The Cal-look Lounge

Yet another '66 on the Lounge!

I got it all torn down from Jelle aka LowFastBus.

Actually I traded for a red '68 convertible which in turn I had traded for my trusty 411 variant (I use the term trusty very loosely, the bitch never loved me and I hated her after she broke down and I had to fix her last winter, freezing my fingers on her frigid internals. And still she wouldn't run). I never even saw the convertible from up close, but even without driving it, soon decided it was nothing for me. So during EBI 2 Jelle and I made a deal. He got the Convertible and I got to work on my new '66 in his workshop.

The car was complete and Beige when its previous owner called Jelle to restore the car. It already looked quite good and taken care of, but the guy wanted it perfect. So Jelle starded sourcing a new body.

The guy also wanted it fast, which was not an option so he lost interest and the car stayed at Jelle halfway through its restoration, if you consider completely torn down half way  ;D

I even had a hand in that. When dismantled, Jelle had to get rid of all the old metal. As the complete arse did not fit in the trailer and no grinding discs were to be found, there was nothing left to do but attack the old hulk with an axe. If you know me, you know me likes axing a lot  ;D ::)

please don't say you got rid of the Bulkhead - I really need an original panel  :-[

are you on crack!!  :D :D :D
that shell looks loads better than my 65!!!

or was it really rotten???  :o

Sorry guys, but it seems some nice sheetmetal has gone to the scrapheap  :-[  In my defense I can raise that I didn't own the car at that time (except the bulkhead, I'm afraid that got scrapped under my reign, if only I had known it was yours for the taking Lee). So if any one is on Crack it must be Jelle  :P

The car is now back to its bare chassis again. And I started stripping it even more cleaning it in the process. Only rust on the chassis was surface rust in the battery tray and two holes either side at the jack supports. This rot has been cut out and replaced by new metal and the chassis is now rust free.

I power brushed the center of the chassis and have painted it gloss black with a paintbrush. It looks better on the pictures than in real life. But now is maybe the time to make clear that this will by no means be a show car. It will rather have to be a trusty every day driver, a bit spiced up in the back.

I also made a wishlist to clean up the front next weekend, baljoints and brakelines and such.

I'm having doubts about one thing though. The car will be running on BRM's (fake of course) 5,5 in the back and narrowed to 4,5 in front so the tires (125 or 135) will fit better on the wheels.

Will I run a stock widht beam or will I narrow it sligthly (max 2") so the tires are tucked just a little bit? I can get a cheap puma for stock width or I can narrow my current stock beam and then either make it adjustable or lower it permanently. The permanent (invisible) lowering would surely help in getting the car through inspection wich is a plus.

Any suggestions?

Hi guys, I'm the one that cut up the body, it was not the worst i've seen but still needed lots off repairs.
All the old repairs had been done badly and it needed; channels, bumper hangers, nose,
 quarter panels front and back and the door pillars up front just to the roof.
I now have left the roof and rear valance, bulkhead has gone to the scrapheap some weeks ago  :-[

Jelle

hey tim, i'm lookin' for a frontaxle like your's.
i only need the tubes, no torsion bars of whatsoever,...

If you need my help, let me know,...


see ya

Yesterday I went to Jelle's Hide Out to work some more on the 66. I didn't get a lot done as Jelle was trying to get rid of a large concrete Cube in his workplace. It didn't take long to get me in destruction mode. We went at it with large hammers first, but this really made no sense. And on top I managed to hit out the light armature right above my head, showering me with shards of glass. That got my blood flowing  :'( So Jelle went out to rent a large electrical jackhammer. And in turns we went at it for the next 3 hours, untill the tool decided to die on us. We only got halfway through the Cube, quality construction that is.

While not drilling away, I took of the front end of the car, cleaned up the head of the frame and gave it a lick of paint. Well there is still next week  ::)

Try TNT, it works well  ;D ;D

This is my frame minus the front end.

And in the back is me, trying to decide if I should run a new fuel line through or next to the tunnel. If I want it in the tunnel, now is the time, but how do I get it fixed to the frame so it isn't dancing around in the tunnel? And what do I use, simple copper piping?

