Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build

[Geoff]

A good way to start off is by putting the headliner in a dryer for a minute of so to help it strech and get the creases out. Use the heat gun or hair dryer to work those out as you go. It will strech and fit much better.

[ray]

Keep going ur doing a great job . I love all the detail pics . 

[owdlvr]

Hmmm...not sure how I'm feeling about this tonight.

I had a good chat on the phone this morning with a Gary (G-Dog), and got some good tips via PM from Randy (tikitime)...so I was feeling better about continuing. Went down to the garage around 7:30pm and started practicing with the binder clips, pulling and testing and sorting out exactly what I had to do in what order. Took quite a bit of time to get myself sorted, as I kept getting extra material showing up in the front corners. After a while I got that dialed, and could repeat the steps successfully without any major waves or issues. With the front still clipped up I hopped out of the car and practiced going down the side to the rear. It went super easy, I dialed it in on the first try. I then did a perfect repeat, and declared myself ready to go. Unfortunately, in hindsight, I made my fatal error when I got out of the car.

I dunno about you guys, but when I'm in the car working, I have a habit of getting out of the driver's side. (It's the door I always use!) In doing so, I did my side-practice down the driver's side of the car, since it was right there. The practice went so easy, I figured it was time to do the job for real. Everything went relatively smoothly up front, outside of messing up the B-Pillar fold on the driver's side, the whole side went quite well. I'd call the driver's side a pass. Moving on to the passenger side, though, and instantly I knew I had a problem. In the end, I've figured out that the roll-bar has something to do with the issue. I know the roll bar was closer to the passenger side of the roof then the driver's side, as I had to clearance the interior body panels to even get the vinyl past it...so there is something different going on. I suspect when I pulled the headliner forward and glued it to the windshield, the roll bar was giving me a false impression that I had it pulled tight enough.

Well, crap.







Ultimately, I suspect it's all coming out. But that's my "just walked up from the garage to download the photos" impression. I'm going to assemble the car right to finished before I decide whether or not it needs a full replacement. There is still lots of stuff that needs to go into the car that may hide it. Roll bar padding, reading lamps, etc. Once the car is assembled, if it bugs me, I'll pull all the glass, the headliner, and have it redone. No sense in freaking out about it right now...either it needs to come out, or it doesn't. At the very least, I gave it a shot! haha.

-Dave

[buggy1]

Dave your doing an awesome job and don't get to hung up about the headliner as your always going to be your own worst critic.
Once everything else is in the car you are going to be the only one to see it and if your cool with it it's all good.
Looking awesome!

[owdlvr]

Yup. I'm going to relax about it for now...move on, and decide if it's getting swapped out down the road. For now, I'll suck it up and keep going!

Tonight was a quick night the garage, gotta get up early tomorrow for a Seattle trip. Back when I mounted the front brake mounts, I wasn't a fan of the bolts that I had. But I was potentially needing to roll the car around, so I tossed 'em on anyways. Since tonight was going to be a quick night, I popped off the rotors to swap them to proper hex-head bolts.


With done, I mounted the calipers...


And finished off the last of the brake lines.


Tossed the gas flap door on as well, since I've almost kicked it off the stairs a thousand times


I probably had time to bleed the brakes, but I have a rule about never bleeding a brake system for the first time before bed. My Audi rally car taught me that one...with a leaking fitting inside the car   Always bleed at the start of a session, so you can check it carefully at regular intervals to ensure there are no leaks!

-Dave

[Bruce]

How come you don't have any race car holes in the brake rotors?

[owdlvr]

Well...

a) Drilled rotors crack...unless they're cast with dimples.
b) Drilled rotors generally sound terrible.
c) A non-vented rotor would benefit far more from slotting over drilling.

As for why I haven't slotted them...now that would be a good question! ;-)

My last race car was an Audi 90 quattro, heavy car...definitely under braked. The '69 bug, in comparison, had great brakes and didn't boil over with spirited driving. If I find any issues, first step will be slotting the rotors on a mill., followed by cooling ducts.

-Dave

[red snapper]

Good job on the headliner for someone who has never done one before. A steamer will get most of those minor wrinkles out.

[owdlvr]

So I've manipulated the light levels to make sure it shows up as bad as possible to the camera. Doesn't look this bad in person. BUT, this should give us all an idea of what _I_ see when I look at it.



