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  #31  
Old September 29th 2011, 09:28
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Tack some wire sheathing for plastered walls (the stuff that looks like a shallow top hat section) as a cross on the panel. The sheathing is ~20g and galvanized, so it will be light and durable. that should take some of the drumming out of it.
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  #32  
Old September 29th 2011, 21:32
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Looks great!! Very detailed for a race car.
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  #33  
Old September 30th 2011, 02:14
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Thank you! Yes, I'm definitely going a bit overboard on the detail, fit and finish considering its going to be a race car. But I really do believe it needs to be done "perfect", and then you go race it and worry about the gaps as they open up. The nice part is I'm not really putting this together blind. Most of the changes, ideas or modifications come from issues I found with my White car, or things I had on my Audi Rally car that I miss. Every once and a while I stand back in the garage and remember that I could very well wrap this thing around a tree come Feb. But then, if I just built it quickly to get it running I'd never be happy with it. We might bend it down the road, but it sure as heck is going to start off perfect!





...so my days this week have been wake up, work for the day, walk downstairs to the garage and Cut/Grind/Weld/Grind...yawn. Not much to write about! I can say, however, that the firewall is finally "in" the car. I've got a gap to work out filling on the driver's side, but otherwise it's fully welded. Pretty sure my garage has been in a permanent haze of smoke for the past week. In the first photo above, it does look weird like I made it from two pieces, but the bottom piece is on an angle, joining the rear engine seal piece to the new firewall which is set in by 3". Just a strange photo angle.



With that pretty much complete I started in on the luggage area again. It was a super productive session that solved a whole pile of problems. I started out in the back luggage area welding the last support piece for my luggage floor. I have a bad habit when welding of only wearing my left glove. I'm right handed, always work in those blue nitrile gloves, and just seem to prefer welding without the big heavy glove on my trigger hand. Well, that habit will be stopping as of tonight. After the support was welded in, I turned to get out of the bug and where did put my ungloved hand? Yeah, right on the piece I just welded. I have a nice 1"x2" blister on my palm to remind me about wearing welding gloves now :P After losing an hour and a half to first-aid and pain, I gauzed it up and headed into the garage. Kind of ironic that I spent the entire night having to work with a welding glove on that hand, as the padding helped!

Welding up sheet metal, is starting to seem kinda boring...so I figured "Hey, lets cut more out!"



That hole was filled with a nice little 90deg shelf.



Which gives me just enough clearance that I can get the dry sump tank mounted. It's tucked away for daily use, but still accessible for cleaning...and I can use the filler system I've been planning. It just sort of hit me tonight on how to do it, and the result was this. With that sorted I was able to work out which side the oil-cooler will go on (passenger, behind the dry sump tank). I'm going to run a dual NACA duct in the passenger side window, which will be ducted down over the oil cooler. This will give me the fresh-air flow I need, most likely without the need for a fan. I've ordered an oil cooler and fan combo, however, but I can always leave the fan off. Should I decide in winter I want to use it for some cabin heating, it's as simple as having the fan push air into the cabin, through the oil cooler (obviously NACA duct will be removed in this case). But as I just sourced a working pump for my gas heater, I'm likely to install it in this car and not worry about the oil cooler for interior heat.



The final piece of the puzzle is the Accusump. I've got to buy a little bit of steel tomorrow, but I think I'm going to set the Accusump in where it's sitting now. I can run the valve to behind the e-brake, and remote the gauge in a spot where I can see it before engine shut down.

Locating the whole oiling system has been giving me stress and headaches for days, so it's nice to suddenly have it all fall into place. The Dry Sump shelf *might* end up interfering with a modification I have planned for the new floorpan, but I took a gamble on this one. With it located where it is I should be able to squeeze in the factory heat ducts, and clear the pan modification...if I can't squeeze it in, I'll have to move the shelf 1" to the left and lose the factory heat.

I do realize that it might seem odd that I'm worried so much about heat. I've talked about using the oil cooler, retaining the factory heat and installing a gas heater. Here in BC where I live, I have lots of options for ice racing in the winter and plenty of fantastic winter rallies. My fully caged Audi quattro, which had factory heat but no carpet/headliner/insulation was just borderline acceptable rallying through the early hours of a winter morning. A happy co-driver makes for a good finish...for whatever reason they seem to hate freezing cold drafts ;-)

I have a few more welds needed to fully seal off the firewall, plus I have to make the floor for the luggage area. But the starter, hard-to-reach engine bolt and clutch adjustments are all easily accessible now.

-Dave
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  #34  
Old September 30th 2011, 21:36
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What I had planned on doing to hold my apron in was weld in sheet metal like a washer where the cut outs for the fender bolts are so it was locked in place by the fender bolts but I found the pinching effect worked so well I left it that way.

