but eventually I'll need a new one...

Well, well, well - I eventually found a sutable pulley - quite a lot smaller in diameter than the old one, but I can live with that as we spend a lot of time idling through the Kruger Park and so higher revs on the alternator will avoid the poor charge that I do sometimes get after a long day of stop/start and idle.
The voltage regulator should take care of any overcharge at high revs, not so?

Anyone got any comments?

Oh - I also got hold of a rubber boot to replace the dipstick one that is broken badly. The filler boot will have to carry on for a while till I can get setup for making my own rubbers.

How is everyone else?