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  #46  
Old June 18th 2018, 18:13
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I've actually got a set of 944 Alloy arms, so I wouldn't need yours in trade. We can definitely work out something for my steel ones.
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  #47  
Old June 20th 2018, 08:36
H2OSB H2OSB is offline
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Errg! I really just wanted to get rid of those alloy trailing arms. Ok, when you get to the point where your steel arms have become free (of the car), let me know.
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  #48  
Old June 20th 2018, 16:30
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So I pulled the car out onto the driveway to blast and grind any areas where I suspect there would be rust I need to deal with. At this stage I’ve only done the outside bits, and at times I’m quite excited about not finding a horror story, and other times I’m like “ugh, not as good as I hoped”. Don’t get me wrong, this is much better than the other cars I’ve looked at, but not as good as I initially thought. On the plus side, the C-Pillars are no surprise. I bought the car knowing that they were going to be a problem.


Easy fix, no welding required…






Couldn’t blast in here with my quick setup, but I also have a whole second replacement section so the rust isn’t a problem.








This area was a bit of a surprise. It looked very minor with the black paint over it, but once I started blasting the glass went right through it.


I knew about the bits above the trim line…but the rot continues down below.


I see major surgery in my future :P


In general, I haven’t seen late model cars rot so close to the rain gutter, without showing rot higher up. I’m not sure how deep into this C pillar I need, or want, to cut into …but I think after fixing the passenger side I’ll have a good handle on how much to open it up.


This will be an easy fix.


I think this heater channel will end up being a patch job, not a full channel.

Doesn’t look like I took photos of the rear apron, but it’s a 50/50 mix of cheer and disappointment. The apron is straight and sold, but the area covered by the deck lid has some very rough surface rust pitting. I will see what can be done to fix it, but I might be looking for a new apron to graft in. Haven’t touched any of the interior rust, which is mostly in the C-Pillar or luggage tray. Will fix the outside first, and then worry about the inside of the car. Also haven’t looked too hard at the usual rust in front of the dash, as I’m not sure how much of the factory dash I’m keeping.

-Dave
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  #49  
Old June 24th 2018, 11:52
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Amazingly, I found a parts car in my tiny town that I could cut solid sheet metal from...





-Dave
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  #50  
Old June 24th 2018, 18:20
H2OSB H2OSB is offline
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Moss does NOT grow on you sir.
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  #51  
Old June 25th 2018, 14:58
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Hahaha, well I gotta work on projects when I'm home and not traveling for work. Once mid-summer hits, I won't get any time until winter.

Got a few hours in the shop yesterday, and managed to rough-cut most of my repair panels. Turns out the inside wall of my parts piece was rotten, so I won't be able to fix the inside panels I cut with metal from this car. Hmmmm...that was a mis-calculation on my part.





Hopefully tonight I'll start shaping the pieces, and maybe start tacking them into the car. At this stage I also need to decide if I'm going to run trim on the car, or weld up the holes. My gut reaction is to weld up the holes, and run vinyl trim if I want the look. But the front quarter panel has that seam and an indent under the trim that I would then need to deal with. The easy way out is to of course keep the trim...
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  #52  
Old July 19th 2018, 14:10
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Just in case anyone is wondering...the car hasn't fallen on me in the shop.

Rally Bug lost a valve seat, and I had to do a quick engine teardown to get the parts list before I headed off on some travels. First stop was American Rallycross at Circuit of the Americas, followed by four days of route planning in Texas for a Hagerty event. Now I'm in California for four days of route planning and some VW shop visits, then I'm off to Nebraska to find the twistiest roads I can find. Apparently after Nebraska I get to go home, for a full three days before flying off again for American Rally Cross and World Rally Cross in Quebec. Whew!

...I did say it was going to be a long-term project, right?
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'71 Type 1 - Rally Project
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  #53  
Old December 15th 2018, 04:18
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I did say I'd be pretty busy with work, right? Geesh. I'll admit, I've been avoiding the project for a while, as putting panels back into the car is basically a make or break it item on the shell of the car. I've done a bunch of work to the '58, and started prepping for an engine build for it this winter. I have started ordering a bunch of parts for the German Look, figuring if I can't get stoked on doing the body work, I'll start on some of the mechanicals...but, none of the parts have arrived so....

I'm going to have to make some new patches, as the donor car was rotten in the same area...but I figure I might as well make patterns that are as close as possible.


I'm probably going to have to make this one out of fresh steel. I cut it too small, and the surface rust was more than surface. Of course, it's all curves...great.


Oh hey! I got one right! :P


Well...#%&@. We're out of gas.


Won't be able to get back to it until after Christmas.

