SS100 "replica" Kit Kar

[OCD Garage]

[Ulu]

These are the brackets I’m going to use for tank support legs. I made these from some small used tubing with a grinder, and they’re a little wavy yet.

They didn’t need to be any particular dimension on either leg because I’m going to square them up with a belt sander and the other leg gets coped and welded.
The saddles and straps.

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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

Tacking up the cradle.

Welding complete.

Now I must take it back out for paint.
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

I’m going to want the fuel tank sender unit, so I stripped down the old tank this morning.

The fuel tank sender never worked. This was why:

The internal ground screws were all corroded from gasohol.

Because of impending poverty, I would have used this tank again but despite what I did with gaskets and glue I could never get it to stop leaking.

My little file is pointing to the spot where it always leaked a little, and here’s why…

By cutting that big hole so close to the edge of the plastic, internal stresses in the structure were relieved, and the top of the tank just warped.

Even worse than minor leakage, By adding all the extra screws in order to try and stop the leakage what I was doing is trying to make the Wisco gas cap assembly flatten out the top of the tank.

Instead what happened is I fought to get the cap off, because the steel filler itself warped.
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[MrGoodtunes]

[Ulu]

[Ulu]

Here I am making the parts I need to put together my gas tank.

Here’s the parts all burnished and ready to weld.

I need to make these big holes in the tank and I have to do it with little bits and big files.

The neck fits very well and will be easy to weld.

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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

I got my tank welded. It’s not pretty but it holds water.

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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

My tank is assembled, sanded and painted.

The cradle:

When I welded it I forgot to put in the weld nuts for the sender.

I welded them to a wire and fished them thru the hole.

First I turned the heads off these temp guide posts. I held this up with the headless screws and a wire clip.

The fuel line will have all new fittings. 5/16” with 3/8” hoses & filter.

I had to braze the bung: red hot iron and molten brass. A scrap of tin keeps the brass from running out the bottom.

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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

There’s the bung all cleaned and painted.

And there is the tank, secured.

I need one larger hose clamp, and to find my PVC clip for the fuel filter.
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

Finally, after 25 mos, my chassis is back indoors.

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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

As I was stripping parts off of the engine so I could torque all the bolts and inspect everything and clean it, I was thinking about what I have stripped off of this car and what I have added to it.

Looking at my old notes, this car weighed 1285 pounds without gas or passengers, but with oil. The weight distribution was 45 front, 55 rear.

But in modding that chassis, I removed and added so many things that there’s no telling what this car weighs now.

It’s going to be much nicer under the hood once the fat shroud is replaced by the small heater-delete shroud.

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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

I moved everything around in the garage today, brought in the hoist, and put the body back on my chassis.

And I took it right back off because I had forgot to remove the old brake fluid reservoir bracket. Also one screw for the battery cable.

Then I put it back on again.

Then I took it back off again. It needs two notches in the firewall to clear the new frame.

In order to roll the chassis in and out, as well as the body cart, I reversed the boom on my engine hoist and I weighted down the legs with this 6 foot long rolling shelf unit, covered in cat food, kitty litter, refrigerator and other junk.
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

On and off . . . On and off . . . On and off . . .

I had to hoist the body to trim bits of the fiberglass firewall, twice. I had to trim fender bolts. Eventually the body is set down. Almost. I was hoisting the nose by a steel body brace, which hits the frame. Once I remove that I can let it down the last 1/2”.

The hoist is back in the boatyard. I played garage rodeo, things are straightened up a bit, and now we can park in the garage again.

The camera distorts everything. This is just enough room to park a Camry.

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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

Clearance in the garage was pretty tight, and I had this body cart sticking out in the way. It was oversized and so I put together a smaller one and rearranged the garage a little more.

I also pushed the Volkswagen out into the cul-de-sac, turned it 180, and put it back in the garage nose first.

So I made this silver bracket to reinforce the body back when there wasn’t much frame on this car, and it was a real convenient point to hoist the fiberglass body.

Unfortunately it sits on the frame and must be removed, also every wire in the front is zip tied to it right now. Fortunately it will be completely unnecessary now that I have a frame to bolt the body to.
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

The body went off and on again.

I trimmed the firewall again, and removed the offending bracket forever.

Because I could not pick it up from the old bracket, I had to have a longer beam to spread the load across the body all the way to the nose.

This is the Gilligan‘s Island method, but I didn’t have bamboo. This is 3 pieces of thin wall steel tubing lashed with jungle vines. Or some really cheap green rope.

Of course I had to drag the hoist and the jack and the dolly and the steel tubing all back into & out of the garage, and move everything around again.

Anyhow in the end it ended up taking me six hours before I got it all closed up again.
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[oprn]

Thanks for sharing your trials and tribulations! Makes me feel like I am not the only one that has to back up multiple times to move forward!
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Our cars get old, we get old but driving an old VW never gets old!

[Ulu]

You are quite welcome. I’m posting all this same stuff on 4 other forums, so I get a lot of mileage out of it all.

Today I’m just making some little bits and cleaning up.

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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

My DIY steering bolt locks.

Stripping the engine so I can torque everything and clean it all up.
I can see some leakage trails from the valve guides.

All the old tin went in the cleaning barrel to soak.

This pitted old manifold is history.

I’m going to cut the headers back 1.5” for more body clearance.

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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

I cleaned the spark plugs on the Volkswagen today, and I got the heads torqued down as well. You have to take the rocker arms off, of course.

I have always heard it was bad luck to turn an engine over backwards. That’s total BS to me, but I think I did it today, because the next thing I knew I had a pushrod out of its socket. One of the valves had stuck open.

I haven’t run this motor in two years, so I’m not surprised at all.

Anyhow I really lucked out because all 16 head bolts torqued down without stripping anything. I put the rocker shafts back on and got everything tightened out and did a full valve adjustment.

I was rolling over the engine, checking my adjustments again, as they are much more difficult to check lying under the car. That’s when I noticed that one of the valves was very loose. How did I screw that up?

As it turns out, I didn’t. One of the other valves got stuck and I had to rap on it with a rubber mallet several times before I could get a good reading on the feeler gauge.

Everything seems fine now and I want to button it back up but it’s too cold to repaint the valve covers tonight. I want to put some saran wrap on the engine and forget about it until tomorrow.

But I really lucked out. I was afraid the engine was going to be pretty hokey, but I think in the end it’s going to turn out to be pretty solid.
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP