Kick Azz 1975 LaGrande Super Rebuild

[baxsie]

The Cruise Control needs to get the vehicle speed. We decided to use the Rostra 250-4165 Speed Signal Generator:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/250-4165-Magnetic-Generator-Rostra-Audiovox/dp/B0009GVUG8/

The kit comes with a pickup coil, magnets and a "special" zip tie.

We built a bracket to hold the sensor coil:

I am not at all happy with the magnets. Supposedly you just stick them to the CV joint and wrap a "special" zip tie around them. What is special about the zip tie? It breaks before it feels tight! So we put the magnets on with a little square of VHB under each one and used a regular, high-quality name brand zip tie.

Later I may switch to some other magnets and just glue them on with seam sealer -- but I guess we will see how long these last first.
_________________
1975 LaGrande Super Beetle Build Log / Farm boy hinge pin puller / Farm Boy Chassis Rotisserie
"I'm not getting older, I'm getting bitter."

[baxsie]

We wanted to use a Rostra 250-3743 Universal Right-Hand Mount Open Circuit Cruise Control Switch:
Manufacturer Site: http://www.rostra.com/aftermarket-cruise-control-switches-by-rostra.php
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Rostra-Universal-Column-Control-250-3743/dp/B007ZDDXUY
Since it was the closest thing to a "modern" crusie swich we could find.

First off was making a bracket to mount it to the steering wheel. I'll let the pictures tell the story:

I used my favorite 1K Seam Sealer as the glue. That stuff is great!

Now the trick. How do you get 6 conductors needed by the switch from the rotating steering wheel to the hopefully not rotating car? Modern cars, especially if thaey have air bags use one of these "slip ring" things:

They are not really a slip ring, they are more than 15 feet of 8-conductor flat flexible cable:

Basically the cable is expanded to the outside of the case, as the wheel turns, it wraps down to the inside of the case. Neat.

We only need 6 conductors, so we trimmed 2 off. OK, let's make our own "connectors":

Punch a hole in the steering shaft for the cable inside the shaft to come out between the shaft and the steering column tube:

Then wrap it around in a spiral:

And bring it back out of the steering column tube:

Peering inside, between the steering column and the steering shaft, you can see the nice coils of the flex spiraled around the shaft:

Tape everything up with good 3M electrical tape, and install:

See? Easy as that there are 6 conductors inside the horn button:

In real life, this took several experiments to figure out the coiling / spiral wrap. Even after that was determined, I somehow slipped the shaft on the first one that I had "right" and broke it testing the wheel travel. My 1975 rack-and-pinion steering has about 3.25 turns lock-to-lock, the spiraled coils give about 4.75 turns, so you have to be careful to have the wheels pointed dead ahead, and the steering shaft exactly at the middle of its travel.

Knowing all this, the second one worked perfect! Oh, remember how there was 15 feet of flex to start with . . . there was none left over after all the mistakes.
_________________
1975 LaGrande Super Beetle Build Log / Farm boy hinge pin puller / Farm Boy Chassis Rotisserie
"I'm not getting older, I'm getting bitter."

[baxsie]

The main cruise control box is under the back seat. It is mounted so that there is nearly a straight shot to the throttle splitter:

I used the supplied Rostra bracket, with 3M heavy duty mounting tape and bolted through the floor pan:

_________________
1975 LaGrande Super Beetle Build Log / Farm boy hinge pin puller / Farm Boy Chassis Rotisserie
"I'm not getting older, I'm getting bitter."

[baxsie]

These pics are "double-size", so feel free to click in for detail.

Here is an overall picture of the wiring under the back seat:

Closer view of the battery / passenger side:

Closer view of the driver side:

I won't bore you with the details, but if you have a question I'll try to answer it.
_________________
1975 LaGrande Super Beetle Build Log / Farm boy hinge pin puller / Farm Boy Chassis Rotisserie
"I'm not getting older, I'm getting bitter."

[vamram]

Thanks for adding the cruise control details! Fantastic! What did you use to print the wire labels?
_________________
Eventually, "we are what we pretend to be.’”
Give peace a chance - Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[baxsie]

[Bashr52]

Can you post a shot of how the actual cruise unit attaches to the throttle cable? Its got to be more than an electircally operated clamp to hold the throttle in a constant position as it needs to be able to pull on it to accelerate up hills, or speed up when more speed is requested through the resume/accel button.

[baxsie]

[Wunderbug]

Man, your whole project has just been off the chain!!!
The creativity and attention to detail is beyond description. I just wish I had the machining and design capabilities to do some of this stuff.
Hope you don't mind me pilfering some of your ideas for my 72 restoration
That cruise control is pure genius! Love the way you integrated into the steering wheel. That is definitely a one-off application.
Keep up the dazzling!!

