The Cal-look Lounge

Some pics of Sam's 63 cal-looker, was becoming a little "crusty" so we restored it last weekend
First pic is from last weeks Bugtour...

more pics on http://dragvws.skynetblogs.be

(http://blogsimages.skynet.be/images_v2/000/020/172/20070520/dyn007_original_710_533_jpeg_20172_d2a7173c144a9b63885caf60d12af7df.jpg)
(http://blogsimages.skynet.be/images_v2/000/020/172/20070520/dyn007_original_710_533_jpeg_20172_c41ae9b4c4a09e32749818cc1ead5805.jpg)
(http://blogsimages.skynet.be/images_v2/000/020/172/20070520/dyn007_original_710_533_jpeg_20172_22dec921b803d272d58029830a99e2d6.jpg)
(http://blogsimages.skynet.be/images_v2/000/020/172/20070520/dyn007_original_710_533_jpeg_20172_eeab2f688a436dae77b5fd5212018035.jpg)

i've seen quite a few pics of that car and it's just so cool!!
too bad it got crusty, but that looks like top notch work and in one weekend  :o

i wish my guy would work on my ride that hard  ;) ::)

Well, the car looks like this for the moment.
I worked my ass off to get it to the bug-in, but there was just too little time. Started her up thursday night at 1 am (the neighbours loved it), worked some more on friday evening, and I even loaded all my gear, and left for ebi, but after 5km's decided to head back home. I couldn't get the malpassi pressure regulator to work with the holley blue pump, and every time I shut the engine off, the carb started flooding. I didn't feel confident enough to drive it 300 km's right away without testing.
I mounted the turbo system on a worn out stock 1600, because I didn't have all the parts for the 1915 yet. Boost comes up at 4500 rpm, and that's about all I can get out of it. ;D Drives decent now, though. It wil be better when the 1915 gets in.
Yeah, I lost the trim, got a black ragtop, and I polished the paint a little. There's more to come.
(http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/1500/img0833xs8.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
Shot with Canon PowerShot A530 (http://profile.imageshack.us/camerabuy.php?model=Canon+PowerShot+A530&make=Canon) at 2007-07-11

(http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/562/img0835fq6.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
Shot with Canon PowerShot A530 (http://profile.imageshack.us/camerabuy.php?model=Canon+PowerShot+A530&make=Canon) at 2007-07-11

Sam,

you forgot to mention that the turbo system is 100% home-made, from exhaust to intakes...

Looks hard!

the car rocks! ;D

It's been a long time since I posted in here, but I have made some progress. I took out the 1600 old test-engine, and assembled the 1915.
Last weekend I finally drove the car with the engine I intended to build about 3 years ago, so I'm a very happy man!  :)
I still have lots of tuning to do, but so far it feels and sounds promising.

Assembly:

more:

While the engine was out I cleaned up the engine bay a bit; a welcome change  :)
Before and after shot:

I installed a rollcage, and made this brace to stiffen the rear of the car.

Engine done:

Putting it in the car:

Late night start-ups rule!  ;)

hard as nails!!!!!

love it!  more pictures and stories plz  ;D  Are you gonna run it @ the bugtour?

I like this car a lot ;D

Love It.

oo thats a bit naughty !!  :o

hope to see you in ninove sam!

I hope so too!  ;)

Thanks for the kind words, guys.
Right now I'm still struggling to make it run better. Strange, with the 1600 I could basically trow a carb on it and it would be fine, now it's a different game. Much, much louder, too. And a whole lot faster.  ;D
Yes I plan to drive it on the bugtour, but first I'll have to see how 'streetable' it is.
What's bothering me most is that my car will no longer be tollerated by the cops.  :-\ That, and no longer beeing able to drive it in the rain. I may have to put a muffler on it and build some kind of decklid, we'll see.

