Time attack beetle

[ricola]

Coming on nice and quickly I presume you cut through the torsion housing to move the trans that far forwards or did it fit over the top? Have you tied the front mount in to the chassis and body so you can still seperate the two?

I'd have thought it would be easier to mod your rear mount than relocate a turbo..

Rich

[Humble]

Rich,
I didn't have to cut the torsion bar tube and I really didn't want to. Since I raised everything the nose cone sits right over the torsion bar tube. The front mount is tied only to the body so I can still seperate body and pan. As far as the turbo goes, it's much easier to relocate the turbo than to change the stress bearing design. I wanted as much strength in the brace as I could get with as little tubing possible to keep weight down but I was also hoping the turbo would still fit So the next step is fabbing a new up-pipe where the flange is even with the top of the engine brace.

[Mikey]

My bad for not keeping up. This looks Very interesting.

Originally Posted by Humble

Originally Posted by ricola

Coming on nice and quickly I presume you cut through the torsion housing to move the trans that far forwards or did it fit over the top? Have you tied the front mount in to the chassis and body so you can still seperate the two?

I'd have thought it would be easier to mod your rear mount than relocate a turbo..

Rich

Does that picture answer your question? It looks like he removed some metal. Where the inspection plate cover sits.

I'll post more when I'm not in school.

[Mikey]

Humble, I have a question. I saw where the cross brace you made attaches to the body. Is it welded? That is going to be very difficult to remove the transmission, if it is welded. You could weld your brace to a plate, then weld another plate to the body. 1/4" is probably be as thick as I'd go. Then you can bolt the two plates together. Also you can come in and tie your cage to the rear brace you made, to where it's removeable without removing the whole cage.

I was also wondering about your transmission. The trasmision is going to want to twist. Do you think those two bolts on the top will be enough? It's going to want to sheer them off. Maybe a strap over the tranny and tie the bottom into the frame horns?? You'll be grateful in the end if you make as many parts as you can removable with out an arm and a leg.

If you need a visual of these I can take a picture of what I'm talking about. Or kinda draw one with paint.

It's looking good. I see a lot of good ideas being used. Keep up the good work.

[Humble]

Mikey,
I actually thought of a lot of your questions when I was planning everything out. I thought I had put in a more detailed pic showing the lower part of the mount but it looks like I spaced it. No worries, here's a few pics that show the bottom of the rear brace. For the most part, if it touches the body it's welded. I wasn't comfortable with a bolt in setup so the nose cone mount and the rear brace are welded to the body. The tranny saddle is still removeable and it bolts to the bottom part of the rear brace to tie them to the frame horns. The tabs that stick out actually bolt to the stock motor mount locations on the ej20 and those will take the torsional forces.







Is this kinda what you had in mind? It does take a little shimmying to get the tranny out but not as much as you'd think. Just pull the hanger bolts, free up the nose cone and see-saw the tranny as you pull it out. Doesn't take any longer than stock.

[Mikey]

I'm sure having the horns tied to the engine will help. Yeah, if compared to stock it takes about the same amount of time. Then I'm sure it's good to go.

[Steve C]

Hi

Good work. Are you going to modify those headers for more ground clearance? Im going to stick with the stock ones until Im looking for that last bit of HP.

Steve

[Chris Percival]

I have these seats in my bug. Similar to yours, but narrower..



http://www.cobraseats.com/offroad/aqua.php