'56 Oval Baja Build with RGB's

[joescoolcustoms]

Not much drama and action to photo in rust repair, so I will spare that portion of the build. Just suffice it to say, I am doing a lot of cutting out and welding in new(er) metal.

I did receive this in today, a oval era fuel tank that someone had installed a level sender in. I will have 2 fuel tanks in this baja. The stock 8.5 gallon unit and a 22 gallon long ranger fuel tank. Both have level sending units. I will wire them into a 3 position switch so I can use one fuel gauge to determine what is in each tank just by switching the toggel switch. I will have to install ball valves on each tank so the higher tank does not gravity feed the lower fuel tank and to stop sucking air from a higher empty tank.


_________________
The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

Member of Wagenfolks
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/870707.jpg
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=479740

[joescoolcustoms]

Placed a order from Wolfsburg West yesterday that should be in on the 24th.

Door seals
rubber seals for the pop outs
oval rear window seal
floor tar paper sound deadening/insulation
one right rear fender bolt mounting repair panel
A set of L & R front inner, lower fender well repair panels

First time ordering from WW, hope the quality on the rubber products is decent.
_________________
The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

Member of Wagenfolks
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/870707.jpg
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=479740

[LouisB]

I have ordered a lot of stuff from WW and never had a complaint. Their stuff is usually good quality.

--louis
_________________
Louis Brooks
'67 Manx II

Old people at weddings always poke me and say "Your next." So, I started doing the same to them at funerals.

[joescoolcustoms]

Got my order in from WW and the rubber procucts look to be decent. The metal repair sections suck wind tho.... Guess I am spoiled by Gerson who hand makes the split bus rust repair panels, they are the best I have worked with.

Anyway, on to doing some rust repair. Repositioned the body to get it aligned just perfectly, (or as perfect as rust will allow).



You know I had to trial fit the high lift fenders!




I hate rust repair. It is slow, messy, weld sparks burn, grit in the eyes, grit in what is left of my hair. Can't wait to get it finished.

The front wheel well done on the outside. I have a slight warp down low from not having patience and letting cool between spot welds. Hammer/dolley will get most out. I also trimmed almost all of the lip that sticks out off of the heater channel that usually hits the tires on full turn, then welded the seam. This will give a little more clearance.



The drivers rear outside done. Still have some inside to complete that will get done when the body comes back off the pan before final mounting.



Passenger rear outside cut to the bone to replace what the rust monster consumed.



Three weeks until vacation, I had better get busy!
_________________
The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

Member of Wagenfolks
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/870707.jpg
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=479740

[LouisB]

None of the beetle repair panels available right now are worth a damn. Some of it is so bad it was less work to make my own than try to get them to fit. You got spoiled working with the green stuff. That rear quarter area looks nasty.

--louis
_________________
Louis Brooks
'67 Manx II

Old people at weddings always poke me and say "Your next." So, I started doing the same to them at funerals.

[veeweeman]

This is a really nice Baja build...took me about 45min to read all 7 pages...you are a very talented VW enthusiast...doing your own tranny rebuild is gutsy...the no-hop kit is way cool as well...building a Baja to this caliber has its rewards, I just hope the sleeping rust does not come back and ruin your nice work...so I have to ask, what kind of work do you do that allows you to spend so much time in your garage?

[joescoolcustoms]

[seanboy69]

Wow you are a lucky guy!! I catch heck for being in the garage too much. AWSOME build!!!!
_________________
In a sea of american muscle there is alittle bug hiding in the corner...
Oh, and I am 39 years old.....I am supposed to know better......ha!!!
1956 oval ragtop
1962 baha
2276 in progress

[joescoolcustoms]

I have taken a break from breathing Rust Dust, Grinding Dust and getting burnt by sparks from welding thin metal. I started on the engine, which is about the most favorite part of any build for me.

I had to clean up the work bench so I could build a engine, change the parts cleaner fluid, sort through the stash to pull out the needed parts for the engine build and do some reading to brush up on bearing orentation, torque sequences, torque values, clearance measurements and so forth. (I have a rusty mind that needs to get into the engine build mode.)

I checked out the 78 mm 4340 crank. All bearing journals are spot on for roundness and width.

I checked out the rods and had to pholish them slightly to get the desired side clearance. I like it just a touch wider than stock (0.0005) to promote more oil flow to keep the bearing cooler. I am using H-beam rods, 5.400 length with ARP 2000 cap bolts. I had the rods balanced to within 0.5 grams and balanced end for end.

New crank/cam gear. Heated and slide on. New C-clip to hold gears on crank.



I lubed the threads and under the cap bolt heads with ARM Moly asymbly lube to get correct torque. I torqued the rods 3 times at 30 ft/lbs to establish proper stretch. I have to search out a slinger plate and the crank is ready to go into the case.

