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Rich62ghia
Samba Member
Joined: September 01, 2012
Posts: 147
Location: Wollongong, Australia
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 Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2015 4:57 pm Post subject: |
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Took a little longer than expected but she is now narrowed. I took heaps of photos so hopefully there are some tips for anyone else attempting.
First was replacing that bearing, I carefully hammered in the replacement 2mm in carefully checking that the bearing still turned and there was no crush on the end
I then ground off the excess 2mm using a good quality grinding blade, keeping the same angled profile on he ends
I had marked roughly where the tower had to be narrowed to fit the body which I measured as roughly 35mm from the top of the tube and cut with a hack saw. I found after cutting the tubes that hack saw gives good control over the cuts and there is little effort.
Being careful to only cut down to the first half of the tower
After drilling the welds out on the drill press again only down just past the first half of the tower and cutting the welds of the shock mount, I was able to easily remove the tower half with an old chisel
Measured roughly 1.6mm (thickness of the sheet I will be plating with) and cut the excess off the shock mount
Tightened the shock bolt in placed, trimmed of the excess and ground everything flat
Cleaned up the inside of the tubes with a round file
Then bevelled the ends of the tubes for welding
For the sleeves to connect the tubes together I used 1 3/4” (44mm)exhaust pipe which is readily a available, it is slightly undersized but is made adequate for the job by slightly ovaling the pipe and putting the sleeve in the top tube perpendicular to the sleeve in the bottom tube
At this point I trial fitted the beam just to make sure things were on track and the clearances looked good
Rough measurement for the drivers side cut was 130mm from the inside of the tower which left 1 notch for locating the steering box.
Checked measurements from left and right side towers to mounting bolts and left, right, top, bottom tubes and all within 1mm
With some 1.6mm sheet I made a 90 deg bend on one side clamped and scribed out the pattern
Marked rough position of old weld points and drilled plate for welding
Mig or Tig would give a much neater job, and this would have been a good excuse to get one but I used a stick welder which worked fine.
Before welding the tubes I thoroughly cleaned all parts from old metal shavings, regreased the bearings and bushings and sealed the ends with some tape to prevent any dirt getting in prior to fitting the trailing arms
Tacked the tubes for a final trial fit before welding.
Fit is perfect there is about half a millimeter of body clearance so I couldn't have narrowed any more
Welded and grinded flush ready for paint
To narrow the leaves I measured back from the ends 22mm which is what I am narrowing each side. Plus another mark back a further 1.5mm for bevelling the ends.
Ends cut and bevelled
Ready for assembly
I am going to fit the trailing arms to the leaves in their new position and then drill in position to mark the ends. Got the closest fitting drill and wrapped electrical tape around the ends so that I wouldn't damage the threads when I drilled
Checked that all the arms roughly measured the same distance out from the towers
After marking, I notched the leaves in a drill press. I first pilot holed then progressively used bigger drills. I got the best results using a drill reground on the bench grinder to 45 deg. I first tried a counter sink bit but the point on the end stopped it from penetrating
Regreased the leaves and trailing arms and fitted
One beam narrowed 1 and ¾ inch (44mm) finished
Final fitment and clearance is still good
To do a rough wheel alignment I cut some aluminium window trim I had marked and drilled for porsche bolt pattern and fitted.
Measuring at each side and adjusting the tie rods till toe in was about 1-1.5mm over the distance I was measuring. Would be equivalent to 2-3mm toe-in over a full tyre diameter. Should be close enough till I get to a shop to have it done properly.
Wheels on and it looks to be narrow enough for how low I want to go. Ive got about 1 inch clearance between the tyre and the body and good clearance when turning the wheel lock to lock
Also took the opportunity to change over to a later collapsible steering column |
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sputnick60
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Joined: July 22, 2007
Posts: 3916
Location: In Molinya Orbit
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Rich62ghia
Samba Member
Joined: September 01, 2012
Posts: 147
Location: Wollongong, Australia
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| Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2015 6:37 am Post subject: |
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Thanks Nicholas so do I 
Now that I have finished with the front suspension, Im going to be installing the fuel tank soon. Wondering what others have used for the tank to body seal. I have seen that KGPR have a foam seal kit, but I was thinking of just using foam weather stripping that you use in door jambs, any thoughts? |
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sputnick60
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Joined: July 22, 2007
Posts: 3916
Location: In Molinya Orbit
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Rich62ghia
Samba Member
Joined: September 01, 2012
Posts: 147
Location: Wollongong, Australia
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| Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2015 5:43 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks Nicholas
Do you reckon the Clark Rubber stuff is better than you can get in Bunnings? Nearest Clark Rubber is about 30km from me, or is weather strip, weather strip? |
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J1
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Joined: February 10, 2014
Posts: 698
Location: SoCal
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| Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2015 6:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Rich62ghia wrote: |
Mig or Tig would give a much neater job, and this would have been a good excuse to get one but I used a stick welder which worked fine.
