Body and Pan not quite 14.5" Difference

[jaymonkey]

I've started prepping my pan for sandblasting shortening and then powdercoating. Tonight was the first time I put the body on the pan and made any measurements. The body I have has some damage on the rear where it would mate to the end of the tunnel, so I measured a couple other places. There appears to be 15" difference not 14.5. Is this shrinkage over time?

I will match the body to the pan regardless of what the exact measurement ends up being. The body sits nice and flat and there doesn't seem to be any warping.

Questions....I do not plan on using the factory seat mounts, am I further ahead ditching the pans all together? Everything passed a pretty violent screwdriver test, other than one spot near the battery. I'm not sure If I'm making more work trying to save the frame along the outside of the pan. Will it be less work to use square tubing and custom pans? I'd like the custom look with some nice beading in there.

_________________
1969 Beetle (Sadie)
1953 Kombi 23A -Sold
1969 Buggy Sold
1975 Buggy underdevelopment
insta @boldroguebuggy

[BL3Manx]

Actually the Meyers Manx instructions say 14.25" are removed.

You've just seen first hand why the first step in shortening a chassis is to put the body on the unshortened chassis exactly where you want it in front, then mark the side rails where the rear of the body ends and figure out exactly how much to cut.

[jsturtlebuggy]

The new Manx Kick Out instructions say to cut the pan 14.5" instead of the 14.25".
Buggy body should always be check to see how much you need to cut.
If a buggy body is a copy of copy most of the time it will shink from original body demensions.
_________________
Joseph
Fair Oaks/Orangevale, CA
Elrod Motorsports
Motion Tire Motorsports
Having fun with Dune Buggies since 1970
Into Volkswagens since 1960

[Dale M.]

[jaymonkey]

What about the pans? Faster using square tubing and custom pans? Not that speed is a real issue, I want it done properly. Seems tubing is the way it should be done.
_________________
1969 Beetle (Sadie)
1953 Kombi 23A -Sold
1969 Buggy Sold
1975 Buggy underdevelopment
insta @boldroguebuggy

[Dale M.]

[jbreddawg]

I say go with tubing and custom pans . I can jump up and down on mine and it doesnt flex a bit.

_________________
The wheel may be turning but the hamster's dead !

[BL3Manx]

The rust repair job you're doing looks a bit odd. Usually when the floor pans of a chassis are replaced, the outer channels are also removed. The new floorpans come with new outer channels.

The way I shorten a pan is to first completely cut out the sunken wells under/behind the front seats.

Then I put the body on the pan then mark where the body ends. Then I make the two cuts in the outer rails. The first cut is 1 7/16" forward of the mark, and the rear cut is where the rail meets the rear bulkhead. (The rear chassis bulkhead lip is 1 7/16" wide so when the shortened outer rail is reconnected to the rear bulkhead, together its exactly the length of the body.) Since I know the outer rails are cut to the exact perfect length, I never cut or grind them again and now use them as my gauge.

Next I cut the tunnel in the normal locations, but I remove about 1/4" less than the distance I figured the chassis needs to be shortened.

Then I bring the two sections of the tunnel together. The tunnel makes contact first and the outer rails have a small gap. I already know the outer rails are the perfect length, so I very carefully start grinding the two faces of the tunnel, making sure they are straight and square and keep grinding until the two rails just touch. Then I measure to double check the chassis is straight. Then I tack weld the two rails and the tunnel. Then I measure again and if its all still straight I take it to my professional welder.

The last thing I do is get two new forward floor pan halves, (the flat ones) and I cut them to fit the holes where the wells were, then I weld them in.

This technique has 3 advantages, First, it gives me a flat floor for my aftermarket seat mounts.

Second, it makes the outer rails smooth straight and strong because the weld is at the back where it meets the rear bulkhead, instead of having the weld farther forward, across the rail itself.

Third, it makes the job a hell of a lot easier because I only have to get the tunnel straight and lined up. I know the rails are perfect to begin with and I don't have the nasty rusty sunken floor to try to make meet and weld together.

