TheSamba.com :: View topic - Herbsflat4

Sun Dec 30, 2012 3:26 pm

Thanks Pallen.

Here are a few more.

Sun Dec 30, 2012 3:55 pm

Looks like you have an IRS pan. I am at a a similar stage in my build to you. One thing to check out is, most of the bodies are designed for swing axle and your rear trailing arms may hit the battery box of your body. You will need an inch or more of body lift to avoid it.
Here is a link to my build. See the bottom of page 1 where joescoolcustom discusses the problem.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=516259&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Sun Dec 30, 2012 4:16 pm

I just realized you are flux coreing this! Is that Hobart able to run gas? So much nicer to weld if you can.

Also, what are the cut outs on the pan along the perimeter for?

Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:15 am

karu - Thanks for the heads up. I will have to double check this because I haven't verified whether or not I will have this problem. Hopefully, since the PO did not have a lift on this buggy I wont need it either.

Pallen - My plan was to go with gas but I have an older Hobart 125 and it isn't setup for gas. You can buy a conversion kit but they are scarce and the ones that you may find are over a $100. So instead of buying the kit I would rather just get my hands on a Hobart 140.

The cutouts in the pans go around some additional braces that I made that basically wrap around the bottom and both sides of the 1x2 tube. There are a total of 4 braces, 2 on each side.

You might be able to pick up what I am trying to poorly explain from this picture.
I just wasn't 100% on the strength of my welds at these junctions so I added the braces. After everything gets painted I will probably be the only person that will even notice them.

Wed Jan 09, 2013 8:38 pm

I had an impulse buy on some crappy old wheels. They are known as Keystone Classics.

I have no idea if I really do like them yet and I only found 2 instead of 4 so we will see if more turn up locally.

Anyone have any pictures of buggies with Keystone Classic wheels? Searching yielding very little. Found a guy over on the dunebuggiearchives forum who had a very small picture of his buggy. I emailed him for more pictures but no response yet.

In hindsight I should have probably waited for some better quality wheels. These have some flaking on the chrome and from what I can tell may require more than elbow grease and chrome polish.

Re-chroming looks expensive but I have to send a few more emails out for quotes locally.

ENGINE UPDATE.....
Lots of new parts showing up and eager to get to the next steps.
Engle W110
CB 74mm crank
All new bearings, main, rods, cam.
Lots of other goodies too. :)

Thu Jan 10, 2013 5:47 am

Here is a picture of my 59 ragtop Baja Bug back in 1978 riding proud on a set of 14" Keystone classics rocking 60's on every corner. ... I opted for a set of Jackmans and more appropriate size tires as my skills, taste and wisdom grew... The Keystones could look really great on a low street buggy. Cool looking wheels if employed properly

I hated the adapters I needed to use and I believe they were unilug too, don't miss that mess at all

Thu Jan 10, 2013 4:26 pm

riding proud on a set of 14" Keystone classics rocking 60's on every corner.

Haha. I'm digging that line. Very cool bug. Thanks for the picture too.
Yes these are Unilug which as I understand means they are oblong holes so that 4.75"x5 or 4.50"x5 patterns fit the wheels. I think I need special lug nuts for them but need to do more research on that.

Yea, I originally wanted to bolt wheels straight to my chassis without using adapters but these wheels caught my eyes so now I may have to run adapters. Not sure how the backspacing will work out though. Could be a problem there.

Just picked up some beat up old 914 porsche seats today. Going to work on on them and see how they fit up. They didnt come with the special Porsche slider that raises and lowers the seat when adjusting forward and backwards. We will just have to see if "tilt" is really required though. As long as I can get set up to have forward and back adjustability that should be okay.

Thu Jan 10, 2013 8:51 pm

Set of Keystones on a buggy

Thu Jan 10, 2013 8:53 pm

Set of Keystones on a buggy

Thu Jan 17, 2013 12:18 am

Thanks to Hecubus for the picture and the idea.