[TheAmazingDave]

[baxsie]

As we finished up the wiring, I was dismayed to find out that the stereo reset when we cranked the starter, even though it was connected to "continuous battery" power.

I cannot stand for that ! Here is the solution we came up with:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7589991#7589991
_________________
1975 LaGrande Super Beetle Build Log / Farm boy hinge pin puller / Farm Boy Chassis Rotisserie
"I'm not getting older, I'm getting bitter."

[baxsie]

More of a photo-stream than a proper post, but better than nothing I suppose.

In this shot, the wiring has been brought in from the doors, up from the rear, and back from the trunk. It all ends under the dash:

First up, I need some relays and fuses. We used these brilliant Bussman sealed fuse panels from DelCity. Paper sketch of the bracket:

Glued the sketch to some sheet metal, cut out and bent:

Temporary switch placement. The dash is a whole 'nother project, but I want to make sure the wiring works first!

There are four of these ground buss bars in through the car, all tied with 8 AWG wire, as well as bonded to the metal. This one is behind the speedo:

We made a socket for the OG high/low flasher . . . this one had a bad crimp, so there is a version 2 being used:

The logic cluster: High/Low headlight clicker, lock relays, brake flasher, turn flasher. This mess nests nicely to the left and below the speedo:

This is where the Relay and fuse panel goes, tucks in with the air conditioner:

Closer shot of the dash relays and fuses, along with MOAR FUSES ! As much as possible, each element in the car has its own fuse:

These are the left-hand switches. The Passat fog switch we selected had two positions (?), so the fogs come on in position 1, moving to position 2 leaves the fogs on, but also cuts the DRL so the DRL does not cause glare in the fog:

Gauge "cluster":

The speedo illumination and indicator lights are all LED.

There are 5 indicator LEDs that will be mounted under the speedo in the dash:

Red: Brake fail circuit #1
Red: Brake fail circuit #2
Amber: Parking Brake
Green: Cruise engaged
Blue: Alarm

The right-hand switches:

Here is a shot of the dash with the wiring 95% complete:

All that is left of the electrical is:

AC stuff (all wires run, just need to connect)
equalizers (need to create a sub panel)
some accessory switches (on sub panel)
USB outlets (on sub panel)

Here are some shots of the trunk wiring, for reference before the fuel tank goes in:

Closer, closer . . .
_________________
1975 LaGrande Super Beetle Build Log / Farm boy hinge pin puller / Farm Boy Chassis Rotisserie
"I'm not getting older, I'm getting bitter."

[baxsie]

Here is the Dynapad under the front seats:

And Under the rear seats:

This is NOT DynaMat:

[baxsie]

We wanted to add a ttach and AFR gauge up by the speedo, so we did not have to look way down to see things. To do that we aimed at making the pod on the 1303 super beetle dash wider.

Cutting the sides of the pod from the donor dash:

We then cut slices out of the keeper dash, spread enough to accommodate the new gauges:

This is the first mock-up to see if it is even going to be close:

We then glued the slices into place. The one on the right (towards the center) went in without much trouble, the curves are a lot slighter there. On the left (towards the outside) things had to be chopped more to get all the curves to work out:

While gluing the major surgery areas, we also cleaned out and filled the cracks:

After sanding the glue (just dumb old Gorilla Glue) we then sanded the vinyl thin at the edge of the crack to avoid it popping up:

Then it was time to smooth things out with some body filler:

Once the shape was settled down a bit, we made a cardboard template:

We then made the old school instrument panel with Bocote wood. This is just sanded, I think it is going to be georgeous when it is varnished:

Next up will be making the switch panel, out of the same wood. We put a plank here to get an idea:

In order to give the upholstery folks some kind of a good surface to glue to, we shot the dash with a coat of 2K epoxy sealer:

The peg and hole towards the center will mount a Nexus 7 running Sygic GPS (Sygic stores maps to your device, and so will work with no data connection) and Shadow Dash MS:

_________________
1975 LaGrande Super Beetle Build Log / Farm boy hinge pin puller / Farm Boy Chassis Rotisserie
"I'm not getting older, I'm getting bitter."

[baxsie]

More work on the dash. After much fussing with the CAD and CAM for the CNC router, we finally got it to cut out a part. We used some cheap paneling to get things sorted--it took 6 revisions:

Here is the initial switch positions we had planned on:

After looking at it a bit, we decided to swap the defrost and hazard flasher. That puts all the taller Passat style switch lined up nicely on the left, and the flatter switches on the right. Even though it is going to take some effort, we decided to bag the triangle window switch that came with the window kit, opting back to the Passat window switch. To use the Passat window switch, I'll have to make an adapter to convert the switch signals to what the motors need. In the Passat, there is a window control module that does this and a bunch of other stuff. On the up side, I could make it "auto" and have an input from the alarm to auto close the windows when the alarm is armed.

