VolksWorld - February 2006 - AutomationJet

is so often now a standard colour - here
L351 Coral Red - and with all the trim back
in the traditional location, including around
the window rubbers, it’s still got that
wonderful historic Wolfsburg feel.
Even the interior, whilst not strictly
correct for the year, isn’t far from it. A tan
mohair headliner and matching Stayfast
sunroof cover coming from West Coast
Classic Restoration, tan square weave
carpet from Wolfsburg West and stock
seats, retrimmed by North Hollywood’s
Nacho’s Auto Upholstery in a similar tan
LEFT Full re-trim in tan uses mostly stock materials, but custom door panels are a nice touch
ABOVE The kind of thing that makes people who aren’t into cars just shake their heads in disbelief
coloured perforated vinyl. But start looking
elsewhere in the interior and you’ll start to
see William’s obsessive compulsive disorder
showing through. How about chromed
pedals, handbrake, steering column and
support, speaker grille backing plate,
ashtray(!), door check stays and even the
base of the Berg shifter for starters? And
what isn’t plated inside is polished, painted
and immaculately detailed.
But that’s the inside, the bit you see
when you sit in the car, so that’s fair
enough, right? Well now look underneath,
or at least underneath the wheelarches…
During the course of the rebuild, Hale
used a Suspensions Unlimited three-inch
narrowed beam and chromed trailing
arms. Between these sit a pair of CB
Performance spindles and CNC wide-5
disc brakes, plumbed in with polished
and braided lines throughout. Similarly out
back, chromed spring plates allow you
to see the shine on the back of William’s
stock brake drums, while all exposed and
non-load bearing fasteners are now stainless
steel Allen heads. The built gearbox
didn’t escape detailing either, internally or
externally. Built by KCR Transmissions in
Riverside, it is based around a stock 1500
4.12:1 ring and pinion, with welded third
and fourth, a Super-Diff, steel shift forks
and chromoly pinion retainer. Believe us,
it’s sick under there and no mistake.
But William wasn’t content to stop at
that. Next on his hit list was the engine
- and no stock 30 horser was going to
propel him and his wife Noemy into the future.
So a call was put into engine builder
ABOVE We found it, we found it!Billet
top pulley is held in place by a specially
Made in Taiwan chromed top pulley nut.
Still, at least it isn’t a neon pink one eh?
LEFT Too much, too much!
FAR LEFT Polished CNC front discs and
incredible paintwork everywhere
www.volksworld.com February 2006 13