Here's a pic of the rear end in its more or less complete form. Those are 4 piston Wilwood Dynalites. I'm thinking 6 piston up front, black again, and 13 inch rotors. I also have a mechanical brake caliper, but I'm going to have to fab up a bracket for that, it's not a bolt on type affair. Who needs an E brake anyway!

The hole for the strut was opened up a bit more than I would have liked, but it's all done in the name of science!

http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/247659.jpg

Jason

That was one scary looking rat nest you had going :eek: ! Glad you found an alternative with 034. That was the exact thing that made me nervous about my conversion, getting a harness/ecu.
It's really starting to come together!



Jeff-

Finished welding the 1.8t chassis components today. Next time I work on it, if it's not raining, I'll be doing sanding, rust removal, primer, and paint next time. I wish I had a TIG welder and knew how to TIG, my MIG welds are strong enough, but don't look so hot and cleaning up splatter is a PITA.

Then it's re-assembly, hoping that nothing got too warped in final welding, and pop the engine in.

Jason

Painted most of the superstructure this weekend. Almost everything fit after final welding, ALMOST. The main assembly pulled together with some triangulation welding quite severly, so I'm going to have to cut and reweld 2 tubes, fortunately the alignment of the superstructure isn't affected by these rascals. I hope someday I'll have welded enough that I'll know better, but for now I'll just muddle along. Everything else looks quite good.

http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/260452.jpg

http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/260453.jpg

I've got the aluminum coolant lines in position. Walt bent them for me, and they fit into the notch between the body and the pan so tightly they actually stay there without a bracket!

http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/260454.jpg

This is the flex line to connect the aluminum hard lines to the radiator. I'll be cutting the aluminum and then adding a flared lip to retain the hose clamp later.

http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/260455.jpg

http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/260456.jpg

Nice progress Jason :) By the looks of it you will be able to develop an almost bolt in kit for the engine too! Did you weld the aluminium pipes?

Rich

I thought that I followed and read hole your topic; but steering on the back??

WIebrand

I actually built this thing with the idea that it could be put on another car, but I doubt anyone would really want to buy a kit of this nature, it's just too involved. I still have to make the roll bar.

I had Walt do the aluminum welding. He bent them as well. I don't have a set of dies for my bender that small, and I don't have a TIG welder.

I'm going to try to get everything back together and then focus on the braking system for awhile. I kind of jump around from system to system to keep me entertained!

Jason

Yeah, all wheel steering, I didn't tell you? JUST KIDDING! It was just the easiest way to retain the correct dimensions. It will be replaced with something solid mounted in the future, but for now it will suffice.

Jason

Hahaha OKay

Just a shot in the dark here (I am still learning myself about all this malarky!), but wont the tie-rods(that is what they are called, no?) give you the ability to adjust toe-in, toe-out on the wheels? I do know that the steering rack-part will need to be a solid piece in the future though. I just thought that part of that solid piece might still have these tie-rods to allow you to make those adjustments?

Oh, btw, if I haven't introduced myself yet.... My name is Theo, lived in London before moving to France, born in S.Africa though(20km from Jo'burg). Got a 1303 Super(year?) that was refered to by a friend as a "rust bucket" that needs a resto. A '66 Type 3 Fastback and a CombiSplit is in the NEAR future! :D

Your rear suspension and coolant lines look awesome. I just tackled my coolant lines this past weekend. I didn't see your thread before I did it. Too bad, I think it would have helped. Except the Ghia is differant under the heater channels.

Great looking project. The guy I work for just recently bought a TIG welder. It's great. :cool: I had to either put bends in my coolant lines or cut and weld. The TIG welder worked perfect. My aluminum welding needs practice, but the welder was great. :laugh:

Keep the updates coming. :agree:

Hey Theo, great to meet you. One of my good friends here is from S.A., but he's got a disease called rugby. You havn't caught that have you?

Yeah, its just a toe adjustment. They are very common on the rear end of a lot of cars. The inner balljoint will stay in the same position, just the mount will be solid and stable.

Jason

Thanks for the kudos, I'm just muddling along. I need to get a TIG welder, but it's just down the list a bit, behind the plasma cutter!

Jason

We have a plasma cutter too. :laugh: Great for sheet metal. I've used it a bunch on my Ghia, really comes in handy.

I'm very lucky I have a place to work with the tools I have to use, and a place to keep my car while I work on it. :) My project would be just a dream if it wasn't for all of Tim's help.