Author Topic: the '55 Ragtop.....are we done yet?  (Read 101077 times)

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

Offline Jeremy

  • *
  • Posts: 977
  • Karma: 3
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #150 on: January 27, 2011, 11:01:25 AM »
I used a body file on my car quite a bit. Worked good.
'59 Beetle
'59 Single Cab

Offline josh

  • *
  • Posts: 2248
  • Karma: -17
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #151 on: January 27, 2011, 06:54:58 PM »
Is a body file anything special? Or just a regular metal file?
55 ragtop T1
56 kombi T2

Offline Trevor P

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 942
  • Karma: 3
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #152 on: January 28, 2011, 04:08:46 PM »
They are specially designed to cut high spots from sheet metal.
 http://www.eastwood.com/file-holder-flexible-with-mill-cut-body-file.html
'53 Barndoor single cab
'57 Cal-look oval 2332cc / Berg 5
'70 911T

Offline josh

  • *
  • Posts: 2248
  • Karma: -17
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #153 on: January 28, 2011, 07:49:47 PM »
huh, i thought those were for roughing in filler work?
55 ragtop T1
56 kombi T2

Offline Trevor P

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 942
  • Karma: 3
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #154 on: January 28, 2011, 09:00:33 PM »
'53 Barndoor single cab
'57 Cal-look oval 2332cc / Berg 5
'70 911T

Offline josh

  • *
  • Posts: 2248
  • Karma: -17
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #155 on: January 28, 2011, 09:15:38 PM »
Right the old cheese grater
55 ragtop T1
56 kombi T2

Offline Bruce

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 2912
  • Karma: -65458
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #156 on: January 28, 2011, 10:45:02 PM »
You can use a regular old Mill Bastard.

Offline josh

  • *
  • Posts: 2248
  • Karma: -17
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #157 on: January 30, 2011, 09:00:47 AM »
You can use a regular old Mill Bastard.

Who you callin an old bastard? lol_hitting
55 ragtop T1
56 kombi T2

Offline josh

  • *
  • Posts: 2248
  • Karma: -17
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #158 on: February 23, 2011, 08:45:58 AM »
updates....been kickin ass on this thing last couple weeks

apron was welded on once and for all, welds dressed and hood release conduit installed (when I got car there was no tube in it and was in high build primer wtf)











Got body and pan seperated with the help of my 4 yr old :wub: then had to modify brackets on the rotissery to fit body mounts instead of pan.

Started messin' with my chromoly RLR rollbar....turns out the door bars don't clear early ribbed doors!! Quick ratchet strap pulled them in enough to re-drill floor.

On to new fuel lines

'57 ran a holley blue pump/reg dead headed....was loud as fuck!!! It had a -6 (3/8") aluminum line run along outside of pan.
This time around will be a by-pass style with return line. Now I know this is a huge debate on fuel line size but I had some 1/2" SS hardline lying around so that's what will go in -8AN fittings tigged on ran through tunnel wayyyyy overkill but just incase I want to stuff an 800hp force fed suicide machine into the car, the fuel system will be ready lol_hitting

turned down some -8 couplings



Starting to bend lines







all ready for ends to be tig welded on.....gotta go over to the father-in-laws to use his machine



This is the pump I bought....Areomotive A1000 series, good for 600hp flows like a fire hose :D



Picked it up along with a matching regulator for $200 for both new in boxes!!! Shit is worth over $500 retail

Lots of other stuff done on pan that I didn't take pics of like clutch tube re-enforcing, moved the heater control knob to give the apperance of a 55 pan (instead of the 57 it is) and started to strip the powdercoating off the pan halves.......what a whore that is!! got some gasket remover that seems to be lifting it pretty good, just gonna take a while!!

55 ragtop T1
56 kombi T2

Offline DarrenE

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 682
  • Karma: 10
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #159 on: February 23, 2011, 09:27:29 AM »
 PDT_Armataz_01_37  I wish I was that handy!  It's coming along nicely!   :D
Kootenay Volkswagen Society

Offline josh

  • *
  • Posts: 2248
  • Karma: -17
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #160 on: February 27, 2011, 02:06:46 PM »
STRIPPING POWDER COATING SUCKS ASS!!!!!