I'm over it, it's okay now. I mean, really, who expects to do an amazing job on a headliner first try?! haha. I'm looking forward to moving onto more fun things like oil lines, mounting fenders, and finishing the car

-Dave

[nivag]

Car is looking great Dave.

[owdlvr]

Thanks!

If anyone wins the lottery it seems I'm held back more by finances then by time in the garage haha

Didn't get a whole lot accomplished this weekend. I got a phone call from a buddy that my boxes were starting to pile up in his shop...so Saturday was "drive 12 hours and pickup my parts all over the west". Unfortunately it would appear that some sponsors like to send really big boxes for only 1 small part out of an order of 5 parts! Sigh. Today I opted to actually use my Ski Pass for the first time...probably a good call seeing as I live 35min away from Whistler, and haven't been yet

But never fear, I did make it into the garage for a couple of items.


First up was installing the fuel filler inlet. It's a bit of a mental puzzle figuring out how to get this thing in! I distinctly remember removing it after the fuel tank, and with the nipple still installed. Of course you can't get it in the car that way...took a bit to figure that out. But, now that it's in (just need hose clamps) the whole process seems really simple. Remove nipple, slide through quarter panel from the outside. Done! I do need to buy a new fuel cap, though, this one is looking a little ratty.


When I went to finish the job, I was reminded on why the aftermarket often sucks. Factory breather setup on the top...aftermarket replacement parts down below. Yeah, that ain't gonna work. Time to see what Samco has in the universal hose selections...


I also made the attempt to reinstall the fuel sender with the required O-Ring. I know this isn't going to be an easy job, but any suggestions? Perhaps I just need a second person...one to push down, and another to tap the sender around to lock it in place?

The fuel pump relays required a bit of modification. They come with the power terminals wider then a standard .250" connector...which is what my relay mounts use. A quick few minutes with the angle grinder sizes the terminals to the width I need. The relay mounts did require a bit of modification for the "K" terminal, which is the one that takes in the tach-signal. With these relays, as long as the tach is providing a signal the fuel pumps will run.




And finally, I closed up my garage session tonight with the last two pieces of the headliner. The under quarter windows are done, and I can officially call my headliner installed!


...Time to stop with these mini-jobs and get back to some heavy hitting nights in the garage that cut the list shorter and shorter

-Dave

[buggy1]

I'm going to go into withdrawal when you finally finish your thread, we should almost start a pool to see who gets the 2000 view of this thread!

[owdlvr]

Hahaha, from where I sit it feels like this thread is never going to end!

I wonder if I can get bonus points at the GCVWs for keeping everyone entertained over the winter? hahaha.

--------

Man, what a roller coaster night of frustration.

I started off by bleeding the brakes, which should have gone relatively easy. I've got Russell Performance Speed Bleeders on every corner, so with long sections of clear tubing you can bleed the brakes single-handedly. To start the process I always crack one front and one rear caliper, to ensure the master cylinder can push fluid through both circuits. Within moments I could hear fluid hitting the front pan. "That's odd", I thought, "Its usually not that quick." I walked over to the front corner, and fluid is leaking everywhere. Initially I didn't panic...I probably forgot to tighten a fitting or something. But scanning for the source quickly turned to panic and annoyance. How could I possibly have a brand new caliper leaking at the seam between halves!?! I'm mopping up fluid, trying to find tools to remove the caliper when it dawns on me...these calipers have two bleed nipples (to be used on either left or right sides). Um, where is the other bleed nipple? 

Ah yes, when you take a nipple with you to the store to ensure you buy the right speed bleeders...PUT IT BACK!

With that done, I continued to bleed the brakes. The fronts came up quickly, and easily...but the rears, just would not bleed. I needed to wait until I had someone to work the pedals so I could see what was going on. With that, I moved on. As you can see the handbrake cables I have are quite a bit longer then ideal. When I put the same rear brake kit on my '69, I had the same issue. But the cable housing measures out correctly. I could spend time trying to find ones that are the correct length, or I could fix what I have.


First step, cut off the end ball, and remove the cable and housing from the car.


Next up, I use a cable crimp on each cable. These are crushed on using my vice, and then I solder the housing for extra measure. With that done, you simply reinstall in the car. The clamps hold to the use of the parking brake, and my final step is to heat-shrink the end of the cables so that they don't fray. Its not the most elegant solution, but it's functional.
 

