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SS100 "replica" Kit Kar
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Braedonsz
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 13, 2022 7:45 pm    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

Ulu wrote:
…and what I’m gonna do with all those holes in the back of the car when I get done changing the tail lights around.


Not what you had in mind for improved cooling/ventilation? Wink
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Ulu
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2022 12:12 am    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

No, I am afraid I was planning to fill and paint them.
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oprn
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2022 6:41 am    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

What is your plan for separating the used hot cooling air and the exhaust system heat from the fan intake?
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Ulu
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2022 2:20 pm    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

Water cooled engine. Wink

But that’s maybe for the future… otherwise I don’t know for sure. Remember that this is a show car and I’m not going to be using it as a driver.

I have seen a couple of these kits where they use flexible ductwork to direct the air. I sure didn’t like the way it looked. I think permanent fiberglass/metal ductwork would be better.

I have also been considering that because there is some warpage in that area of the car I might want to modify it to disguise that. This could involve a big linear chrome plated metal grill work custom-made to go above the engine. I don’t care so much that it wouldn’t look stock because this car is a custom. What I do care about is that the engine noise will get out immediately from that vent. I’d like it to be a little more contained.

What I was considering is that there’s enough room under my tub to mount a 24 x 36“ HVAC filter. I would like to filter all the air that goes to the engine because you know what happens. Over the years you pick up dirt on the fins and the fan and the shroud and the flappers and the thermostat and everything.

Right now my biggest concern is the air filter, because that is sucking up hot air at the very top of the bonnet. When the weather changes this will be a problem. Up to this point I have only driven the car 18 miles total in five incidents. There is a huge amount of air circulation to the engine and mostly I think I need to be concerned about heat collecting at the top.

I want to get rid of the stupid little chrome hot rod air cleaner. Perhaps I will build a big metal air box which is attached to the fiberglass structure, having a short rubber snorkel from the box to the carburetor, and another snorkel from the box to a remote air filter.

I need to protect the fiberglass from heat rising off of the engine when I park the car. It’s easy to see that this has been a problem in the past. There is some warpage from the heat.
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MrGoodtunes
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 15, 2022 2:31 pm    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

Ulu wrote:
Water cooled engine. Wink

...I have seen a couple of these kits where they use flexible ductwork to direct the air. I sure didn’t like the way it looked. I think permanent fiberglass/metal ductwork would be better ...

With your kit's elongated front and the structural steel you've cleverly put into it, a water cooled engine would be soo coool up front with flashy chrome lake pipes for exhaust. Sorry, just dreaming out loud. Getting back to reality, what Opee brought up about engine cooling is really important if you ever want to go more than a very few miles away from home. My kit is quite different from yours, but her heat shield and cooling air inlet duct might help spark some ideas you could use. Here's a post re heat shield with a link in it to a post re duct:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9680323&highlight=#9680323
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Ulu
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 15, 2022 2:54 pm    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

MrGoodtunes wrote:
Ulu wrote:
Water cooled engine. Wink

...I have seen a couple of these kits where they use flexible ductwork to direct the air. I sure didn’t like the way it looked. I think permanent fiberglass/metal ductwork would be better ...

With your kit's elongated front and the structural steel you've cleverly put into it, a water cooled engine would be soo coool up front with flashy chrome lake pipes for exhaust. Sorry, just dreaming out loud. Getting back to reality, what Opee brought up about engine cooling is really important if you ever want to go more than a very few miles away from home. My kit is quite different from yours, but her heat shield and cooling air inlet duct might help spark some ideas you could use. Here's a post re heat shield with a link in it to a post re duct:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9680323&highlight=#9680323


Thanks a bundle buddy. The mockups of the structural steel that you saw were never actually incorporated into the frame yet. I put the car back together with the frame the way it was, Rusty and ugly, and all I did is Bob off the bits of the pan that stuck out, and cover-up the rusty floor panels with shiny sheet metal so it looks nice when you open the hood.

There’s a guy I watch on YouTube called SuperfastMatt, and he has put a motorcycle engine into the front of a very light car, with very interesting results. He made some mistakes but his experiments prove that it can be done and what needs to be done to make it work right.