Welded and grinded flush ready for paint
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I didn't pay attention to the details since I am not interested in narrowing, but I'm thinking of stick welding various parts of my ghia (eg, lower beam, replace channel, sheet metal). May be helpful to collect reference points, so would you mind sharing which rods and what settings you uses? Thx! Sure seems like a lot of love put into your proj.
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1971 Ghia coupe. Assume I know nothing and you'll be pretty darn close to the truth. |
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sputnick60
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Joined: July 22, 2007
Posts: 3916
Location: In Molinya Orbit
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Rich62ghia
Samba Member
Joined: September 01, 2012
Posts: 147
Location: Wollongong, Australia
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| Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2015 5:24 am Post subject: |
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| No not concourse, no 20 grand paint job, or anything like that. I guess when you have limited time and it takes you as long as it has taken me to build this car and you can get good advice that's going to help you to do something only once, you take it. |
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Rich62ghia
Samba Member
Joined: September 01, 2012
Posts: 147
Location: Wollongong, Australia
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| Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2015 5:30 am Post subject: |
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| J1 wrote: |
| Rich62ghia wrote: |
Mig or Tig would give a much neater job, and this would have been a good excuse to get one but I used a stick welder which worked fine.
Welded and grinded flush ready for paint
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I didn't pay attention to the details since I am not interested in narrowing, but I'm thinking of stick welding various parts of my ghia (eg, lower beam, replace channel, sheet metal). May be helpful to collect reference points, so would you mind sharing which rods and what settings you uses? Thx! Sure seems like a lot of love put into your proj. |
Thanks J1, Ive read your thread and like you I used an arc/stick welder because thats what I have. Mines a bit more of a dinosaur than yours though. It is my dads old choke style range is 60A-140A. But its difficult to weld anything below 70A, electrode just keeps sticking. I have used the new inverter HF ones and they are heaps better and can weld thinner metal with lower Amps.
For welding the thinner 1.6mm plate I used Cigweld brand, ferro craft 2.0mm electrodes at 70-80A and tried to be quick with my weld. I was pretty confident I wouldnt burn through because spot welding by drilling a hole in one sheet and filling is alot more forgiving than trying to butt weld with a stick welder.
For welding the tubes which is much thicker I used Cigweld brand, weld craft 3.2mm "Xray quality" electrodes at 100A, these were better quality and it showed good penetration and the slag peeled off after it cooled.
What helped me when stick welding the plate and tubes was that I first tack welded a different points to make sure there was no warping when started full welding on one side.
The other was I tend to not to have the most steady of hands. So I cut my rods in half which gave me heaps better control.
Hope it helps, Rich |
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J1
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Joined: February 10, 2014
Posts: 698
Location: SoCal
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| Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2015 12:41 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for the input. I have also thought about spot welding with the stick machine and though I imagine it's laborious and obviously ghetto-style, it's nice to see someone else thought of that too!
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1971 Ghia coupe. Assume I know nothing and you'll be pretty darn close to the truth. |
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Rich62ghia
Samba Member
Joined: September 01, 2012
Posts: 147
Location: Wollongong, Australia
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| Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 4:36 am Post subject: |
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Been a while since my last update but progress has been steady. With the front suspension now complete, time to get the fuel tank in. The previous owner filled the tank with oil to stop it from rusting, which worked really well. I cleaned the inside of the tank, stripped the rusty outside and painted in epoxy paint.
Place weather strip under in the tank area and installed the Fuel tank
Next was the front hood latch. After a great deal of searching, I was unable to find a RHD latch. Luckily I was able to buy a LHD latch from KGPR. So I installed it with a flexible cable and routed it over to the right hand side so I could use the RHD pull handle position
To finish the engine I needed to get all my tinware painted. Most of the original tinware was cracked and past its use by date, and with OG tinware not as easy to come by as it used to be, even second hand, I had to buy the cheap replacement tinware. I know beggars cant be chosers given the limited choice of tinware, but this stuff fits bad. It took me a good 2hrs of fitting, bending and grinding to get it to fit, be it fit badly.
I also welded in the deflector tin out of the originals into the replacements.