Some older pics when I made the header and manifolds:
The header was made of an old baya exhaust, cut up and puzzled together. I used to be very cheap/silly at the time ;D, spent hours on scrapyards looking for some parts and the right size tubing.
Turbo comes off an old chrysler 2.3, carb off an old alfa, carb manifold was made from a flagpole. All very high-tech stuff.  ;D.

one more

i love those turbo engines great car but i really wonder how you gonna talk yourself out off it
when the cops come behind you at a traffic light
i hope they like as much as i do and let you go ;)

hey sam,

I just found this on some strange belgian website.

http://s51.photobucket.com/albums/f352/sarah356/?action=view&current=024.flv

hope to see ya sunday

Philip

 :D Haha, nice find!
I will see you on sunday, but I will probably be driving my notch.  :-\

ah, bummer.  I realy wanted to see the car in real life...  ah well, next time...

Dem

Some more small stuff I did to the car:

I made some brackets to mount the 90/10 shocks:
(http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/5507/img1437qu4.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
(http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/5507/img1437qu4.8cbd75f90c.jpg) (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=144&i=img1437qu4.jpg)

Installed oil cooler (bad pic):
(http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/9472/img1446ie6.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)

I found this aluminium box at an army stock:
(http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/5392/img1591dz4.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
(http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/5392/img1591dz4.8994918fa0.jpg) (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=142&i=img1591dz4.jpg)
 
and managed to turn it into this:
(http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/8937/img1592bf5.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
(http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/8937/img1592bf5.5b8c07b98b.jpg) (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=241&i=img1592bf5.jpg)

on the car:
(http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/1976/img1615wv3.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
(http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/1976/img1615wv3.4cd9e0fda5.jpg) (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=142&i=img1615wv3.jpg)

And I found myself doing this last weekend:
(http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/5325/img1590oj2.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
(http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/5325/img1590oj2.ae88994e0f.jpg) (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=241&i=img1590oj2.jpg)

 :-\

Hi Sam,

now you can take your breakfast along in a nice shiny box...
Nice thinkin. Why didn't think anyone of this before?
 ;)

Greetz

Wimme

hey sam -- you gonna race it at bug in?

If I'm not racing this year I might just push it off a cliff!

Pray for my soul and may the turbo gods be kind to me....

 :-\

What happened?

here is the finished ,, New, Turbomotor ,, which belongs to Big D of ,, LUFTKRAFT ,,

Big D owns this bug for more then 20 years. He was one of the first ,, Cal -Lookers ,, in switzerland.

Just minor changes were done since then........the engine & the wheels are new.

Wish him luck and many wins on the strip.........

greetz TOM

When it warmed up, it started puffing smoke and fouling the plugs... junkyard turbo: lesson learned. At least I hope that's the problem.
So I rebuilt the turbo, put a better breather box on the engine, and now I'm still waiting for a smaller oil feed line for the turbo so I can start it up again. I hope my problems will be solved now.  :-\


Very clean setup, Tom. Any specs on that engine? Will he come to EBI?

Sam P......

Thanx for the flowers. Yes it looks and works very well. For the specs i have to ask Big D first. Because its brand new...he didnt tell us to much about it.......he wants to test it first and if he is ok with everything we will have the details soon

He will not go to EBI because he has a appointment with the MFK ( motor vehicle controll / tech check ) at the same time and he wont risk a engine damage at the races a day befor he gets the tech check papers for street legal use the turbobug

The last update was a loooong time ago, so here are some pics of more stuff I did to the car.

Although I liked the look of the previous exhaust, I needed something slightly more discreet and quiet for the street, so I started building a muffler system.

(http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/3278/dsc00411f.jpg) (http://img25.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00411f.jpg)

(http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/461/dsc00412e.jpg) (http://img25.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00412e.jpg)

tacked together:
(http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/8832/dsc00425xzh.jpg) (http://img25.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00425xzh.jpg)

Done:
(http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/3729/dsc00428e.jpg) (http://img25.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00428e.jpg)

Next thing: getting a decklid on there...
My old one was pretty rusty, so I didn't mind cutting some holes in it.