But I’m actually starting to think in a different manner. People put ballast weights in the front of these cars because they really are too light on the front wheels and it’s easy to make it skid. I’m thinking of front wheel drive suspension and an electric motor stuffed into that frame extension up front.

That way instead of just having a wheel fall off the car and pass you going down the road on an inside corner, the whole front end of the car can become loose and just drive away from you.
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Ulu
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 20, 2022 8:49 pm    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

Working on an aluminum trim cover for the ugly steering penetration.

Making the pattern:
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


Hogging it out:
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Cutting the slot with pneumatic wheel.
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Sanded 50, 120, & 220 grit, but not buffed yet. It needs a trial fitting first.
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

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mark tucker
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 22, 2022 11:04 am    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

I sure wish you would drive it. I won't own something that I can't drive every day anywhere I want to go as far as I want to go. too much work and $ not to fully enjoy it. there are way tomany that can not be driven, or not reliable to go to the store to get a bag of chips & dip..the local vw car clubs are full of those all owned by the exspurts that tell the others how to fix their cars.... apparently so they cant drive theirs either. do it right do it 1 time and be done ,forget about it and have a blast driving it. I always wanted one of those cars like you have, yours is beautiful.
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Ulu
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 22, 2022 8:18 pm    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

I never bought this to be a daily driver. I have other cars for that. I have been retired for several years and so I do not drive every day to work or anywhere else for that matter.

I will take this car back out and drive it, but it is strictly for fun occasions.

Right now I have the steering shaft disassembled and I’m trying to come up with a way to make it sturdy and more attractive. Currently it is a cobbled up mess.

I need to find an unshortened Volkswagen steering shaft to modify, Or reforge the stub that I have on to a longer piece of tubing.
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Ulu
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 23, 2022 12:21 am    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

I found enough tubing to rework the VW steering. I would like a nicer column and wheel, but this gear will have to do for now. I still need to trim it and drill it before I can put it in and do the final fitting on the trim panel.

I shot clear on the aluminum trim plate. It needs more polishing, but it may want more trimming as well. I hope it is not too small.
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


First test fitting of the new trim plate and rubber gasket, before I screw it in.
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

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PostPosted: Sun Jan 23, 2022 6:50 am    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

mark tucker wrote:
I sure wish you would drive it. I won't own something that I can't drive every day anywhere I want to go as far as I want to go. too much work and $ not to fully enjoy it. there are way tomany that can not be driven, or not reliable to go to the store to get a bag of chips & dip..the local vw car clubs are full of those all owned by the exspurts that tell the others how to fix their cars.... apparently so they cant drive theirs either. do it right do it 1 time and be done ,forget about it and have a blast driving it. I always wanted one of those cars like you have, yours is beautiful.

Great post full of truth!

I too have been to VW events and wondered how some of the cars even made it across town to attend! I have also invited a number of them to come to our community and I will personally host a small event but when they find out it involves some travel... it's a "no go"! When I tell them that we just drove our open Buggy 3 - 4 - 5 hours one way to attend theirs they look at me like I'm a leper and the conversation ends.

I am retired too and don't "daily drive" anything but if the weather is nice (and sometimes when it isn't) I jump in something for a hoot around the country. We use the street Buggy every chance we get. I also have an unlicensed dirt bike and sand rail that I take for a run on a regular basis. I am fortunate to live where there is miles and miles of back country roads that I rarely see anyone on and some neighbors that trust me to use their pasture land for outings.

Yes make it so that it can be driven anywhere and you will be surprise at how often you do. It will also increase the value of the car in the next owner's eyes.
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 23, 2022 1:00 pm    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

You guys are getting the mistaken idea that just because I don’t intend to drive this car every day that it will be a clanky piece of junk. I’m just not happy owning a carbureted engine in the age of mass-market fuel injection.

50 years ago this would’ve been an amazing thing. Fuel injection was new to the mass market gasoline engine.

But now I am really surprised that you can’t buy off-the-shelf aftermarket injection set up just for the air cooled Volkswagen.

If this car is to stay Volkswagen powered, I would like it to be modernized a lot. The fuel system is going to have to have vapor recovery. It wouldn’t bother me to replace the mufflers with catalytic converters since I have to run Unleaded gas.

