Lil'Tank

[JSL]

Ok, Im gonna risk it......

Im gonna start a thread on my build and hope things progress at a nice steady rate....  

Story so far.....

I bought a 54 shell about ten years ago off Mark from Just Kampers. It was advertised as a solid US import so I was on the case straight away! I figured "What an easy build!" Just wack the shell on a chassis and BAM! You have a finished car! No cutting, no welding etc!   I was kinda right, but sourcing all the odds & sods turned out to be an expensive nightmare!!!

Ok... here is the car when it first arrived

[JSL]

After checking it all over the shell was perfect! Never been welded or repaired! Nice!

Next to come was a rolling chassis. Thanks to Rodry (At the time from Twickenham Aircoolers, dont know if he still is) we did a little deal and he towed me a chassis home from one of the shows. Chassis was very solid and wide 5! Sweet! The car sat like that for a while. But thanks to friends Steve Inglis & his bro Tish we all got the bug real bad and started work stripping and building our cars. His is a 64/65 (No sure which year it is?) Ausi import and VolksWorld cover car! Lucky GIT!!!! Haha. After about 2 years of dirty evenings and weekends we stripped all the gunk off both our chassis & components and bare metaled both cars.  Paint was laid on thanks to Angus. Steves is the bug in the for ground mine is behind it in primer.



And some more shots of the bugs on my front lawn! I love this shot!! As you can see mine is now in paint behind Steves 

[JSL]

There arent many photos of this stage of my build. Mainly of Steves, but mine is lurking in the back ground 



Here we are cleaning up the chassis's





After paint







All this was being done while my parents were demolishing their house as part of a rebuild! Hehehe Hectic stuff! Hence the next pic!  My Dad sitting on a pallet of breeze blocks! The sharp eye'd among you might notice the serial number (between his legs) Either that or they couldnt spell 'blocks' very well? It made us giggle anyway 



Whats next......?

[JSL]

Ah yes..... Suddenly my car was in PAINT!!  



I gathered a few other bits & bobs like a 1.5 inch narrowed beam from Dave at Airwerks



But after putting SO much time into it all especially on Steves bug I kinda exhausted myself out. So it all when on the back burner while I got into music for about 8 - 10 years.



Role on a few years to kinda recently!   Ive got wind in my sails and Im gagging for it! (So to speak)

I started collecting everything I could.....

The main worry for me was all the internal door parts! Yuk! What a boring and no doubt expensive job that would be! But I started to collect....









I had to buy another decklid as I seemed to have lost one over the years?....  



My second set of heart lights.... again I seemed to have lost the NOS set I bought 10 years ago! Boy have these gone up in price since then!

[JSL]

The dreaded door internals!!



And more stuff that either Ive bought or came with the car...





I'll save you all the pain of the bits & bobs Ive been tracking down.

[JSL]

Ok now it all gets a bit blurry 

After putting a deposit down with Ian at Wolfsburg Performance for a nice engine about 8 years ago (maybe more  ) I suddenly got a phone call out the blue. After a nice little discussion I ended up with his little race motor! :-) And Im VERY happy with it! Not as big as most of you guys but you know what they say!! Size DOESNT matter, its what she does with it! 





Plus everything from the gas tank to the engine!



1850cc if any of you were wondering 

[JSL]

Ok next.....

I wasnt happy with the chassis I bought all those years ago. I think it was a late 60's item due to the wide 5, but it also had weird chunky rear arms (check the pics)




Anyone know anything about it?

I wanted the collar & cuffs to match!

So luckily for me (and thanks to various people on this forum for helping me with my dumb ass questions) I located a guy that was breaking a 53. So I had the chassis, doors, bonnet and various other bits off him.



How many doors does one car need? 




I also located some LHD pedals.



And ANOTHER box of door internals



Really hoping Ive got the door internals & quarter lights covered now. Hehe

[JSL]

Next up....

I wanted my car to stop well so after a bit of research I decided to go for the CB Performance wide 5 disc kit with dropped spindals



Nice!

I also really wanted to go Torker!

So I bought these guys...





Typical me its a bad combo! The dished back spokes of the Torkers foul the calipers! DOH!

So... I needed to re-think...

Looks nice though huh?




I also found that the offset of the wheels, combined with the wider track of the disc kit meant the wheels also fouled the arches quite a bit. After speaking to another guy that was very helpful about all this the solution was to narrow the beam AGAIN removing a total of 5 inches!

So I decided to to go a different route..





So now Im happy 

[JSL]

The next part is my reason for posting 

After a little wait my car has now found a new (temporary) home! At Defcon3 

Alex is on the case sand blasting the chassis and priming ready to weld in the new pan halves etc
He was the one who also polished and detailed my wheels.






So its exciting times!! Alex produces AWESOME cars so Im very happy to have him do this work for me. At the moment its weld up chassis etc, and get it rolling. Then basically massage the doors, decklid & bonnet to get that all fitting nice (I have a real bee in my bonnet about that I like all the gaps to sit nice). Once thats been done we shall see how light my wallet is and take it from there.

