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Beginner buggy build
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ammocan
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 3:47 pm    Post subject: Beginner buggy build Reply with quote

OK so I have already begun my build but im not that far into it and I decided that I want to do my Build on the samba for many reasons. first if for my benefit. I have seen many great builds on here and much of my inspiration and motivation was the last build JOESCOOLCUSTOMS finished up this month. Excellent work by the way! anyway I love the feedback while I build and good recommendations from you expert builders and also to avoid the pitfalls. The second reason is I want this to be a resource for guys who are hesitant to do a build. I have seen many concerned with the cost and time or their own ability to do the work. My goal is to provide a good reference for time and money invested. I hope this will show the beginner enthusiast that its a worth while project and get more people building.
To give you an idea about where I'm starting. I consider myself competent in the garage but have never done anything like this before. I picked up welding about 4 years ago and have done some small projects over the years just as practice. I only have a stick welder. I have a lot of tools but not as many as some and still acquiring.
You master builders please chime in often. Like I said my main reason for documenting my build on here is I consider the samba a fantastic community to draw knowledge from and you wont hurt my feelings.
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We did have a little fun with it before I tore into it!
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Last edited by ammocan on Thu Oct 30, 2014 4:29 pm; edited 2 times in total
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jrailer
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 3:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

cool get going
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ammocan
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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This is what I’m starting with. By the numbers it is a 63 chassis with a 73 engine block. I intended to drive it as long as possible into winter then begin the build late November but the buggy has become a cruel mistress. If the VW bug bites you then you cant help but love it even if it abuses you.

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this is what I mean. In the first five minutes of driving my buggy the trans mount broke off the frame and took a piece of nose cone with it. I found that the PO had a "friend" borrow his buggy broke the Trans mount by backing into something then tacked it back to the frame. This cost me a week of work and lots of parts.
Ever since then it has been one debilitating problem after another and I got fed up and decided that a ground up rebuild was the only thing that would satisfy me.
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ammocan
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 4:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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the build began on 10/1/14. 2 hrs of work and I had the seats out, the wind shield off and the hood off the car. I also got the wiring loose and the front bumper off. My buggy has a mysterious past. I found about 35 pesos worth of coins under the seats.
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ammocan
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 4:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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10/2/14 7hrs of work and I had the gas tank out and the body off the pan. The pan is a goner. Major rust and the front support "napoleon hat" had completely rusted through. I also found the shock towers were rusted through near the low axle tube and It also looks like it was repaired once so its time for a new front axle beam but all the front end components seem to be good. I do intend to rebuild the front suspension and a complete front disc brake kit has been ordered. I was also able to get the floor pan and fire wall was completely removed. this was made easier by the use of a plasma cutter. I cut the pan all the way from front to back about 1 inch from the tunnel then I was able to break the spot welds along the tunnel with the use of an air hammer. please spend the money on an air hammer. I got a Campbell Hausfeld one for $13 at wal-mart. at that price its like a disposable tool but it worked great and saved me a tone of time.
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ammocan
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 4:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

so after I got the tunnel stripped of all the rusted out parts I found some problem areas along the lower seam of the tunnel where rust had eaten through.
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I am overly cautious of rust and I considered a tube chassis but this would have added a considerable amount of time and money to the build so I posted this concern a while ago and got a good response. reference this if you have the same problem. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=608601

I decided to keep the tunnel and just address the issue with some repair.

10/7/14 I spend about 3 hrs in the garage and got the engine and transaxle off the car. I noticed an oil leak coming from one of my rear axles. This is frustrating since I already completely rebuilt the rear end and the oil leaking is expensive Ams oil trans fluid. I’m sure this was my own mistake but not sure what the issue is right now and I wont till I put the rear end back together.
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ammocan
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 5:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

10/18/14 I spent about 10hrs cutting and welding the cross members but the first thing I did was weld up a simple t-bar to mount to the horns so I could rotate the frame on saw horses. Not as nice as the double engine mount rotisserie but still effective.
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I contemplated saving what I could of the front support but decided to completely remove it and start from scratch. one reason I decided to get rid of it is I found a lot of rust directly under the Napoleon hat. I welded in a new cross member as a base for the new front support. I was able to get all the cross members welded to the tunnel. my cross members are 1 x 2 square tube. I cut out a 2" section from the bottom plate of the tunnel and welded in my cross members. this made my cross members flush with the lower seam so my floor pan is in the stock position
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The rear support was tricky. I spent some time drawing the cut to fit the rear of the frame where the horns start to form.
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I initially cut it with the plasma cutter and fine tuned it with a grinder and welded it in place.
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My wife helped me set the body on the chassis. I left all the cross members long and after clamping the body where I wanted it I traced the outside for my frame rails. and I was able to get one side cut and the frame rail tacked in place. this was a productive day!
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ammocan
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 5:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I will now have a scare to match my build. famous last words "one more cut" well on the last cut on 10/18/14 cost me a great deal of pain when the grinder snagged, jumped out of my hand and onto my leg then it hit the ground.
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not sure which was more frustrating, the gash in my leg imbedded with chunks of grinding disk or the now shattered grinding disk.
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ammocan
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 5:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