Anyhow, this is a piece of aluminum extrusion from a commercial windowsill engineering test run. I have been kicking this around in the shop since 1986. I finally found a use for it when I nibbled out the chunk for my trim cover.

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PostPosted: Sun Jan 23, 2022 6:26 pm    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

FI is definitely the deluxe way to go, just a bit above my pay grade. There is no reason however to think that carbs cannot do the job dependably. They did for many many decades. Maybe that is why there are not many bolt on FI systems on the market for VWs yet.

Anyway, I don't see any clanky junk work being done yet and don't expect to see it anytime soon. Fixing that has been the whole crux of your thread!
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 24, 2022 12:32 pm    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

Perhaps I will be happy enough if I just put a manual choke on the carburetor. I always hated the Volkswagen electric choke.

For what I can imagine is being done in the FI biz, it is way more expensive than what I want to spend for this engine. I don’t want to pay to have it dyno tuned, which would be pretty much required for something like the Hal-tech system.

Just the cost of an exhaust temperature gauge to match mine set me off. And the new ones don’t really match. They have stainless instead of chrome.

When I bought his car I really didn’t know the mechanical condition would be this good. Judging by the wiring it was going to be shite, but I was buying the car for the body, you know.

I didn’t expect that the transmission would be much good in this car, but it turns out it’s really good. It appears that it was rebuilt at some point in it’s history and the paint still looks fresh on it. I feared that it would run like the proverbial 12 hp microbus, but the thing has reasonable horsepower, and being light it will burn the tires over.

Of course you do have to dump the clutch at higher RPM. But it smoked em over.

Having a 1981 Subaru 1600, I was planning to do a swap like that. Although mine was a carbureted Subaru as well. I remember putting either Volkswagen or Kawasaki jets in for the Subaru main jets. It turns out that Subarus are so freaking popular in California you can’t touch even a wrecked one for the kind of price I want to pay for the powertrain.

I expect at this point the SS replica is going to stay Volkswagen powered, which will be more challenging but maybe limit my enjoyment less than I think.
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 24, 2022 1:04 pm    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

Ulu,

I had not checked back on your build in a while, but I am liking what I see on your approach to hiding/disguising those "HIDEOUS" Laughing steering gear penetrations!!

GOOD JOB!! Cool

STAY WELL!!

Tom
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 24, 2022 11:20 pm    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

I covered everything with tape so I could stuff the steering shaft through without scratching things, and it seems to fit pretty well.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


The other end has a slip tube that splices to the original Volkswagen steering column, which was cut short. I propped it up on a coil of rope, getting the initial alignment.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


Unfortunately when I got everything screwed together I realized that by splicing the steering column closer to the steering gear I made it just wide enough that it rubs on the body hard, and there is not enough clearance to move anything at this point. I need to make a new shaft.
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 26, 2022 9:25 pm    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

I knew I was going to change the whole steering column eventually so I did not bother to make a new steering shaft. Instead I sleeved the old one and welded it back together and put some rivets in it. Then I put the car back together with the new trim plate and drove it. The clear paint I had put on the steering shaft was still soft and of course I ruined it. These are the things that happen when you get impatient to drive.

I will have to make another plate that is just slightly larger because this one did not cover all the damage once I got it positioned.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

It still looks so much better than before. I am glad I did it.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


This is the first time that the car had been out since I messed with the ammeter and I forgot to look and see if it was charging when I drove it.

Mostly that was because it’s also the first time it’s been out since I reworked the carburetor & the car ran amazingly well compared to its previous performance.

I drove to the Volkswagen shop and I bought myself a new aftermarket manifold, a K&N clone air filter element, a new rag joint for the steering and some gaskets. This is the first time I drove any distance with no shock absorbers on the front and it was interesting when I got it up to about 45 miles an hour.

You really start noticing the fact that the tie rods are unequal length.

Unfortunately they didn’t have the kind of shock absorbers I wanted and so I emptied out my wallet & went home.

When I got home I discovered that there was some brake fluid on the garage floor and I had noticed that the brakes felt a little soft the first time I stepped on them. The master cylinder is leaking fluid and will have to be rebuilt.