Last Thurs I took the shell down to him. Boy was that the longest journey of my LIFE!!! Not trailered anything before and EVERY noise and bang as far as I was concerned meant the trailer had come free!! HAHAHA! But after one stop just to check all was ok and 2 hours later we made it down.





Here it is all tucked up at Alex's



So hopefully over the next month or so I should be able to post some fun updates! I have a feeling its all gonna come together quite quickly Fingers crossed

Oh btw If Im rambling on too much or not doing this right do let me know. Ive never started a thread like this before.

Cheers,

J

[JSL]

Oh a few other pics too..

Gearbox mount



Seats



Wings & lights



Rev counter



Borrowed some centerlines (Cheers Max )



I promise thats it for a while now 

J

[Black Sheep]

Like the look of it so far  do you have a spare pair of early doors ?

[JSL]

Hey!

Cheers 49-Rag

Eventually I will.... or were you being sarcastic? Hehe

Thanks for being the first person to post!

J

[jamiep_jamiep]

Hey JSL, I remember a little picture of your car (with Steve's) in Volksworld a couple of years back.... its awesome!

How is Steve? He seems to have dropped off the radar a bit - I tried getting in touch with him a couple of months back but couldn't get hold of him?

Look forward to more updates on this, from what I've seen of Defcon3's work you're not gonna be disappointed!

[Black Sheep]

No seriuosly , my doors on the 49 are a bit of a bad fit and I want some fresh doors to play with for when I strip it down over the winter .
Like how youve gone about your car , start with a clean shell then go shopping for the bits 
Wish I'd had a clean shell to start with  maybee next time 

[alfie the monster]

It's in safe hands with Alex at Defcon3 

[JSL]

Hey JSL, I remember a little picture of your car (with Steve's) in Volksworld a couple of years back.... its awesome!

How is Steve? He seems to have dropped off the radar a bit - I tried getting in touch with him a couple of months back but couldn't get hold of him?

Look forward to more updates on this, from what I've seen of Defcon3's work you're not gonna be disappointed!

Hey Kaferboy,

Cheers dude! Yeah that was our cars in Volksworld hehehe seems like decades ago now. Steves still about but concentrating on other things like work. Drop me a PM and Ill give you his email address if you want? Are you local then? Love what your up to with your 54 too! Surely its time for an update? ;-) Im building a little 1200cc turbo motor at the moe for my 56 ragtop. Will see if it goes pop or not! Hehe

Cheers Dude!

J

[JSL]

No seriuosly , my doors on the 49 are a bit of a bad fit and I want some fresh doors to play with for when I strip it down over the winter .
Like how youve gone about your car , start with a clean shell then go shopping for the bits 
Wish I'd had a clean shell to start with  maybee next time 

Yeah no worries dude! Once Alex has done his thang and sorted my doors you can see if the others are any good for you 

Yeah in one way its a cool to start with a clean shell, but its probably not the cheapest way to do it. Ive been very tempted to buy a donor car for all the bits. But being like like I am I would be able to scrap what was left of the donor car! Would hurt too much! So it would end up just being ANOTHER project! Haha

Whats the latest with yours? 49 Rag is AWESOME! Saw a thread on it a while back but cant find it now.

Cheers for the post! :-)

J

[JSL]

It's in safe hands with Alex at Defcon3 

Cheers dude!

Ive been patient and waiting my turn! And know it will be worth the wait! ;-) EXCITING TIMES!!!!

Lets just hope it doenst come off the trailer on the way home!  Hehe

Cheers,

J

[Black Sheep]

No seriuosly , my doors on the 49 are a bit of a bad fit and I want some fresh doors to play with for when I strip it down over the winter .
Like how youve gone about your car , start with a clean shell then go shopping for the bits 
Wish I'd had a clean shell to start with  maybee next time 

Yeah no worries dude! Once Alex has done his thang and sorted my doors you can see if the others are any good for you 

Yeah in one way its a cool to start with a clean shell, but its probably not the cheapest way to do it. Ive been very tempted to buy a donor car for all the bits. But being like like I am I would be able to scrap what was left of the donor car! Would hurt too much! So it would end up just being ANOTHER project! Haha

Whats the latest with yours? 49 Rag is AWESOME! Saw a thread on it a while back but cant find it now.

Cheers for the post! :-)

J

Cool will see what Alex has left , will see him tommorow as we are due to cruise up to Beach Bugin together if the weather holds out.
As for an update on my car , not wishing to poach your thread 
Upped the engine size from 2007 to 2165 over the winter , approx 30 more horse's 
Stuck in some high back Beard seats in with matching cards , yet to get the back seat sorted .
Won a set of split carpets out at EBI for 25 euro's 
Diched the porker 5 speed , and Im currantly up to my elbows in gearbox grime fitting in a built Cogbox 

But this is your thread car is lookin sweet , will see if I can get a sneaky look out at the Farm 

[JSL]

Ah yes Beach Buggin! I wanted to go to that! But its Tish's (Steve's Bro's) house warming party today so Im off to Bristol for the weekend 

Yeah saw your old box for sale, SO wanted it for my other car but needed to stick to my plan! Would love to see yours at some point! Say Hi to Alex and maybe I will see you down 'the farm' (I like that) sometime?