Funny enough, I've never actually owned a beetle with a properly installed E-Brake boot. Seems they're always torn in some fashion. I highly doubt the Empi one fits properly, and I can't seem to get it to 'snug down' to the tunnel. But I figured I would try the silver out. I won this at the first GCVW show I attended four or five years ago, and I remembered thinking "When am I ever going to even think of using this in a car!?!" Funny enough, it fits the theme of this one


With the brakes completed as far as I could get them, I thought I'd quickly toss the battery into the car. I'd really like to know how I had this thing mounted in my '69 beetle...because it sure doesn't fit this car! The first problem was base...I knew that would be easily solved by finding the additional pieces Optima ships with the battery...but finding them in the garage was another story. Once I finally tracked them down, the battery fit under the "lip", but there was no way I could bolt it down. A bit of time with the angle grinder and one of the plastic mounts...and it was finally mounted. FAR too long for something as simple as the battery!


Thankfully my buddy Scott stopped in, so that meant the two of us could do some 'two-man' jobs. We started on the fuel level sender. I now have the O-Ring, so it's just a simple matter of pressing down and tapping the sender home, right? Okay, seriously. I swear we spent an hour on this. It's been greased, boiled, what-have-you, and will NOT go in. I'm going to have to find the measurements and check that the O-Ring packed was the correct size, because this is ridiculous.

We did, however, manage to bleed the brakes relatively successfully. They aren't perfect, but with all the fluid I ran through we were getting to the end of my stash. Letting the brakes sit for a few days isn't a bad thing either, so hopefully I can get the last of the air out in short order. At least I know there aren't any major issues with any components, and outside of my bleeder mistake, all my fittings were leak free from the start.

To finish the evening, I went back to my wiring. At least I know that's usually successful! I was busy working out the battery cut-off solenoid, along with starter and alternator wiring, when I discovered a new problem. My Autostick starter doesn't fit the Porsche gearbox. The diameter of the mounting face is off. Sigh. You can just see the space between the upper lip and the transmission, but suffice it to say I'll be either working the starter in the lathe, or working the trans to make it fit.


Ah project cars...always fun eh?

-Dave

[number3]

I'm going to go into withdrawal when you finally finish your thread, we should almost start a pool to see who gets the 2000 view of this thread!

You should get in the garage and finish up your own project.

 

[Bruce]

The first problem was base...I knew that would be easily solved by finding the additional pieces Optima ships with the battery...but finding them in the garage was another story. Once I finally tracked them down, the battery fit under the "lip", but there was no way I could bolt it down. A bit of time with the angle grinder and one of the plastic mounts...and it was finally mounted.

Had the same problem when I put my red top Optima in my car.  Lucky for me, I had the dimensions of the stock group 42 battery with me at Costco when I was buying the Optima.  I knew it was too narrow, so I ended up stealing the little booster bracket from a yellow Optima.  Suprising to learn it doesn't fit the yellow one either!

[owdlvr]

Having bought a yellow-top, it includes three adapter pieces which do help quite a bit...but still required hacking up the adapters to work!

-----------------

For the last week or two I've been feeling more and more frustrated every time I work in the garage. It had gotten to the point, last night, where I considered that I may need some time off to relax and make the car fun again. Regardless, though, I needed to clean the shop today. After a clean of the shop, I was thinking about that darned fuel sender, and thought to myself "If I could get that in, perhaps it will change my attitude." Some suggestions on the German Look forum gave me a reason to think it might be possible. But first, I had to clean off the grease we used last night.

And, that was the turning point.

So, should you be reading this thread wondering why you can't get your damned fuel sender in either...allow me to solve your problem. You see, weeks ago, when you prepped your tank for paint...you probably quickly cleaned it since you were giving it a quickie paint job. Perhaps you neglected to remove the old seal before painting the tank? Hahahaha, yeah, that's right. POR-15 sure is 'tough as steel' once it dries! Funny enough, once I peeled off the old sender the new one (with gasket) just slid right into the tank.

The whole thing was quite funny to me once I realized...and was just the thing I needed to change my attitude around. And with that, I kept working.

Starter wiring harness assembled. I haven't fully heat-shrunk it as I may make some changes.


