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Mark
You may want to do some research before installing your new module. I run a Mallory “Unilite” electronic ignition module and if you don’t hookup the “+” and “-” wires from the coil correctly you immediately burn the module; I learned that hard (and expensive) way. In my case my Bosch coil is marked as “1” and “15”. instead of “+” and “-” and I’ve since learned that “1” = “-” and “15” = “+” .Thanks for all your input guys!
I charged the old battery and took it to be load tested and sure enough it wasn’t holding the load, so now at least i don’t feel bad about replacing it. I had replaced it for the same reasons given by Ringo, its easier to replace it in my garage than somewhere out on the road.Hopefully between the new battery and the recently installed cutoff switch I’ll get more life out of this one.RicardoHi Rocky,Although my car is a Lafer it seems that my tank is similar to the one described by Paul. It is aprox. 11″ tall and the filler sits inside the front trunk. I made a strap for it but ended up running the single strap from front to back instead of side to side as described by Paul.I spray painted the tank and then added several layers of clear enamel. I also coated the bottom of the tank with a rubberized paint in case the bottom floorpan got damp at some point..
This second photo is of the tank installed inside the front trunk area…
Let me know if you want more info regarding the tank..RicardoWelcome aboard Allan and as Bill mentioned always a pleasure to know of
another Lafer owner out there..
To give you an idea of pricing I’m attaching a copy of my original email confirming the items that I ordered
from Eduardo along with their prices.
The prices are in U.S. dollars and the coma (“,” ) is used as the decimal in Brazil so to give you an example
from my order all the rubber seals marked in red in the parts pages cost a total of $154.00 dlls (154,00 U.S.)
You could also send him a copy of the pages I uploaded indicating the part numbers you desire from each
page, I’m sure that would make it easier for both of you.
(Sorry for the quality but I had to scan my hard copy since I lost the original email to a computer crash
)
There is a brazilian website called mercodolivre where they advertise many
Lafer parts include some wheels in case anyone wants to see what’s out
there.
To Bill (Gould) and any other Lafer owners out there, try driving your car with
all six side windows in place and raised, the difference is very noticeable. In
my case it went from my eardrums hurting because of the wind turbulence at
45mph without the windows to cruising at 65-70 on the freeway and being
able to have a conversation with my wife (although I must admit its actually
borderline shouting).
Ed,
Here is a picture of the old exhaust, and you’re right it was visible under the valance . . . . .
Ed,
I’m not sure how much space you have under your truncated rear valance but these two exhaust systems fit
under the Lafer rear valance.
The engine on the right was my old 1600 single port while the one left was a new 1968c.c. dual port, dual carb
with the A-1 Sidewinder exhaust.
I decided to use the Sidewinder on the new engine because I thought that it would be completely hidden from
sight but unfortunatley the Lafer’s body doesn’t extend low enough to cover the exhaust.
MP Lafer (VW Based, made in Brazil)
MP Lafers for the U.S. market were sold as a complete car with the pre-assembled body manufactured in Brazil and mated to a U.S. registered used VW
donor car. Assembly was done by MP Lafer authorized distributors.
Windshield – Folding windshield specific to MP Lafer. Front vent windows need to be pulled out of doors prior to folding windshield. Modified VW
windshield wipers with foot operated washer pump.
Front Grille ? Chromed Plastic ? specific to MP Lafer as it is wider and shorter than original MG grille.
Hood (Bonnet) – Opens from passenger side, hidden hinges and clasp. Clasp is released from inside the passenger compartment.
Roof – Three hoop roof, single layer vinyl top with clear vinyl rear window .
Side Glass – Three side glasses per side, front vent glass, door glass which can be partially lowered and small semicircular rear glass. All glasses
are easily removed.
Dash ? Wood veneered plywood with VDO gauges and lockable glove compartment.
Interior ? Individual reclinable leather bucket seats with lap belts. Leather covered door panels. Roof folds behind seats and leather tonneau is
available to cover folded roof if desired. Small center console between seats. Storage available under and also behind seats. Parking brake is oriented
vertically and located in front of shifter.
Door Latches – Interior and exterior latches are from early 1980?s VW Passat with locking capabilities.
Door Hinges ? specific to MP Lafer. Doors are hinged at front as opposed to original MG’s as well as all other replicas which are hinged at rear.
Head Lights ?Specific to MP Lafer, mount to side of plastic grille.