I already had 1 original door to my car, badly welded up and some issues on the hinges, and I bought the right side door last month with some welding on the bottom. On both I also had to weld the trim holes and all this with a tight deadline  >:(

But yesterday I picked up two very nice doors for my 66. Actually these are the doors that fit my replacement shell  ::) And as the shell came welded up to go trimless, so do the doors. So all that is left to do on these is to strip them and install one piece windows. How to get a few hours work done in just one  ;D

And I also have a steering wheel on the way, a nice Porsche one with butterfly hornpush. It needs refurbishing and I might need to massage it a bit to make it fit the Bug. But it sure will give my car some allure.

EDIT: oh and last week I cleaned and narrowed my front axle. I'm waiting for the adjusters to lower it and paint it. I know not everyone likes the narrowed look, but what is 6 inches anyway  ;D (Just kidding, I only cut out a small 2"). I hope it will tuck my wheels just enough for the tires not to rub on the fender. I compared to Jelles car which is running 5,5" wheels with 135 tires. These lean to the centre of the rim as the rim is to wide for them. I will be running 4,5" with 135 tires so these will be pretty straight on the wheels. We'll see what it looks like.

Yet another day scrubbing pans  :P Not a fun job, especially with Jelle convincing me to strip the chassis down more and more. I really would like to start to build up, but it makes sense to put the painted chassis against the wall (just need to finish the forks) and start welding the shell.

What I did however, is run a second hard fuel line through the tunnel, making it exit in the right side fork leg, looks like it should have been like this from the factory. This job was so easy, I would recommend it to everyone, just need to finish it of with a spot weld to attach it to the frame. I took a slightly thicker tube, so when I will run that hopped up engine it will get fed enough juice. And I will have the (standard) fuel return line if I ever choose to go Turbo or Injection  ;D

And then we put the shell on a piedestalle. It's a bit worse than hoped for, with some unexpected rot in the left rear bumpersupport and schockmount. But all in all this is a very solid shell.

Yesterday I went to Ninove again to do some more work on the leftside of my 66. I started hacking into the front fenderwell, where I cut out a 30 by 5cm strip at the bottom. I also cleaned up the door frame bottom where I removed the clamps for the tapistry. I will be removing all these fixtures throughout the car as I'm going carpetless. Boy, will I someday regret this  ::) Then I moved further backwards where I removed the remains of the bodymounts and some of the fenderwell not bigger than said bodymounts. All the way at the back I removed the rear apron to make it removable for easy engine installs. Too little work done, too little time before next season  :(

I will be ordering some sheetmetal at GAS this week, so next weekend I can start welding the left side of the car. Then on to the right side, that looks a little worse around the back of the heater channel, but we'll see how it turns out. I have to keep reminding me this will be a driver, not a showcar.

Maybe Jelle can take and post some pictures if he thinks it's worthwile.

Edit: Ow, nearly forgot, CSP adjusters were delivered, so next week I'll finnish the front axle.

here's how it looks now... a mess ;) ;D

Tim did some work this weekend... left side heater channel is solid again

Well, to be honest, I spread the work over two weekends. But only both sundays. You have to take into account I'm a novice in welding sheetmetal. I'm used to welding boats, real manly constructions in real steel, not girlie, less than 1mm tinfoil  ;D

But slowly I'm getting there. I'm not too happy with the front fix (although it isn't all that bad) but the end of the heaterchannel is a nice weld. And I certainly improved on the tripleskinned rear corner, the one just above the heatertubes. We even hammered the pressing back in the upper piece of sheet metal.

I don't know if I'll meet the Ninove deadline, but I'll keep on trying  8)

Today I started on my one-piece window doors.

I bought an Ompi One-Piece window set through my friend at GAS and immediately bought an extra set of bugpack snap-in sashes, hoping for the best. Turned out the snap-in sashes were exactly the same crappy rubbers as the Ompi ones, both straight as I am and with felt sprayed on (wonder how long that will last  ???) only difference being that there are pre-punched holes in the Bug-Packs. Well, be what it is, I'll make them fit.

