[T3] A long day of disassembly...

[Per Lindgren <per.lindgren@c2i.net>]

<x-flowed>Hey listers, today was a long day of disassembly, the 73 US spec Variant 
was to be slaughtered today...

Me and my friend Zeljko started to work at 9:30 in the morning and 
wasn't finished until 6:30 in the afternoon. We did a pretty thorough 
strip of the car, I'll go into detail...

The car was a Texas yellow 1973 Squareback, VIN 3632024986, door jamb 
sticker said it was manufactured 9/72. The tag in the front plate read 
37-3-3237, for those who are interested. It was also fitted with the 
late type BN2 gas heater, but it was removed before the car was 
delivered to the junkyard. The pump was still in place though. This 
wagon was in a very poor state, with lots of rust. It looked like it had 
been sitting outside for a long time. The rockers were completely rusted 
out, as were the bottom of the doors, the bumpers, and there was a lot 
of cancer in the lower areas of the engine compartment and upper areas 
of the front fenders and inner wheel wells as well. The floor pans 
looked amazingly solid though, as did the rear wheel wells. The rear 
fenders were both rusted out and destroyed by some PO, because they 
decided to keep the air intake grilles. These were simply cut out of the 
rear fenders! The front fenders were also rusted beyond salvage.

We managed to get the engine and tranny out as a complete unit, the shop 
lift and a fork lift helped us with that task. I had to cut the clutch 
cable as the wing nut was rusted solid, the heater cables broke off as 
we tried to undo them, because of rust. The throttle cable was frayed, 
so I chose to leave it behind. I of course got the FI wiring harness out 
in one piece, but I am amazed at how many cables there are compared to 
the simplicity of the dual Solexes. Speaking of dual carbs, one thing I 
found out is that the engine has been rebuilt at one time or more, and 
the engine case has been replaced. The case is a T code...

After the engine and tranny was out, we pulled the rear suspension. Easy 
enough, as the shop lift supported the rear end on the vertical plates 
at the ends of the torsion tubes, so we removed the three bolts under 
the car, and set it on the floor. Then we removed the 2 bolts on top, 
holding the shock towers, and undid the hand brake cables, and out it 
went, complete with drive shafts and brake drums. Yes, we did loosen the 
big end nuts before we started dismantling the car.

As mentioned, the body was in a sad state, but there's always some parts 
to get anyway. The hood and hatch were ok, so off they went. I also 
separated the doors from all their parts and got two good inner window 
scrapers, one good outer scraper and the vent windows. I also took the 
winding mechanisms with me, and also the latches and glass of course. 
Typically, I managed to crack the windscreen, but I removed the chrome 
(aluminium type, not plastic) and also removed all the other glasses 
from the car. The chrome trim on the sides of the car was also saved for 
later, but the trim on the left rear fender was gone, as were the rocker 
trim and the rear "Volkswagen" emblem. The H4 headlights were also saved 
from the scrap heap.

I don't know exactly how long this car has been in Norway, but it has 
been here for a looong time, as I saw an old sticker on the rear window, 
supporting a Norwegian seat belt campaign from 1979. The car had the 
orange rear turn signals (only one lens present, broken) and a KM/H 
speedometer with trip counter, in addition to the already mentioned H4 
headlights.. A sticker on the hatch suggested that the car had been sold 
by Sun Valley VW. Anyone know where this is?

Other items that were kept for later was the fuel tank (is this FI 
specific?), the FI fuel pumps, air intake bellows (all uncracked and 
pretty soft after all these years), the fuse box, instruments, small 
plastic items from here and there around the car, most of the electrical 
switches in the dash, the window washer bottle, the wiper motor and 
linkage, wiper arms, fresh air box w/fan, steering coloumn switches 
(inc. ignition switch, the key also fit right door and hatch), the gear 
lever, the heater air tubes (or what you call them) including the 
thermostat housings, and of course the dash pad.

Ahh, the dash pad... What a beautiful piece of jewelry this is, not even 
a single sign of a hairline crack anywhere to be seen! After all the 
screws had been removed, it was easy to remove as if it had been 
installed last week. The only thing that annoyed me is the VIN tag, 
which only the North American cars used. Oh well, maybe I can have a tag 
that corresponds with my car's VIN made.

Some things were left behind, simply because we didn't have time to pick 
them, or the things were left undesirable to me. The black front seats 
(rear seat and panels was gone), the carpets, door panels, front 
suspension and master cylinder and the wiring harness. That's pretty 
much what was left on the car when we were finished! It was a fun and 
learning day for both of us.

I guess this is enough talk for now. And what is a post like this 
without pictures? Of course I took pictures, I'm going to resize them 
and upload them right after I've sent this post, look for them at 
http://public.fotki.com/volkswagen/variant_parts_car/

PerL
73 & 70 Variant


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

</x-flowed>