Just brought home a Vopard Vokaro

[Letterman7]

[dlyle]

I've had the straps on for weeks and it goes right back to where it started. It's had 26+ years in the current shape so it doesn't appear to want to move. The spacing by the rear is kind of fixed by the rear wall so it's very stout there.

I had read about applying heat from a gun etc but don't want to burn the gel coat.

[GS guy]

I'd be tempted to keep the "splayed" width for a little extra interior room.
A flat strip of 1/8" steel, properly contoured, could extend the flange surface outward enough to bolt it back together without raising the body too much and upsetting the front/rear bulkhead fit-up. Some mid-summer Texas heat would probably be needed to "coax" the body back to the original pan width - if it even/ever fitted properly when new!
Jeff
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70's vintage Deserter GS buggy - undergoing transformation to Super GS!

[dlyle]

[DeathBySnuSnu]

Ya know......my body was a little bit like that on the width.
But nothing close to what yours is.
Someone had dobbed some glass over the edge because the bolt holes were barely on the edge to start with.

I cut all that off and just made my fabrication fit where the body centered up.

I have my front tires further forward.
As in......my little 23" tires barely clear the back of the headlight. Same empi style baja lights as yours.

All through December and January mine was weighted and strapped getting twist out of it. It did work.....but it has slowly crept back some.

You are already proving you can do some weld fab.
Don't be scared to move the head or extend the tunnel to make it fit how you want it too.
If you are gonna keep it.....ya know it is gonna forever irratate you if it ain't right. No one else may ever notice but you will.....lol
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[dlyle]

[NJ John]

Are you ever removing that black molding?
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1973 standard, yellow, lowered, 3” narrowed front, 1600 blo-thru turbo w/single dell 15.4@86, so far
11.41 et buggy. Long gone
Let’s go O’s! Let’s go O’s!
https://www.youtube.com/@AirSpooledGarage

[dlyle]

[NJ John]

When you get your Shala, you can put this one in a small box and ship it to the east coast. The car, not the molding. Lol
_________________
1973 standard, yellow, lowered, 3” narrowed front, 1600 blo-thru turbo w/single dell 15.4@86, so far
11.41 et buggy. Long gone
Let’s go O’s! Let’s go O’s!
https://www.youtube.com/@AirSpooledGarage

[dlyle]

[dlyle]

I'm looking to ditch the baja style headlights. I don't like the way the bulb sticks out past the chrome bezel. Even tried to get creative and grind it to make more room but it just doesn't adjust in enough. To me they look a little too big for the car too.

You can get an idea here how much they stick out.

The Vokaro ad photos show a light that has a lower profile. I'd like to get something like this. It looks like they mounted it from behind. It has a notch cut at the top for the adjuster.

Does anyone have an idea of what kind of headlight would have a bezel that would be more flush with the ring that holds the headlight in? Been looking at MG's and similar. The ghia looks nice but I think it will stick out further in the back. The parts guys tell me the ghia needs a mount for the bezel that goes on the body. Does anyone here have experience with ghia lights? Do I need that huge weld in can in the back to mount the ghia headlight assemblies?

.

[DeathBySnuSnu]

As I understand.....the car was intended for the ghia lights to be fitted.

Think about stone damage from the front tire.....mine are closer than yours.....but nothing protecting the back of a bulb sealed beam or h4.

Sticking out gave me more tire clearance and the baja buckets enclosed the back of the light. I intend to run "off-road" h4's and stone guards on the front. Blast the chrome and paint.

All that being said......now go look at jeep headlight mounts on ebay. You will have to make up mounting to recess them....but could look lovely. Then put in the led conversion lights. They are not a bulb....no glass back.....they are an aluminum heat sink for the led driver.....and sealed up solid ..... And not very deep inset.
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[dlyle]

[dlyle]

My buddy Ramo came over and helped out today. He's the brains of the operation and always has really good ideas. We got the framework of the rear body support and tank mount done. The tank was previously touching or was very close to touching the starter. Now it has a .5" gap. It doesn't slope to the drain hole as much as I'd like but any higher and it hits the body. A possible reason for the previous plywood lift they had on the body. I'm going to need to shorten the filler neck as it's protruding a couple inches further through the body than what it was before.

Went and watched my son's soccer game and then came back and starter work on the frame extension/wideners. Really happy with how the passenger side came out. The floor pan feels really solid on that side now. They already had the stiffeners underneath but this added even more support. The wife even helped me a bit.

[DeathBySnuSnu]

Looking like you are getting there.
Enjoying seeing you make progress......I had much the same plan for mine when I started......but then I went crazy.

Once you get the body set back on without the wooden spacer.....toss a seat in and check head height.
The original seats (I do have them) leaned back a lot to get your head down. But knees were up in steering wheel too much. The seats I chose to use are very low but sit more upright. I had to lower my floorboards a lot to get my head down. You can do the same thing with a body lift.....,but this is supposed to be a sports car not a dune buggy.
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[dlyle]

Spent the whole weekend on the Vokaro. Very little accomplished but I'm making some progress.


I bought a Harbor Freight tube bender and spent most of Saturday afternoon bending these rear body supports. The two sides are not symmetrical so there was some trial and lots or error.

Need to remove the angle iron on the top shock mount that's on there now. Not sure if I'll tie anything in to it again as it's already pretty rigid.

I'll be able to add a small support in for the lower part of the body by the exhaust. This rear piece is held in with flanges so can easily be removed when the engine needs to come out.

I started to clean up the edge of the outer pan support at the rear. I'm going to dress it up a bit as it will be visible. It will look a lot better than the plywood that was there before. The gap you see there between the inner body tub and the the torsion plate will be about a fingers width now that the body will sit further back.

[dlyle]

I've got some new tires on the car. Haven't taken any pictures of the new fronts but here are some that show the rear tires. I got tired of fooling with all those lug nuts every time I changed a wheel so I just have two lug nuts on per wheel.

These are 215/75-15's on the back. The front is still 165/80 but I got a set of 205/65-15's for the front.

[NJ John]

205’s are gonna be kinda wide, maybe? It looks great low, though!
_________________
1973 standard, yellow, lowered, 3” narrowed front, 1600 blo-thru turbo w/single dell 15.4@86, so far
11.41 et buggy. Long gone
Let’s go O’s! Let’s go O’s!
https://www.youtube.com/@AirSpooledGarage

[dlyle]

[NJ John]

Narrow the beam and hide them fronts up in the fender!
_________________
1973 standard, yellow, lowered, 3” narrowed front, 1600 blo-thru turbo w/single dell 15.4@86, so far
11.41 et buggy. Long gone
Let’s go O’s! Let’s go O’s!
https://www.youtube.com/@AirSpooledGarage