Bugat5speedUS project "Volki"

[Bug@5speed(US)]

Had a little, over the holiday to tackle a little more of the project. As you will see the rust is along the area where the pan head meets the tunnel. At this point it looks like I will either do as much as i can to cut and weld large patch sections, and not disrupt the geo-location of the suspension points, or do most the work to prep for a new pan head and have a local shop do it. Have had a few leads on some place here in NJ that should be able to tackle this.

Either way, quite the learning experience and it provides me with a some what theraputic way to stress relief from life.

Here are some pics of the damage, and removal of the napolean hat.. still a little ways to go to finish the one side, then we clean and wire wheel everything to see how much rust there is. Then take some measurements and determine what will be needed.

I will order the new napolean hat, and complete pan head once I get this cleaned up to better access the situation.

Happy new year and more to come.
VR
Alex

[Wally]

Good thing you cut that section open, as that inner hole under the napoleon hat has weakenend longitudinal stiffness and you want all of that back in a performance car!

[Bug@5speed(US)]

Wally,

Yep, good thing as it was not looking to good. Well my new best friend is my compressor and air chisel along with the cut off wheel and disks..

It would have not been good if I would have found out the hard way.. like if I pressed the brakes and the MC would have fallen off the Nap Hat, or something structurally would have collapsed.

Its the hard way to fixing her up, but enjoyable..

I just have to get this done so I can break out the little lincoln mig welder that I have.. I have had it for about 2 years and has just been collecting dust. But its time will come.

Wally you also bring up a good point about structure, and safety, and not taking short cuts that could bite you later.. Good refresher thought to keep in mind.
VR
ALex

[Clatter]

Y'know, you really can't take a car TOO much farther apart...
Maybe remove the e-brake handle, and you're there LOL!

[Bug@5speed(US)]

Clatter, LOL..

That was a good one.. I thought about it, but figured it would be nice to get blasted with the rest of the chassis..

I got some comments from my wife and co-workers, that were similiar.

I am happy to report, that the chassis was blasted, and parts are on order. I am awaiting pics so that I can post the progress. Until then, just waiting patiently.

Alex

[Bug@5speed(US)]

Well almost a year has passed since I updated this post. A lot has occurred, our family has been blessed with a second son, so a lot of time has been occupied between family and kids.

The chassis spent a lot of time at Metricautohaus, they did a superb job in my opinion. I visited there new shop this past Friday in Maryland, and was very pleased with the overall product. New Panhead, Floor Pans and Seam-welded for increased rigidity. The requirements upfront was that this was not going to be a show car, but I wanted good work done. Did not want to spend the extra man-hours to grind down welds to be a trailor queen. What I got is what I requested. We only had a little issue with the placement of the fuel line, as they took some inititiative, but forgot about my Bugat5speed conversion.. so one more small change needed.

So what started as an impulse buy on ebay, got taken down to the chassis, just short of removing the e-brake handle.. talk about requirements creep.. I had bought this telling my wife, it was a simple bolt-on affair..

So without further delay, I present to everyone the cleaned up and painted chassis, please enjoy..

Chassis, and conversion gearbox test fitting


My Fairlady "naked in all her glory"


Back Half


New Pan-head


Rear View


Rear View Bottom


More to come
Alex

[Bug@5speed(US)]

More pics

Front Pan Bottom


Close up Front Pan Bottom: You can see some of the patching..


Bottom Front: You can see some of the seam welding.. When we lifted and dropped the chassis you could really tell how much more rigid this welding makes the frame


Bottom


Reinforced Jack Points


Whole Bottom


Front Pan Head


Rear


Seat Rails: I am having them reinforce these, as I had initially planned on not using them.. I failed to realize the little space around the rails to install aftermarket seat rails


Ok, that is it for now, I should be picking up the frame in 2-3 weeks, after the fuel line is relocated, the seat rails stitch welded to the pans.. and a few little things..

Very excited, now I am in the processes of determining whether I want to replate/coat the old hardware bolts or go stainless steel..

VR
Alex

[wrenchnride247]

Very nice Alex... at this point look's like SS hardware to me

[Jim]

Excellent job Alex! You must be very pleased from the result!

Keep us updated..

[Bug@5speed(US)]

Yes,

Just got the great news that its ready for pick up.. Should be traveling the 3.5 hr trip in about 2 weeks to grab the chassis..


Alex

[Jim Andritsakos]

Any progress here Alex ?

Rgds,
Jim

[Bug@5speed(US)]

Been going slow but looking to pickup in the late spring or summer.
Life took a turn with wife loosing her job, one of my son'ss needed surgery and to add to our situation my mom got I'll and we had to take her in.
As the say if life gives you lemons, it's time to make lemonade.
Things have started to settle, just picked up some 944 NA struts for a coilover conversion as well as some other parts.
Looking fwd to late spring, hopefully everything continues to progress
Thanks for asking
Alex

[Bugged]

Alex,

Hope all is well, making progress with the bug and got the shifter set up... or so I think. It is connected, but hard to tell if I am engaging the correct gears.

[onixbonilla]

Hi Alex! Great to hear you are moving on your project. You have a very good attitude toward the difficulties life presented to you. Keep the good work!