67 Rotary Swap

[PressY4Pie]

So back in May of 2016 I sold my daily driven Subaru Swapped 1973 super beetle, because i thought i was going to be moving. Ripped all the conversion stuff out of the body before hand because i planned to move it over to a earlier model bug. So after finding out I wont be moving for at least about a year, i started getting "bug sick", so i bought the first bug i could find for under a thousand bucks. i came up with this shell for about 500 i think.

It was completely disgusting when i got it, so i spent a couple weeks cleaning it out (its still not completely clean yet) and found a bit of rust on the body and a pretty big hole in the pan

Found some Honda or Acura seats (im not sure where they came from) that im going to use i think. They sit a little low though so maybe not. Still on the fence on this one.

I also planned on just tossing a random 1200 i had acquired that supposedly ran before i got it.

Spent quite a bit of time and money buying and cleaning parts for this 1200

but i never got around to installing parts or cleaning the engine completely before i decided that i didnt really want a 1200 slow boring engine.


so i went and bought a long block and trans from a friend of mine.
This is the only picture i have right now of that engine. I cant find one of the trans. (but its purple)

It was recently the heart of a race car that we called "ODB" I wont say what that stands for here, but The race car now has a Old Dirty 2 liter turbo vw engine in it.


Heres the car it was in

(the dirty one closest to the camera)

its like a 1900 that makes something to the tune of 10:1 compression, full flowed case etc.

I figured THIS was the engine i was going to use. Finally i was going to actually put an engine in the car, but i kept turning around to the Subaru EJ22 that sat on an engine stand, freshly cleaned, ready to be installed with adapter plate and radiator and wiring all in a box right there. But i already did the subaru swap, EVERYONE does the subaru swap. I wanted something special to me, because i don't plan on selling this car. Yeah i could have set it up with the Subaru swap, then changed to something else, but no. This car is getting a rotary.

So i bought this. a 12a from some scary guy up in the mountains for 300 bucks in the back of a storage locker at 9pm. there was no real light or checking, but it was a deal and had the automatic trans with it. (rotary swaps require the counterweight from an automatic trans)

It was very dirty, and for some reason on the intake/exhaust side there was like soil/dirt all over (but not really inside) it.
So i got it into my garage and went to work stripping and cleaning it

This is about how it sits right now. On the Engine stand waiting to be completely cleaned up.

For now though i thought id start from the front of the car and work my way back by installing front Disc Brakes, Cant find any good before pictures but I got the drivers side together pretty well so far.

Looks pretty good.

This morning i went to work on the other side and holy crap was it to much more tough. Not much rust on the parts themselves, but the parts were so stuck.

it would just NOT come undone. I hate suspension parts.
so out came the big boy tools

and what do you know:

also i think i bent the steering arm:

Then came the lower torsion arm. I didnt grab any pics but the hex screw that holds the dang thing in stripped. So naturally the only solution was to get the welder out:

Man that sure was a pain, and now i cant put the rest together because that bolt is obviously ruined. Will probably finish the rest of the brake conversion later tomorrow! till then
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Who?

[PressY4Pie]

Didnt have much time to work on it this week, but did finish up my disk brake conversion.

Dont know if i mentioned this but this car is getting a baja kit (not going to be actually a baja tho)
Body parts should be in today. Will post when they are installed.

Also have a rear disk brake kit to install
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Who?

[67rustavenger]

Are you keeping the bumpers stock?
If not would you be interested in selling the front one to me. Of course for a very reasonable price
Yours is dented and needs some love. I'll give it a good home.
LMK
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I have learned over the years.
Cheap parts are gonna disappoint you.
Buy Once, Cry Once!

There's never enough time to do it right the first time. But there's always enough time to do it thrice.
GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo!

[PressY4Pie]

[PressY4Pie]

So made quite a bit of progress on the bug not as much as ive wanted tho.

Reason for that is i picked up another project thats been taking up my time

anyway ive got a lot done, been trying to get pictures of everything but sometimes you forget.

First off was my pedal cluster. The clutch cable was jammed into the little sleeve it goes thru and was just completely stuck in there to where it couldnt move from either side. What i ended up doing was wrapping a bit of thing cable around the hook inside the tunnel and tied a little knot around it, then wrapped the cable around my foot to give it something to pivot on,

and then wraped the rest of the cable around a floor jack handle and pulled as hard as i could for about 20 minutes. I finally got it unstuck, fell on my arse and snapped the cable.
(i planned on replacing it anyway)

So i greased up a new one and stuffed it in there buttery smooth. Then i installed the rest of the pedals only to find out i dont have a pushrod for the brakes

anyway thats how the pedals sit right now, still asking around town for a good pushrod deal.