Remote battery cut-off solenoid installed and wired. You get a healthy "thunk" when you twist the battery cut-off switch on the dash The wiring going over to the regulator hasn't been locked down, as I anticipate I'll have other wires crisscrossing the area once I put the oil tank in.


With the battery wiring sorted out, I moved back to the regulator and took care of eliminating it for the alternator conversion I've planned on. You might wonder why I took the time to wire up the whole regulator and then remove it...but it was a simple case of needing to confirm I had the three wiring harnesses sorted out correctly before I started making changes. The unconnected wires heading towards the bottom of the photo are the various wires that have yet to be connected to anything.


The next step in the wiring is hooking up the various sensors I'm adding. Before I can wire up the speed sensors, I need to mount them. I had originally worked out a mount for a single sensor, but later decided the rally computer and speedo should each have their own sensor. Thus, I had to weld up a new mount for two sensors. This will mount onto the side of the transmission off the diff-cover bolts.


...and, since i had the welder out, I finished off the exhaust pipe for the gas heater. I'm pretty much ready to mount the front sheet metal (hood and fenders), but will wait to see if I can fill my time until the hood seal arrives. I suspect its easier to install without a hood in the way!


Lastly, I figured I would leave it as a "good night", and quit while I was ahead. ;-)

-Dave

[DarrenE]

Great thread Dave!

[Shane]

Well done Dave , looking sharp, and the DVKK logo will look good on this car

[owdlvr]

Thanks guys! Yeah, its a fat chick...but at least its a well-thought-out fat chick

Well, since I was down in Vancouver tonight (getting voted into the DVKK!) it wasn't a long night in the garage. I have a rule that says a minimum of one hour per day, and you can't bank any hours nor can you make them up. So, even though after driving back to Squamish I was more interested in visiting the couch, into the garage I went!

Wanting to keep myself relatively clean, I figured with the battery hooked up I could start checking and trouble shooting the wiring that I've done. I did have to do some work to do on the front fuse panel...at some point I forgot to bridge the fuse blocks so that half the fuses were powered by the ignition circuit and the other half are powered directly from the battery. Once I diagnosed and fixed that, it all went relatively quickly.

- Warning lights, working.
- Fuel pumps, working...but wow are they loud. Definitely going to need to rubber mount them (even though the panel they are on is rubber mounted)
- Rally computer, powers up on either the ignition or battery power (selected via switch).
- Gauges that are wired in all power up.
- Gauge lights working.
- Gas Heater powers up, and the pump works.

So with that, it was onto the speedo and rally computer sensors. After mounting them, I had to make the wiring harnesses. These have connectors on them just before the harness enters the inside of the body, that way if I'm pulling the transmission for any reason I don't have to take the sensor mount off. I probably would, so I don't damage the sensors, but you never know!


Tough to photograph due to the flash, but the rally computer is pulling numbers off the sensor, and so is the speedometer.


By the time it was all said and done, it was a good two and a half hours in the garage. Those techflex harnesses aren't the fastest thing to build, that's for sure.  Tomorrow I'll be starting on either the Kafer bar, or the oil system.

-Dave

[owdlvr]

As it turns out, tonight I started on [both] the Kafer bar and the oil system! First up was the Kafer, or rear truss, bar. This will tie in the upper shock mounts together, and to the frame horns, adding some strength and support for the coil-over conversion. The stock shock mounts aren't supporting the loads, just the damping, so a bit of strength is a welcome addition!

The upper shock mounts required grinding away some of the body, and I'm afraid I'm getting used to the smell of fresh paint being abused. Probably not a good thing! With space made above, it was onto the lower mounts. Here I found a fairly big issue. When building my transmission mount I totally forgot to take into account the truss bar mounts, and have created a bit of a problem. Sliding the truss bar mounts in between the trans mount and frame horns isn't going to work, as it will push my trans back and stress the mounts. I was going to weld them behind and up-high, but the way I double layered the metal on the trans mount means that would be a whole lot of welding and work. Combine all this with me forgetting which frame horn bolt was the one with iffy threads...and it was a challenging evening.

When I fit the Porsche transmission to the frame, I did so with the floorpan upside down. Thus the "left side" frame horn bolt was the one with damaged threads. Now, of course, the floor pan is right-side-up, but my brain was still thinking "left". After cross-threading the frame horn insert, I spent quite a bit of time dismantling things before I could cleanup and repair the threads. Missed the closing hour of the industrial store in town, so the truss bar remains half finished until I can buy some hardware. I'll end up bolting on the lower mounts, which wasn't my initial preference but will leave me with plenty of options down the road. Everything is just hanging out in the photo below, I'll shoot proper photos tomorrow once it's finished.


