The Cal-look Lounge

after a 69 bay, three 67s und a 72 i now want to do a car for myself (i promise)
my 61 panel project is on halt due to money and skill shortage (man, its expensive to restore a bus), i turned to the 63 shell i have on the rotisserie. this is how i got it:
(fairly) cheap, no doors/hoods/fenders included, besically just a lot of rust with a dented roof. but its the year of my birth, so i will give it a go

i parted out a 59 that was too far gone, but the rest of the missing sheet metal was there, along with all the hardware to assemble a complete car.
the sunroof comes from this car, a metal only localy manufactured baja, that used a lot of Kübel parts (notice the Notek wartime drivinglight)

on saturday i will hop into the car with Mexx and get a 69 IRS pan from Oliver in upper Austria, this will be the foundation of the project.
i have lots of parts for this, it will use all the good parts i saved when i sold my oval ragtop:
993 front brakes with drop spindles and aluminium Brembo calippers
944 rears with 944 adjustable springplates
901 trans that Mexx regeared for me
engine will be a WBX 2.1 that is later going into the panel, but it will have to do until the 84x97 nickie motor ist done
paint will be arctic L363 with dark blue ragtop and light grey interior (i think)
i have 5.5/6 hearts i have redone and a set of early porsche steelies to make it a roller, but i wont tell the final wheelchoice yet...

the body is really bad, lots of "repairs". i braced it before taking out the heaterchanels. right side chanel could be taken out by hand  ;D

Good stuff. Subscribed.

thanx Lyndon!
looks like this now. about every replacement metal will be necessairy. why do i do this? i just have a soft spot for cars no one else would rescue  :P  and to be honest: most of the stuff you get nowadays is pretty rusted through in this neck of the woods. why pay a lot of money for a car that looks better, but basically needs the same work to do it right
the best part is the front clip, it has been hit, but not too serously. i may be able to save it

Good project, looking forward to it developing. That nose does seem saveable - just gentle tapping, bit by bit.

Thanx Neil for chiming in. There was actually a crease (the rusted vertical line) i was able to straighten out. Just having a glass of wine and loking at it now   ;D

It's because all beetles have a heart just like Herbie 😂

since the rear bodymount on the drivers side had been removed with a cutoff wheel, i had to adress this wheelwell first to get a good solid mounting of the body on the rotisserie. i constructed two removable arms to the more forward positioned mountingholes in the body

then i cut out the rusty part

and welded in the repairpanel

some more sheetmetal came in. these are the better quality heater chanels, no seam on the bottom and no blind stamping of the later heateroutlet in the middle. they are empty though, no heater ducting inside, just a little bend under the vertical pipe. i think splits also had no heater ducting stock. since this will be no winter car i can live with that. when the heater is on it will dry out all of the moisture in the chanel,so this has a small benefit

the pan is here, a 69 irs from an automatic, rust free
i think i will have it sandblasted, but first i have to make a few adjustments: clutch tube and oil lines for a front oilcooler, as well as modify it to accept the porsche shifter and 901 fivespeed. some notches for the 944 adjustable trailingarms, remove the stock jackpoints (i hate these :P)

  Great project i will follow your progress !!!

   Frenchy

Pan looks like a good basis. I always chop the jacking points off too - they're just water traps. Are you sticking with the balljoint framehead or changing for linkpin? I remember being told years ago that the linkpin/IRS combination is the best handling one.

Great project, keep us updated about the work. I like that Baja too  ;D You certainly can get money for your project by selling these Kubel parts for a good price.

thanx for the interrest, guys!
i will keep the balljoint front beam, my dropped spindle/porsche brake combo fits it. sadly the rest of the "baja" was not mine, so no selling of parts....

passenger side wheelwell is repaired, both rear bodymounts are now functional

i was now able to take out the driversside heaterchanel

i cut off the stock jackpoints next and mounted the new heaterchanels to the pan with all screws. i did not tighten them all the way to be able to make minor adjustments.
after mounting the front beam to get the locating points of the body i will lower the body on the pan next

beam is mounted

using my electric winch i lowered the body onto the pan. this simplyfies this action a lot for a one-man-show like me

i will have to shorten the rear bodymounts, since it turned out that the 63 has these protruding further down. the 69 IRS pan has the later style, so there is 5cm to cut off. i was aware of this early body/late pan problem, but didnt know when the pans got the higher mounting points