Once that was settled, we were confident enough to put the hardwood into the mill and cut it out:

We then hand trimmed the bottom of the gauge panel to mate with the switch panel, and put it together to see how it will fit. Under the speedometer we put the five LED indicator lights:

Cruise engaged (green)
Alarm armed (blue)
From brake circuit warning (red)
Park brake on (amber)
Back brake circuit warning (red)

We used trick black metal LED indicators from Alpinetech. There is one installed center bottom under the speedo:

A check of the switch clearance behind the dash. About the only tricky thing is that the mirror switch needs to come out before the panel can be removed:

We decided to glue the top and bottom pieces together. Originally we thought that one might lap over the other, but they end up being edge-on. By gluing it will avoid any misalignment. Here it is with the first coat of polyurethane varnish on it:

_________________
1975 LaGrande Super Beetle Build Log / Farm boy hinge pin puller / Farm Boy Chassis Rotisserie
"I'm not getting older, I'm getting bitter."

[alexvw]

really cool with the switches
_________________
1995 Mitsubishi 3000GT SL
1974 Volkswagen Superbeetle( Mitsubishi 4G63T Swap in Progress )


http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=575769&highlight=

[Wunderbug]

And once again, absolutely stunning work and craftsmanship!!!
I can't wait to see the next chapter

[baxsie]

alexw & Wunderbug thanks for the kind words. Can't get it in for upholstery until the first of July, but that will be the last major bit.

We were thinking of taping in the front window so we could drive it
_________________
1975 LaGrande Super Beetle Build Log / Farm boy hinge pin puller / Farm Boy Chassis Rotisserie
"I'm not getting older, I'm getting bitter."

[baxsie]

Installing the HumVee / HMMV seat belts from e-bay was cake, as many others have said. About the only fiddly bit was modifying the retractor slightly to fit on the original VW bracket. Once that was complete they bolted right up:

Re-installing the glass in the freshly chromed pop out frames was a complete bear. Lots of foaming hand soap in a utility sprayer helped.

I could not find the "correct" pop-out glass to frame seal (113-133A) when I ordered the rubber. I had a part intended for a bus pop-out by mistake (221845325B) which I like better than the right ones. The bus part has a lip at the top of the U that helps keep it centered during install. Here is that victory moment of finally getting it to come together:

The fresh chrome looks great:

_________________
1975 LaGrande Super Beetle Build Log / Farm boy hinge pin puller / Farm Boy Chassis Rotisserie
"I'm not getting older, I'm getting bitter."

[baxsie]

We decided to try the DynaPad sound deadner on the sunroof. We installed it with 3M™ Hi-Strength 90 Adhesive. Hopefully it will hold up under heat.

For the install, we leaned heavily on:
Super Beetle Sunroof Adventure

and:
Volkswagen SUNROOF ProTraining
Be aware that the rabbit manual calls out a metal ramp, the bugs do not have that as a separate part, it is built into the sunroof frame.

The front height adjustment uses this huge flat head screw to set the height away from the sheet metal:

Then the bracket is screwed against the height set by the screw:

The rear attachment bracket has slots in it, and a thinner steel cover that kinda clips it into place:

There are two mirror-image cables, rach has a little plastic trolley that slides in the track at the rear:

This part had me stumped, the stainless clip sits in the gutter giving a place for the sunroof wind deflector spring to ride:

We ended up 3-d printing the plastic ramps. I could only find one of the four we should have had. Later we found that they are available after noticing the micro-small molded part number 411 877 145. Oh well, hopefully the 3-d printed ones will hold up OK:

Since the sunroof headliner has to go in before both tracks are placed (now you tell me) we had to put the headliner fabric on the sunroof frame -- rather than the upholstery shop. We used contact cement (the brush-on type) to attach the fabric to the metal frame, with lots of clips:

On the rear of the slide, there are these little ramp / guide things. Protected from weather and sun, they are in pretty good shape for 40 years old:

Completed sunroof headliner ready to install. Note that there is a flap sewn to the back of the headliner that glues to the metal cross bar. That holds the center of the sunroof headliner fabric up slightly, keeping it from sagging.

Still needs a bit of adjusting, but it works pretty well considering it is exactly the first time I have messed with a sunroof.
_________________
1975 LaGrande Super Beetle Build Log / Farm boy hinge pin puller / Farm Boy Chassis Rotisserie
"I'm not getting older, I'm getting bitter."