Tail Lights ? U.S. models used standard late 1960?s and early 1970?s taillights. Brazilian Lafers use MGB type lenses with custom MP specific
mounting bases.
Bumpers ? Front bumper ? specific to MP Lafer. Rear bumper – std. VW bumper.
Spare Tire ? Mounted vertically inside front hood (bonnet) area.
Engine Cover ? Hinges at top of cover, hidden clasp is released from inside the passenger compartment.
License Plate Mount ? Specific to MP Lafer.
Fuel Tank – Ten gallon tank shaped to fit front, right floor pan ahead of “firewall”. Fuel filler located inside hood area.
Wheels ? 15? x 6? Aluminum alloy wheels designed specifically for the MP Lafer using standard VW 4 bolt pattern.
Heat/Defroster – Stock VW heater boxes, and control. Heat comes out at lower front of floor. Also has 2 defroster vents for windshield.
Specifications:
Length ? 153.9?
Width ? 61.8?
Height ? 53.1? (with top up)
Ground clearance ? 7.1?
Weight – 1,676 lbs.
PMOSSBERG2015-03-02 09:24:44
My understanding regarding the “MP” is that it comes from name the
company which made these cars in Brazil:
M?veis Patenteados Lafer S/A hence “MP Lafer“
(which translates to Lafer Patented Furniture
)The lafers were made by Mr. Percival Lafer from Brazil whom after taking
over the family furniture business decided to venture into the automotive
field by developing a new “sports” car for sale primarily in the internal
brazilian market (at that time the brazilian market was pretty much closed
to automotive imports). He purchased brand new complete rolling
floorpans for VW Brazil, did necessary mechanical modifications,
manufactured the bodies and did all assembly within his large furniture
factory.
In Brazil the MP Lafer was sold as a complete new car including brand new
floorpan/engine.
I ordered a product of the internet used to coat the inside of pick truck beds,
its called “Grizzly Grip” . I liked it because you can brush or roller it it on
and as it dries in expands a little bit and creates a texture that covers the
brush and rollers marks. I ended up coating all the front trunk area and
passenger area after bolting down the body to the floorpan in order to
completely seal of these areas from water penetration and so far no
problems!!
My original Lafer gauges had clear plastic covers that were scratched and dull and the chrome was
pitted and rusty. I purchased replacement glass and bezels from a company called North
Hollywood Speedometer (www.nhspeedometer.com). I was only able to find replacement glass and
bezels for the 5 smaller gauges so I ended up using the old bezels and glass on the speedo and
tach. I purchased 5 ea. of 52mm glass ($3 ea.) and VDO “Cockpit Royal” chrome bezels ($11 ea.). Be
aware that this was a few years ago so the prices may have changed.
As far as the complete process in general terms I removed the old bezels by prying them off with a
jewelers screwdriver and once you remove the bezel the clear glass or plastic will fall out. I tried to
pry off the needles of the gauges but they seemed well pressed into place so I decided to leave
them on. I cleaned the needle and face plate using “409 kitchen cleaner” and “Q-tips”. I then gave
it another light cleaning with alcohol (again using Q-tips). After they were clean I carefully put a
small strip of masking tape over the needle covered the exterior of the gauge and spray painted
the face plate using a matte finish clear coat and let it dry completely. I didn’t spray the needle
because of the possibility of the added weight of the paint affecting the accuracy of the gauge. You
will need to slightly rotate the needle during spraying in order to get paint under the needle area.
The biggest challenge was installing the new bezels as the edges have to be “rolled” or “bent
around the outer rim of the gauge housing. I placed the gauge face down on a flat surface and then
used the edge of a small spanner wrench to slowly bend the edge of the bezel a little bit at a time
while rotating the gauge. It probably took me 10-15 complete revolutions of the gauge to fully seat
each bezel completely.
This picture shows the tachometer after cleaning and clear coating the face. Note the rough edge of
the bezel due to prying off with jewelers screwdriver.. This rough edge was eventually bent back
around the outer gauge casing.
The ride height looks good Ed!!
You might want to make sure that the original shocks aren’t bottoming out half way thru
your suspension travel. I imagine I set my ride height similar to yours since we both had
the same type of issues. In my case the “shorty” shocks keep me from getting complete
extension but the normal shocks bottom out about 3/4 of the way down and I get alot of
bouncing from what I believe is riding on the rubber grommets at the top of the shocks.