Luckily they included a work-description in the set  ::) So I set out on demolishing a set of perfect doors (perfect exept someone already welded the trim holes  ;D) The window was out soon enough, had to help a bit with the felt channel and finally out came the quarter window. Then, according to the manual, I was supposed to take the hammer and chissel and bash the shit out of the door to loose the quart. win. support. Perfect path to filler if you ask me, lots of it. So out came the grinder for a bit of sparkles. In theory I then would drill the the extra holes for the sashes, but that is just impossible  >:( How the hell do I get my drill in there  ??? Well I'll fix that later than. I put the regulator channel on the new window and assembled the door just to make sure I would not regret. And lo and behold, it works great  ;D After respray I'll install all rubbers and channels and then I'll have to adjust here and there, but it looks prommissing.

Oh, and remember I had two sets of sashes. Well I already wanted to practice curving them, so I cut up the Ompi's. And even that will work and look rather good. Like everyone says, I have cut in the rubber to be able to curve it a bit. I'll use an excess of glue, but at the front there is no metal enough to glue to. But I bent the metal in the rubber over and now it kind of grabs what little metal there is. Glue again and I think it will work.

When I finalise I'll take some good pics, for now just a cell phone pic to show what I'm up to. Isn't it wonderfull how loosing the quarter windows makes the doors so much sleeker.

If you go up a bit, you can see pictures of a some metal missing in the rear fender well. That gaping hole has now been filled.  ;D

I had cut out as little rusted metal as I could. Luckily, because the sheetmetal (repro) was awfull but I was able to reduce it to a very small piece. And because I drilled the spotwelds of the repro metal, I could hide most of the new welds with the outer panel, which was welded back spotweld style. Another benefit of splitting up the repro piece of shit, was that the innerskin was quite easy to form and weld in (visible from inside if you run without carpetting) as it was far from a perfect fit. But I managed, and from the inside, very little filler will be needed for a nice result. The way the outerskin was welded on is less perfect, imagine a large hamer and lots of cursing to get it to fit slightly. I have some gaps, but nothing that can't be helped by a bit of weld seam paste thing :o It is behind the wheel, so who cares?

The pictures...

Friday, after half a day at work, I went to weld some more in Ninove, home of everything topless.

I finished the two fender-attachment-holes that I had to replace, ground of the spotwelds on the chassismount in the rear fenderwell and finally (almost) finished welding on the left side of my car by cutting and replacing the bumper support. For once the repro part was a perfect fit. Still it took me ages to get it all lined up because it turned out the fender was a repro as well  >:( Piece of shit was 1" too long, I wonder how this ever fit on the assembled car? Finally I took the original fender from Messies car and much to my likings all was well. I had only lost about two hours of messing about  ::) Today, I'll re-install the sidetray I had to cut to fit the bumper support and grind welds some more and hopefully we'll be able to turn the body around to asses the damage/work to be done on the right side  :)

It wouldnt hurt to put some bracing inside the body when you have it hangin on two places. It doesnt take much to get a body out of wack. Ti sure makes fitting the doors easier.

Thanks Hans, but will it flex even when you don't have to do welding to the body itself?

And what would you suggest for bracing? Maybe support the shell on two wooden 2by4's going from support to support, as if it would be on the chassis?

Wow and i got a hard time for building a race car out of a 65 ! That shell should have been saved. Pity.

Anyway like the work should be one hell of a ride good luck.

we all gave these guys a bit of a hard time too so don't worry  :D ;) :)

Tim started on the right rear side and found this "nice" repair... I'll let him tell the rest.

This was actually the only repair I planned on doing  ::) But it is so hard to turn away from a bad spot of rust, hence all the other work done.

