Landspeed Racing Project, My 57

slalombuggy · Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 6:45 am Post subject:

Well all the piddly little crap that takes forever has started. Filling in holes drilled by previous owners. making patterns to fill rust holes. Still undecided as to what to do with the dash as I want to retain a factory look, not Cal-Look it and fill everything. I want to seal it off from the interior as the fuel cell is up there and the air under the flip front will turn the car into a wind tunnel. Might just fill the speaker hole and cover with the stock grill and put in a radio block off plate and dummy switches. All of the electrical will be inside the car on a console switch plate. Once your belted in you cannot reach the dash to get to any switches. Wish i wouldn't have given away the radio block off plate from my 54 to a buddy years ago

brad
_________________
BB Buggy 121.253mph @ Bonneville 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57hMyJmIU10
Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason I have trust issues

drscope · Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 8:46 am Post subject:

Brad, since all your wiring is going to be elsewhere, you really don't have reason to get to the back (front) side of the dash.

So why not make up a plate (fire wall) to cover the hole from the bottom of the trunk floor up to the bottom of the cowl right at the trunk opening and all the way to the sides of the trunk.

That would seal it off completely and maybe even keep salt from getting down into the A pillers where it will quickly rust away the front of the heater channels.

Since you are using a flip front, you don't need to allow any openings for the hood hinges.
_________________
Mother Nature is a Mean Evil Bitch!

slalombuggy · Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 9:39 am Post subject:

I have planned on making covers for the pillars once the hinges are out and freed up and the dzus springs are in the 1/4 panels. That was one of the first things on my list to do once the nose was cut off, box the A pillars. And as far as a dash cover. I'd thought about that too. Bend up a 1/2" alngled lip to go all the way around and make a plate to cover it. It has to be street legal so I'll need to be able to access the wiper motor and if I can find a small enough one I might mount a small squirrel cage fan in the front for some air circulation. My cage builder has some sheet metal working tools including and inside and outside former so I really want to try them out to form the lip around the cowel.

Looks like we're on the same wavelength on this build Laughing

brad
_________________
BB Buggy 121.253mph @ Bonneville 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57hMyJmIU10
Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason I have trust issues

slalombuggy · Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 8:19 pm Post subject:

Started filling in holes

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New top of rear panel to cover the rear torsion housing

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brad
_________________
BB Buggy 121.253mph @ Bonneville 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57hMyJmIU10
Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason I have trust issues

joshbuchan · Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 9:34 pm Post subject:

Any luck getting ahold of the guy with those glass fenders?

Car is looking pretty cool BTW Cool

slalombuggy · Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 7:19 am Post subject:

Sold them at the Great Canadian. CCC fenders ordered yesterday. Thanks though, appreciate the lead.

The car's coming along, as I said, now I'm in to all the piddly shite that eats up time, isn't much fun, but is required. Sunday I spent 3 hours removing all the headliner strips and more metal I don't need from in the car. Trimmed up the engine compartment around the back. The 1/4s down where the bumper should bolt on are now gone as is the inside of the apron to make room for the engine now sitting 3" higher in the body. Hopefully this weekend I'll mock up the motor with heads and test fit the carbs propperly and see how much I have to trim out of the top I know most of the part where the seal sits will be gone on the 1/2 side to clear the carb and big beef manifolds.

brad
_________________
BB Buggy 121.253mph @ Bonneville 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57hMyJmIU10
Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason I have trust issues

slalombuggy · Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2011 12:06 pm Post subject:

Started making all the templates for patch panels and fillers for the interior of the car. Takes a bit of planning to do it nicely. It would have been much easier to just cut out the back of the car and sheet it all in like the race car guys do. Wouldn't have to match up so many little curves, angles and retricted areas. But I think it will be well worth it. A VW aquaintance looked in the car and said, "Not much work to the body to raise the torsion 3" huh?" I took that as a compliment as he hadn't noticed the raised parcel tray

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Parked the buggy for the winter so stole the front wheels off to test fit on the car. 4" narrowed beam, drop spindles and disk brakes 165/45/15 tires on steel Sprintstars. fits pretty good but I will probably go with 165/50/15s

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After being stripped of most of it's good parts and left for dead, the body was re-united with it's original drivers door that I stumbled across at my buddy Todd's shop. It had been take off to be saved and the green one put on becasue the car was supposed to go to the scrap yard. The door escaped countless projects, a major downsizing of the shop where tons (literally) of steel and parts were tossed and here it is together again. I lined up the over sray and mask lines on the hinges and the door closed just like new the first time.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

brad
_________________
BB Buggy 121.253mph @ Bonneville 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57hMyJmIU10
Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason I have trust issues

slalombuggy · Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 6:58 pm Post subject:

Well, I finally rmembered to take my camera to work and update my build. I had a bit of a set back, but things are progressing now.

I welded in the tubes from the transfer plate to the rear forks to brace them. Between these and dropping rods from the cage plates they aren't going to move at all

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I also finished the rear wheel wells. filling the holes left from raising the parcel tray 3.5 inches

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I also made all the templates for the filler pieces from the pan to the parcel tray. And as you can see I had to shrink the hump that was for the heater tubes originally. The right side was rusted out, but you can see the scorching and bare metal where I flattened the left side. It ain't pretty but it's flat enough to wled in the large filler on the front.