on 10/21/14 I spent about 2 hrs trimming the passenger side cross members and tack welded in place the outside rail. I basicly now have the base for the car.
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I decided to eliminate the bottom frame head plate or "the batwing" and took the frame rails all the way to the frame head and will either weld in plates to replace the batwing or I will do a thick bolt on bash guard under the frame rail.
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ammocan
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 5:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A while back I discovered a metal supplier in Lehi, UT (10 minutes from my house) called Metal Mart which is a supplier of all kinds of steel products but the real gem is they have a remnants section where they sell off materials by the pound. For small quantities it cost $0.79 per lb but the draw back is you may not always find what you want. Well I scored in a big way! I picked up my outer rail material in the remnants section and I was looking around and found several sheets of 1/8″ thick 37″ wide by 73″ long steel. This was huge for me because this sheet is big enough to do a solid floor with no seams. This sheet cost me $80 at $0.79 per lb. Along with the 30 feet of 1 3/4″ square tube the whole floor pan and new improved frame is going to cost me $120. Keep in mind though I had the 1×2 material I did the cross members with just sitting in my garage and this still doesnt include the roll bar and rear engine cage but even still its definitely a bargain floor pan. With a lot of added strength.
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ammocan
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 5:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

on 10/22/14 I spent a total of about 1hr on this piece for the rear frame support. It was just a simple cut and bend procedure but it made a very nice bend. I then tacked it in place and proceeded to weld all the cuts back together and ground it smooth.
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ammocan
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 6:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ok so now we are caught up to today. today I didn't have much time so I cleaned up the ends of the frame rail where it meets the frame head. you can see in the picture that the frame rail met the bottom of the frame head a little awkwardly and I came up with this solution that I was very pleased with. the one side I got done was done in about an hr and I cut out the rough piece with the plasma cutter and spent a little time fine tuning with the grinder to fit the contours of the frame head.
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joescoolcustoms
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 8:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice looking work!

You will end up with a very solid chassis that not only will last you a long time, but also serve you very well through countless alterations/changes/modifications that buggy's typically go through.

Keep up the work and posts, action and drama are good things!
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jakerot
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 8:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice ammocan. looks great so far.

Your frame head looks like mine when in got it. All sorts of rust and dents. Good times.
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jrailer
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 9:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I didn't realize that you are in lehi American fork area I live in Spanish fork and work at Foreign Aid in orem I am building manxter 154 I sometimes have odd ball stuff so feel free to pm me
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ammocan
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 11:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jrailer wrote:
I didn't realize that you are in lehi American fork area I live in Spanish fork and work at Foreign Aid in orem I am building manxter 154 I sometimes have odd ball stuff so feel free to pm me

Thanks its cool to meet local vw guys (and gals). Im actually in the eagle mtn area. Post some pics of your build. Always looking for inspiration.
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ammocan
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 11:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

need to pose a question about the front support. I looked at buying a front frame support and just modifying it to fit in my custom frame rail or just fabbing up my own. Im inclined to just fab my own but im wondering if there is any reason for the double walled support or if there is any reason I cant just do a simple single wall construction. essentially what I have in mind is to bend a piece of 1x1 square tube to fit the triangular shape of the front mount of the body then fill in the opening with 1/8" sheet metal to achieve the napoleon hat shape.
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 3:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I just made a single wall I beam. It was simple;

Cut a cardboard pattern of the hole you want to fill. Transfer that shape to a piece of flat steel and cut to size.(I think I used 3/16" but don't recall). Now get some 1 1/2" flat steel stock and a good hammer. Tack this on the top of the big piece you cut out, forming a "T . Tack weld on, hitting it with a hammer to contour it to the big piece, tack some more until you reach the other end. When done on one side you'll have a "t", repeat on the other side until you have a capitol "I".

Singlewall header with a mounting lip on both sides.
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GS guy
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 4:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice looking welds from a stick welder! Since your thread is geared towards the beginner builder, you might also comment on where you piced up your supplies - steel, etc, and what kind of $$ is being spent to do this kind of work. This lets the reader know a little more the money needed to accomplish the re-build, in addition to the description.
Nice work!
Jeff
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 5:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The front firewall has one very important strength duty. It holds the Master Cylinder rigid so the force applied by the drivers foot pushing on the peddle and MC pushrod into the MC.

What I have done was to make a single wall firewall, but for the MC mount, I used 1/4 inch plate in about a 5" X 6" section and tied it into the tunnel for support. Simple, but safe.
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Best Day Ever Racing 2022 NORRA 1000 2nd in Class and first All Female team to complete the race

Everyone is gifted. Some just do not open the package.

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