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Old June 5th 2004, 14:15
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Bill K. Bill K. is offline
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Questions about Bill K.s ride

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Old June 5th 2004, 15:00
Bill K.'s Avatar
Bill K. Bill K. is offline
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Introducing Bill's First Car

Hey everybody,

I've been using this site for about a year now and have learned alot from you all. I've always wanted a Porsche. But building a GL inspired bug has proven to be more rewarding.

I'm restoring my first car, a 70 bug, that I've owned for 20 years and driven daily for 15 years. It's something I've always wanted to do. Over the years I just got by with fixing whatever was totally broken. I stopped driving it daily when my twins were born and opted for a safer highway capable rig. Now the bug will be a weekender and evening cruiser. No doubt I'll take the long way to work here and there too.

Currently, the chassis, suspension, brakes, drive train, and body are done. The body is at the paint shop now. My gauges are being restored and electrical systems are on order. In a month I should be into final assembly.

Thanks again for all the great ideas and information. Your questions and comments are welcome.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg chassis.JPG (61.9 KB, 203 views)
File Type: jpg drivers heater channel.JPG (79.5 KB, 170 views)
File Type: jpg glimmer of hope.JPG (68.3 KB, 212 views)
File Type: jpg 16X6 Fuchs.JPG (79.2 KB, 173 views)
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Old June 5th 2004, 17:58
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boygenius boygenius is offline
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Nice looking car... :agree:

How do you like your RLR bolt in cage...
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I love my money pit, uhm, err, I mean my car.
1969 beetle in the works... 2.0 type 4 DTM...
2004 Suzuki GSX-R 1000 crashed
www.volksport.net Volksport Kfer Gruppe
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Old June 5th 2004, 20:52
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Bill K. Bill K. is offline
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RLR Roll/Traction Bar

The RLR roll bar is really nice. I don't plan on racing much, it's for my kids (SUV protection).

I went full-on with the chomoly construction, dual door bars, and traction bar. It installed easily without seats in the car. The traction bar bolts onto the curved sides of the rear transmission bracket and to the bottom of the luggage compartment where the rear bars mount (sandwiching the skin). Once installed, the seats drop right in. With stock seat, there is about 1" clearance to the door bar and tilt is a little constricted due to the high sides of the 70 seats. Procar Rally seats have a little more side room, can move all the way back, and tilt further back before hitting the verticle part of the main bar. The door bar takes a little getting used to when getting in and out, but not a big deal. I'm having it powdercoated for a durable finish. I don't have a rear seat. If you did, be sure to warm up and stretch out good before attempting the vault and twister.

Thanks for the :agree:
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Old June 5th 2004, 21:10
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boygenius boygenius is offline
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Cool thanks for the information... I too want a roll cage/bar more for protection against idiot drivers than for racing... For some reason people want to park their cars in my engine compartment...
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I love my money pit, uhm, err, I mean my car.
1969 beetle in the works... 2.0 type 4 DTM...
2004 Suzuki GSX-R 1000 crashed
www.volksport.net Volksport Kfer Gruppe
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Old June 5th 2004, 22:03
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Bill K. Bill K. is offline
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Rear end safety

Rear enders in pre72 bugs can rip the seat off the rails and send you head first into the rear window as the car gets shot forward. Procar seat rails bolt to the original pan rails and are way more robust than the original. The tilt mechanism is also beefier. Reinforcing the rails-to-pan welds is also a good idea.

Another rear end safety mod is a third tail light and rapid flashing brake light module. The blink really caught my attention on a New Beetle I saw with this flasher module.

Nothing beats luck with good defensive driving.
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Old August 17th 2004, 23:41
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Bill K. Bill K. is offline
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Fired UP

Cranked up my new RAT2270C today after weeks of full-on assembly after the paint got done. Very gratifying to rev it up, feel the heat, and breath the exhaust. Can't wait to feel the G's. Still have a bit more to do before I drive it.