I wanted to get this fixed because somewhere when the car was still young someone had already replaced the right bumper mount. What they did was use a blow torch to cut the old crap out (including taking a bite out of the engine side trays) and welding in a new part with a 5 cm overlap. You can barely see the overlap in the pictures Jelle posted. And they did not even close the overlap so rust could easily eat its way out from under there. To make things worse, they used a late models bumpermount  >:(

So out came the cutter. The new repro piece has again been cut as small as possible, but as you can see it is still mighty big. But I did manage to cut out most of the badly formed pressing. I fitted it all up, hope I can weld it in on wednesday, as a new years gift to my '66  :)

When I did my -67 I just used the doorhinge and the door strikingplate,made some plates to fit and weded some bracing between them. I have seen cars that have been on stands for a long time with bad heaterchannels sag and it doesnty take much to make the door fit poorely. The good thing about bracing is that you dont have to worry when you move your supports around.  The best places for support is under the front where the two bolts are for the pan and at the end of the pan in the rear. I once saw a guy cut both heaterchannels at the same time without bracing . When trying to fit the doors he gave upp scrapped the whole car. Keep up the good work and see you at Bug In next year.

Some more work done to the Tim's 66, let him do the explanations...

Thanks Jelle  :)

Triggered by the butchering of Zach and AssHull I was triggerhappy with the grinder. Jelle tried to stop me as the shell had a perfect dash, but as I already had cut out all heating, all channels and clamps for interior, and most of all because I like the clean dash look, I went Mideaval on the metal.

Plan is to relocate the light/wiper switches to the ashtray area (I don't smoke anyway and hate unfunctional things in a car) and close the original holes, I already welded the radiohole, using the original cover for added strength and to prevent warping (I was a bit enthousiastic by that time so the hammer had to help a bit there, nothing a bit of filler can't help). I'll keep the glove compartment, gloves can come in handy with no heating  ;D and mirror that on the left behind the sterring wheel, with some basic gauges in there. I don't know which ones yet, but by changing the panel, I'll always be able to easily change them to another layout. (Thanks Roland) And if I ever need more meters, I have a nice blank canvas where the radio used to be.

I also welded where the jack clamp used to be, some stray holes in the trunk, and the window washer and grab handle holes. I finished by choosing the color of the car  ;)

I'm not sure what I did but no problem dude, with pleasure ;)

Nice work btw!

We're glad to inspire you! Keep up the good work!

Thanks Roland, I was refering to the dash lay-out by the way. Especially with the porsche wheel it will look very much like yours. Great minds do think alike  ;D

Today I did some more cutting and pasting. Everybody can restore a car given time, it takes a moron 50 seconds to cut one up. Jelle could not agree more. I cut out the interior light switches in the door pillars as well as the door stop thingies and welded them all shut, I just have to finnish the lef hand side. I also shut one of the heating duct holes in the back and started clearing the rusted metal in the rear right corner (actually that was the only welding left, if I hadn't started customizing the car  ::)) Finally I decided to cut out the dash around the radio blanking plate, as the warping was just too bad to look at and I managed to grind a hole in the middle that no welder could plug. So back to square one.

the pics

The good news is, it's just metal! You'll get it whipped back into shape ;)

This week I realised that I would have to get in second gear. Ninove Topless meeting will already be impossible, unless I push it to the showgrounds. But I would at least like to have it in paint by the EBI 3. So, if I can not go to the car, the car has to come to me, even if it is in parts.

So I have disassembled my steering wheel that I fought the worldwide Postal services for. I took me some time to find how to open it up without destroying it, but I succeeded. And I have been sanding and then polishing and have to say it will really be a nice wheel. A tad too big, but still.

Here is a pic, dissasembled. Next pic of it will be cleaned and finished.

Some more welding done by Tim this weekend...

One hole less to fix!

I filled the gap where the heating duct enters the right back side (well both the duct itself as the gaping hole next to it). I had to fabricate a nice piece of rounded sheet metal, because there is no repro for pre 67 cars. It looks very good, very original, except that it is missing the small upright pressing.

I have also repaired the dash, although this weekend while grinding the result, I managed to make part of it to thin again. So next week I'll have to do some repair to prevent it from tearing when finally painted.

With all of this done, I have finished almost all of the welding, only the rear right fenderwell needs replacing. And some small holes. And then the fun begins: sanding, aplying filler, sanding again only to be topped by the cherry on the cake, new paint.

One week to go and my original deadline is there: the Ninove Topless meeting. And maybe I'll finish all the welding the day before. It is a good thing I evaluated in time that this was an impossible task to complete the whole car and have changed the deadline to the first weekend of July, just subsribed for the show and shine at EBI, so no turning back now.