shortened, the body now sits on the pan how it should

there is not much left where i can weld the body to the heaterchanels, but it will be enough: front firewall, a-pillar, b-pillar and the inner sidewall

before any welding can be done the doorgaps have to be checked, even with a brace. this is used to manipulate the a-pillar to the correct position

after some fiddling i ended up with acceptable doorgaps. heaterchanels are welded now.
the screw-plate of the a-pillar is very weak, missing its inner part of the pillar and the outer skin in the wheelwell, this will have to be adressed next

the a-pillars are now done from the inside

some more wok done to the left side heaterchanel/sidewall

more

and closed up

Nice progress, you are going fast! :)

WILDMAN!  ;D

thanx guys for checking in!
some more work done to the front wheelwell/a-pilar

as well as some of the fender attachment points front and back that were beyond further repairs

left side endpiece was toast and had an universal bumpermount-repairpiece crudely welded over the rust, so

inner support was removed too and the new piece clamped on and adjusted, then tacked in place. after a final check it was welded permanently

checking the fit

right side: same story

using a fender i made sure the gaps are ok and finishwelded

endpiece finished, the apron will stay removable

front wheel arch/a-pillar

welded

Good work!
Please keep the updates coming  :)

It's going well! Aren't those lower front quarter repair panels horrible pressings though! I wish you could buy a decent one with the correct shape at the bottom of the wing line, it would save loads of time having to make little closing plates!

awesome project!
will be an really nice racer with that chassis and engine ;D


will you weld those triangles in the engine bay in again?

maybe try to increase the current of your welding machine and decrease the adding material. (mehr strom, weinger vorschub)

thanx for all of the positive criticism.
i would like to have a better pressing for the quaterpanels too, but i used these so often that i dont even bother anymore :P
my welder is one of the absolute cheapo units, its hard to get a good setting (at least for me, maybe thats the problem). the current i use is ok, its doesnt blow holes and has a nice penetration, the speed of the wire is the problem. taking this into account you may have looked at the first pics in this thread, the welds were frankenstein, you are right. i played with the settings forever and couldn get it to perform as in the past. then i fortunately ran out of gas. the old gas i had was from a bottle that mexx used for his wig, pure argon, the new gas i got was a blend of argon/CO and it felt like i had bought a new welder (which i was thinking about).

have been busy and finshed the engine bay and started on the lower front firewall. after a close look at the front apront i wont be able to save it, its just too crusty, so i ordered a replacement from csp

while i wait on the apron i finished all of the rust holes. the ragtop is next.
this is a coplete clip with some rust damadge, but nothing too serious. the mechnical parts are from another assembly and are in very good condition. i have grafted in two ragtops before, but this time i wanted to use all of the inside stock bracing to be able to use a non-modified stock headliner.  first i determined where to cut and then removed all the inner sheet metal

leftovers

the car is ideal for a ragtop conversion since it has roof damage

using a cutoff wheel and sheetmetal shears i removed the necessairy metal after drilling out the spotwelds around the windshield

careful fitting is in order :o

Nice work :)

thanx lee!
i couldnt work on the car on the weekend, but yesterday night i managed to weld in the side stiffeners of the ragtop

opening is now flanged

i took extreme care to get a good fit around the windshield/front roof

tacked in place at the front

i then pulled it back via clamps to get at good fit to the flange on the sides and back of the roof frame

and tacked in place. sorry for some bad pics  :P

Very cool!

Hi Dave!
not much to show, but a lot of time consuming work: scraping off the undercoating under the tank and beneath the parcel tray. i have an appointment with the sandblaster today.
also started on the rear lid, first was to repair rust on the bottom

off to the blaster, hope to get it friday

some more work to the engine lid. louvers are from a 1302 hood. not easy to weld in since the curvature and position differs to early model hoods

body was blasted, but there was a little mishap with the primer  :P
anyway, i have a lot of work to do on the pan
started by mounting the 901 fivespeed: cutting off the stock nosemount from the pan, cutting a window for the shiftrod and finding out a way to mount the rear of the trans to the aluminum mount

Nice project again Karl , looking good

thanx!
modifications to the tunnel for the 5speedshifter (porsche 911 with shortshiftkit) are next: cutout opened and widened at the top

some 2.5mm sheet for the base. oillines and 8mm fuellines are next before i weld it in. i will use the front cooler setup from an earlier project

clutch tube is welded in

oil lines are prepared (but will be mounted after blasting), as well as two new 8mm fuel lines

at the rear, right the cutout for the 901 shiftrod

Great work Karl.