Huge thanks go out to Jake Raby and crew for an awesome powerplant. :bowdown:

Last edited by Bill K.; October 23rd 2004 at 10:32.
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Old August 18th 2004, 00:25
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boygenius boygenius is offline
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Your car looks better every time I see it. Great job Bill... :agree:
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I love my money pit, uhm, err, I mean my car.
1969 beetle in the works... 2.0 type 4 DTM...
2004 Suzuki GSX-R 1000 crashed
www.volksport.net Volksport Kfer Gruppe
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  #9  
Old August 18th 2004, 16:56
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you work a hell of a lot quicker than me. so did you follow instructions better than i did? i just discovered (now that the engine is already in) that i was supposed to do some fitting of the front tin BEFORE the engine went in. augh.

looks like i have to decide where i am going with the filter location as well also. i have to find a home for it somewhere for the same reason (BAS exhaust).
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'73 2316 TIV GL Standard Bug (quasi)


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Old August 18th 2004, 20:24
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Bill K. Bill K. is offline
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I'm really tired -- 8p to 1a every nite for weeks since the paint was done... Running on sisu. The launch down the street this morning helps a lot.

DTM tin -- tricky with or without instructions. I pre-fit before installing, then tweeked some more after installing. I did this after replacing my rear clip and before paint to make sure the engine would fit. I had to clearance/bend the lower lip of the apron for the header to clear. The car had been rear ended, so the body was tweeked in the left rear. The body shop pulled it back into alignment so the deck lid would close right. Now header clearance is great.

Anyway, there is a lot of work to do to the side tin to fit around the intake manifolds. I used a hole saw to rough cut then a grinder to finish fit. Mine ended up a lot narrower at the apex than the kit starts with. Jake says the kits that way for compatibility with other intakes. The engine seal gives a lot of room for slop and Jake said some gaps are fine. I measured my engine bay width, cut a cardboard template and used that to gauge how much to remove from the side tin. When I have the engine out next time, I'm definately going to open up a couple holes and use fender washers to cover up the misfits. The double over lap ones in the rear corners were the toughest for me. The shroud tabs also needed trimming to fit the breather hoses at the heads, so take that into account when installing the nut inserts. Then I had to clearance the corners of the intake manifold flange next to the breather hoses to install the carbs.

You can probably trim the side tin with the engine in. Hopefully you have the rear tin attached to the engine... pull the engine if you don't . For me, getting the engine in/out was easy compared to fitting the tin.

Filter adapter -- mounting to the wheel well was simple enough. I had brake line clearance issues to the left muffler when I lowered the car to the ground, but I re-routed the line. I have stock trailing arms with CB disks, so the Porsche setup probably won't have a problem. Just be aware of wheel travel when mounting the filter adapter, etc. I'm going to add 2 +/- inch spacers to fill the +3 fenders, so I'll have more muffler clearance but it's fine as is. On STF, I'm getting suggestions to add a filter rock shield. I'm thinking about a "fender inside the fender" to guard the filter bottom and side while still giving access to change the filter without removing the shield.

BAS -- Mounting the trany brackets is just as much fun as the engine tin. Starter bracket took bending to clear the traction bar and eyes on your fingers to fit the link fastener. Left side bracket involved shortening the mounting stud, dimpling the frame horn, backing the trany side plate studs out, washer shims, clamp welding. At this point I was in another world, so I just took it one challenge at a time always with the "do it right" montra keeping me from flipping out. I used exhaust clamps to hold the three lateral seams together and will monitor for backfires before I commit to welding.

Take it one step at a time, there are no short cuts... The racing starts when the car is done AND your happy with it.
Bill
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Old August 18th 2004, 20:50
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augh. sure you don't want to come over and take care of that for me? i am just so ready to drive this thing. nothing new, but time is running short on me making a show with the car. would rather get it right though and refuse to take too much quality time away from the kids over it. looks like i am a bachelor all weekend so maybe i can make up some ground.

your car is really looking good and coming along nicely. you really belong in the VKG.
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Old August 19th 2004, 04:17
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davygrvy davygrvy is offline
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Thumbs up

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill K.
BAS -- Mounting the trany brackets is just as much fun as the engine tin. Starter bracket took bending to clear the traction bar and eyes on your fingers to fit the link fastener. Left side bracket involved shortening the mounting stud, dimpling the frame horn, backing the trany side plate studs out, washer shims, clamp welding. At this point I was in another world, so I just took it one challenge at a time always with the "do it right" montra keeping me from flipping out. I used exhaust clamps to hold the three lateral seams together and will monitor for backfires before I commit to welding.
I so understand.. I ploughed through my BAS install in a day, for which I should have slowed down, but was pressured by a deadline.

