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Neil's bubbletop volksrod build
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nshaddox
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PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2017 4:24 am    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

Took a day off work to patch up the rockers yesterday. Thought it might take a couple of days to do them, but managed to finish up in 8hrs or so. While I had access I also decided to trim the rear panels to make more room for ebrake cable tubes. Also welded up the underside of the speedo pod and did som finessing of the underside of the dash with the flap disc. So the welding is done now I think, which is a funny feeling. Just need some friends to come over and help me flip it around again.

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nshaddox
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PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2017 6:57 pm    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

Got it flipped back over and have the trans engine and beam final bolted in place. Not sure what's going on with my brake pedal pushrod/master cylinder combo but pushrod is about 20mm too long if I use an early style and 10-15mm too long with the late style. Had to take the flap wheel to some freshly powder coated engine tin pieces to make room for aftermarket intake manifolds. Kinda sucks but bound to happen. Going to swap to stock pushrods because my buddy petes been helping and we rediscovered that I used chromoly ones way back when I rebuilt the motor and that they are not the right length. Also struggling with front brake lines. They don't seem long enough/angle seems wrong no matter how calipers are mounted. Going to see what local parts stores can do to help me out tomorrow. Want to see how brake system behaves after bleeding before any major mods are made to pushrod. Getting closer.
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nshaddox
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PostPosted: Tue May 09, 2017 10:27 am    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

big shout out to pete for helping me out last couple of evenings. the to do list is getting smaller and smaller. might be able to get it driving next time i have a few hours to work on it.

pete discovered that i had some longer than stock length chromoly pushrods in the engine for some reason, so he swapped those out for stock aluminum ones and adjusted the valves. also got the carbs and exhaust installed.

I was working on getting brake lines run correctly. had to remake the two front hardlines and bend out the tabs on the chassis to allow the wheels to turn lock to lock without stretching the soft lines at all. cb disc brake kit has 19" long lines, but location of caliper made it kind of a stretch with the stock width beam. I suppose not many people run a stock beam with the dropped spindle disc brake kit but heard its not the first time they've heard of someone having this issue.

also spent more time than I would have hoped getting the pedal assembly to function properly. cables are all greased and installed, clutch pedal cable i had made ended up being about an inch too long so i've got a stack of washers on it for now. really bugs me but I'm going to have a friend machine up a custom spacer for me that should help with my ocd-ness.

got some of the fuel lines run as well.

still have to finish up the wiring to the engine,
run fuel lines
install tank
install and tighten all steering hardware
bleed brakes
add oil to engine
figure out alternator belt situation

then it should be drivable after that. during the daytime because still not done with lights...
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nshaddox
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PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2017 7:20 am    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

Started it up for the first time last night. had to swap out a fuel pump, but no other issues, and it sounded great. still need to time it properly and bleed the brakes, but its really close to being drivable and I'm stoked. won't be any progress for a week. wedding to attend this weekend and will be down in Mexico most of next week for work. Shouldn't be a problem to get everything else ready by the ypsi show on the 21st though.
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VOLKSWAGNUT
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PostPosted: Sun May 14, 2017 6:58 pm    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

Nothing quite like that moment when the engine finally fires up in the Kustom "project" created from depths of a vehicle creators mind..
I had my Operation X's Volksrod Corvair flat 6 engine.. running way before the body ever started to become a reality .. In fact.. the engine was the deciding factor to its creation.. (opposite of yours) ... but that day.. when it all came together.. was a moment to say the least..

Love it when a plan comes together.


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Enjoy the funeral.. Speak to the hand um.. Anxious wedding .. and Mexico... advise.. good clear Tequila only.. Laughing


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nshaddox
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PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2017 1:59 pm    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

Well, got it running before the show, but not really dialed in. Carbs are horribly out of sync and timing is probably off too. No time to mess with it out in the garage though. Between that, Michigan SOS not issuing me a title and plate until today, and the show getting rained out a bit, I didn't make my deadline to drive to the ypsi show. Pete took some stills of me driving in the alley the day before though, so it's still a small success in my mind.

