77 Kelmark GT

[BBSCAMP]

I got myself a retirement toy. What I was hoping for was a spot on turn key car, and that is MOSTLY what I got.

77 Kelmart GT on a 70 VW beetle pan. Porsche sourced 73 2.0 engine. Nice paint and interior. 4 wheel disk brakes, new clutch, new shocks, new wiring, new Vintage Air AC .... lots of good stuff.

But I have a to-do list once I got eyes on the car:

Soft brake pedal, going to replace the master cylinder.
Tight space pedals, going to spread them out for my big feet.
Seats too tight, swapping in some 914 seats without the tracks.
QD steering hub; need to remove the wheel to aid getting in and out. I'm old.
Need to ad a head unit for some tunes and hands free phone use.
Need to ad power outlet for phone charging.
Need to calibrate the fuel gage to the fuel cell. all other gages good!
Exhaust needs some tweaking. Its off now. 1 major leak and 2 minor leaks and the head ports. Fixing some dimensional issues should fix the pipe issue.


Here is a video posted by a consignment seller a few months ago. When running, you can hear a large exhaust leak.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpnZpth8AeE

[NJ John]

Welcome to the samba. Kelmark’s are one of the coolest vw kit cars.
They make a pedal shaft to spread the pedals some.
Where in Jersey are you? I’m from Woodbridge originally. Now in north east Maryland.
It’s easy to upload pics to your gallery and post them. Would love to see the car.
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1973 standard, yellow, lowered, 3” narrowed front, 1600 blo-thru turbo w/single dell 15.4@86, so far
11.41 et buggy. Long gone
Let’s go O’s! Let’s go O’s!
https://www.youtube.com/@AirSpooledGarage

[BBSCAMP]

[Wolfgangdieter]

Ha - ages ago I lived in Trenton (near The College of NJ)! Now in NW FL!

You might want to try lowering the floor pan so the seat can sit lower. It would look like you installed an oversize paint can under the seat.
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CMC '57 Porsche Speedster Replica and Dolphin boat tailed full pan VW MOD-T Street Buggy

[oprn]

Nice looking car!

A couple comments.

Tiny fuel tank! What sort of range does that give you?

Something doesn't look quite right with the engine. The plug wires aren't going down through the holes in the top tins where they should be. Instead they are going into the side of the tins by the intakes like a Beetle engine. What is going on there? At the very least the stock plug holes need to be covered over to stop the cooling air from leaking out.

There appears to be a pan of some sort below the fan housing to block the hot air and road dust from entering the fan. That is a good thing, but... it has some big holes in it!

A soft brake peddle usually just means there is air in the system and it needs to be bled out. If the peddle slowly goes to the floor then a replacement is due.
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Our cars get old, we get old but driving an old VW never gets old!

[NJ John]

It looks really nice in the video. Do you plan on updating the wheels?
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1973 standard, yellow, lowered, 3” narrowed front, 1600 blo-thru turbo w/single dell 15.4@86, so far
11.41 et buggy. Long gone
Let’s go O’s! Let’s go O’s!
https://www.youtube.com/@AirSpooledGarage

[NJ John]

There just was a $100 pair of C4 corvette seats on CL. They were there yesterday, seem to be gone. Their unique fixed back seats. I think there’s Saub sonnet seats in Jersey for sale. Similar to 914.
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1973 standard, yellow, lowered, 3” narrowed front, 1600 blo-thru turbo w/single dell 15.4@86, so far
11.41 et buggy. Long gone
Let’s go O’s! Let’s go O’s!
https://www.youtube.com/@AirSpooledGarage

[Wolfgangdieter]

The spark plugs are in different locations for the 1.7/1.8L vs the 2.0L ve-Porsche engine --- so the cooling pieces have the spark lugs in different places. (Some replacements head us the different plug holes too). You should remove those tines and have metal pieces welded to fill in the extra holes --- same for the rear engine tine which looks to be from a T1 (VW Bug).

Porsche 914 seats would look great in it. They have low tracks and tilt too (and are only about 18" wide so clear the VW pan.)
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CMC '57 Porsche Speedster Replica and Dolphin boat tailed full pan VW MOD-T Street Buggy

[BBSCAMP]

[BBSCAMP]

[oprn]

[BBSCAMP]

Update on progress:

Brakes fixed, bled, emergency cables rerouted, new master hoses, rebuilt wider spaced pedals, roller gas pedal installed, stereo installed, stock seats refoamed, wiring cleaned up s as nd wrapped, dash support installed, AC vented secured, APillar door hinges strengthened ( no sag) window outer felts installed, QD steering hub installed, exhaust leak fixed at #3 port misaligned o-ring gasket and pipe angle corrected (custom 1 off exhaust).

Needs: Cyl head temp sending wire for gauge.

[jspbtown]

The Kelmark was one of the better kits I built. Very thick fiberglass. The roll up windows actually worked pretty well. The doors (with strengthen jams like you said) were pretty stout. The only thing on mine was the front end support was poorly engineered and did not offer enough support so the gelcoat tended to crack (in the wheel arches if I recall). I built some square tubing braves to support the front end.

And it had a "decent" trunk if I recall.

And not bad of seating position.

[Roadbeater]

It was one of the better made kits, but wasn't as popular as others. The biggest issue I saw was with the large blind spot behind the passenger B-pillar. The windows and doors were nice, which can't be said for other kits.
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69 Fastback

[zerotofifty]

I got one on a 1970 pan, the pan has the pan floor halves lowered. Type I 2180 engine

Mine has Honda delSol seats. these seats work well and are sporty looking.

One trick is getting the trunk (mid hatch) to water seal well, else she fills with water.

I have the later generation body, different dash and the flush TR7 style exterior door handles. Your yellow car is the earlier type with the not flush handles

We have a poor mans Dino!,,

Windshield is Ford Pinto by the way, and side glass is Buick from my memory

Tube frame models were made, some with mid motor V8 engines. a Corvette killer back in the day.
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Sorry About That Chief.

Give Peace a Chance.

Words to live by.