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Zenny's Sterling (GP39)

Zenny

Member
Yeah, I think I had the luxury of playing with unmodified replacement floor pans for a Bug early on in my Sterling adventures and I do think I remember one border being a little higher and/or the pan was stamped a little deeper towards the outer border.

I never noticed that particular note on those diagrams before. You’re right that that isn’t written very clearly.

I wonder if you could cut or grind the flange off on that side and weld just a flat piece of metal to extend it up the extra bit (and just go without a flange in that area like they seem to suggest in that cryptic diagram.) Or like you said just use as is and make up for it in however you mount the seat. Either way your dropped seats will still be a huge net gain.
Yeah I have a ton of extra metal so I could always extend it upwards, but honestly a spacer to compensate for the 1/2 inch tilt is infinitely easier and won't really be much of a sacrifice. Finally starting to weld them on last night felt so good, hopefully it will actually be done by Sunday this time.
 

Zenny

Member
Seems that one of the things I do best is underestimate how long it'll take me to do something. The past 4 months have been great- I sorted out many issues that were plaguing the welder(improperly labelled gas, improperly wired 240v outlet, etc) and actually managed to lay down nice beads for once. Managed to get the whole floorpan finished on Halloween, so I've started on all the small things. Current priority list is transmission rebuild, link and king pin rebuild, new control arm bushings, ground straps, cleaning my steering box, all the fancy brake stuff and new spring plate stuff, bedliner for the underside of the chassis, and sway-away adjusters at some point in the future. I bought Avis adjusters without realizing how much I would have to torture my beam to install them, so I'll just weld in the sway-away ones.

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My buddies I share the space with are pretty messy so don't mind the stuff on the back of the sterling or the road signs 😄
 

vpogv

Active member
I can't tell if those beads penetrated but if they did it doesn't matter how they all look. Some good seam sealer will take care of all the pin holes from letting water in. Keep up the progress!
 

Zenny

Member
I did get good penetration all around, the galvaneel has nice penetration marks and the regular steel shows good penetration. My welding buddy toold me it looked good and that I should just seam seal the spaces where the metal wasn't wide enough to sit flush. I wasn't able to see any light through the welds either so I think it should be good.
 

Zenny

Member
So I've been tearing down my spindles and noticed some wear on surfaces where bearings might ride. (Not sure if they actually ride here). Can I get any suggestions? Should I buy new ones or is this not something to be concerned about?
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Spindle 1
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Spindle 2
 

Brett Proctor

Well-known member
Spindles look like there's still some miles left on them but those bearing races look like they've reach their end.
What type of bearing was on there. those don't look like taper roller bearing races (which I thought VW uses), but I could be wrong
 

Zenny

Member
They were ball bearings, I'm pretty sure they were stock. I reamed out the spindle carriers and it turns out that one of the carriers is bent and couldn't have the reamer or king pin installed. Anyone know of anyone selling spindle carriers? I'll reply when I get home later with which one is bent.
 

Zenny

Member
I'm going out to King of the Hammers this February and am going to be heading through Yucca Valley in California. I found an IRS pan with a title out there for about 800 bucks that I'm going to pick up and swap everything onto. It is already mostly stripped. It sucks to have to abandon my progress on this pan, but I can plasma cut and grind my welds to get my dropped pans off and into the new one. I mistakenly bought a ball joint front beam last summer because I didn't yet realize that the beam spacings between link pin and ball joint beams were different. I'll be able to sell my current pan which is nice and clean, along with a good link pin beam, some adjustable rear spring plates that haven't even come out of the plastic yet, as well as my swing axle trans. Hopefully I can recoup most of what I paid for it. The problem with my current pan is that there was no title, so I would have to jump through the legal shennanigans of the arizona DMV to try to get a bonded title or whatever I would need. The seller I got it from also never completed the bill of sale I sent to him, so there's no paper trail that even proves I own it. He didn't have the title, at least. I guess if it's easy enough to title the vehicle and any of you know how to(in az), I'll do that and just convert to IRS with some jigs, but that's probably too cumbersome. I'm probably going to go the subarugears route and swap a 5mt into the car as well as an EJ20 or something so I'll be making about 120hp in the thing. A nice price for a bit less power than a CB performance 2110 would've given me. Has anyone swapped a watercooled motor into a Sterling? How did they mount the radiators? Did it have cooling issues? I can always drop this idea and swap in a 1600 that someone I know has, but I'd like a little bit more power.
 

sector

Member
My build is based on WRX drivetrain with subarugears 5mt conversion and EJ20 Turbo engine. Mounting subaru drivetrain on VW chassis was pretty simple using subarugears mounts, or you can easily fabricate your own brackets. I highly recommend this setup. It has great power to weight ratio. Stock these engines produce 227HP, but can easily be pushed to 400HP with larger turbo and supporting mods.

Unfortunately for me, the VW chassis I bought looked nice on the outside but was badly out of alignment due to prior undisclosed accident. So I scrapped that chassis and built my own tubular chassis. Good luck with your project, it will be a fun car when finished.
 