Clutch cable access door



A hidden battery repair wtf .....



starting to layout stuff to hide under the back seat...





55 ragtop T1
56 kombi T2

Offline owdlvr

  • Dave Hord
  • *
  • Posts: 1422
  • Karma: 10
    • Classic Car Adventures
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #161 on: February 27, 2011, 03:44:40 PM »
Hey Josh,

What's the brand of cage you've got in this?

-Dave
--
'71 Type 1 - Rally Car Project
'75 Type 1 - Heirloom
'95 F150 - Unfortunate daily driver...

Offline josh

  • *
  • Posts: 2248
  • Karma: -17
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #162 on: February 27, 2011, 08:11:00 PM »
Hey Josh,

What's the brand of cage you've got in this?

-Dave

Roll bar is a Ron Lummus Racing chromoly bolt in

I'm gonna try to tie the rear downbars to the airspeed drag bar.
55 ragtop T1
56 kombi T2

Offline josh

  • *
  • Posts: 2248
  • Karma: -17
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #163 on: March 01, 2011, 11:45:12 PM »
good session on the pan tonight!

all the oversized fuct up holes for the cage welded up and added some plates to anchor the 5 pt. harnesses to instead of big ass washers sandwiching pan

old car used this.....



made up some 2"x2" plates outta 1/4" thick, will and tap 7/16" NF for the eye bolts. then I can cut the bolts off flush underneath instead of having 2"+ sticking down to the pavement.......was just gonna tack them in on each corner and seam seal but I got carried away with the beads ;D









My hillbilly pan rotissery works mint ;)






55 ragtop T1
56 kombi T2

Offline kombikruiser

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 305
  • Karma: 1
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #164 on: March 02, 2011, 01:41:44 AM »
That IS a sick rottisserie!
'57 Type 1
'67 Type 1
'66 Type 2
'67 Type 3 Fastback

Offline josh

  • *
  • Posts: 2248
  • Karma: -17
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #165 on: March 06, 2011, 12:33:52 AM »
working on the pan still, decided to try my hand at metal shaping :-[ battery section turned out ugly after powdercoating was removed.....



made up a template....





smacked on a fresh chunk of 18 gauge and i'm almost there.....







gotta trim edges and shrink a couple areas but it should match up pretty good iagree

been thinking of cutting my Ercos into "starcuts" for a while now (gotta be able to see the disks ;)) so I made up a template to get started...









wait till you see my milling machine ;D





55 ragtop T1
56 kombi T2

Offline Bruce

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 2912
  • Karma: -65458
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #166 on: March 06, 2011, 01:57:19 AM »
Don't forget to precisely weigh them before and after.

Offline josh

  • *
  • Posts: 2248
  • Karma: -17
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #167 on: March 06, 2011, 08:09:45 AM »
Don't forget to precisely weigh them before and after.

Like they need to get any lighter :huh:
55 ragtop T1
56 kombi T2

Offline josh

  • *
  • Posts: 2248
  • Karma: -17
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #168 on: March 10, 2011, 04:10:33 PM »
pan is getting closer, battery tray section I made is in....







55 ragtop T1
56 kombi T2

Offline Randy

  • Formerly Tikitime
  • *
  • Posts: 542
  • Karma: 4
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #169 on: March 10, 2011, 05:43:19 PM »
Great job on that battery tray!

Randy

Offline josh

  • *
  • Posts: 2248
  • Karma: -17
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #170 on: March 11, 2011, 06:57:53 PM »
had some leave to burn up at work..... wife at work, kid in daycare  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D  logged 12 hours on the car yesterday and about 5 today

lots of spot welds in the package tray had been drilled and plug welded the first time when the previous jokers replaced the rear body mount wheel well area ,lots of fun working with that flange!!

For some reason I had been putting off splicing these chunks in.......





All welds are dressed down now, shit is really time consuming to do properly!!!!!!