These days I have a fibreglass apron which has enough of a lip there the fender bolts pass through it.
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  #35  
Old September 30th 2011, 23:25
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Quote:
Originally Posted by owdlvr View Post
After the support was welded in, I turned to get out of the bug and where did put my ungloved hand? Yeah, right on the piece I just welded. I have a nice 1"x2" blister on my palm to remind me about wearing welding gloves now :P After losing an hour and a half to first-aid and pain, I gauzed it up and headed into the garage. Kind of ironic that I spent the entire night having to work with a welding glove on that hand, as the padding helped!
You're not alone. A couple of weeks ago I was welding on my on the aluminum water lines for under my ghia and right after I took off my gloves I noticed they weren't straight. So I laid my left palm only a couple of inches from the weld. SURPRISE! It's hot too.

Keep the pictures coming!
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  #36  
Old October 1st 2011, 04:02
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...oh, I'm not stopping! I actually think I might be more stoked for this project then I ever was about my Audi Rally car. It's so nice starting on the car from scratch and doing it "all right" from the beginning. The next steps were started by capping off some sections of 1" square tubing...



Which was quickly massaged into the rear sheetmetal, welded in and voila! Accusump mounts



I still need to finish a few welds in the back seat and seal off some gaps, but I'm starting to feel a little burned out on this part so I needed to move elsewhere to keep the stoked level going. I popped off the front hood, measured around a bit and started welding after what felt like a good hour of angle-grinding. So far I've burnt out a Princess Auto Angle Grinder (Harbor Freight, but in Canada) and now my Mastercraft unit is starting to sound like the bearings are going. But who cares, I'm making progress!









The bar does have the added benefit of really tying the front end together, but I'm not sure that I'm close enough to the factory suspension bracing to really make a "strut-bar" like difference. I can certainly make the front end move quite a bit just by grabbing onto the bar though. Moving the bar anywhere else would have meant the hood wouldn't close due to the tire, or using a bent bar instead of straight one. I also need to be concerned about the Drivers-side strut top as the Gas Heater mounts right in around that area. I haven't measured or mocked up the gas heater yet, so I could still have an issue. From memory it's the intake pipe that will be a problem, as well as the 180deg elbow...but I figure I can find my way around both of those if required.




As you can see the front hood seal strip has clearly seen better days. No idea how this one got as bad as it is, or why someone would repaint a virtually rust-free car and not repair this first?


A chisel makes quick work of the spot welds, then it's simply a matter of wire wheel and grinder to clean it up. As suggested on here, I'll run with a Mexican beetle front hood seal, which eliminates the side channels...but I'll need to replace the strip just below the windshield.


I started in on those small rust spots I found in the front inner fender...and quickly decided I may have found this beetle's secret horror story. poking around in the rusty holes I couldn't figure out where under the fuel tank they could possibly be going...until it dawned on me, it's not the fuel tank. A very uncomfortable while later, and I had discovered the other side. Took a while to remove the seam sealer, wire wheel as much as I could and then finally sandblast...but here is:


How it rusted out here, I don't think I'll ever understand. Unfortunately, though, the water has worked it's way down and I believe I might find some horrors in the heater-channel when I go to separate the body from the pan. For now I'm going to repair the large holes up top, and leave the bottom ones for when the pan is separated.


I spent maybe 60 seconds with the spot sand blaster under the dash. Needless to say, this is a messy job!

...and wait, what's this??



That, my dear friends, looks like a Porsche 901 5-speed gear box, as found in a 911. Mmmmmm...Dogleg first gear

And what's this? Oh, it came with shift rod (modified for VW already), mounts, shifter and axles? Why yes, yes it did.



S-C-O-R-E.

Of course, it's not all cherries. I have to cut up and weld sections on my previously finished and perfect floorpan in order to make it fit. But sometimes sacrifices need to be made!

-Dave
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  #37  
Old October 1st 2011, 20:09
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Dave Love the car.. love that it's going to be one of my FAVORITE CARS..... A RALLY CAR
can't Wait to See more keep the pics coming and will keep ya Motivated.

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  #38  
Old October 2nd 2011, 12:32
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Thanks Chris. This is definitely going to be a fun car when I'm finished. I should probably start saving for paint every 12 months though :P Stone chips suck! I think I have a theme for when I'm getting bored or losing motivation. Cut more out!!



Each engine bay side now has a gaping hole, for which I will make bolt-on panels. It's no secret here why these are important, as they will allow me to change #1 and #3 spark plugs without removing the carbs, and also allows me to access the backside of the carbs should I ever need to. More space for working is never a bad thing.



I finished welding up the firewall, can't see any gaps with the light on the other side, so I think I'm finally golden. I was also talking to Mark Huebbe, who runs a bug in the Rally-America Series. The one comment he had was that he wished they had made his removable apron work without having to touch the fender bolts. So I also weld these tabs on to mount the removable apron. I'm kind of torn on this one as I'm totally guessing on width, etc. I've seen other race cars with Dzus fasteners similar to my tabs, so I gotta be close...but I really don't know if I have 1/2" on each side, 1" on each side? I do know the fan shroud will pass through them no problem at all, but obviously the carbs won't. Thing is, the carbs wouldn't pass through unless I cut the entire back off baja style, so I don' think it really matters much in the long run. The way I see it, I can always cut the tabs down (or off) after paint. Will wait until the engine is installed, body work is all together and then I will drill the apron and tap the holes for bolts. This way my apron is definitely not coming off in an unplanned fashion!



