Bugat5speedUS project "Volki"

[bow]

ya there is also an article floating around here somewhere about how to do a rough sel alignment im not tryin to tell you wat todo with your project just trying to help oh and also sears can do alignments

[Steve C]

Hi


Replacing the complete pan head is a factory procedure. I know 2 people who have fitted beam pan heads to super pans. It not easy but if you find a front section with a good pan head on it, it may be the way to go.

Personally I would go with another pan, the chassis number will not be a problem if you have a grinder and welder handy, wink wink.

You may find this article useful. http://www.clubvw.org.au/pioneering.htm

Steve

[Bug@5speed(US)]

Seems like after much deliberation, I will go ahead and order a pan head..

Tried looking around, but I will either patch this one, or just replace it.. and use a shop once I locate a good one to do the repair, due to the needing a frame rack.

Hopefully tonight I will order the parts.. wish me luch, and I will keep everyone posted.

As far as digging into my project hopefully this weekend.. but between Xmas parties, family parties, and everyone in my house getting sick, no time..

Now if these darn storms would avoid the NE this weekend that will be great, but it looks like we will see two.
VR
Alex

[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

[Bug@5speed(US)]

Hey Gents,

Been a long while. Weather has gotten warmer, so starting to get my motivation back..

Two things have taken its toll on me.. (1) The most important, being my son getting constantly sick.. We have been dealing with pnuemonias, upper resp infections, broncitis, and baby asthma.. It has worn on us, and left me unmotivated.. He is still sick, and looking at taking him to NYC to see other specialists in the area of lungs and allergies.. (2) I can't seem to catch a break with my chasis. I rushed into a buy in PA, because it looked good, but until i removed the undercoat/rubber stuff, I did not realize the extent of the damage that was repaired. I was informed of the repair, but did not realize how bad. So it seems I have two bad chasis. Not sure if I will use this, or kiss my hard earned money good bye.. Kinda getting fustrated with this project, and I have so many goodies.. I just need good chasis, since I want to track it, and safety is paramount..

Here are some pics of my bad luck.. Here in the NE of USA (NJ) its hard to find any thing decent.. and I don't have the time due to son and work to go out west or south, unless I got some trustworthy help.. I am all ears if someone has ideas.. So here is my misfortune.. I put some primer to protect it, but you should be able to see the damage and porocity due poor welding.. (HELP )

I would hate to destroy another bug to fix this one, but again I am open minded for the time being.. Any leads, info or thoughts are welcome..

Passenger Side tunnel


Driver side tunnel


Pan Head


One side of Pan


Inside tunnel: Not sure how that piece of flat stock is being used, but don't like it..



Misaligned lower pan head to napolean head

[Bug@5speed(US)]

Well it has been a while since I posted, so figured I would chime and and give a status..

1) First, the chassis above, now has no panhead, after spending many weeks cutting and thinking how to patch this thing up, finally decided to chop it off and see what other mischief the previous owner did. Well to my luck, it was worst than I expected, very poor job on the chassis, and would have potentially been fatal to the car and myself. Very dangerous. Lesson's Learned. I have found a race shop out in PA, that will weld properly a new pan head, so I will save some labor hours and prep my old chassis and see where that takes me. I tried finding a chassis in decent shape locally but it has been tough, and when I do find them they end up being from Ca, but haven't quite figured out how to ship it...

Here are a few pics of the pan head removed, and shots from inside the tunnel from the old chassis.

[Bug@5speed(US)]

Here as some shots of the orginal chassis with Pan head also removed.

I little surface rust, and some rust where the accelerator cable goes through but overall a "little" better.



http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...S/DSC06901.jpg



Life ain't throwing me a bone..
Alex

[Bug@5speed(US)]

This weekend, is I hope a weekend that I can celebrate about.

Finally got a chance to rent a u-haul trailor, and take the chassis down to Metric autohaus.

All I can say is a great set of guys. We talked for a few, and traded a few stories. Also talked about those bugat5speed conversion parts.

Chassis, is in for a new pan head, floors, prime and paint, and maybe a few other little details.. now I have to wrestle with color..keep it charcoal grey, or go 911 GT3 RS orange or green..

As far as Metric Autohaus here is their webiste: http://www.metricautohaus.com/metric...contactus.html

I spoke with both Heath and Rob, both great guys with a lot of years in the game.

They are located not to far from Baltimore, heading toward Annapolis.

I brought back some business cards, that I would be more than happy to mail to someone to distribute at one of the meetings, let me know.

Here are some pics of their shop and a few of the projects they got going on, plus mine on the lift.


I thought this was way cool



My chassis, in for inspection.


Some Porsche love..

[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