We had a long weekend last week so I was able to get all the tinware painted
Now with the tinware painted time for final engine assembly |
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Brassneck
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Joined: November 17, 2012
Posts: 420
Location: Seattle
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| Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 9:58 am Post subject: |
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| Looking good! Nice work. |
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c21darrel
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Joined: January 22, 2009
Posts: 8211
Location: San Dimas
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Rich62ghia
Samba Member
Joined: September 01, 2012
Posts: 147
Location: Wollongong, Australia
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| Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:58 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks guys, two posts in less than a week, I must be motivated 
After fixing the speedo which seized up and making sure all the electrics were working, I finally put together and put in the trunk liner.
Heater boxes are on and engine is ready for install
And after a few fights with the engine bay seal, and heater box levers the engine is in after a late night.
More work on the engine, installed exhaust, breather box and rear engine bay tinware. Also installed remote oil cooler and spin on filter bracket. I did purchase a fancier breather box with the filters on top but found it was too large to fit in the ghias engine bay, so had to re-use an old one I had.
I am a little bit worried about cooling though, even this breather box sits above the fan inlet directly in the path of the fresh air inlets in the boot lid and I am not sure how good these early 60’s lids are for letting in cooling air. On the hot side I will be running 9:1 compression on a 1916 engine. But to keep it as cool as it can be I will run 98 octane no-ethanol fuel and also a six pass external cooler, and using 20W-50 oil. In my old bug I didn’t use an external cooler but had lid lfters and had problems when the outside temp went above 37 deg C(99F) and I was driving at highway speeds, so hopefully the extra oil cooler willbe enough.
I am away for the weekend but looking to get the oil hoses and carbies onwith a few more late nights next week |
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Rich62ghia
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Joined: September 01, 2012
Posts: 147
Location: Wollongong, Australia
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| Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:40 am Post subject: |
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Recently got all the electrics working and only manage to blow 2 fuses
And after a couple of goes, got the bumper bracket covers on. Need to make sure the mounting holes are to the bottom of the bumper bracket.
After getting the engine in and moving to mounting the carbys, I found out that the straight manifolds that came in the HMPX carby kit will not fit if you are using a later doghouse cooler. Apparently they only fit 36hp style shrouds, and since the engine was already in and the doghouse shroud was already painted. I had to find a manifold that fitted. After trialling a few different types, the CB offset manifolds fitted the best.
Next was match porting the CB manifolds but accidently put a spanner through the side of one when I was mounting and had to find a shop to get the hole welded up.
I wanted to still use the HPMX throttle linkage with the off set manifolds so I needed to cut and re-welding to take into account the offset.
Engine is now complete and ready for fluids. But the next job is going to be getting the brakes lines bled as I want to make sure I have brakes when I start the engine. |
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motorhead364
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Joined: November 04, 2008
Posts: 715
Location: Amarillo Texas
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| Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 6:31 pm Post subject: |
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Car is looking awesome man. Do mind me asking what color and if you have the paint code. I'm going silver on my car as well.
Thanks
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63 ghia coupe |
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rickpereira
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Joined: May 25, 2010
Posts: 330
Location: Sydney, AUstralia
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| Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 10:37 pm Post subject: |
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| the ghia is looking awesome Rich, so clean! Well done |
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Rich62ghia
Samba Member
Joined: September 01, 2012
Posts: 147
Location: Wollongong, Australia
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| Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 6:16 am Post subject: |
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| motorhead364 wrote: |
Car is looking awesome man. Do mind me asking what color and if you have the paint code. I'm going silver on my car as well.
Thanks |
Thanks and no problem motorhead colour is Asteroid Silver its aGMH (General Motors Holden) colour paint code 2J013 |
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Rich62ghia
Samba Member
Joined: September 01, 2012
Posts: 147
Location: Wollongong, Australia
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| Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 6:32 am Post subject: |
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| rickpereira wrote: |
| the ghia is looking awesome Rich, so clean! Well done |
Thanks Rick, I have realised that it was about a year ago that said the ghia would be on the road by December, well I guess I didnt say which December, so heres hoping it will be 2015.
Im not far off starting the car, and filling the tank, but not sure if I should use a fuel preserver in the tank. Does anyone know how long it takes for fuel to go off. Im thinking that I will use what I put in, in the next 3months or latest 6months if I get distracted. Is there any down side to using a fuel prever/stabiliser? |
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motorhead364
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Joined: November 04, 2008
Posts: 715
Location: Amarillo Texas
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| Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 7:49 am Post subject: |
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| Rich62ghia wrote: |
| motorhead364 wrote: |
Car is looking awesome man. Do mind me asking what color and if you have the paint code. I'm going silver on my car as well.
Thanks |
Thanks and no problem motorhead colour is Asteroid Silver its aGMH (General Motors Holden) colour paint code 2J013 |
Awesome thanks Rich. It looks like a nice pure silver with no gold flake in it. Just what I'm looking for. I can't wait to be where your at with my car.
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63 ghia coupe |
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