(http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/3084/dsc00501v.jpg) (http://img25.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00501v.jpg)

(http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/1618/dsc00457a.jpg) (http://img25.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00457a.jpg)

Then I closed up the big holes, and drilled some smaller ones in it.  ;D

(http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/1107/dsc00578o.jpg) (http://img25.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00578o.jpg)

(http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/9871/dsc00581evv.jpg) (http://img25.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00581evv.jpg)

I still need to close the hole for the carburetor. Not an easy task, I've spent more time staring at this decklid than actually working on it. I'm doing my best not to make it look too ugly.  ;D

(http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/9165/dsc00571sfb.jpg) (http://img25.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00571sfb.jpg)

Crafty :)

That is amazing! Great fab work.   ;D

Great lookin' car,love the mods.Saw it @ freddyfiles.  8)

Look pretty cool !!  ;D

The coolest thing is, it is really all handmade by Sam himself, complete header of the turbo, rebuilt turbo, all piping decklid ... really all of it.

Everytime I see it I long for a turbo, even though Sam curses the day he installed his  ;D

Aww, don't make me blush... :D
True, this thing is a pain in the ass, but I think I'm not the only one to admit that turbo projects can get out of hand very easily... That softens the blow somewhat...

Last summer, EBI2 tech inspection waiting line:

(http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4125/dyn008original845634jpe.jpg) (http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dyn008original845634jpe.jpg)

The super shitbox was the car that sparked my interest in vw's, so I'm really fond of this pic. Thanks Charlie48ida for this great shot!!!

I've always loved that car!
What problems are you having with the turbo?

Well, the biggest problem is that I'm never really finnished with it. I keep changing stuff, and instead of driving the car -like I did a lot in it's pre-turbo days- it's always in the garage being worked on (or actually more "waiting to be worked on")...

 ;)

Very nice Fabian!  ;D
Do you use a special filter on your camera? You made my car sparkle in the sun! Or is that photoshop?

thx sam
 i rework the picture a little

Awesome car (and turbo-work)  8)

cu at the bugtour!

gr
Wout

Bugtour?

No bugtour this year ?  :-\

Ha i like this car, kinda makes me want a turbo...

Thanks! And since you brought this topic back up, a small update:
I made this:

Boyscout water injection  ;)

Hey Sam,help me out,but why that water injection,what is the job for that?
And how does it work?

 well, (what i think of it) water expands when being heated, thus creating a higher compression ratio in the heads and I even think it cools the gasmixture and makes sure that there is no selfdetonation ( or less fast due to the cooler mixture)
how it works, i assume that the chargepressure of the turbo puts the boyscout bottle under pressure and the water exits through a smaller tube into the carb/collector where it gets sucked in by the venturieffect.the boostpressure makes sure that the amount of water is even with the boost.

Please correct me when i'm wrong, i'd like to know too.

grtz

Philip

That's pretty much it, Donder. The water injection is mainly used to prevent detonation; as the water turns into vapor, it absorbs heat in the combustion chamber, allowing me to pump more boost into the engine without hurting it. I don't know if it really rises compression in the chamber? The main purpose is cooling. It's the nostalgia way of intercooling. ;)

System works as Donder described, the more boost, the more water it sprays. I also put a valve after the bottle so it only starts spraying above a certain pressure (I can adjust the spring pressure of the valve with shims) And i can change the size of the nozzle in the velocity stack.
I like this system because it's so simple and natural, it just uses the pressure of the engine to work. Plus it's cheap. (Instead of other ways with electrical pressure switches and pumps...)

Sam, that's some sweet work on the deck lid......I ran into the same problem a while back, I just mixed up some glass and had a run with it
(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/212327.jpg)
(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/228845.jpg)

Looks like a setup from lowbugget.com !? Am i right ? Does it work.... ;-)
Greets , Carsten

Thx guys,for the info about the "water injection".  ;)