Have you used oil lines through the spine before?
Does it heat up the interior much when you are on a long run or in the summer?

Thanks
Marc

i have used oillines in the tunnel before (a lot of people i know did it too) with no adverse effects. keep in mind i am not living in a a very hot climate.
one may try to keep the inspection cover on the framehead open and remove the rubber grommet around the shiftrod so there is air moved through the tunnel. maybe with a hose that takes air through the passenger side horngrill. just a thought...

notches for the adjustable 944 springplates. i modified my plates with welding the front bolt to the inner springplate-part, so i only need the rear notch to be able to turn the adjuster

all undercoating scraped off  :P

Dropped the Pan off and took the body home. Epoxycoated

closed a zillion pinholes on the body and some perforated metal on the bottom of the doors

Nice work, wish it had been that easy to paint under my pan....

Looking great!

thanx Andrew and Lyndon
i closed all the holes after sandblasting, so the metal parts i have are ready for bondo work. the front hood and right front fender are still at the blaster (along with the pan). got a really nice stock front left fender from a friend and i am on the hunt for a right rear one.
since i dont feel like covering up the garage due to the dust involved by sanding everything just now, i will do the pan next. in a couple of days she should be ready, black epoxy and all. so i started on finding and painting the rest fo the chassis parts black

Getting it done quick mate, flying through it. Keep up the with the updates.

pan is back. some pinholes too >:(, but hey - i have seen worse

a stupid cold stopped me dead in the tracks, but now a im back at it. oil and fuel lines installed

944 adjustable springplates are in

...and the narrowed trailingarm with the 944 brake disc

i modified an old 5x130 spacer to accomodate the torquemeister

with the calipers on

looking good!  :o :D

thanx Stevo!
new cunifer brakelines

in front

fuel pump mount (left)

mounted my trusty Bilsteins (i had these on a couple of cars). also got some red Konis for the rear, but they seem to be a little bit short

and the CSP bar with the 901 in

Great progress Karl.

Looks great Karl.

One suggestion:
If you're going to this much trouble then definitely swap out the rubber flexible brake lines for braided steel ones.
The feel on the pedal will be WAY better.

Cheers

thanx guys. thinking about the brake lines, we will see

porsche steelies for making it a roller (if i finally managed to press in the new balljoints for the front beam)

still more babysteps, front beam is in

finally  managed the new balljoints
brakes are 993 Brembo aluminum calipers

some work on the house stopped me dead in my tracks, so i didnt have the time to work on the car >:( on top of that i will get a knee replacement in a couple of weeks  :-\ so that doesnt help either...
oh well, lets see if i can get this thing in primer untill the end of july

putty/sand/putty/sand/putty/sand/repeat and lotsa honey-dos inbetween

I know both of those well! Honey-dos done in advance gain brownie points though...

thats right, but i would never make it to the garage.... ;D

after weeks of recovering i finally have some progress. one more epoxycoat before the highbuild primer

 ;D

Good stuff Karl 👍

Great project
I follow u now hahaha ;D

got the body yesterday! paint looks nice 8)

 ;D

 ;D

That does look nice  8)
Great work!

Yannick

Sweet! I am supposed to get mine in January....

Larry

Looking great!!

thanx guys!
burning midnight oil....

then disaster struck....

Whats wrong?

Beam hit inner wing?

no........this followed me home  :P (lotus white steelsunroof 67)

Oh my....

Hi Dave, long time no see... ;D

so i rolled the 63 out of the garage and covered it up under the carport  :'(
hitched the 67 to the rotisserie and fired up the welder....

the guy i got the car from has installed new heaterchanels, repairs to go over again, ´couse he started to learn welding on the car me thinks
front apron, spare wheelwell and rear apron have rust, but no holes  :o

new firewall/luggage compartment is in
happy new year everybody...

