I stopped at a local VW shop and bought the last of the parts needed for the engine. They had a fairly rare Thing-only fan shroud with no heater ducts so that will work great to convert to the later style offset oil cooler. They had the rest of the parts I needed for the engine (bearings, flyhweel, clutch/PP). I dropped off the rotating assembly at a machine shop to have it all balanced and to have the rods narrowed .040" to fit on the later style crank.
This is the forged/counterweighted crank that's been sitting on my shelf for 8-9 years because it had a stripped oil galley plug. Back then I tried removing the plug by drilling the plug and using an Easy-out, which broke off in the plug. A couple of machine shops didn't want to fix it so it sat... until this week. I used a 1/8" carbide burr with a pointed tip to grind away at the Easy-out and was able to get it loosened up. Once the Easy-out was removed I ground the plug's ID so that a Torx bit could be driven in, which worked to back out the plug.
I ordered more parts in anticipation of picking up the frame next week...
Which included a set of Porsche Fuchs wheels.
I masked them to add the correct black background.
And the body is ready for a couple coats of flattened clear. Hopefully I'll get a chance to shoot it tomorrow. Can't wait for reassembly!