With that project stalled, I moved onto the oil system. Much like wiring, it's a good idea to have a map of where you're planning to go!


With my plan finish, I started by mounting up the tank. With the tank in place I can start visualizing where everything is going to go in the car, so I can start sorting out the fittings. I'm trying to plan ahead so I have the correct fittings at the correct time, without a need to reorder every night. Now is also the time to decide if things like the oil filter mount need right or left ports, or whether the accusump valve should go "here" or "there". The seat goes in, the seat comes out...there is plenty of movement and scribbling on paper, but not much to show here in photos! 


My head was really set on getting the truss bar finished so that I could "move on" to other projects. I tend to find when I get significantly stalled, and the hour is getting later, I revert to doing silly little jobs that are usually out of order. When I found myself thinking about running the Air-Fuel gauge wire, I knew it was time to take a break!



...and really, there is always time for Top Gear ;-)

-Dave

[Bruce]

You should cut the corners of the bracket that's welded to your floorpan.  See where they are digging into the case of the battery?  Mine did exactly the same thing.
Then I think you need to figure out a way to prevent it from sliding sideways.  Block it in?

[owdlvr]

Oooh...good eye!  Look at that nice little mark on the left side from the '69 too.

With my modified mounts in the back, you can shake the whole car on the axle stands by grabbing the battery. This puppy isn't moving anywhere. I'd take photos, but I haven't painted the nut that holds it down yet ;-)

-Dave

[owdlvr]

Since my initial post about the rear truss brace, there has been a flurry of discussion in my thread over on the German Look forums. The highlights over the past couple of days:

Your arrangement looks suspect from the photo. The tranny strut should not connect to the crossbar as again this will put the bar into a bending stress. Without the forward strut to the trailing arm mount the load from the tranny strut will apply a bending moment to the upper damper bolt that is only 10mm diameter. This load is cyclic and expect the bolt to fatigue especially as a rally car will flex the frame horns unmercifully. The position of the tranny strut on the crossbar accentuates the bending moment. Because of the geometry, the forged damper strut will also be put in lateral bending.

To me the Kafer cup bar having the attaching points inboard from the shock bolt reduces the triangulation affect that your trying to achieve.

the kafer brace that you have on your car is a poor design, sorry. if your running coil over rear then i would strongly sujest you run a 5 bar brace as the loads that will be fed into the top shock mounts is going to be very high. i would brace the top shock mounts like the class 11 Baja cars do for peace of mind. you dont want to be bending or braking them.

After giving it about 30seconds of thought from the original couple of posts I realized the bar was a no-go, and would need to be reworked. All of the points that were brought up were correct, and I would have to take care of them. That's one of the points of having build threads like this...find and solve the problems before they become permanent! Another set of eyes always helps. Initially I thought I'd bolt up the bar for now and fix it once the engine is in, but then realized the oil cooler would be in the way, and the easiest would be now while I have lots of space. As a matter of reference, a 3 bar kafer bar setup includes the main bar going between the top shock mounts, and two rear stays that go between the frame horn ends and the upper shock bolts. A 5 bar kafer bar setup adds an additional two bars going from the upper shock mount to the trailing arm mounting area on the Torsion bar housing. This fully triangulates the upper shock mount. In a coil-over application the 5 bar setup is ideal, but does mean that the factory heating system cannot be used. When I was in the initial planning stages for the car, I found more then a few track-racing guys using big spring rates and 3-bar setups, so I figured I would be relatively 'okay' with a 3-bar setup. Since I'm putting the engine in now anyways, for testing, we'll see what we can make fit.

So I got a bit of time in on the car today...but not nearly as much as I had hoped (isn't that always the way). Much of my day was spent chasing around the various things I would need for the truss bar job...steel tube, hardware, heater boxes, my borrowed jack that never returned...etc. Regardless, by the time I started the hours were disappearing fast. First up was bolting on the lower mount, which as soon as I had done so a second flashing red light went off which I hadn't thought about. The entire thing is build in single-shear. Single shear is, to quote Carroll Smith, "criminal". Hmmm...its going to be quite tough to turn this mount into double shear. Not impossible, but significantly challenging in my garage.