Rolling out of garage, good idea for scale. I'm not that big of a dude but I dwarf this little thing.
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All that to get the engine facing the right way in the garage. First and reverse seem to work. One brake line is weeping a bit, gotta get a nicer flaring tool to fix it. Overall assessment is it's absolutely terrifying to drive.

Also been working on some PCBs for the LED tail light/stop light.
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Big circular circuit is the LED array for the brake light/taillight. Little ones are brake light flashers so that the brakes flash 4 times before coming on solid. Figured that would be a good thing since there is only one light.
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mandraks
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PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2017 2:36 pm    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

awesome, and, yes, it is tiny.
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PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2017 2:45 pm    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

Best GoCart Ever! Cool
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PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2017 3:57 pm    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

When it is terrifying to drive, thats when you're having the most fun. Laughing
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Bama Dave
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PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2017 6:21 pm    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

Frickin' awesome. Very Happy
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heywebonya
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 7:49 am    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

Are you going to paint that beauty? So amazing!

An extreme green would be suh-weet
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nshaddox
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 8:11 am    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

Well the long term plan is to paint, and I want to do a green, but probably nothing too crazy. trying to decide on the right shade or combo of shades of early vw greens. nothing fancy or soon because I imagine i will be tweaking a few things on this car for a while.

Having a rough time trying to figure out where to mount the license plate, there is no good spot. welded a bracket that would center it inside the bubble before realizing that the center mounted taillight would block it. going to leave it there just in case i decide to go a different route with the tail lights. Can't really mount it off center inside the bubble because it starts to get weird with head room. might mount if off one of the cooling horns on the t3 shroud or the 2/4 exhaust tube, but not really happy with how that looks when i hold it there. might have to make something to cover up fuel filler/fuel pump/distributor area with the plate, but will have to do some head scratching to see if the concept is going to look right.

also struggling with my home made pcb efforts. no luck with first attempt at toner transfer, but not defeated and will continue to experiment.

Car is running pretty great now.

Still have tire rub issues in the back, probably going to notch the body a bit for more clearance. not sure if going up another notch and getting shocks would help enough to allow for 0 body modifications.

Besides that all that is really left to do is sort out lights and reinstall the bubble. want to finalize hinges and clean up the bubble frame for powdercoating before reassembly though i think. might just rock it as a convertible for a while.
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 10:07 am    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

Need a good shot of the ass end to get some license plate ideas with exhaust. Yeah - license plates suck and its many times they are an after thought for many builders. glad you are thinking about that.

Gonna throw something out there - There are "hidden" license plate systems that I have seen - Here's one. https://www.ebay.com/i/252816449696?chn=ps&dispItem=1

Assuming you only need a rear. My first thought would be in front (behind) of the fan, spaced out some but not sure about what your exhaust is like. Can also be tucked just inside one of the rear wheels..

And on the paint - agree that you don't need anything wild...The car is intense enough on it's own...(please don't do red....so boring anymore)
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 10:37 am    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

I'll see what I can come up with and show some proposals this weekend. maybe even a solution, fingers crossed. MI only requires rear plates at least. was thinking about mounting it on passenger side of the dash even...no space for any elegant solutions. don't want to block view of the fan, its kind of central to the space ship design theme for that to be exposed...
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 13, 2017 7:38 am    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

how about a motorcycle plate behind the tire mounted to the suspension as suggested above?
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nshaddox
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 13, 2017 7:58 am    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

can't do a motorcycle plate since its a car.

thought about vertical mount of the plate in the same way you just described, but apparently plates must be horizontal here?

didn't fiddle with the plate much this weekend. worked on house stuff instead.
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2017 6:08 am    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