I traded and picked up a new set of Mahle forged 94 mm coated pistons and a used set of barrells. The pistons have been balanced to 0.01 gram and the tops cut for valve reliefs. The barrells are in really nice shape and will clean up quickly with a 400 stone leaving no "ring shadows". I have a new set of moly coated rings for 96 mm pistons that will allow me to file fit the rings to get the desired ring gaps.



I had started out with the heads, but upon taking a new set of 041's apart to start a mild PP, I did not like the intake valves that were in the heads. They are SS, but the under cut right where the stem ends and the head starts to flare out just did not look good to my liking. I shuffled my feet for 2 days searching for valves, looking at cam profiles, researching heads and made a decission. Put the 041's back together and set back in the bench corner. I ordered another set of heads.

The 041's have stock exhaust valves (32 mm) and 39 mm intake valves (stock intake is either 35.5 or 37 depending on the head). For a 2165, these just calculate out to be too small. So I ordered a set of heads with 40 mm intakes and 35 mm exhaust. Much better suited to the dual 40 mm Dellorto's that will go on top of the engine.

I decide on a Engle FK-7 cam for a couple of reasons. It is designed for 1.4 or 1.5 ratio rockers. It is real close to a W-110 when the FK-7 is used with a 1.4 ratio rocker. Here is why I have chosen the FK cam over the W cam:
Less lift at the cam. This is a dual benifit.
1. Less cam lift translates to less lifter movement in the lifter bore. This is a good thing because the high lift cams tend to wear out the lifter bores a lot quicker than lower lifts = longer lasting case.
2. less cam lift also translates to less push rod movement. The valve springs have to not only control the valves, but also the rockers and pushrods. With the pushrod moving less, it acheives less velocity in its movement and it takes less effort to reverse the pushrod direction. The significance of this is it allows a softer valve spring which wears the valves and valve guides less.

Heads should be in mid next week.
_________________
The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

Member of Wagenfolks
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/870707.jpg
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=479740

[joescoolcustoms]

In most build threads there is a point when a project takes a turn or gets side tracked. Here is my side track.

I have realized that I cannot make my goal date, but not wanting to dissapoint, I bought another RGB baja today. This baja can be road worthy in a week with some fast elbow grease.

A '69 that was IRS and converted to RGB rear. Recent driver and set aside due to PO purchasing a nicer truck to get to a farther away job. The front has 2 1/2 inch raised BJ spindles. Most of the interior is MIA, but I have duplicate interior pieces and a '73 rust pile that has a nice interior to rob. One new heater channel and new pan halves. Fibertech baja kit in good condition.

This baja will allow me to make my vacation trip and not rush the '56's build resulting in rushed and sloppy work that never gets returned to correct later, (I am sure most of you know what I am talking about).

Here it is just home with one trip through the car wash to eliminate 90% of the tree sap.








_________________
The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

Member of Wagenfolks
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/870707.jpg
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=479740

[jeepguy]

hey looks nice could you get some more pictures of how the rgbs are mounted on the new one and let us know how it works out

[ts39136]

[LouisB]

Sounds like a good plan. This way you have a play toy and you can take your time with the oval and do it right. The oval is looking to be a really nice project and it would be a shame to rush it. Then you can sell the play toy when the oval is done and ready to go.

--louis
_________________
Louis Brooks
'67 Manx II

Old people at weddings always poke me and say "Your next." So, I started doing the same to them at funerals.

[joescoolcustoms]

[joescoolcustoms]

On with the engine build. I will run this 2165 in the '69 for this trip and then it will go perminantly into the '56.

I checked the volumes of the critical parts to determine the compression ratio.

I even checked the volume of the piston valve reliefs to get right down acurate. The piston valve cuts contained 1.95 cc.



Next is to check the volume of the combustion chambers. They did vary by 1 cc, but not enough for me to grind them equal for a low compression road engine. The average was 53.0 cc.



I checked the deck height of each hole with every piston to get a average of 0.092 inches.



So, using the static volume of the cumbustion chamber and the valve relief cut, 53.0 + 1.95 = 54.95 or just 55 cc, the stroke of 78 MM and bore of 94 mm, the compression came up to be 8.60:1. Too high for what I wanted. But if I use a 0.030 barrell shim, it drop the compression down to 8.08:1 which is close enough to my target of 8.0:1.
_________________
The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

Member of Wagenfolks
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/870707.jpg
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=479740

[joescoolcustoms]

More to the engine build.

Short Block is together, gotta move to the cylinders. I scored a new set of 94 mm stroker pistons w/valve pockets cut, a used set of 94 mm strokers pistons w/valve pockets cut and a nice set of used 94 mm cylinders for $ 50.00 last year at the Fall Fast Times at Farmington show in the swap meet area. The cylinders cleaned up with a quick hone and left no shadows or ridges. (A shadow is where the hone stone does not touch the metal because of the wear and looks like a dark shadow in the grey honed area). I like a finish hone with 400 grit stones and a cross hatch of about 30*. Takes a steady elbow to get the cross hatch just right.