Eventually I decided the best course of action is to set the whole thing up in single shear, with the parts clearing the engine and heater boxes, and then figure out if I can modify the mounts for double shear. With the necessary bits in hand, I was lacking in just one thing...someone to help me lift the engine onto the jack. Hmph. I figured i might as well mock up one potential tab, and then I at least have a starting point when I slide the engine in. With this tab, both rod ends would mount to the same ear on the shock bolt spacer. I can easily get the one rod end in double shear down the road, not quite sure how I would do the second. Sorry, apparently I forgot a more detailed shot.


I figured before I wasted any more time playing with mounts that didn't fit, I'd simply wait until I had a hand with the engine before going any further. So I worked on some less important jobs, like mounting up the clutch release arm, and attaching the custom bits my buddy Scott made a while back. If I'm putting the engine in to test the brace clearance, might as well setup the clutch pedal too! This will, of course, require some new engine mounting studs...but I have a Type-4 block in storage that may have some installed. Will have to check tomorrow.

I did manage to clean up and revive the old gas-breather hose. With some trimming I later removed any cracks at the end and popped it into the car. Now all I need is that really small breather tubing and the fuel tank will really be done for once.


The side vents for the car that I have are pretty dry-rotted on the plastic. The aluminum rings are good, but the plastic is not. I figured I should try and find a way to make them look presentable, and since I had time waiting around, today was the day.


First up, the vents were given plenty of heavy coats of Plasti-Dip from a spray can. This doesn't smooth out the plastic, but it does give it a uniform color and maybe, if I'm lucky, prevent further try rotting.


Once fully dry, I ran around the aluminum trim part with a razor blade, and started peeling. The beauty of plasti-dip is it's rubbery and flexible, and thus can be peeled off later on.


Original vent on the right, plasti-dip vent in the middle, peeled vent (with bad aluminum ring) on the left. You can see in the middle how the plastic is still very rough...but I suspect from anything further away then a few inches, you'll never notice it mounted on the car. With the test units working out so well, I've sprayed down my 'good' set of vents.


I also started working on the turn signal switch finally...


...but got interrupted by my buddy who came by to help lift the engine. With that down, I'm good to go for the Truss brace tomorrow. I hope to get a significant dent taken out of the job before I have to go to sleep. Probably could have done that tonight, but we instead decided to head down to Vancouver for some very, very loud noises...


It was a tonne of fun being 12 again...but when you're in your thirties you get to buy seats five rows from the front!

-Dave

[owdlvr]

Whew! That was an interesting Sunday.

So the day started off relatively simple. Engine off the stand and ready: check. Heater boxes? check. Jack up the motor, slide it in and....wait, why won't it slide on? Hmph, splines are lined up...I know a Type-1 clutch disc fits the 901...so why is this not sliding on? After a checking a few things, I finally popped the clutch disc off and slid it onto the splines. "Ahhhh, there's your problem!" Time to clean the corrosion out of the splines...


Once the corrosion was cleaned out, I lubed up the splines with graphite and everything slid together like butter.

While I'm here, and have photos, what's the thought on this clutch disc? There are a couple of minor chips around two of the rivets, but otherwise just glazed. I'm thinking it's probably reusable...but now would be the time to swap it out if its not.


With that, it was on to making the truss bar mounts. This took a fair bit of time, testing and tweaking, and test fitting some more. Both the left and right rear truss bars extend off the upper mount about 2" before the eyelet bolts on. I did buy the material necessary to make longer bars, but the angles just mean I'm going to be interfering with the heater boxes. The mounts I made are 5mm plate, and while the photos don't show it, they were later boxed to make them as strong as possible.




The top bar going across between the two shock mounts is going to be replaced today with a piece of 1" chromoly tubing. The threaded ends from the current bar will be cut off, turned down on the lathe and welded into the ends. Once I get the final engine and heaterboxes (might could use a replacement) in the car, I hope to do the same with the lower bars as the chromo should be stronger overall. Now, with all the fears of snapping my upper shock mounts off, I did start to look at the potential for the forward facing bars. I really don't think there is any possibility of sending a couple of bars down to the torsion tube with the factory heat. What I could potentially do, however, is run a set of bars over to the frame horns, just above where the parking brake cables exit the frame horn. I'm not sure there is enough benefit to warrant putting them in. The bars would essentially be running Left-Right, just going down to the frame horns instead of all the way across. They would be in addition to the other three, so I anticipate some benefit...but is it enough?

