How To: C8A restoration in Holland

[Phil Waterman]

Note Pieter had sent be an e-mail, Re: Hatch question I'm sharing my response to the thread with additional question.


Hi Pieter

Yes the bronze ball wheels were intended to turn, but it never seemed to have worked very well. I have never seen a HUP hatch where some of the balls are not flat spotted.

Some of mine are flat spotted in more than one location. My long ago fix for this problem was to smear grease on the rails which does make the hatch slide much easier.

The bearings would need to be pretty small and rust proof.

I still have to fit the new roof hatch on my HUP when I did the restoration ran out of time even though I have new track and new hatch all fabricated just didn't have time to get them fitted so put the old hatch back on.

The lever ball unit unbolt on mine to be removed so I think the first step will be to remove all four and drop them in a bucket of acitone and automatic transmission fluid to see if they will loosen up and turn.

- My additional questions:
The bronze used on my late production HUP, June 45, seems to extremely soft was this the case on early HUPs?

The end of the shafts on my lever arms are swedged to the keep the balls from falling off was this the case on all? Seems like they would only be lost prior to installing the hatch on the vehicle.

Cheers Phil

PS If the spelling is off in this post, the spell check on my tablet seems to have stopped working.