Civilizing a Cal Looker
Neil Davies:
Quote from: Martin S. on December 04, 2019, 23:43:28 pm
Try to keep the old original metal and repair it, rather than replace panels with the replacement parts. Unless, of course you can find NOS replacements.
Yes, I'd like to see your pic story of your repairs. I've got plenty of ugly rust pics of my own cars heh :P
Yes, I buy repair panels and the trim them down as much as possible to keep as much original metal as possible. It also means that when it rusts out again in a few years, you can get another repro panel and cut it just a little big bigger.
andrewlandon67:
Quote from: Martin S. on December 04, 2019, 23:43:28 pm
Try to keep the old original metal and repair it, rather than replace panels with the replacement parts. Unless, of course you can find NOS replacements.
Yes, I'd like to see your pic story of your repairs. I've got plenty of ugly rust pics of my own cars heh :P
As much as I'd like to just try and repair the original panels, they're way too far gone to be worth the effort at this point... When I get some pictures up, you'll see what I mean. The bumper mounts might be more easily fixable while keeping the OG metal in place behind them, but we'll see what it looks like once I get the fenders off.
andrewlandon67:
Well, the rust hasn't gotten much worse over the years, but my drive to get it all repaired certainly has. The battery tray has been fixed, but that's all I've been able to do on that front. I know it's an old topic, but it's still relevant as I've been hard at work with getting the car to where I truly want it to be.
Last summer I pulled the trigger on a few big jobs that had been really wearing on my psyche for a while. Several years ago, I replaced the crusty original beam with one that I'd had a local guy narrow two inches and fit adjusters to. I didn't look into replacing the inner bushings or bearings at all, I just wanted to be able to lower my car in accordance with my personal tastes at the time. The guy who did the narrowing of the beam and leaves did a good enough job of welding it, but for some reason didn't include the steering stop or the damper bracket. Between the beam and drop spindles, I ran my car around extremely low for about a year or so before I got sick of smacking my poor car's nose on every damn bump in town. Once I'd adjusted it to a more reasonable height, and re-indexed the rear torsion bars, I had a car that missed most bumps but with no front sway bar and 175/55 front radials it didn't handle particularly well either. It did drive straight however, and was more stable in crosswinds than I expected, so I ran it like that for a few years, only adding a 3/4" sway bar in 2020.
I only drove the car a handful of times in 2021, but each time I felt less and less confident in the car's stability to the point where I raised it up and reset the camber and toe settings, but that wasn't enough. A worn tie rod end on the drivers side provided some insight, but the real culprit was a worn lower beam bushing allowing the lower left trailing arm to move back and forth by about a quarter of an inch. After several months of digging, I finally decided a new beam would be a good starting point, keeping the two-inch narrowed, adjustable factors but with new bushings and bearings, plus steering stops and a damper mount to boot. It was then that I found a deal on Koni Special-D Adjustable shocks on Summit Racing's site, all four corners for less than $400, so naturally I had to get those ordered, since I was on cheap EMPI fronts and no-name rears that had been on the car since at least 1989.
After some serious work getting the whole car's front end replaced, I spent about a day getting everything aligned and adjusted properly, though to get the correct ride height took a few separate attempts but the old bug was driving better than it had since I'd been driving it. The tires on the other hand were looking rougher than ever. Due to the misalignment and play in the front end, the front tires had worn extremely unevenly and were nearly down to the wear bars, so I made some puppy-dog eyes at the wife and ordered a set of Sumitomo HTR A/S PO3s in 175/65 front and 195/65 rear and had a local shop mount them up, only mangling one of my BRMs in the process (which they still haven't come through on fixing) but with all this work and money, over the course of 6 months my car went from driving like a spooked wheelbarrow to taking rail crossings better than my Saab, even at 50+ mph.
Next up, I'm really hoping to have time to get a CB Camber Compensator mounted, though the HD side plate on my transaxle might need some massaging I'd really like the rear to be a little tamer around corners to match the incredibly solid feel of the new front end.
ibg:
to get around the side cover issue with the camber comp, I once saw one that attached to the frame horns rather than the gearbox.
A sorted beetle is still a quite good handling car :)
Iryanu:
Dynamat do a shed load of pre cut kits for the bug. I fitted the lot which cut down alot of noise. Doors / inside rear quarters / wheel arches and also the rear firewall and roof. All done. The kick panels under the rear seat squab do kill alot of sound, as does a full rear seat with parcel shelf. The c-pillar pillows kill alot too.
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doors close with an incredible thunk now. (thanks to probably 4kg of shart added)
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(before the final big piece on the firewall itself was fitted)
Not great for weight saving, but the noise was driving me utterly insane!
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