-Dave
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'71 Type 1 - Rally Project
'58 Type 1 - I bought an early!?!
'73 Type 1 - Proper Germanlook project
'68 Type 1 - Interm German 'look' project
'75 Type 1 - Family Heirloom
'93 Chevy 3500 pickup - Cummins Swap
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  #54  
Old December 16th 2018, 23:15
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Hi

Nice work. I'm not sure how to explain this but on all my cars I cut the very bottom of the section where A pillar and front 1/4 meet, VW put a small hole in there but it can easily block up. The section I'm talking about is where you describe the photo as "I think this heater channel will end up being a patch job, not a full channel."

Steve
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  #55  
Old December 22nd 2018, 12:06
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Digging this project!

FWIW, there are plenty in Europe that would LOVE to have so little rust to deal with..

One thing that happened to my car again and again was little surprise pinholes popping up repeatedly.
Any undiscovered little rusty spots can pop back up through your new paint after a couple of years.
It became quite frustrating to keep finding them.
Not until I got the entire car blasted did it give me a chance to properly strategize WRT patch pieces and where.

It's also nice to skip the dusty step of removing paint to prep for weld.


Not sure it's an option in your area, but,
Nowadays there are a lot of these mobile wet blasting rigs,
They come to your place, and do the entire shell in your driveway in one day.
Since it's wet, there's no dust or mess, no panel warping, and no neighbor complaints.
(OK, some neighbors will complain about anything..)

You want to have most of the heavy undercoat and seam-seal out of their way first.
My favorite for that stuff is a 'twisted knot' wheel on an angle grinder, FWIW.


It would have saved me basically an entire summer of miserable blasting work in my own home-made white-trash tarp-garage blasting "booth".

I'm still coughing up little bits of lung in the morning...
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  #56  
Old December 22nd 2018, 22:18
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Thanks! I wish I could spend more time on it, but making money to pay for the project is a good idea as well :P

I moved to an island three years ago, and while its a very large island...I don't have the contacts and people I did in my old town. I haven't actually looked to see if there is blasting available in the area, but I'm sure there is. I know there is a C02 blasting guy in my town, which is super cool, but haven't looked into the pricing. The big problem is I live in a very wet town, a rainforest actually. And even though I have a heated garage, it's not great to leave things in their bare state. Not to mention it rains from October through to May...so I can't take the car for blasting unless I rent an enclosed truck, or wait till summer. But yeah, I should probably consider just getting it done.

I did laugh at your UK comment. I know I'm complaining about a "rusty car", but man it could be so much worse. My '75 is a perfect example of that!

-Dave
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'71 Type 1 - Rally Project
'58 Type 1 - I bought an early!?!
'73 Type 1 - Proper Germanlook project
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  #57  
Old November 23rd 2019, 23:22
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Whew! Almost a year, a British car project, 18 driving events and I’m back in the garage for a little bit. Crazy how time disappears with work and the house. Reality has set in a little bit when it comes to this car, I simply just don’t have the time to devote to it like I did on the Rally Bug when I built it.

So, today I took stock of the situation to try and figure out what I should do. As Classic Car Adventures continues to grow, I’ve had the opportunity to drive a number of excellent classic cars, and my calendar of events keeps growing. Hagerty has me put together a large number of their “Hagerty Touring Series” events, and I put together The Drive Home with the LeMay museum. With it, and perhaps a little bit of age, I’m less inclined to build another stripped-down race car that needs hearing protection to drive. I’ve really enjoyed some 911’s on events, and even a 914 with a smaller motor. You could talk to the co-driver without problem, the heat works, and one of the 911s even had a stereo that added to the enjoyment. Hmmmmm…

Okay, so I have a relatively rust free 73 shell. I’ve bought all the bits for converting a Subaru transmission to work in the Beetle. I even just retired my 2.5RS sedan, by upgrading my winter car to the wagon. I really wanted to take the time to put the EZ30 3.0L six cylinder engine I have, but I think I need to be realistic about my time and go with the easy option. It’s just a SOHC 2.5L in the 2005 sedan, but it will drop in pretty easy.



I really didn’t want to use the Porsche brake setup and wheels, for the sole reason that “everyone” does it. But, reality is setting in. I already own the kit, it’s already bolted to the car, and it we know it works. The AP-Racing callipers I have stored away in the shop? Yeah, they would be damned cool…and I might still decide to use them…but I have to re-engineer the mounts from the ground up, and I checked on the price of pads. Oh-my. Okay, for the moment lets concede that we’ll use the Porsche setup thats already on the car.


Suspension? Well, I’m not overly stoked with the MaXX struts (I’d have gone full coil-over)…the truth is I have adjusted the height of the Rally Bug _maybe_ five times over the past 5 years. Honestly, it basically runs the 2” drop at all times…and even if I got rally crossing, I’m often too busy or lazy to raise it up! Okay, maXX struts will do just fine on the curved-window. So how about the rear?