Last step for the weekend was to triple check everything clears, even thought I had been checking as I worked. Here's the clearance with the suspension under full compression. Some of the photos show the bump stop just touching, but I did jack up each side until the bump stop compressed enough that I was lifting the car and engine.





While checking the clearances I discovered a gross miscalculation i had made while setting up the coil-over shocks. A problem which had me Googling and surfing for potential solutions for quite some time. When I installed the shocks I knew I would need to reinforce the lower shock mount, and modify it to fit the shock eyelet better. I remember at one point Geoff said to me "are you sure the shock will clear the CV boots?" to which I replied yes. Apparently I didn't check it closely enough!


You can clearly see at full compression there is no possible way that CV joint is going to survive. So this presents two major issues for me. 1) what the heck am I going to do for a solution, and 2) if I messed this up so badly...what else did I screw up? First up was about 3 hours of surfing, both in the Germanlook Forums, and the Class-11 Baja forums to see what solutions I could find. Class 11 used to require that stock lower mounts were used (guys would cut them off, and reweld them to the control arm) but the rules were later changed to simply requiring the shock be mounted to the trailing arm. Now they box their trailing arms and mount the lower eye to the top, and the upper eye inside the car on the cage. Well, that won't help. Fortunately on the GL forums I found a New Zealand race car that solved the issue by putting all new mounts on the bottom, and then for the really trick piece, used center-driveshaft CV's to solve the clearance problem. Some time spent with cardboard, running the suspension up and down and lots of measuring confirms that I will be able to solve my issues in a similar manner...but I'm going to see if I can't get the car on a lift to make it easier.

Knowing that there is a straight-forward solution to my problem, I was able to return to the garage with an objective mind. I started at the front of the car, and literally went over the car from front to back inspecting and rethinking every job I've done to date. Nothing was left without scrutiny, everything was moved throughout it's full range of motion...double and triple checked everything. Thankfully I didn't find any other mistakes! Well, at least mistakes that I can recognize at the moment!   Whew!


So I ended my Sunday going back to the books to see if I could come up with some ideas on how to change this bar setup over to double-shear. For a couple of the mounts I don't think it's going to be too big of an issue, but four of the six are going to be quite challenging. Now that I've missed the best winter TSD rally, and I'm likely to miss the ice racing series, it does relieve a bit of the stress. The first couple of months with the car are definitely going to be testing, which does leave me some options. The weakest link is now the hardware, mounted in single-shear. I'm thinking I may run the bar as is for a month of testing, where I can go hit the forest roads near home, and immediately head back to the garage. Any weaknesses in the truss setup will show up as bends in the hardware first, followed by breaking them. should the hardware show signs of problems, I'd likely order a whole new bar setup (Lanner's). If it doesn't, I could then double-shear it as a spring project before any summer gravel events.

Part of me thinks this is a great way to confirm that I either need, or don't need, a 5-bar setup. My thinking is that if the 3-bar setup is shown to have issues, I'll need to ditch the factory heat in favor of a proper five bar setup. The other half of me figures I'm missing out on the opportunity to just double-shear it all right now when it's easiest

At least it's starting to look like a car and less like a shell...





-Dave

[owdlvr]

Alrighty...Kafer bar is torn down, new upper bar has been made, spacers for my shocks (to eliminate the stack of washers) have been made on the lathe...and everything is painted and drying. Photos tomorrow once I get it all installed in the car. It's one of the rare bits which isn't painted all one color, thought I would see what it looked like tomorrow and make a decision. Finished up installing the new turn signal switch (thanks again Chris!) and then traced down all the wiring for it to make sure it's working correctly. A short night, and off early to bed while the paint dries.



-Dave

[owdlvr]

Well, I got the entire truss bar installed...still in single-shear. I'm going to leave it for now, and revisit the truss bar once everything else is done. I've got a pretty hefty deadline looming over me for a car that has no doors, glass, engine or oil system! Tough to photograph it quickly before bed though...