Update your thread! I wanna see!!!  Or post on here Im not bothered 

Have a good one dude!

J

[louisb]

Looking like a sweet project. Should be a cool ride when its done.

--louis

[71CALRIPPER]

After checking it all over the shell was perfect! Never been welded or repaired! Nice!

Next to come was a rolling chassis. Thanks to Rodry (At the time from Twickenham Aircoolers, dont know if he still is) we did a little deal and he towed me a chassis home from one of the shows. Chassis was very solid and wide 5! Sweet! The car sat like that for a while. But thanks to friends Steve Inglis & his bro Tish we all got the bug real bad and started work stripping and building our cars. His is a 64? (Sorry if Im wrong Steve) Ausi import and VolksWorld cover car! Lucky GIT!!!! Haha. After many many dirty evenings and weekends we stripped all the gunk off the chassis & components an bare metaled both cars and laid on some paint thanks to Angus. Steves is the bug in the for ground.



And some more shots of the bugs on my front lawn! I love this shot!! 

Haha Rhod is alive and still a member of the Twickenham Aircoolers as am I , he has a 52 crotch cooler now and a black 412 estate.
Where in the world are ya dude we have an esher meet first tuesday of the month. Be good to chat

Nice are dude
Rob

[Turbo_Rich]

Hey James, cool thread. I did one of these on another forum ages ago when i pulled my bug apart for paint. They are a great way of looking back and realising how much work/sweat/tears/pain/money we put into these projects. Looks like you have got all the important stuff, keep us posted as work begins down at Defcom3 

[JSL]

Hey 49 RAG

Did you see Alex at the weekend? Did you did you? Was my car lurking anywhere? Was it was it? 

Hope Beach Buggin was good!

------------------------------------------------------

Cheers Louisb, I really hope it turns out nice! 

------------------------------------------------------

Hey 54Caldub (Rob)

Im near Woking (WestByfleet) I hear there are quite a few people around here with sweet aircooled rides but I'll be buggered if Ive seen them! Must be hiding Hehehe But then I dont use mine that much either so I suppose Im just as bad Haha

------------------------------------------------------

Hi Turbo_Rich

Thanks for the encouragement dude! Yup! I will definitely be posting pics as it evolves. Ive already forgotten about most of the sweat and tears thats gone into this which is actually kinda nice!



Thanks once again everyone! There are some absolutely AWESOME builds in this forum and I think everyone will agree that these little posts from people really help spur you on! 

Cheers,

J

[Black Sheep]

Hi J , saw Alex but didn't get a chance to talk  busy guy's 
Got me new box in , what a blast , should have got a built box years ago 
Gonna try and find time to shoot up to the farm this week for a sneek peek 
Give you my verdict later 

[deanosvws]

hello james havnt seen those pics for a while. time definitly flies, will be good to see it going in the near future. nice to see the empi 5s have aged nicely never got round to putting them on anything before dave had them off me many moons ago. cheers dean.

[JSL]

Hi J , saw Alex but didn't get a chance to talk  busy guy's 
Got me new box in , what a blast , should have got a built box years ago 
Gonna try and find time to shoot up to the farm this week for a sneek peek 
Give you my verdict later 

Morning! 

What box have you go now? Is it still IRS & 5 speed? Or Swing axle 4 speed?

If Alex has started work and you have a camera handy.....    Hehe

Cheers dude

J

[JSL]

hello james havnt seen those pics for a while. time definitly flies, will be good to see it going in the near future. nice to see the empi 5s have aged nicely never got round to putting them on anything before dave had them off me many moons ago. cheers dean.

Hey Dean!

Hahaha! Were they yours before Dave? Awesome! Love hearing stuff like that! Dave just told me that the engine Im rebuilding had also been round the houses too! Such a small world.

Hope things are cool with you dude!

Hopefully see ya soon! 

J

[Black Sheep]

Hi J , saw Alex but didn't get a chance to talk  busy guy's 
Got me new box in , what a blast , should have got a built box years ago 
Gonna try and find time to shoot up to the farm this week for a sneek peek 
Give you my verdict later 

Morning! 

What box have you go now? Is it still IRS & 5 speed? Or Swing axle 4 speed?

Still I.R.S. but have now slipped in a rather nice Pete @ Cogbox special 
Will arm myself with a camara 
If Alex has started work and you have a camera handy.....    Hehe

Cheers dude

J

[kev d]

Good to see your back in the groove with the oval
Out this year or maybe next spring?
Cheers,
Kev