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I need a windsheild wipers .to be street legal and having an abundance of wiper motors saved from scrapping cars over the years. I wanted to see if I could adapt a late model motor to the 57 wiper frame.

Here is the stock wiper frame

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Here it is after I heated and flattened the raised ribs to fit the new motor and drilled the holes. To get the correct spacing I overlayed the old frame on the 57 frame and marked them with a jiffy

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The bushings in the arms are different sizes so I cut the ends off leaving lots of overlap (better too long than too short). With the wiper motor bolted in and in the park position, I lined up the arm from the 57 making sure it was at full extension and parrallel to the arm from the motor. I then tacked it together and tried it out. I found that the main arm on the motor was stepped which meant that the arm would bind up. I swapped the places of the arm from the motor to the right post and the arm that goes from the left post to the right post. Everything was free then and it worked like a charm. The arms swung from stop to stop. Now to mount it and try it on the car with arms.

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As stock, the arms in the lower left corner are reversed. They have been swapped. Now that I know they work. I will trims the arms a bit and final weld them. I will also punch a few holes with the hole saw in the frame to lighten it up. Every ounce counts.
_________________
BB Buggy 121.253mph @ Bonneville 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57hMyJmIU10
Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason I have trust issues

slalombuggy · Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 7:04 pm Post subject:

My CCC rear fenders should be in transit. My CB aluminum case should be delivered tomorrow. I talked to Ron Lummus last week and ordered an 8 point cage from him on Friday. Super nice guy to deal with. Asked lots of questions, answered all my questions and thought the project was pretty cool to boot.....

brad
_________________
BB Buggy 121.253mph @ Bonneville 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57hMyJmIU10
Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason I have trust issues

Louis · Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 10:30 pm Post subject:

keep it coming bud, look awesome!
is that your shop with the lift those other cars, pretty nice set up to work in..

cheers!

slalombuggy · Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 7:18 am Post subject:

My CB aluminum engine case came on Wednesday so I mocked up the motor with the case, a couple of barrels and my wedgport heads so I could put the cylinder tins on to see where they sat in the car. I want to re-weld in the side engine surround body tins, but like everthing else in the back, they have to sit up higher in the engine compartment. I'll also put on my 1 3/4 header to see where it will exit the apron And I'll have to do some trimming of the body on the 1/2 side of the motor to fit the carb and manifold.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

_________________
BB Buggy 121.253mph @ Bonneville 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57hMyJmIU10
Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason I have trust issues

slalombuggy · Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 10:44 pm Post subject:

The brown truck showed up at work today and...my RLR cage kit was dropped off.

13 days from the time it was ordered, built to spec and shipped from Cali to Canada. That's service!!!!! Thanks Ron Lummus Racing!!!!!!.

Other than that, just been making some patterns at coffee times and lunch and cutting sheet metal. Haven't felt much like welding this week. Hopefully this weekend. Lots of pics to come.

brad
_________________
BB Buggy 121.253mph @ Bonneville 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57hMyJmIU10
Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason I have trust issues

slalombuggy · Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 8:35 pm Post subject:

He was this afternoon project cut off the rusted inner rear tin and made some new pieces to weld in

Here it is with the apron and side pieces removed

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The new side pieces I made to weld in (both sides the same)

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Right side welded in

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Here's the right side tray button welded in. I bent the side panel into a 90* lip for the tray to sit on clamped it with visegrips and put plug welds in through 1/4" holes I drilled in the trays. Once ground smooth the welds will disappear.

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Here it is with motor in place, looking down on the new pieces. I will be filling in the fronts of the side trays and the rectangular hole in the wheel wells

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

brad
_________________
BB Buggy 121.253mph @ Bonneville 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57hMyJmIU10
Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason I have trust issues

slalombuggy · Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 5:38 pm Post subject:

Canada Post came today and dropped off a couple of parcels. Applause

and pieced together some tin work for the torsion housing cover

Here's the finished wiper motor assembly ready to go in

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My RLR cage kit

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The rear tin work to fill in the area in the back seat area ready to go in after I clean the body down to bare metal and trim the ends of the top piece on the ends and over the e-brake tubes

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And the packages that arrived today, my CCC rear fenders

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

_________________
BB Buggy 121.253mph @ Bonneville 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57hMyJmIU10
Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason I have trust issues

henry roberts · Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 9:39 pm Post subject:

keep it up, this is my fave build thread at the moment (and i normally like stock bodies).

would a set of rear torsion bar adjusters be a good idea so you don't have to muck around with the trailing arms? looks like that would be a total p.i.t.a to get at.

slalombuggy · Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 11:15 pm Post subject:

Thanks Henry, I was starting to think no one was watching Very Happy

I've got a set of adjustable spring plates on my buggy that I might swap over to this car. I thought I would use them more to balance the buggy for autocrossing, but that hasn't been the case. Adjusting the springplates on the torsion bars shouldn't be that big of a problem, I just have to lift the body up a foot to get at them Shocked

brad
_________________
BB Buggy 121.253mph @ Bonneville 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57hMyJmIU10
Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason I have trust issues

ConcreteAce · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 10:29 pm Post subject:

drscope · Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 10:20 am Post subject:

Brad, will the rules allow you to move the windows out so they are more flush with the body? That will really help with the aero package!
_________________
Mother Nature is a Mean Evil Bitch!

slalombuggy · Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 11:07 am Post subject:

60ragtop · Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 2:21 pm Post subject:

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Landspeed Racing Project, My 57
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