I have been struggling to figure out a way to bolt the body to the frame rails without having hardware seen from below.

There is a guy on eBay (morethantubes) who I am going to contact about making a whole batch of 0.925" long 3/4" OD bungs, tapped for metric bolts.

Up way to late.....Need to get this buggy closer to finished.

Thu Jan 17, 2013 12:20 am

Thanks to Mike1991 BTW for the pictures. It helps.

I found this one by accident somehow......

Thu Jan 17, 2013 2:09 am

herbsflat4 wrote: Thanks to Mike1991 BTW for the pictures. It helps.

I found this one by accident somehow......

how to shop in usa can find these rims as your here ... in childhood there is nothing ! ... thanks

Fri Jan 18, 2013 6:36 am

herbsflat4 wrote:
Thanks to Hecubus for the picture and the idea.

I have been struggling to figure out a way to bolt the body to the frame rails without having hardware seen from below.

There is a guy on eBay (morethantubes) who I am going to contact about making a whole batch of 0.925" long 3/4" OD bungs, tapped for metric bolts.

Up way to late.....Need to get this buggy closer to finished.

I did the same thing. Came out pretty trick!

Fri Jan 18, 2013 3:56 pm

Awesome....can you point me to any pictures by chance? did you make or purchase the bungs?

Mon Jan 21, 2013 1:42 pm

herbsflat4 wrote: Awesome....can you point me to any pictures by chance? did you make or purchase the bungs?

I made mine myself. I work in a machine shop, so, I had access to everything needed to make them. I believe there are pics in my build thread. If not, I'll have to go find them and update my build thread... :lol:

Thu Jan 24, 2013 5:14 am

Sorry, I'm having a hard time finding the pics... I didnt forget you. I dont think I took pics in the middle of the job though. I'm really bad at taking in process pics... :roll:

Mon Feb 04, 2013 3:40 am

karu wrote: Looks like you have an IRS pan. I am at a a similar stage in my build to you. One thing to check out is, most of the bodies are designed for swing axle and your rear trailing arms may hit the battery box of your body. You will need an inch or more of body lift to avoid it.
Here is a link to my build. See the bottom of page 1 where joescoolcustom discusses the problem.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=516259&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Well i finally got around to checking my rear arm clearance against the battery box. Looks like I will have issues. If you look at the bump stop and compare to the gap between the arm and the fiberglass you can see the bump stop is greater.

Here is a square to show the gap.

I have issued myself a single dope-slap for not checking this earlier and for making an assumption that because everything was okay for the PO it would be okay for me. I just dont get it though. Yes, I put entirely new floors in the buggy but the body to frame contact points should be the same. Who knows.

Anyways, I have decided against a body lift. Instead, i will cut the bottom of the battery tray (already poorly done with fiberglass anyways) and shorten the depth. Yes, this will raise the battery up a bit but I dont mind that. The rear area will not be for seating anyways. I think Dale M has some info on raising the battery well floor about 3 inches. So I will follow his lead.

In other news, I played around with the 914 seats some.

And I received my bungs.

Moving along but at a snail's pace that is for sure.

Mon Apr 08, 2013 11:40 am

I hope its just the camera flash but those look like aluminum?????

Tue Apr 09, 2013 3:28 am

Just the flash. I double checked the email I sent the guy and put a magnet to them. Low carbon steel.

Tue Apr 09, 2013 4:42 am

I made the exact same things for mine. The ones I made were .750 O.D. with a 3/8-16 thread all the way through it. I made them the correct length so they bottomed out inside the tube and were flush with the top. Only problem I see me having is that I'm going to have to repair my mounting flange, so I won't be able to mark the holes through the pan once I get the body lined up correctly...

Also, with the same body as yours, I have to repair my battery box as well. Mine was all busted up when I got the body, so, I knew I'd have to do something about that. I want to build a smaller box like someone else made and get rid of the opening in front of the rear seat. I posted the link to his battery box in my build thread.