The car I have is equipped with 944 steel rear arms, and what I believe to be a combination of early 944 and 996 brake setup. But hidden on my property I have that alloy-arm rear setup. Early 944 Alloy arms. Hmmm…that should also have some nice 944 torsion bars in it! Okay, stripped all that down tonight, need to pop the wheel bearings out and do some brake research to figure out exactly what transfers over, and if I need to order anything.



So, I think, after a long period to decide, I want a car I can drive without hearing protection. Something that is as fun as the Rally Bug on tarmac, but has heat and some creature comforts. I will need to toss some “Dave” into it though, and already have some bits decided upon. You’ll see another Hargett shifter in the car, presuming Mark is still in business. I also picked up a pedal set from the Subaru Racing program I do some work with. It uses under-foot master cylinders, which will make it a heck of a lot easier to mount over the Rally Bug’s setup. One thing I don’t have is a balance bar setup for it, which is pretty important. It also needs to be raised a minimum of a 1/2” off the floor, possibly an inch, but it’s already pretty “tall” for a Beetle. Going to change the driving position significantly!





-Dave
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'71 Type 1 - Rally Project
'58 Type 1 - I bought an early!?!
'73 Type 1 - Proper Germanlook project
'68 Type 1 - Interm German 'look' project
'75 Type 1 - Family Heirloom
'93 Chevy 3500 pickup - Cummins Swap
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  #58  
Old November 25th 2019, 01:02
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Spent some time today digging around my storage shed, figured I must have a steering wheel adapter for an OMP wheel in there, and I know I have a heater core to some random projects. Found both, neither will work for the '73. Must be a wheel adapter for an Audi, which is also where the heater core comes from. It may still be useable, but I think Summit Racing has some much better / easier units to incorporate into the car.

Mounted up fenders to the left side, so I could see how much wider I need to go for fenders with this wheel/suspension setup. These are 17x7, ET55...so the fenders would work with wheels of the correct offset, or I order wider fenders (which was always the original plan).


Hmmm, well, might as well start prepping to see what the aluminum arms look like?! Tore down the aluminum arms and started cleaning them up, and tore down the left side of the rear suspension. Realized I didn't dig the 944 rear axles out of my storage shed, so I will need to go back when it's light out to find those. Also need to borrow a buddy's press to finish getting the bearings out, I can't manipulate the arms correctly to use my press. Not a lot of work accomplished for a Sunday, but I've got 4 trees coming down around the house this week and had to prep for it. There is going to be a lot of log splitting in my future :P





-Dave
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'73 Type 1 - Proper Germanlook project
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  #59  
Old November 26th 2019, 18:05
H2OSB H2OSB is offline
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Dave--

I all honesty, I never look at coilovers for the adjustability, I use them for the additional tire/wheel space. That said, when I autocrossed my '73, I did crank the front down a bit because I was too lazy to want to reindex the rear a little.

H2OSB
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  #60  
Old December 7th 2019, 01:46
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Started working on the seat options and driving position fitment for the car. I’m constantly flip-flopping between fixed back race seats, which will then require a cage and getting some street seats which will allow me to cage less and have a back seat. Just when I thought I had decided on a new set of Cobra Imola seats, my good friend Andrew reminded me I already have a scalpel car…and I should “go with a more adult solution”. He has a point…and also has a collection of cars, some with cages and race seats, so his advice was coming from experience.

Funny enough, I gravitate toward the street 911 when I visit, not the caged flavour-of-the-month.

Regardless of seat choice, I definitely decided that the stock seat mounts are coming out, and I’ll create a custom solution. The carpets were going to have to be custom anyways, so no big deal here. Why are the stock mounts coming out? I’d like to sit in the same position as the rally bug, with the possibility of having the seat an inch or so further back. With the height of the centre seat mount, I can’t get the seats down to the same level, so it’s gotta come out. As a bonus, we actually need those bits for the coupe Quattro project!

As I don’t yet have master cylinders for the pedal box, I’m guessing a little on how it will need to be setup. The big issue is the Balance bar, which mounts at the end of the brake pedal. It’s obvious on this setup that its designed to be below the mounting surface of the pedal box, but how low? Without a balance bar to test with, I can’t be sure. I’m guessing I need about 1/2” to 1” space, and that creates a new issue. My size 12 feet hit the bottom of the fuel take bubble.





I could sink the floor on the drivers side, but ugh…the whole underside of the pan has been finished with bedliner as it was originally planned for a stock car. Fortunately, I got a text message this week that a balance bar has been found at the team shop, and so I’ll know before Christmas what sort of clearance I need. The team has also found a collection of good, used, master cylinders…which should save me a boat load of money. The sizing isn’t exactly what I wanted, but we’ll see how they feel.





Once the master cylinders and balance bar arrive, I can solve the pedal situation and figure out where I’m going with the floorpan. In the meantime, my house has decided it’s jealous of all the garage work, and guess who’d doing a bathroom renovation due to water leak!?! Wahoo!
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