SS100 "replica" Kit Kar

[Buggeee]

Nice work on the exhaust stud. Patience is a virtue.
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Big Time 1988 Vanagon Westy
Release the Krankenwagen! 1966 Sportsmobile Camper
Dr. Kompressor 72 Super Duper
61 Turkis Pile (adopted out)

[Buggeee]

That is the most love anyone has ever given an EMPI Monza exhaust. Par for the course on this build.
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Big Time 1988 Vanagon Westy
Release the Krankenwagen! 1966 Sportsmobile Camper
Dr. Kompressor 72 Super Duper
61 Turkis Pile (adopted out)

[Ulu]

Cold bending worked fine. It fits better than before.

But I had a stripped exhaust stud. It snapped when I tried to remove it.

I drilled it out, and as a matter of formality I got out my best number three easy out. It’s a good one and at least 70 years old. It told me when it was time to quit turning before I snapped it. Very tough and not brittle.

So I continued drilling out the stud in steps until I had nothing left but threads.

I started picking out the remaining threads until I could get a tap started in the hole and then I chased it all out.

Here it is with a shiny New stud. Do not look at the old stud, which is all chewed up.

Finally I cleaned it up and painted it.

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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

This muffler was never really straight from the factory. It is also too close to the body. I cut it loose and removed about 1” from the tubes.

I’m also trying to get it more level.

The tubes don’t all line up well. I will probably need to heat one tube and bend it. I might try cold-bending it first.

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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

[oprn]

If the valves are sticking I wonder about the rings. It might not be a bad thing to put a bit of your favorite weasel pee in the sparkplug holes and let it soak for a few days. A few drops on each valve stem too perhaps while the covers are off.
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Our cars get old, we get old but driving an old VW never gets old!

[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

[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]

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

[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]

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

[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]

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]

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]

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]

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

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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]

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]

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

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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[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