TheSamba.com :: View topic

Mon Mar 13, 2017 8:15 am

Installed 3-gallon fuel cell. This should be just enough for a day of Autocross. I had to get this in place before adding strut reinforcement, to be sure it didn't conflict.

Mon Mar 13, 2017 11:17 am

Simply AMAZING work!

Your welds look much better than mines :wink:

Mon Mar 13, 2017 1:42 pm

Hmm, for some reason that picture looks familiar

H2OSB

Mon Mar 13, 2017 2:26 pm

SpoolBug wrote: Simply AMAZING work!

Your welds look much better than mines :wink:

I am very careful to frame my photos so the booger welds are blurry or not in the picture. There's plenty of them there. :P

H2OSB wrote: Hmm, for some reason that picture looks familiar

H2OSB

:wink:

Tue Mar 14, 2017 7:40 pm

Chad1376 wrote:

I am very careful to frame my photos so the booger welds are blurry or not in the picture. There's plenty of them there. :P

hahahaha how the pros do it!

Great build I am going to autocross mine a little bit but I do not really care about winning and did not go near as far as you with the modifications.

Sun Mar 19, 2017 7:33 am

Yesterday's progress on making the strut towers strong. I'm going to make more welded cage ties to those short vertical tubes today.

Sun Mar 19, 2017 9:37 pm

Bombproof!

Sat Apr 22, 2017 8:44 am

I now have some nice Wilwood reverse mount swing pedals in hand (with 10" arms.) A quick test fit shows that If I wanted anything close to the stock pedal location, the pedals are too long, and the foot pads only inches from the floor. I was getting nervous, wondering if I would need to do big rework of the sheetmetal and steering column in order to get a good pedal height.

After a little monkeying around in cad, I think I'll be OK. With aluminum racing seats, I think the seating position can be pushed back about 6" or 7" from stock, and several inches lower. This will allow the pedals to be pushed back, and get good pedal geometry. I'll need to do the seats and pedals at the same time to be sure everything works together. Until then...I'll probably mess around with how to fabricate a swing gas pedal, with the same geometry.

Tue May 02, 2017 7:22 pm

More planning and parts - not a lot of hard work done though.

I did manage to fill in the numerous holes in the dash, with sheet metal and filler. You have no idea how many stinking holes there are, until it's time to patch them all up. Now I'm trying to decide if I want to cover it with a typical baja-type aluminum dash, or make individual pieces for each of the large areas.

Planned out the wiring. Not much to it without all the street legal stuff. It would be even simpler, but I have two unused switches and 4 unused fuses, in case I want to add something down the road.

Ordered some nice Sparcos, and some of the wiring bits.

..And after 6-frikin' months, MAM finally received and shipped my quarter panel. No communication verifying I still wanted it. I'd be more pissed, but I did want it, and it hasn't held up any other work on the car.

Mon Jun 12, 2017 4:01 pm

A photo-summary of rear quarter panel replacement. I won't go into lurid details, but it was a much harder job than I thought. Some, due to very poor manufacturing on the replacement panel, some due to my inexperience. In the end, it turned OK. No perfect, but OK.

Tue Jun 13, 2017 10:23 pm

Looks awesome! I hope to have your skill set and patience one day!

Wed Jun 14, 2017 10:52 am

Love the build so far! Its looks like a clone of my Bug. Not sure how much weight you are going to add to the front, but 100 lbs springs are most likely going to be soft. I started off with 150 lbs springs and after my first race went to 250 lbs. It was way better and still rides nice on the streets. Not sure what your torsion bars are going to come out to in lbs but I run 400 lbs springs in the rear. I am sure the rear of mine weighs more then yours will but I dont run a rear sway bar so I need the extra spring rate. Cant wait to see this thing on the track!