Anyhow it was a terrific drive and I’m glad I got out there and did it. Plus I ran some more gas out of the fuel tank and it is now almost empty. I will have to remove it to rebuild the master cylinder and to repair the fuel sending unit as well.
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 27, 2022 9:36 pm    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

I backtracked in my pick up truck yesterday looking for my lost wheel cover but to no avail. I took another look today on the way to the Volkswagen shop, but still no joy. That ugly fake thing is gone from my life forever, thank God, and now I only have to get rid of the other three.

You guys don’t know how lucky I am to live within 3 miles of a real custom Volkswagen shop that also has all kinds of parts for sale. It was one of the factors in my consideration to buy a vehicle that had a Volkswagen engine.

I did some wheel shopping today & I bought a new master cylinder. I was lucky enough to get a nice one made in Denmark rather than some Chinese garbage.

OTOH, my new EMPI center intake manifold is going to need some real work before I can install it. The quality of the flange machining is pitiful, the quality of the throat casting is internally rough and nowhere close to circular, the whole casting is rough on the exterior, but the worst part was the heat riser tubes.

This is why I bought a new manifold: because the heat riser tubes on mine are heavily corroded and pitted and look like crap. The new ones are tube steel instead of aluminum and I don’t have a problem with that per se.

The problem is in the mounting flanges which are welded to each tube.

Unfortunately, after stamping the flanges they never flattened them to remove the cupping from the punch press.

Weld draw didn’t improve matters.

Anyhow I am going to make a little set up to press those flanges a bit flatter, and I will flat file them as well before I try to assemble them.

I don’t think the charging system is charging, but I was so darn excited to drive the car yesterday that I never looked to the ammeter once.

It’s possible that the polarization of the generator was weak and I need to do it again. In any event the charging system is a minor problem right now because I’m not gonna be driving any long distances. I won’t be driving at night at all.

To change the master cylinder I will have to remove the fuel tank from my car. This will give me an excuse to take it apart and fix the faulty ground on the fuel gauge sender.

The big job will be to correct in the position of the master cylinder and extending the brake lines to their proper position. That’s not gonna happen before I take this car off the frame again.

But I need to be careful here. I want to drive and tune this car some more before I tear it apart completely, but the rusty, weak chassis is actually moving when I press on the brake pedal. A couple seconds after I release the pedal completely, the sheet metal floor on that side pops with a loud noise Where there is a lap splice between the panels. At least I think that’s where it’s coming from.
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 31, 2022 1:37 am    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

Well my theory was wrong and when I tested it I could not figure out anything except that the brakes were not responsible.

I started tearing the whole car back apart today.

I removed the fuel tank and fuel tank frame and straps. I took out the battery and ground strap & the horn.

I’ve got almost all the wiring disconnected except for the parking lights up front. There’s only 20 body mount bolts left and a handful of screws.

Then I must disconnect the steering column from the rag joint and I will be able to remove the body.

If I’m going to hoist this off with my engine hoist by myself all in a unit, I will need to make a lifting jig to keep the body from collapsing as I hoist it.

I will probably do this tomorrow
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 01, 2022 9:35 pm    Post subject: Re: SS100 "replica" Kit Kar Reply with quote

I weighed my car yesterday. I didn’t do any other work on it but I was trying to figure out what shock absorbers I should buy.

Of course all I have is a bathroom scale and it won’t weigh a car.
I went around to each wheel with a junk-steel fulcrum, and a marked pipe for a lever. 12 to 1 ratio.

I stood on the scale and weighed 184 pounds. Then I leaned on the lever until the car came off the ground and read the scale at 160 pounds.
184-160=24lbs

Weight at a front wheel therefore was 24×12 or 288 pounds

Rear wheels weighed at 355 lbs

I find the entire car weighs 1286 pounds unladen, with the gas tank dry. Gross will be about 1600 average. 1800 lbs max.

Weight distribution is 45/55 and estimated at 42/58 at max gross wt.

She will definitely be a Taildragger, but I will be putting a heavier battery in the car and I will be putting it further towards the nose to get the weight distribution more even. This will boost the unladen weight by about 25 pounds.

I need to find some decent shock absorbers suitable for this setup. I am hoping that red D series Konis will be adjustable enough to get me where I want to go, because I certainly don’t wanna spend more than that
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