My camera does not take the best closeup pictures, but you may be able to make out the hone marks here.



I use a slow spead drill (800 rpm max) with the old tried and true spring style hone. A faster hone will leave a circle hone and not have a cross hatch pattern. I then drop the air pressure on the air drill to where it slows down the speed to where my elbow can match it.



With the cylinders honed and ready for the pistons, the next step is to set up the pushrod length. I used a old pushrod and cut a center section out, use a small diameter all-thread and two nuts to make an adjustable pushrod to figure out the proper length pushrod for the best valve wear. I will be running the 1.4 rockers so the adjustment is on the pushrod side with a "wiper foot" on the valve side. I am also running lash caps to protect the valve stems. The lash caps require shimming the rockers outward to compensate for the slightly longer valve, (lash cap adds to the overall length of the valve stem). Notice I had to clearence the bottom of the jug to clear the case stud/nut.



And almost lastly, port the heads. The heads I purchased are SWEET! These are the heads I got from Jeff:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=853486

I purchased the heads from Jeff on a late Wednesday evening last week. He cut them for 94mm cylinders and shipped them to me and I got them yesterday, Wednesday at 10:00 AM on my porch. Top quality service and a very nice set of heads.

I am not racing this engine, so a race port is not happening, and the heads do not need a lot of work done to them, just a clean up and under the valve port. I did decide to unshroud the valves. I marked the deck area on the heads, set the cylinder in the head and scratched a line matching the cylinder ID. Then ported the cumbustion chamber out to meet the cylinder wall so the valve can flow better into and out of the cylinder more efficiently. Efficency = horsepower. So I had to re-measure the chamber volume to re-calculate the compression ratio and came up with 59 cc cumbustion chambers to give a 8.01:1 CR. Alomst perfect for me.



I have my fingers crossed to test fire the engine this weekend. The tins will not look like much, but will be all there and all work with thermostat functioning.
_________________
The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

Member of Wagenfolks
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/870707.jpg
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=479740

[allanb4570]

[joescoolcustoms]

Finding those John Johnson sets is hard allanb4570 . I looked under every rock, every swap meet and had a wanted add here on the Samba for over a year to get one set and then two people responded at the same time, so I now have two sets. I will not sell the unused set, but will use it on a future project.

Bugpack used to sell a axle stiffener that slid over the tube and bolted to the spring plates for off roaders to help protect from rocks on a swing axle. If you can find those, install in some zerk fittings, they will function for the pivits, but you will still need something to counter the hop action and stabilize the reduction box. (lower mount and strut)

Other options exist to mount the boxes in an upright position, but do not offer taking the hop out of the install.
_________________
The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

Member of Wagenfolks
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/870707.jpg
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=479740

[allanb4570]

Thanks for yor advice. I will explain what I am trying to accomplish to you and maybe you might have some ideas. I do some WWII German reenacting and I have always loved and had early VW's. So, I am trying to combine my 2 hobbies. What I am wanting to do with my 59 is; to set it up like a kubelwagen chassis and put a full beetle body on it and make it into a Radio Car, Type 82E. I have had the front beam welded with adjusters, but to raise the front end and not slam it. With that accomplished, I am trying to figure how to set up the transmission now. I know the best option (and most costly) is to use a barndoor bus tranny. They are very expensive to buy, then ship from California, and then to rebuild to road worthy condition. I am not trying to make it an absolute accurate reproduction as the body will most likely be a 60's model and I will put in a split window kit in back and remove the vent windows out of the doors and really just have a cosmeticly looking radio war car. Someting differnt to drive around town in and go to the local car shows with. I have posted a you tube link that shows a VW. He has it designated as a different number than I call mine. But this is basically what I am trying to achieve.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnnQCF6x9YM&feature=related
_________________
"Owner of German Engineering from the bottom up!"
1954 VW Type 1 (Sold)
1959 VW Type 1
1971 Super Beetle
1995 Mercedes Benz E420

[joescoolcustoms]

Viewing the you tube video makes me think a RGB is not the way you want to go allanb4570 . Reason being is it looks like you would want the rear tires to run in the same track as the front tires, (same front and rear track width).

The bus trans with RGB's has 5 3/4 inch wider wheel track, (from drum/wheel mounting face to drum/wheel mounting face) than the type 1 counterpart. This pushes the wheel almost 3 inches out farther than the fronts on each side. On a Baja, no big deal because of the open fenders and big rear tires. But on a stockish appearing body, you would have to run a 3 inch wider rear fender and it will be very noticable.

I reccomend putting on some 16 inch rims and sourcing some tall aspect ratio tires to match (maybe Coker Tire), convert the rear to IRS, use a thing cv's and thing axle stubs/flanges that allow more travel and slightly notch the spring plate for more travel.. This will raise the rear up and not put the rear suspension at a severe positive camber.

BTW, I like the look of what you are building for.
_________________
The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

Member of Wagenfolks
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/870707.jpg
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=479740