Wed Jun 14, 2017 11:21 am

Mid Engine Bug wrote: Love the build so far! Its looks like a clone of my Bug. Not sure how much weight you are going to add to the front, but 100 lbs springs are most likely going to be soft. I started off with 150 lbs springs and after my first race went to 250 lbs. It was way better and still rides nice on the streets. Not sure what your torsion bars are going to come out to in lbs but I run 400 lbs springs in the rear. I am sure the rear of mine weighs more then yours will but I dont run a rear sway bar so I need the extra spring rate. Cant wait to see this thing on the track!

Wow - I just checked out your build. Very Impressive. I rarely go into readers rides, so I didn't see it before. Have you had yours out a race yet?

Mine isn't diverting from the basic VW architecture too much. I'm just trying to improve, strengthen or modify what I can. At the my rate of progress, I'm probably still over a year away from having it even drive under it's own power.

Wed Jun 14, 2017 11:47 am

Ya I didnt know where I should have posted the build so it went in readers rides. Probably not the best spot for it but too late now haha. Yes I have raced my Bug a few times (and won some events). It seems like after every race I change something to make it handle better. I am still fighting some understeer but hoping the new rear spring rate helps out. Next race is in Sept so we will see what happens.

I really like the route you are going with yours keeping the suspension close to factory. I am sure it is going to be a very good handling car when you are done. Just take your time and do it right the first time. It took me 3 years to finally get mine to the driving stage. Well worth the wait!

Tue Jun 20, 2017 4:09 pm

So after staring at this:

I grabbed a beer and a spot weld drill and did this:

Then grabbed another beer and a cut-off wheel and did this:

Then my kid grabbed a Monster and did this:

And now it looks like this:

Now I can more easily paint below the window vents and maybe I'll get a little bit more cooling airflow.

Mon Oct 23, 2017 8:19 am

It's been awhile since an update - I had a busy summer with lots of distractions. Finally, I'm back on my project.

I pulled the engines out of my two other languishing VW's. The Thing had a 1776 built on an aluminum case, and the '64 Beetle had a 2110 with lots of goodies. I'm going to tear down both, assess the parts I have, and start a build for the autocross project.

Currently, I'm in process of rebuilding my 40mm IDFs. They sat in the sun for years with bad gas, and have a lot of varnish and grunge. I got one looking good this weekend - the other will follow:

There's still a lot of cage/body/suspension work to do, but changing things up is helping my motivation.

Mon Nov 06, 2017 8:58 am

Lots of tedious parts cleaning and bagging:

Finished the 40 IDF rebuild. I also ordered 40mm CSP manifolds, since I never liked having the huge 48mm "universal" manifolds. I'm not sure if they will provide a huge benefit, but I'll feel better.

Tore done the 1776 (Thing) engine. Most of the parts here have less than 1000 miles on them.

And I got the Autolinia case cleaned up and looking pretty good.

Fri Mar 30, 2018 7:06 am

Nice Thread! This looks like an awesome build. I want to build one of these myself one day with a 73 super. I have one now but its so perfectly stock and everything works so im thinking not to cut it up and start with a beater similar to yours, gut it and do pull suspension. Kafer bar. Everything. I will be a fun car for my 2.1 Litre type 4 engine im building.

Fri Mar 30, 2018 8:09 am

I kinda gave up posting here, since there didn't seem to be much interest. There's a lot more detail and discussion over at STF (link below.)

I wouldn't do this to a solid and complete car. This was a $400 Craigslist special with no engine or title. Perfect for hacking up.

Progress the last few months has been especially slow. Waiting to get my tax return to buy new heads and finish up the engine.

Fri Mar 30, 2018 10:58 am

Chad1376 wrote: I kinda gave up posting here, since there didn't seem to be much interest. There's a lot more detail and discussion over at STF (link below.)

I wouldn't do this to a solid and complete car. This was a $400 Craigslist special with no engine or title. Perfect for hacking up.

Progress the last few months has been especially slow. Waiting to get my tax return to buy new heads and finish up the engine.

Sucks you haven't updated much here.
We may not respond on the thread but we do appreciate the work.