BTW, I didn't mention anything about the control tubes, but there are a lot of good threads on how to do them.

[jaymonkey]

I started by cutting out the rust. The frame rails are very solid, by trying to save them I'm sure it would have been more work. I will use tubing and lose everything thats there.
_________________
1969 Beetle (Sadie)
1953 Kombi 23A -Sold
1969 Buggy Sold
1975 Buggy underdevelopment
insta @boldroguebuggy

[jbreddawg]

Yea, theres really no reason to keep the flimsy outer parts.
_________________
The wheel may be turning but the hamster's dead !

[BL3Manx]

Keep them on until the pan is shortened. They make excellent gauges. Read the post 2 above. After the chassis is shortened you can remove them and replace them with square tube if you want.

All the same, adding square tube in the outer channels really doesn't make anything stronger. The tubes are very rigid, but they concentrate stress where they are welded to the sheet metal chassis at each end. The "reinforced" chassis is more likely to crack at those points, than if it was still all sheet metal.

When people pull the body off a VW they look at the pans and think they are flimsy and need to be reinforced. The pans have two main purposes, to keep the occupants from falling on the street and holding on the body.

I've never heard of anyone falling through an un-rusted floor pan.

As far as holding on the buggy body, they do that very well to, but you should also have support brackets to the chassis in front, under the front of the fuel tank and in back under the back seat.

The floorpans aren't meant to give the body strength, its actually the other way around. A quality molded fiberglass buggy tub is a very strong structure. Its actually stronger than the VW body which is longer and has a big door on each side.

The only reason I can see for adding steel tube to the floor is if you plan on adding a full roll cage and then in back, the cage should tie to the torsion housing, not the floor.

[heywebonya]

Remove the pans and build from scratch! Stronger, straighter and more adaptable to seats.

I removed the pans and used 1" x 3" tubing for the perimeter to beef up the pan and give me lots of area for roll cages.

The floor is 16 gauge and very solid. The mid span tubing are for seat mounts.

Jeff
_________________
If I knew what I was doing; I wouldn't be building a buggy!

[LouisB]

I would suggest the steel tubing and custom pans as well. I have a lot of time in my stock style pans and it was a PITA to get done. Next buggy i build will have a full tube style pan.

--louis
_________________
Louis Brooks
'67 Manx II

Old people at weddings always poke me and say "Your next." So, I started doing the same to them at funerals.

[BL3Manx]

If its an option, just buy a Barrett chassis.

[jbreddawg]

One of the main reasons for me was I'm going with a full cage. I wanted something more substantial for it to bolt down to besides the flexible stock pans and fiberglass . Heres what I built for my cage to mount to .

_________________
The wheel may be turning but the hamster's dead !

[jaymonkey]

Thanks for feedback guys. Tube it is. I removed the right pan tonight. It came off nice. I'm hoping to sandblast this weekend, my brother and law is a welder so I will bribe him with beer and steak to do the welding, I'm not much of a welder and If I'm spending the money on powdercoating I want a good job done.
_________________
1969 Beetle (Sadie)
1953 Kombi 23A -Sold
1969 Buggy Sold
1975 Buggy underdevelopment
insta @boldroguebuggy

[GTBRADLEY]

I guess you dont want to take this advice? This seems to me like a sure fire way of getting the chassis square before you weld up the tubing

[jaymonkey]

The Chassis is nice and square.
_________________
1969 Beetle (Sadie)
1953 Kombi 23A -Sold
1969 Buggy Sold
1975 Buggy underdevelopment
insta @boldroguebuggy

[Dale M.]

[jbreddawg]

I did my shortening first and then did the outside rails. I did do tons of measuring and measuring and just a little bit more measuring lol
In hindsight it probably would have been easier if I cut the pans off after shortening instead of before . It would have helped in keeping things straight.

_________________
The wheel may be turning but the hamster's dead !