The last thing I want to do to the apron is trim along the blue line I've drawn. My theory is that it will be faster/easier to get on and off the car...perhaps not needing the fender bolts to be loosened, but unless I cut the entire lip off, the fender bolts would still be an issue? So do I cut right at the edge (potentially ugly), leave a bit of space like I've drawn or just accept that you've got to loosen three fender bolts plus the four bolts I plan for the front face? Hmmm...decisions.

Thoughts?

-Dave
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  #39  
Old October 2nd 2011, 19:50
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just put it in primer and Vinyl wrap it.. maybe cheaper, easier to patch the rough Spots yet saves the good spots
just like a Real rally car...

Chris.
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  #40  
Old October 2nd 2011, 22:42
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Even though I have a Vinyl Cutter (and thus a supplier for vinyl at wholesale rates), wrapping the car is actually more expensive then simply painting it.



Front suspension is removed, and the pan has been separated from the body. At this time I have chosen to leave the insulating foam VW sprays into the C-Pillars for sound insulation. My car shows no rust due to the foam, and I even found paint under some that I removed. Leaving the foam, however, does cause one problem...the wiring harness. I plan to pull and replace the harness, but it is held in TIGHT by the foam. So far no luck removing it...I don't even want to think about replacing it!

034Motorsport does have bulkhead connectors that I could use to pass some of the wires through my firewall, but not the heavier gauge Alternator wires. I've inquired whether they can get some high-amperage connectors, and that will solve my problem in a round-about way.

-Dave
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  #41  
Old October 7th 2011, 02:02
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Had to take a few days off the car, and I totally forgot to take photos tonight. But still making progress. The body is a completely stripped shell now, and I've drilled out all the spot welds on the D-side heater channel in anticipation of swapping it out tomorrow. Originally I was just going to patch the rough sections, but once I put the wire wheel to it, the heater channel just looks like swiss cheese. I've got a friend who's done plenty of them coming up to give me a hand...this is my first channel replacement and I'd like to be sure my door opens and closes when I'm done!

I doubt I'll get much more done this weekend...but I am getting sooooooo close to moving it to the paint shop.

-Dave
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  #42  
Old October 11th 2011, 14:31
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Hmmm...doesn't look like much eh? But the seven hours to get here were pretty crazy. I've never done a heater channel before, and it's a significantly challenging piece, so I called up a friend to give me a hand. I've had a driver's side heater channel kicking around the garage for eons, so I didn't even think about checking it before he arrived...just confirmed it was still in the corner. Well, who would have thought that that a Super Beetle channel is different from a standard Beetle? Oops! Thankfully Geoff is a master when it comes to sheet metal work, and we both agreed modifying the channel I had was better then the four hour round trip to go and get the proper one.



Geoff also had the fun task of sorting out the sheet metal above the Napoleon hat. Once you start cutting out the rust on old cars, you just have to keep going until you hit good metal...or the car is gone. Thankfully he didn't have to dig too far.


With the heater channel repaired I managed to squeeze out a few hours this weekend to continue attacking the rest of the jobs on the car. I was never really happy with my engine bay access panels, but unsure what to do about it, until Geoff suggested I make some frames for them. I've welded the frames in on both sides, and dressed the welds after the photo. Now I've got good looking holes, and they strengthened up the rear end quite a bit. Now I just have to drill some holes and weld in some nuts for mounting the removable aluminum panels.


From there I decided to stitch-weld in the rear body mount, and also the rear bumper mount. It takes very little time to do, and should increase the overall strength by a good margin. Tonight I will start attacking the front end, then its time to put the car back on the pan so I can finish cleaning up the rear apron area.

-Dave
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  #43  
Old October 12th 2011, 01:17
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Well, all the areas requiring grinding for the roll bar installation have been completed, and I managed to stitch-weld the front suspension area. The factory used a tonne of seam sealer up front, and it was super tough to get it all out. The welds aren't nearly as neat as the ones I did in the back, but I'd get halfway through a bead and hit a bit of seam sealer between the two pieces of metal. Ah well, it all gets covered up anyways!



Following that, I put the body back on the pan. Tomorrow I've got to finish up the rear apron area, weld in the hood seal mounting strip, and then clear out the passenger side door. Still need to figure out how I'm going to load the body onto a trailer with no front suspension...

-Dave
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  #44  
Old October 13th 2011, 17:19
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Well...hours of grinding, welding, grinding, fitting, etc. etc. etc. are finally finished. I have about 2min left (welding on the hood seal strip) and then the main shell is ready for the roll-bar installation. I'll be bringing the shell over to the rally shop tomorrow evening.

Awwwww yeah.

Also made some quick covers for the engine bay doors. I need to change them up slightly, but as I was bolting them on I couldn't help but think some carbon or other exotic panels would be much more fun. For now I'll just use these and do something interesting once the car is actually back together.





-Dave
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  #45  
Old October 14th 2011, 00:23
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Looking great Dave... Can't wait to See it caged


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