To be honest, have a look back at all the welding that has been done and consider I was only going to replace the righthand T-bar support out back. I was going to cover all the other crap with a cloak of love  ::) as it was only going to be a driver, not a show car. I might have reached my initial deadline that way, but winning prizes at the show and shine would have been out of the question then.

slacker



 ;D


nah, make it as good as you want it to be. my car was ready 2 EBI's ago and never has been to the show... yes it sucks, but it aint that bad.

It's amazing how quickly these things get out of hand. Mine is a driver and was only planning on putting together a new motor. Next thing I know, I got plans for new interior and paint...and now the body of the pan.   :-\

It's worth it in the end though.  8)

Ah, springs is here, the blossoms on the trees, singing birds, search chocolate easter eggs tomorrow ... And the welding of the 66 shell has finished  8)  We have taken it out of the workshop yesterday, out into the sun where it will sit under a blanket untill I finish the chassis. To be honest, it still needs some minor welding: the engine trays need to be put in and then Jelle will fix a piece of body he thinks my weldingskills are not up to yet.

So in place of the shell sits now the bare chassis. I painted the rear engine fork nad shockmounts. Next week I start cleaning the gearbox (even has some maggots living on there) and weld the adjusters to the front beam. I want it to be a roller ASAP.

Some pictures to follow if I figure out how to link my new camera to my laptop.

ciao,
Tim

Turns out I didn't take many pictures of my own car. Well maybe next week.

You can see my shell sitting in the left, you can just about see the closed of heater channel and inner rear fender finished. To the right is Jelle's 80's survivor cab, while behind is an old Convertible (63 or 64 I think) The spring is here.

And here is some of the stuff I have collected in the last few months. The MWS berms, 5.5 and (narrowed to) 4.5, the Aronson Style decklid, american sealed beam headlight buckets, a Springalex steering wheel instead of the Big and Burly Porker steering wheel and the EBI shifter from Denmark (still a hard choice between that one and the Berg). I have stashed away some Crow 5 point seatbelts and just not on the pictures two Simca Ralleye seats.

Soon I'll have to start unpacking and mounting to the car, I can't wait  8)

what's up with the vans box?  :D  Do they have a beetle upholstery line out?  ;D

Sorry Guys, no pictures!

But I can explain what happened for those who want to know. I cleaned the outside of the gearbox, painted the axles and now am just waiting for the rhino mounts to show up (though I might change my mind and go for the grey VW silent blocks) and mount the thing.

But a lot of other kit did show up for the party. So I started assembly with the new steel brake lines and dual master cylinder. Ah, and the gear shaft bushing. Very small, but a bitch to install if you dont know how. Now I do, and it is so easy, at least with the body off. Imagine trying to pry that in there with everything mounted and in the way. I also mounted the gear shaft coupler, handbrake and flexible brake lines.

All in all, I didn't do much, but how fun it is to work with all new material and build up knowing all will work well when finished.

The goal of EBI seems feasible again, even though I still have loads to do.

Go with the grey VW silent blocks ;)

And go go EBI!

Almost back on four paws. I mounted the gearbox today, standard 1200 short one, for the standard 1200 I'll drive with this year  :( It will be controlled by a Berg shifter (I found it too hard to unpack the new EBI1 shifter, yet) and is supported by Rhino mounts, what a bitch to get the front one on the chassis. I'll have to fab a special tool if I ever have to do that again.

I also finished the front beam I had narrowed months ago, now it has adjusters as well. A lick of paint, and next week I'll mount it. If I have the castershims by then.

The car is now on two of it's original 66 wheel, the back ones. And 1 more day of work will get it on all fours. Hopefully the set of wheels will be finished and shod by then. Narrowed to 4,5 fake BRM up front with 135/80 Nankang and 5,5 fake BRM with 205/70 Nankang out back. Wheels are blasted with fine sand (thanks for the tip DKK Fred) and I will finish them with black inserts.

Yesterday I finished the narrowed front end (which everybody advises against, but at least I'll be able to brag on how I narrowed it myself) and added all new balljoints and dampers. Cutting and especially notching the leafsprings was challenging as none of my drills felt like cutting the springsteel. Nothing some fine surgery couldn't help.

