Hot Rod Beetle Ute

[nbturbo]

I am building another Beetle ute project-this one will be a street car.I am fitting an EJ22 onto a 73 Bus automatic trans and I have to fabricate all the rear subframe to hold it all together.Was thinking of setting the trans up with an incline to lift the front,which will give the Subaru sump a bit more ground clearance.I will buy a shortened sump anyway.Has anybody done this before-if so,how much of an incline would be safe?

[nbturbo]

I bought a 94 Subaru Liberty as a donor car and notice the engines sit with a lot of front lift.I will just copy the same amount of front lift.I have to fabricate the cradle to support the engine/trans,so can have the engine at any angle.I have cut the frame horns from the pan,then welded another torsion bar tube(which I have cut the frame horns off as well) 6 inches further back and 3 inches higher.I am held up at the moment for any progress-I am waiting on a complete air ride system from AirKewld to arrive.I will need to build the engine frame around the cross over bar they supply to weld to the rear shock towers.I will probably have to use something a bit stronger than they supply-but need to know where it all fits.I have cut a short piece from another pan that holds the handbrake lever,and welded it 6" further back and 2" higher.This will let me move the auto trans shifter back 6" as well to make it more user friendly.I will be running an airconditioner in it,so have made the air con pipes to go inside the centre tunnel.The front pipes come out just inside of where the body sits over the front frame of the pan.The rears come out thru where the hole is for working on the original shifter coupling.I have also put new fuel lines in the tunnel-3/8" supply and 5/16" return for the fuel injection.I have mounted a Bosch 044 fuel pump up front on the opposite side of the brake master cylinder.I will be using Ford wheels for it-19x9.5 rear and 17x7.5 front.I have cut 3" from the front beam and cut off the inside of the shock towers to clear the body.I have made new front top shock extenders,but have got the lower ones coming from AirKewld.I started with a rusty 63 pan which I have cut the floor panels out each side- I have new front pan bits for the front halves coming,but will make the rear sections myself-want to make it a flat floor.

[nbturbo]

Photos

[nbturbo]

I have finished a Beetle ute Drag Car recently,so decided it would be OK to have a street version.That's how it began.I had collected a lot of stuff already for a project,so it's a good reason-get rid off stuff.I bought a NOS under dash air conditioner 20 years ago but was never able to use it.I restored an Australian mesh sunvisor many years ago,so can now use it.I have been doing rear disc brake conversions for VW's using 80's Ford Falcon stuff for many years.Just happened to have a spare set with new rotors,calipers,pads and hoses- now being used.I had a pair of CB's link pin dropped spindles I bought second hand 15 years ago,so I have rebushed them and bought new Ford stud pattern rotors.Recently a friend of mine was in the US on a buying trip,and he managed to find me a tailgate from a Rabbit(I think that's what you call them) I will use it on my project.

[nbturbo]

This came from an Australian Country Buggy,which is similar to a Split Beetle wheel.I found a NOS horn button in Germany many years ago.I will have it done in a pearl finish which is done by a company here.I plan on painting the car an Aqua colour for the main body,with the guards a cream colour.Will have the steering wheel done in 2 tone to match.

[finefettle]

Cool steering wheel.
I enjoy seeing your fabrication work.

[finefettle]

Cool steering wheel.
I enjoy seeing your fabrication work.

[nbturbo]

Bought a later model engine-a 2.0lt quad cam which has about 40,000 kms on it.Hope all the accessories swap over.

[nbturbo]

My shipment of parts from the US arrived Saturday,so I can get some stuff happening.I have just finished the front beam air bags.When the bags are fully deflated,the body should just sit on the ground.I had to lift the top mount up another 40mm and give it a better angle to help it inflate.

[nbturbo]

Got a bit more done today

[nbturbo]

I finished the RH rear air bag today and started to build the cage to hold it all together.It's all just tack welded now-will wait until it's all done before doing the full weld.

[nbturbo]

Welded in the last 2 bars tonight to finish the cage that holds it all together.Tied into the og torsion bar tube and will weld some gussets to tie in the second torsion bar tube as well.Have to start to make a frame to hold the radiator and air con condenser.

[TheGreenVW]

Looking forward to watching this come together!

[nbturbo]

I will do my best to keep the pics and stories coming

[eyetzr]

Cool project. I like the torsion housing mod. Any reason you did not just lift the one housing up?
_________________
I think he meant "rare", as in "not well-done"

[nbturbo]

I figured it would be the easiest way to raise the rear suspension and do a 6 inch wheel base extension-and keep everything in line.I made some jigs from 1/4 plate to do the same on my Drag Car build,just had to drill holes for the different lift and extension.If you do some carefull measuring-the front shocker mount can be cut off to mate up to the new one torsion bar tube, and get a good weld between them.

[nbturbo]

The Airkewld rear air bag doesn't use the torsion bars-just relies on the spring plate rubber donuts to keep it all together.I decided to change my set up-I machined the inner splines off the torsion bars to just spin freely in the centre anchor,then drilled and tapped to fit a grease nipple for each one.Works real good.Should be able to flood it with grease and give it an occasional shot.When the rear suspension was in it's lowest setting - the shockers they supplied bottomed out before the spring plate hit the stop.I shortened the lower shocker mount 20mm so it hits the stop now with some movement still in the shock.The front rims for it arrived today-17x7.5 and 19x9.5 rears.

[nbturbo]

I had finished fitting the radiator and air con condenser with all the frame only tack welded again.I powered up the cooling fans,but running backwards to blow air through the rad instead of sucking like the Subaru.The fans made very little air and made a strange noise.I checked for a reason-the fan blades have a slight curve in them to make heaps of air and run quiet when spinning the correct way.My fix was to pull it all apart,and swap the fans over to the other side of the rad.They now spin the correct way,are still sucking air through the rad.I had the move everything closer to the motor.I made the top rad locating pins part of a defector plate which when it's all finished,will force all the air that will get into the engine bay through the radiator.

[nbturbo]

Made an aluminium adaptor today to fit a pod filter to the Subaru air flow meter.I had an old inlet housing from a blown turbo,so cut it out and machined it to weld into some 10mm ally plate.Machined the weld off for the meter to seal.

[finefettle]

Thanks for sharing. Killer skills.