Mount it in the center floating just above the cooling fan as a way to deflect cool air down towards the fan. (With some skeleton hands holding it in place Laughing )
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 19, 2017 2:13 am    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

TDCTDI wrote:
Mount it in the center floating just above the cooling fan as a way to deflect cool air down towards the fan. (With some skeleton hands holding it in place Laughing )


I may "borrow" that idea... Very Happy
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hellthorne wrote:
First off, I know i made stupid decisions that led to my predicament, so while you are welcome to tell me that I am an idiot for doing the things I did, please know that I am already aware of this.
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 08, 2017 7:53 pm    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

Been spending a lot of time working on LED stuff for the taillight/brakelight.

Started with a small PCB etching for the brake light flasher relay. Followed some instructables, open source circuit diagram, components from mouser, did the CAD work in a free online program. So even with all of that being basically free, I'm probably in this project about 20X what it would cost to just buy one of these relays. But then my home made car wouldn't have home made electronics with my nick name on them and that just isn't an option.

Took me like 4 hrs to figure out why the first one wouldn't work even after all the effort to get the board etched properly. Discovered I'd forgotten to connect a couple of components with a trace, sharpie line shows where it should be got lucky that there were no other traces in the way on my circuit layout.
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Here's my fix on the 'prototype' board.
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About to go in the black box
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Looks as cozy as a cat in a box
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And final result doesn't show you at all how much difficulty I had with this endeavor. Probably the most challenging part of the whole build for me, but now that I'm past the learning curve it's so clean and easy compared to the metal work. No wonder the world cares more about electronics now. Path of least resistance!
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Anyways, some tips for anyone wanting to make their own PCBs:
Print PCB layout with toner printer on the thinnest weight glossy paper you can find. I tried photo paper and it didn't work for shit. Staples had some magazine page thickness stuff that works pretty well for me.

If you forget about a trace or some of the toner doesn't transfer, normal sharpie applied before etching works perfect. You could actually just hand draw a circuit if you wanted.

Iron method didn't work for me for transferring toner from paper to board. Much better success rate with acetone/isopropyl alcohol. Not sure what ration I ended up with, but I've got it in a spray HDPE bottle. If you have too much acetone traces will bleed when you press on them. Not enough and you'll get incomplete transfers.

This step is very dependent on timing. Seemed to work better for me in the cool of the morning. Important to clean board with steel wool and alcohol first. Then sprayed acetone/alcohol mix, get it nice and even on board and lay down paper with circuit as quick as you can. Then wait like 5-10sec before pressing on the backside with paper towel to even out the pressure. I noticed the paper would get kind of yellow when it was ready.

Then you just put it under a tap and rub off the paper carefully. Once you get it down it's easy. Print a lot of circuits on the same page so that when you screw up you can wipe the partial transfer off with acetone and try again. If you get close, do touch ups with a regular sharpie.

I etched in 50/50 warm tap water and ferric chloride. Took less then 10 min probably. I watched it and agitated it the whole time. Rinsed with tap water and some hand soap after. Then drill holes making sure your dremel tool collet isn't bent like mine is because it'll snap the tiny drills if it is. Ask how I know.

So once I got the brake flasher relay sorted I moved to the LED array it is intended to drive when I hit the brakes.

First I made the PCB it was like 10% sharpie touch ups but came out pretty good. Bigger circuits seem to need more acetone since it evaporates so quickly and it takes longer to move everything around.
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Taillight circuit
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Brake light circuit
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Both
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Pretty satisfied with that. And very tired. Anyways, happy to provide more info if anyone is trying to do some weird LED stuff. I'm a mechanical engineer and this electrical stuff makes no sense to me but I did mess up a few times and learned what not to do in the process so I'm nearly an expert now, right?
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mandraks
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 08, 2017 8:18 pm    Post subject: Re: Neil's bubbletop volksrod build Reply with quote

Light looks great. Next step will be a 3d printer....
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