Got thinking about brakes.... I have to make up a new caliper mount for the rear disks to mount the spot calipers so at the same time i'm gonna switch the calipers around. The Jamar kits I have came with 4 pot calipers on the rear (meant for a drag car with spindle mounts up front) and 2 pots on the front. I'm going to put the biggies on the front and 2 pots on rear with the spot calipers for e-brake.
Wow my head hurt after figuring all the math and measuring out for these :-\ Used some old paper gasket material for templates, it cuts nice and keeps it shape much better than what I usually use for templates (cereal box)



55 ragtop T1
56 kombi T2

Offline HotSauce

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 63
  • Karma: 1
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #171 on: March 11, 2011, 07:21:41 PM »
 PDT_Armataz_01_37 Again amazing work thanks for the updates
Luke I had your father

Offline silas

  • *
  • Posts: 6822
  • Karma: 20
    • Some cool videos...Check them out!!
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #172 on: March 11, 2011, 10:28:16 PM »
really great work josh!! your fab work is superb and it's nice to see you kickin' ass all over this car!!

keep it up! :cool:

Offline josh

  • *
  • Posts: 2248
  • Karma: -17
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #173 on: March 11, 2011, 11:16:14 PM »
thanks for the comments!! ;D ;D there were times in this whole build that I would hit a wall and lose interest for a bit but i'm 100000000% motivated to get 'er done now :cool:
55 ragtop T1
56 kombi T2

Stephan Schmidt

Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #174 on: March 13, 2011, 09:26:25 AM »
Great work Josh!  I'm excited to see the finished product!

Stephan

Offline josh

  • *
  • Posts: 2248
  • Karma: -17
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #175 on: March 17, 2011, 08:35:21 PM »
Great work Josh!  I'm excited to see the finished product!

Stephan

Thanks man, me too

got ends of fuel lines Tiged-up and squeezed them to 150psi.......no leaky so just have to stuff back through tunnel and weld in now....



shock towers notched for the last time...







the engine bay side trays are the last bit of metal to go back in this car but first descided to narrow by about 3/4" each side for a bit more breathing room around valve covers but will look factory (still gotta grind the welds).....



55 ragtop T1
56 kombi T2

Offline josh

  • *
  • Posts: 2248
  • Karma: -17
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #176 on: March 22, 2011, 12:38:01 PM »
Got the engine bay shelves done and ready to weld in...







De-greased the inside of the pan tunnel and pressure washed the ship out of it, POR15'ed it and rotated it around to fully coat it. Turned out good... That's some stinky shit tho!!

Now that's done I could install the SS fuel lines, here's what I came up for clamping them down....





I will just drill 2 1/4" holes through the bottom plate of the tunnel and trim the bracket flush, then plug weld, should work out nice.

Had a bit of a setback.... Just for the hell of it I descided to feed the clutch cable through the re-inforced tube.
Got 2/3 way though and stopped!! One of the supports behind the e-brake I did got a little heavy on the weld and partially blocked the tube >:( just glad I found it now not on final assembly!! Still had a couple choice words!


55 ragtop T1
56 kombi T2

Offline Trevor P

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 942
  • Karma: 3
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #177 on: March 22, 2011, 10:06:05 PM »
Good call on widening the engine bay. I took a 1/2" out of each of mine and it was barely enough! I call BS to those that say they can jam a large stroker into one of these 36hp engine bays without mods! lol_hitting
'53 Barndoor single cab
'57 Cal-look oval 2332cc / Berg 5
'70 911T

Offline josh

  • *
  • Posts: 2248
  • Karma: -17
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #178 on: March 23, 2011, 05:45:40 AM »
Good call on widening the engine bay. I took a 1/2" out of each of mine and it was barely enough! I call BS to those that say they can jam a large stroker into one of these 36hp engine bays without mods! lol_hitting

motor JUST fit the 57 we're talking 1/8" can't remember the rod length might be a 5.400"
55 ragtop T1
56 kombi T2

Offline bwaz

  • brian waz
  • Full Member
  • Posts: 2640
  • Karma: 16
Re: Project '54 Ragtop
« Reply #179 on: March 23, 2011, 08:28:45 AM »
how are the sema 4's on your car Josh, saw an earlier photo with you holding one up... are they all good or do they need work? I had heard about Matt's Parts in Edmonton, but mine are a little different style and am getting them out of Seattle, as Jeff Slater had some shells he could rebuild for me. The build's looking good!
b. waz
brian waz