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Brett Proctor

Well-known member
I have a 1998 EJ25D (stock) in my sterling.
All smog items and sensors are retained so I wouldn't have any issues. Even modified the stock gas tank so it would fit in the car. (because of the sensors used in it)
Radiator is located in the front. I put the largest radiator that would fit in the space provided. Lines are 1.75" in diameter. (both ways)
The radiator I got was blank(no openings)and I cut the openings in the locations where I wanted them, then welded the connection fittings in.
The car is not on the road yet but the cooling system is installed and working.
Tests with the engine running show that the system works well in the hot climate that I live in.
It takes about 15 minutes for the engine to get hot enough for the fan to turn on. After the fan turns on it takes about a minute for the system to get cool enough for the fan to turn off.
Make sure that the heater lines circulate coolant all the time(even when not using the heater) otherwise the engine will over heat. That controls when the thermostat opens.

I'm using a VW type1 transaxle with a 3.88 R&P. I rebuilt it and put aftermarket parts in it so it should hold together
If I drive it like its NOT stolen I figure it should last. However if you drive it like a mad man I doubt if it would hold together.
 
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Unofun

Member
I'm going out to King of the Hammers this February and am going to be heading through Yucca Valley in California. I found an IRS pan with a title out there for about 800 bucks that I'm going to pick up and swap everything onto. It is already mostly stripped. It sucks to have to abandon my progress on this pan, but I can plasma cut and grind my welds to get my dropped pans off and into the new one. I mistakenly bought a ball joint front beam last summer because I didn't yet realize that the beam spacings between link pin and ball joint beams were different. I'll be able to sell my current pan which is nice and clean, along with a good link pin beam, some adjustable rear spring plates that haven't even come out of the plastic yet, as well as my swing axle trans. Hopefully I can recoup most of what I paid for it. The problem with my current pan is that there was no title, so I would have to jump through the legal shennanigans of the arizona DMV to try to get a bonded title or whatever I would need. The seller I got it from also never completed the bill of sale I sent to him, so there's no paper trail that even proves I own it. He didn't have the title, at least. I guess if it's easy enough to title the vehicle and any of you know how to(in az), I'll do that and just convert to IRS with some jigs, but that's probably too cumbersome. I'm probably going to go the subarugears route and swap a 5mt into the car as well as an EJ20 or something so I'll be making about 120hp in the thing. A nice price for a bit less power than a CB performance 2110 would've given me. Has anyone swapped a watercooled motor into a Sterling? How did they mount the radiators? Did it have cooling issues? I can always drop this idea and swap in a 1600 that someone I know has, but I'd like a little bit more power.
Hey Zinny!
Why don't you just buy mine with the T-Tops, V6 with the Ca Spec construct title? all it needs is a new quadrajet carb and maintenance work to get her on the road.. money time and delivery saved. I will be headed through Mesa, AZ soon any way to see the family...
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Zenny

Member
Hey Zinny!
Why don't you just buy mine with the T-Tops, V6 with the Ca Spec construct title? all it needs is a new quadrajet carb and maintenance work to get her on the road.. money time and delivery saved. I will be headed through Mesa, AZ soon any way to see the family... View attachment 9831
Oh man sounds like a pretty good deal, how much would you want for it? Also, since it's a cali car does it have to be california emissions compliant or something? Still not 100% sure how that stuff works.
 

Unofun

Member
Or if you want a 72 vw standard pan with good trans, Mags and title, I wouldn't mind getting rid of it...
 

Unofun

Member
Oh man sounds like a pretty good deal, how much would you want for it? Also, since it's a cali car does it have to be california emissions compliant or something? Still not 100% sure how that stuff works.
SPCN means it doesn't ever need to ever go through emissions check in any state and that its vin was assigned there by Ca. and that it is a special constructed vehicle which also means it is legal in all 50 states. that is why I have never changed it to Oregon assembled title.
 

Zenny

Member
SPCN means it doesn't ever need to ever go through emissions check in any state and that its vin was assigned there by Ca. and that it is a special constructed vehicle which also means it is legal in all 50 states. that is why I have never changed it to Oregon assembled title.
Oh sick, that's actually nice. What are your prices for the pan and the v6 car?
 

Zenny

Member
This doesn't really have anything to do with a build log for my car specifically, but doe anyone have ideas for where the vin plates are usually placed after the level 2/3 inspections at the DMV? Trying to let some people know ideas of where it is on their car. They found the California BAR plate for the engine but nothing else. The original email from the previous seller listed a 9 digit vin, but I don't know how to look that up or what DMV to go to to run it. It was titled and assigned a vin in california, and then bought by people from nevada and colorado. Any ideas help.
 

Brett Proctor

Well-known member
My car was registered in CA.
The vin number assigned by the CA DMV is located next to the body number
Lower right corner, circled in red
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Unofun

Member
In the past, it actually was done by the California Highway patrol. it could have been anywhere. sometimes over the bug vin, on the dash.... Ect. believe me! if the BAR smog plate is on the vehicle and not the engine, then that is proof too if you have the title as SPCN.
 

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