I have discs that are going on the back, but the kit requires you supply some of the old parts (like the bearing cap, etc) so i went to get those parts before i removed the trans, but i COULD NOT get the axle nuts off the dang car because they were so rusty.
Ive done this a number of times and for the most part i only need a big breaker bar to get them undone.

I jumped up and down for a while and obviously that didnt work.
so i went and got my angle brackets i made a few cars ago. forgot to grab pictures but its basically a long piece of angle scrap that bolts to two of the studs in the drums and braces it against the ground to stop the wheels from spinning.

ended up bending my 3/4 inch breaker bar

then i gave up and pulled the trans anyway. as of right now the axle nuts are still holding the drums on the axles on the old tranny.

then went about installing the new one

Sat like that for about a day before i realized i can toss an engine in there now and actually drive it. (from what i can tell it hasnt been driven for ~40 years) so i went and got a 1600 SP and started putting it in just for now.

Engines almost too nice for the car. Just need fuel plumed, to be wired up, and dialed in. I have like three boxes of brand new spark plugs, but when i cleaned my garage i lost them all. so i have to go to the shop and pick a few things up before it actually turns over, (i also lost my timing light because i had a degree pully on my last engine)
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Who?

[Jay-Rod]

WOW!

This is a pretty good read so far. I dig the rotary swap idea.

[PressY4Pie]

Still alive and chugging on this project. Took a couple steps backwards in the engine compartment, but its coming along.

First major thing I had to do was get the rear brakes together. Man this was way harder than i thought it would be.
This is my first swing axle VW and i didn't know there was so many combinations of axles, caps etc. I put a new trans in which seems to have short axles, and apparently the old one was long axles. That meant my caps were wrong, and all the bits in between.

The wrong cap and other bits on the new brake kit. As you can see there is no way these line up properly.

After about a jilion trips the the VW shop (shoutouts to WolfGang International) i finally got everything slapped together.

Also had a hell of a time getting lines to the calipers. I went stainless steal from the body to the axle, then made a hard line from the axle to the caliper. (sorry i forgot to get pictures of this)

Now back to that backwards step i was talking about.

I slapped an engine in it and fired it up and got the car out of the garage under its own power.
As far as i know this is the first time the car has driven since 1981. Feels good.

Anyway the reason i put an engine in it is because it needs a state vin inspection and what not, and to get said inspection, it needs to be able to drive to the DMV. Plus i want to drive it to get stuff like water lines fitted up rather than trailer it so i decided id get it running under Air Cooled power first. Engine is a stock (running) 1600 sp.

Other progress i made was the Baja kit. Rear is pretty much fitted. Just need to get the middle part fitted up well. Im really taking my time with this. Its not going to be a show car, but i never plan on selling this car and i want it to be done right.

Getting the rear fenders off was just god awful. Had to repair almost every fender nut on the drivers side. Only a couple on the passenger side.

Starting to fit the rears now with my trusty fender holder

I don't think i grabbed any pictures, but getting the running boards off was pretty tough too. Will be a bit or rust repair along the heater channels down there too. Probably going to tackle that next month along with the pan being replaced and such.


I did the initial cut really precise because a friend of mine wanted the rear clip (yeah even tho its beat to hell).

Then started trimming away until it was how i liked it.

It still needs a bit more trimming, then im going to paint the engine bay, and line the sharp edges with something rubber. Not 100 percent on how that one will go yet.

Also spent like 15 hole minutes wiping the gross dirt down. Paint isnt actually that bad..

Ordered wheels yesterday. they should arrive in a couple days. Tackling the front end this week.
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Who?

[PressY4Pie]

Well just got my bug back after a few weeks and this happened:

Pardon the height. I havent got my adjustable beam or lowered the rear yet

Random rust dust is from the area around the seat that hasnt been 100 percent cleaned up yet. Front end isnt quite complete yet. The baja hood i have was giving me troubles not fitting correctly, so i went and grabbed a different one. Will grab a few more pictures soon.
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Who?

[63Ragtop NZ]

so, a lowered ratty rotary powered baja?

hehe, I gots to see this!

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