In the end I left the shorty shocks, the lesser of two evils.
In regard to the rear suspension you might want to look into installing adjustable spring
plates. They make them for both swing axle and IRS suspensions. From your comment
regarding removing the body to adjust the suspension I imagine you have IRS rear
suspension. I have swing axle suspension on mine and after adjusting the rear
suspension for the 3rd time I decided to install the adjustable plates and they have
worked great for me.
from the Cip1 website:
ACC-C10-4010 – ADJUSTABLE SPRING PLATES – SWING AXLE – PAIR – BEETLE 60-68 /
GHIA 60-68 (SHIPPING CHARGES APPLY)
Phone-in/Mailorder Price US $119.95
Website Discount Price US $109.95
You save US $10.00!
The gauges are actually VDO gauges made in Brazil specifically for the MP
Lafers. The ones in my car were fairly beat up so I bought new front
glasses (originals were plastic except the speedo and tach) and bezels. I
disassembled, cleaned and reassembled the gauges with the new
components.
Original gauges…
After rebuilding them……
The speedo gauge has a trip odometer but it turns out that on the Lafers
there was no way to reset it. While rebuilding the speedo I fabricated a
small bracket to attach a mechanical reset cable from a Triumph Spitfire
so now the trip odometer also works.
I ran into the same problem while adjusting the ride height on my car. After inital setup I decided it was too low so I decided to move both adjusters to a “higher” position. No problem moving the lower one but when I tried moving the upper adjuster I ran into the same issue you are describing. In my case the new “shortened shocks” I was using were keeping the front wheels from dropping any further when the front end was rasied off the floor. I removed the shocks top bolts which further dropped the front wheels and got more movement on the top adjuster. After readjusting and reassembling the shocks I test drove and decided I still needed to raise it further. This time I put the front end on jack stands then loosened the adjuster nuts and inserted an allen wrench in the top adjuster grub screw with its long end pointing down. I then used my hydraulic jack to apply a bit of pressure on the allen wrench handle and was able to “push it up” enough to achieve the movement I required. Tightened the locknuts and then lowered the jack.
From what I’ve read from your earlier post this may not work in your car but I thought I’d put it out there just in case.
No, I didn’t do any modifications, I assume its the standard Lafer design. I
believe that the only modification to the handle are the cable brackets. On
the chassis there is a hardened steel gear rack ( like a section of gear) that
needs to be rotated about 40-50 degrees in such a way that the ratchet
tooth already existing inside the brake handle (this ratchet tooth is
connected to the button you push to release the hand brake) meshes with
the gear rack when the handle is in the near vertical position (hence the 40-
50 degree rotation) . In my car the hardened steel gear rack was removable
(1968 chassis) but I’m not sure if this is true of all VW chassis.
No, this specific type of disk brake kit doesn’t push the wheels further out. If
you use the adapters that bolt to the standard 4 or 5 bolt wheel hubs these
do increase the overall width from left bolt face to right bolt face by about 1-
1/2″ – 2″ total.
The Lafer has three side windows. The front cowl window is attached to a chrome rail
that fits into the door. This chrome rail (along with its attached front cowl window) can
be pulled out of the door completely. The door window slides in the chrome rail and
can move up and down (down to a certain degree only) via a window pull connected to a
friction pressure plate. This window can also be removed completely and if you remove
the chrome rail from the door you also have to remove this window. The third window
is a small semicircular rear window that fits behind the door and is held in place by a
handscrew on the inside of the rear panel. To remove this window you loosen the
handscrew and pull it straight out.
On the photo below you can see the side window as far down as it will go and also how
the top wraps around the side windows…
Front brake setup….
..and the rear which use standard VW beetle cables for the hand brake..
There seems to be many suppliers offering front disk brake kits and most of the ones
I looked at were made in Brazil. The rear brakes were more of a challenge because I
found most of them didn’t have a provision for the cable type hand brake. Some kits
offered a type of hydraulic lockout valve equivalent to leaving the brake pedal
depressed but I believe there were geared toward off road buggies. In the end I
decided to purchase front and rear brake kits from a company called “Airkewld”.
They sell several types of brakes and the ones I chose use aluminum hubs with bolt-
on adapters with let you use any type of bolt pattern you want. I went with a 5 x 4.75″
bolt pattern which seemed to be a very common size with many wheel manufacturers.
Had I gone with the standard VW 4 bolt pattern I would have purchased them from
cip1