Looks good Karl 8)  what brand is that firewall? and how was the fit?

cheers Richie

i think its klokkerholm, the fit is good. but its very late model style (mexican beetle) with the hole for the main wiring loom

the guy i got the car from ruined parts of all four pillar insides with his brace  :P
so lotsa work here

some more grinding on little patches and the body is ready for the blaster

since there is lotsa wet snow blown under  the carport i rolled the pan inside where things got a little cramped

There are days when I feel like I have too many projects.  Then I pull up this thread and feel better about myself.
 ;D

glad i could help  ;D

blasted and epoxycoated

got the rest of the parts back from the blaster, sanding in the garage is not fun, wearing a mask all the time....

looking good, man you work fast!

thanx Larry!

body gets paint this week! undersides are allready lotus white

body is in paint  ;D

Nice colour in the sun.  :)

thanx

body is on the pan....

Looking good Karl 8), you work quicker than a lot of people that do it as a business ;)

believe me, sometimes having a deadline takes a lot of fun out of this.... :P
but seeing it come together always IS fun on the other hand

some work on the engine and interior

 :)

Coming together. Looking great.

putting the finishing touches on the 67

i´d rather be working on this one.....

in the last light of day, yesterday.....

Wow. Nice!

thanx Dave. it sold yesterday  ::)

back to the 63 at last
i found a gas steering dampener (not Bilstein, just painted yellow). it feels like a shock, wants to extend all the time. normal steering dampeners dont do that - will it push so hard at the steering that my car wants to go to the right al the time?

I removed it because of that… worthless piece of crap in my opinion...

thanx for the info, eddie

surgery on my left hand went well, but i just have started to be able to use it again for working on the car
headliner and ragtop are in
i started on the seats with modified stock brackets

the seats are now in. they look a little too far tilted back, but they are very comfortable for my 6.5 frame

painted my old bilsteins maisgelb (the original colour)

upon trying to mount the CSP bar, i discovered the holes for monting the shockbolts are too small on the repair sheetmetal  :P
i had to break out the airsaw and cut the painted body  >:( >:( >:( oh well...
but the rest of the installaton went well

Very very nice Project....

sehr schönes Projekt. Grüße aus Kärnten

danke/thanx
wrestlin with the interior. the TMI headliner was sewn the wrong way, the pieces round the sunroofopening didnt fit (i used TMI lots of times and that never happened before)
so i had to tear out the thing again and custom fit it  :P
then i had a long search for the right colour of upholstery material to fit the seats. but i found some and made the doorpanels now

for adjusting the clutch i have the waterboxer case in for the first time.
before motor assembly i have to hone the barrels, flycut the heads and change the guides

coming together and looking good

thanx
started to fit the rear fenders and apron.... when i realized i have painted two right side taillight housings >:(

accordingly i broke out the paintgun at the first sight of a warm day and painted another taillight housing, a custommade gloveboxdoor (with a right hand speaker grille) and the fenderbeadings (tacked to pieces of wood)

playin´around with the stance a little bit

i have started to prep the engine parts for assembly. this motor is actually meant for my split panel van, but i have all the parts and the split is not finished (see samba thread). the nickie engine still has no heads (lack of funds)
wbx case
wbx 76mm crank with h-beams/ 228 flywheel/clutch
stock wbx cam with hydraulic lifters
type 4 94mm barrels modified for use with wbx studpattern/cylinder spacing etc.
new 94mm AA B pistons
limbach aircraft heads (wbx stud pattern) with 38/34 valves
either 40 (or 46) kadrons or 36/40 solexes from a 914 (got both)
exhaust will be a header and custom muffler setup

everybody stay safe and stay home

modified barrel on the left, stock on the right. lots of grinding
trial fit.....

is it worth doing all those modifications..
why not simply building an t1?
i thought wbx mainbearings are not available anymore? ???

first, i have all the parts, most of them were free  ;D
second, for a bus engine i prefer the thick type 4 barrels

haha ok, all right  :D

have a problem locating 9mm Type one lenght 9mm stem 34mm exhaust valves, so i didnt do a lot to the motor
but some more work in the interior: rhd speaker grille grafted into the gloveboxdoor with the speaker mounted

Nice modification.
Is that so you have stereo speakers?

I just used one of these..
https://www.moss-europe.co.uk/retromod-speaker-6-5-3-way-dvc-each-r-65n-230-505.html (https://www.moss-europe.co.uk/retromod-speaker-6-5-3-way-dvc-each-r-65n-230-505.html)

yes, so its stereo, i have tweeters under the headliner left and right

Nice, did not know that fitted..

you have to grind some of the coolingfins down between the barrels, modify the headstudpattern to wbx and grind a recess for the pushrodtubes

Great job !! Love the looks..