I also was able to finally tighten up the nuts on the Rhino mount. They are absolutely impossible to tighten with regular wrenches, so I fabricated one myself. I cut, welded and strenghtened my own metric 17 wrench. After testing I had to notch the handle a bit for added swing but now it works like a charm.

Showoff  :P

not only that but a liar as well.

quote: 'that berg shifter would look good in my girlfriends notch'  ::)

 ;D good choice on the berg shifter

will look good. but why not go with a slightly smaller tyre at the back, something like a 185/70 prehaps? or even a 165. would look perfect for a 70's looker IMHO.

keep up the good work. and looks like Jelle has some free time to help you out a bit more as he has time to be on the Lounge.  ;D

I know, I know, I was going to use the berg for the notch and had a new EBI shifter lined up for the 66. But with the EBI things only screenprinted on the shifter, I was a bit afraid it would rub off with a few quick shifts. Plus the EBI shifter is still packed, that will make good money some day in say 20 years  ::)

As for the rubber. I know there is the current trend to go for the more sensible tire size. It seems every other topic is telling us to go an even smaller rear tire size and wider up front. Not before long we will be running the 205/70 - 145/80 combo but switched back to front  ;D

well the 'tyre debate' has been going on lately, that is for sure. but i just don't like the wide tyres on an otherwise nice 70's looker that i think you are building. but if you allready have the tyres, use them. and i have never been a fan off the 135's... but that is just me (and me having a type3). but they can look good on a beetle.
so have fun with the buildup and show some pics.  ;)

Today the shell and chassis were reunited. Be it only for a week, then they will be divorced for a while to be, hopefully united for the next 10 years or so.

I put the chassis on all fours, like I planned to, luckily Jelle helped a bit with the front while I was cleaning the bottom of my shell in the backyard. A dash of white paint on one half of the bottom, next week she will be on her other side for some more white.

It's nice to finally see some result. Still a lot to do, but with a bit of hard work I'll reach Bug-In. Hopefully they'll not quarter me with the ratlook brigade. It does seem a bit like a hoodride right now  :-[

Nice,

If everything follows my plan I should be done for EBI as well, so if you need some help the last two weeks before EBI of a fellow "WW"  8)  just drop me an email,  so we can get this 66 ready as well.
I see you missed some spots on poppie, there's still a shade of black on her.  ;D

Dem

Thanks Dem, I'll keep you to that promise  8) There is still alot to do to get it running before EBI, I'll make sure to be there with the car, but I'll have to be in the back of the VooVah Line Up and I'll probably miss out on that well deserved best of show trophy this year  ;D

Yesterday I went to pick up the Fake Berms, I had them sandblasted after seeing DKK Freds wheels. I'm taping them of now to put the black back on and then they're of the the tire shop for some nice rubber.

gotta put wrinkle satin black on those! I got a couple of spray cans left at my garage if you want..

Well actually I've got a trick up my sleeve (well actually Jelle had  ;)) If it works I'll tell you, if not, well it's only midland wheels  :-\

I finished painting the rims today. And it worked out just fine  8)

You'll see in the pics below how the paint turned out real nice. Well paint, as promised I'd tell when it worked. Tipped by Jelle I used some sort of undercoating rubber guard. It is a bit sticky, but the texturing is just great.

Of course I had to mess up just at the end lifting the last piece of masking tape, where I put a finger in the still wet rubber. But I managed to touch it up, if you don't know, you wont see. But now you know ...

Tomorrow I'm getting the shoes fitted. Hopefully they watch out a bit for the still fragile paint.  :-\

That BRM looks very nice Tim,can you show that undercoating,I mean the name of that product.  :)

Thanks, I'm pretty stoked about them myself.

The product I used is Kent Rubber Guard, the one on the left in the spraycan. Works like a charm. I just hope it cures well and doesn't pick up too much debris and dust.