Deadlines suck. Keep that montra going! :agree:
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Old October 16th 2004, 18:18
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Bill K. Bill K. is offline
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Web site online

Here's my web site on the project. I'll post here when I make updates.

Last edited by Bill K.; October 23rd 2004 at 10:36.
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  #14  
Old October 23rd 2004, 11:31
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Bill K. Bill K. is offline
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Reborn

Jake got me the short block back this week and it's running again. I assembled the top end, shroud, etc. This time I have a forged flywheel with Kennedy stage 1 pressure plate and gold disk. It's lightened to 12 lbs.

Before I had a lightened stock cast bus flywheel. That's the puppy that broke doing a high rev launch. The rear of the flywheel o-ring groove welded to the crank, the crank was bent, and the case main bore was toasted. Jake did me right with the repair and did it quickly. He even dialed in the timing to get the engine to fireup over the phone at 3 am on the top of a 20 ft ladder.

The reinstall went well as I was able to fix a few things that weren't quite right the first time. Also, I added a hyfire VI-AL and set the rev limit to 6250 as the engine stops putting out power at about 6300 rpm. I got a little toasty adjusting the timing as the rubber boot on the coil wire slipped down and exposed the terminal a bit. When I grabbed the distributor - ZAP. It's all fun and games replacing your engine until you get hy-fired.

The gauges are installed and looking sweet. There is a problem with the LED used for the alternator idiot light. When wired throught the LED, the alternator doesn't turn on. I'm using a stock incandescent bulb for now and will try wiring them in parrallel today. Maybe the LED needs an extra resistor in line for the regulator to fire up the field. Any insight on what the the internally regulated Bosch 75 amp alternator needs to excite the field?

My SPA dual gauge for CHT is not working right either. When the ignition is on it reads right. When the engine runs, it reads erratic or nothing. I've done some preliminary trouble shooting and it seems to be related to the probes I got for KS Avionics. Bill Simpkinson at KS Avionics is a great guy and knows thermocouples very well. We'll get it figured out.

It's rolling on a set of space savers I got from eldavid while the Fuchs get restored at Weidmans Wheels in Oravile, Ca. Harvey and Sue are really nice people too. He's been doing Fuchs forever and is one of the best. His wife, Sue, paints the center caps. I drove up there with my three kids to drop off the wheels and tires thinking I would open the door to the van, roll the wheels to the front door and bolt with the kids screaming, etc. But instead, Sue invited the screaming kids inside to color, play with toys, etc until her grandkids showed up. I was free to take the shop tour with Harvey and learn about Fuchs. He's into 356's and wants to put a T4 in one. I sent him Jake Raby's way. The new wheels are going to be awesome.

The car looks crazy with the space savers and low pro tires. I'm not sure I can get it out of the driveway without scraping the header. I had to shim the front wheels as a pair of the wheels from eldavid don't bolt up tight. WTF? The bosses around the holes aren't as tall as the other pair so the lug nuts bottom out before the rim is seated on the hub.

I've got the carbon fiber bug. Looking forward to an air dam, running boards, gravel guards, roof spoiler, and headlight rings from CarbonJoe. I'm going with the dark blue kevlar/carbon fiber weave. Joe's another person who makes this hobby a lot of fun.

Anyway, that's my blog of the month. Back on full throttle,
Bill
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Old October 23rd 2004, 13:16
eldavid eldavid is offline
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Ah, now I see the wheel issue more clearly. I have a set of these bottomless lugs: http://geocities.com/ex1zee28/PorscheLugs.htm This way you won't have to shim the front wheels. Come by and pick them up at your earliest convenience.
-emerson
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