Cool mod for the speaker!

What a great idea with the speaker! It's all in the details  8)

Yannick

thanx Yannick
fuel pump and filter mounted and wired, brakes bled, wiring finished, all lights work
in case you wonder the 180° turn of the fuel line on the right worried me, so i put an 8mm spring from the rear brake into the line to avoid a kink (happened before)

Have the same configuration, nice solution, maybe going to steel this from you.

more or less just the motor missing.
buttoned up the shortblock, cylinders and heads to set up rocker geometry.
found out somebody messed up the oil drain plug thread. this is in the block, the wbx case has no drainplate  :P
gotta take the shortblock apart again to helicoil it - dont you love surplus work like this?  >:(

the longblock is assembled and i made a merged 1 1/2" header using an old Ansa header and a merged collector
engine is in to fit the exhaust and tin. very necessary, since the engine is an inch back due to the porsche 5speed
not going to use the 2" muffler in the pic, it fits the 1 3/4" merged header and would have to be modified. so i orderd a 1 3/4" oval muffler from CSP

bitch just doesnt want to get finished  >:(

????

Hi Dave
uh-oh, dont remind me. i had a problem with the hydraulic lifters (waterboxer case - remember), one seems to not want to blow up
so after a lot of fucking around i put and AS cases 1600 in it to be able to drive it at last, since the wbx motor ist for this car anyway
should be done on the weekend

a few pics, now its completed
still on porsche steelys with 175/70 Dunlops, got to get the Fuchs shod with my new Michelins

still dicussing the new motor, but i will get back to my panel first

 ;D

finished at last, first testdrive was pretty nice. before i changed the mastercylinder to a 944 unit

Nice!!
Was it worse to drive after you changed the mastercylinder then?

it worked with the stock one, but due to the axial movement of the discs the pads are pushed back a little and the original mc then had a very long way till it worked

Looks nice!
I have similar issues with the brake needing a lot of pedal stroke.
What brakes do you have on your car?
Does the 944 main cylinder fit without modification? What is the piston diameter?
Best regards Stefan

i habe Brembo 993 front (early two piston aluminum calipers)
944 non turbo rear
you have to close the fifth hole at the bottom with a plug, the rest fits as is if you rebend the brakelines
i dont know the diameter, but its a lot more than the stock mc
i bought this one:
 https://www.ebay.de/itm/324615336287
its heavy, there are aluminuim ones too, but they are more expensive

thanks, I will have a look

Looks fantastic! Well done

Looks great, do you mind sharing who manufactured the front seats?
Thanks

i bought the seats used, they have a little patina...
the guy i bought them from said he got them from china. they look like cobra seats.

just what i was going to ask - they look just right

some more improvemts to the running gear
since i had 1° positive camber in the rear and there was not enough adjustment possible with the 944 springplates i had to cut and reposition the arms

before:

first, to get an even measurement i bolted two steel angle to the lower attachment points of the torsion tubes from the inside, left and right
so i could put a straightedge across the pan that clears the transmount to get the car level

next i took a measurement and determined the initial angle, then i removed the rear brakes and the trailingarms from the car. the snubbermounts have to be cut off first.
then a cut parallel to the axle was made, leaving onle the lowermost part were the twwo trailingarm parts meet intact

i used the floorjack to move the stubaxle up to these degrees, calculating upon lowering the car down its weight would get me the desired camber

i tacked the arm inside the car, then removed it and welded all the way around, followed by the reinstallation of the snubber mounts

after: 1° negative camber

Nice job!!

thanx

Very nice and interesting topic about the IRS arms that you narrowed.
Which tire size you have in the back?
Flat 6 or deep6 Fuchs?

Thank you

the arms are narrowed 25mm per side, the 944 brakes move the wheels out the same 25mm
fuchs are deep 6 with 205/65 michelins

setting up geometry front and rear. i also did a different 2" muffler

new look with Gasburners

Looks great on the Gasburners!

thanx Steve

Looks Great Karl, you put a lot of work into that car and it turned out great.

Larry

thanx Larry
went to Eggenburg yesterday, 600 aircooled VWs, made top 30

 ;D

Congratulations that is great! I bet that was a lot of fun. I have been to Austria a few years ago and it was an amazing trip. We plan to go back again someday.

Larry

Fixed it for you.

unfortunately not, sold my real set years ago…