63 Ragtop Dad and Lad project.

[BossHogg76]

Progress has slowed recently as we wait for big chunks of the project to arrive. In the meantime we have fitted the oil cooler and the remote oil filter head bracket has been printed off and test fitted. A few adjustments were made to the design and it's off being machined. Not pictured was changing the gear shift bushing, a job that seemed to take forever but is thankfully out of the way.



Next week i'll look to strip the front brakes off, in preparation for the new kit. I also need run power to all the gauges for the sensing circuits and i might have some very lovely running boards to fit.

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[BossHogg76]

Another little updated, this week i dropped a few things off to Richie for the engine, and picked up some rather lovely carbon fibre running boards. So as the sun beat down on a lovely Sunday morning i dragged my hungover self to the workshop (drinking with mates from my Airforce, never gets easier) with Daniel and we set about fitting them. Richie has got the weave looking great running at a 45 degree angle pointing to the front. Next on the list was a bit of preparation for the new brake kit, this went a lots faster than anticipated and in half an hour, under the careful supervision of the lad i had the front drums off. That's it for today but things are moving in the right direction.

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[richie]

Cool 

cheers Richie

[BossHogg76]

thanks Richie

Sometimes you have to go backwards to go forwards, this weekend was one of those occasions. The lovely guys at CSP have made up a set of disc brakes for me, in the required Chevy pattern, special thanks for them for doing this, and particularly Gunter for all his help. Friday 16th May, i finished work and headed to the workshop, the plan was to dummy fit the hubs to the pre-stripped front end slip on the wheels lower to ground, bask in the gloriousness of a job well done and then fit the rest of the kit. Unfortunately things didn't go according to plan. The hubs fitted perfectly, the wheels fitted the hubs perfectly, unfortunately when i lowered the car down it was clear that the wheels were too beaucoup for the arches. We're talking by about an 1inch per side, but it's something we need to address.

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So after a quick chat with Jay it looked like the beam is original width so a 2" narrowing should do the job. That meant an oppurtunity for some learning so Daniel and i removed the beam and stripped it ready for Jay and Mike to work their magic.

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[FredH17]

Whoooo Rob, it’s been to long since i checked in here…..but what a progress you and the kid made!

All these carbon parts look like a million dollars buddy. Especially with the white paint. Just lovely!

Keep it up!!

[BossHogg76]

Whoooo Rob, it’s been to long since i checked in here…..but what a progress you and the kid made!

All these carbon parts look like a million dollars buddy. Especially with the white paint. Just lovely!

Keep it up!!

Many thanks Fred we are slowly getting there. Now there haven't been any updates as i've been out in California for the DKP 60th and HotVWS Cal Look edition 50th anniversary, which was a full on week. However it was soon back home, back to work and this week fired with enthusiasm got back to work on the project. My son was a bit busy this weekend, which gave me a straight run at things. If you follow me on instagram you will have seen that beam was not usable. When we stripped off the powder coating the adjusters had been welded in very poorly ruining the beam. So it was off for a wallet hurting purchase after some rapid research i went from a mid priced Cb Performance one to a Cagero one, complete with 8 roller bearing and losts of Swiss loveliness. That arrived the weekend before i went away and despite my sons and mines efforts we ran out of power getting it located.

On my return with Jay we soon and the top bolts in and I was quickly bolting it in as he shorted the leaves and track rods. Which meant i could get the front end buttoned up, and the new wheels on. the geometry needs to be set and some torquing needs to be done, but it's 90% done. Jay will hopefully be fitting the rears brake kit and wheels in the next couple of weeks. 
So what does that leave?
1) Oil System to finish plumbing in.
2) Gauges to complete wiring
3) Fuel System to plumb in, including sealing the fuel tank and fitting that,
4) MSD to fit and wire in. (Carbon panel has been bought for that.
5) New wheels studs fitted as the current ones are too short.
6) Engine fit and fire it up.
7) Interior carbon panel to make for rear seat space.
A couple of other cosmetic things i want to do

Finally here are the pics

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[BossHogg76]

Progress is slowly going forward with more items being ticked off the list. A new breather box from CSP has been fitted with Daniel doing a great job using the Rivnut tool and bolting it in. He also fitted the Berg traction bar mounts, looking at the drop links i've had to make some changes to the design of the oil filter head mount. so a new version is being machined at the moment. The rear brakes should be going on next week (11th June) and i should have the majority of the wiring and plumbing done next weekend. I've got a little weekend project for the front lights coming up for Daniel, hopefully that will go well. So fingers crossed by next weekend i should have bug in a position for the engine when it is ready Oh and we put the passenger seat in a couple of weeks ago.

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[BossHogg76]

Ok so this will be a double update as there's a few pictures.

First off small job were done like fitting the engine bay seals oddly enough no pics of that, and no help from the lad  , but it's a step in the right direction.

Next on the list was purely cosmetic, with this car i am constantly aware of it's heritage and not wanting to return it to being replica of the one. With a limited budget this has been a task, the next thing on my list was the headlights, absolutely beautiful with machine turned inserts. But again a nod to what it was made to be, so I thought how could i give a nod to it's heritage and move the game on. Carbon fibre inserts obviously...but how to do it, making moulds would be hard and getting a consistent curve fairly diffiicult and i certainly didn't want to use a cheap sticker. In the end i found flexible carbon fibre, with a 3m backing, that would do to the job i thought. Next. i wasn't going to butcher the original lights, and i ended up buying a set in California and having them sent over. Then it is was onto the mods, stripped down painted matt black and a card board template made up. I soon had them back together and then it was what to do with the lenses, i wanted flat to mimic the original design, but wanted a more menacing look. I ended up making a set of clear and a set of smoked lenses, the smoked ones won. The pics below show the progress:

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[BossHogg76]

Next up was rear wheels, now i had already fitted the front beam and CSP brake kit, but the rears needed a torque multiplier and more time than i currently have, so Jay came in to do the work. In a day the rears were on with a cry of,..Rob you need studs, so it was a 24 hour date as i dug some out my garage and ran them up to the workshop. I got a message later that afternoon, come and have a look, my might have an issue with tyre width using the MH. So i dived into the car and rocketed through Northumberland to have a look.  With no engine Jay filled the back seat area with tractor weights to get the back down to ride height.

I'll let the pics do the talking, and you can also see the lights fitted.

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You can see that the MH Dots are just a little to beaucoup for the rear arches, so we fitted the Michelin XWX from my 67 and for 2025 they will do until we decide something more drastic to fit the MH Dots

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So next on the list is wire in the MSD, (thanks Jo and Richie for getting this sent through) wire up the rest of the gauges, clean seal and fit the fuel tank finish off the oil lines.