With that done I gave the brakes another bleed, extracting more air out of the rear. The pedal is still sinking about 2.5", so I have more to go. Dropped the front of the car as low as I can get it, and we'll do a two-man bleed in a day or two to see if that doesn't solve it for good. With the brakes getting better, I was able to setup the pedal stop. But that in turn had my head going for a bit of a loop...


The clutch pedal seems to be deeply inset in comparison to the brake pedal. I checked Bentley, and confirmed that I was correct in the setup. Neither the brake bleed nor the clutch cable adjustment should change the static position of the pedals. But, this was vastly different then my last bug. I called up the new owner of the '69, and had him check the garage. Yup, the clutch pedal on that car was about .5" higher then the brake pedal. Hmmmm, that's odd. Fortunately I save all the rusty factory parts until I'm sure whatever replacement I've chosen is a viable solution. Out came the old pedal cluster and I confirmed that the clutch and brake pedal really should sit like this. Makes sense, I seem to think that cars are generally setup so that the first pedal you hit is the brake...

On to the next project! I had to sell my Carbon Joe rock guards with my '69 Beetle. Well, they're on loan...until Scott decides to repaint or replace the fenders. So, combine one part fender, with two parts matte black vinyl...


Layer #1:


Layer #2, a bit harder to do!


...but the hardest part? Duplicating it on the other side. I'm close...not close enough that they match, but since you can't ever see both at once...I think I'm close enough

Nice to see the paintwork matches the vinyl though! In person it's almost perfect.


I was going to mount the rears up tonight...then I realized that mounting fenders to fresh paint late at night is probably a recipe for disaster. Better to wait for tomorrow.

-Dave

[Bruce]

None of my cars have staggered pedals like that.
My guess is a worn pedal stop bracket, or the tabs on the pedals that hit the stop bracket are worn.

[owdlvr]

Hmmm.

New set of pedals, stop plate didn't appear to be bent or mangled. Will pull the stop plate out tomorrow and check it...hoping to avoid pulling the pedal cluster, but will if I have to. Here's the German set I pulled out of the car. You can *just* see the nib of the brake pedal stop down by the clutch pedal stop, so the angle is a touch exaggerated, but on this set the clutch would sit back futher as well.



Either way...needs some more investigation.

-Dave


-----------
I'm not sure if I mentioned it in the thread or not, but as I was loading the body shell onto the trailer for paint...I tore all the muscles in my lower back. Of course, the next day I dropped the car OFF for paint...which meant unloading the shell again. In the process, I managed to drop the back part of the body off the trailer. Oops! We knew instantly that we bent the back part of the engine bay...but, Gerry and Lorne of GLI straightened it out the mess for me.

Now for the bad part.

After getting the car home, I had it up on the steel saw horses to fit the rear shocks and then attach the pan. In the time that the body was resting on the saw horses, it was slowly bending out back. Enough so that I actually had measurement points and was working feverishly as it was bending an 1/8" an hour. Come rear fender time...I knew it was going to be a problem. Initial fit was like so:


Now, at first glance you might not think this is so bad. But all the fender bolts aren't even in yet, and you can see the ripple that was starting about 3/4 of the way up the engine bay edge. You can sort of make out how the body splayed out at the bottom, and bent inwards further up. To fix it, I needed some specialty tools...


What's that? A piece of aluminum barstock, two bolts and a scrap of aluminum plate aren't a specialty tool? In the hands of an expert (or, in this case a complete nutter with no sense of bodywork what-so-ever), they are the perfect solution. Simply pull, bend, flex and mangle the bodywork until you think you've done enough...then double it...and finally mount the fender to check your work. Alignment after the first try:


Now, we could probably get that just a little bit better. In fact, if you were Geoff and saw these photos you'd probably insist that we get this a little bit better. But sometimes, playing it safe and not going any further is smarter. Why?

Because Race Car.

;-)

Moving on, we add some fender beading...a bit of frustration over the exact order to tighten the bolts to snug up your fender and make it look as absolutely straight as possible...stand back, and enjoy the view.




Tomorrow I'll mount up the other fender, and then perhaps mount a rim and tire to see if the gravel tires I already own will even fit. Oh sure, that might have been something to check before I painted the car...but where is the fun in that!?!

-Dave

[Geoff]

as always Dave, very nice work and update!

[OUTKAST]

Really great build thread and your motivation is inspirational   The new Volksworld has a build up similiar to yours with lots of carbon fiber bits Blue in color .Can't wait to see yours finished : )