Thx dude  ;)

Two days of work (actually three if you count Jelle's help today, thanks) and the result is hell on wheels, a real chameleon disguised like a car  ::) It has all colors now, the original beige on the front hood and tail lights, a softer beige on the polyester Day Mouldings Fenders, metalic green for the replacement shell and doors (though the inside is the original Sea Blue) and Grey for the Aronson style decklid. All this in a sauce of primer red, black and white paint and undercoating grey. It looks awful, still cool  8)

Almost everything is mounted, the wire loom has been done, the seats are in and it sits on its new wheels. A wee bit on the high side (though the front axle should be at the lowest, so dropped spindles might make an appearance soon). The egine is in as well, just needs a starter motor and a battery, I hope.

From now on, no foto's untill the big unveiling at EBI. I really want to keep you guys on the edge of your seat.

I thought by now you would all be begging for pictures  :'(

a shame though I forgot my camera at home yesterday, but here are 2 spy pics I took with my phone.

Hi Tim!
Good progress,
If you need some extra hands, just call me :)
Will the chameleon look stay until EBI or not?
Than we can go with two chameleon cars (mine included) :)

Show us some more pics!!! Pleaseeeee :)

Cool Tim,looking forward too see it for real.  ;)

hey T -- i luv the way the decklid is mounted -- duck tape tuning -- see you pretty soon when i'm back on the main land

Okay, I'm also just on the main land... back from gran canaria.  Still haven't heard a thing of the bodyshop, so: no trim, no hood no interior parts: I hope everything sorts out this week or I'm screwed for EBI!

If not, I have to find a bonnet to still make it also in cameleon style.  ;D  maybe we can change WW in CW ?  :D

okay, back on topic: great progress guys!  some serious overtime in Ninoof!

Tim,
I know you took better pics than just that!

Dem, you should pester your bodywork man just until he delivers...  ::)

This is the front of the Kameleon, which has changed again today by the way. I welded the trimholes shut and shaved the hood handle for that clean look.

nice one T! I maybe pass by jelle's this weekend to check it out

thanks for all the supportive talk, now is the time to put the money where your mouth is  :-* If you swing by on saturday, better bring that coverall, because some dirty jobs still need to be done. Install the right door one piece window and finish the other, install the headlights, fiberglass the hinges to the decklid and install, fix the battery mount and last but surely not least, get the engine running. It is a mere 1200, but hey it is going to get me to EBI, or is it?

Oh and Ruffian/Peter the 356 wheels are in the trunk, forgot to drop them of at Jelle's yesterday, but saturday they are ready for pick up.

count me in!  are you guys overthere in the afternoon or can I already enter the workshop in the morning?   8)

And yes indeed it's alive, this awfull abomination of a car. Took it for a short test drive up the street, with Dem in the passenger seat. I hope I haven't scared him to much, braking hard testing the straightness of the car and having all 20 original wheel bolts flying around the empty interior  ;D Ruff/Peter apparently told me about not having them lie around the luggage tray, that they would do exactly that. But in all the exitement I must have ignored him  ;)

Had a bit of fun drifting the car in the gravel as well, it must have had some fun out and about after years of no go. And all that with a measily 1200, just you wait untill I build that moderately big engine  :o

EBI, here we come !!!

just got the painter on the phone and it seems that probably my stuff will be ready, so fingers crossed but I guess I will make it too.

DWS  ;D to EBI for some on the spot wheelz and polishing dealz  ;D

Who made your front hood and rear deck lids?

Rick M

Hello Rick,

The front is metal, but due to all the colours it might not show on the pictures very clearly.

The back one is however glassed by Java of England, paid it cheap at the VoWo show (100 Euro). I'm not as happy of the quality as of of the Day Moulding fenders, but still it is exactly what I wanted and all in all the fit is quite good.

Fantastic!!!

Thanks ! How's that for a first post on a lounge filled with more fantastic cars than mine  ;D

Sad thing is, since EBI, I haven't done with it too much. Haven't worked on it, hell I even haven't driven it for a month. But I do have some stuff to install, which I will next week: seatbelts, Porsche seats, steering wheel, ... No fast engine yet  :-[

So, seat number one is in. A nice 914 seat, I cut and welded a standard beetle seat subframe to my new specs and added some supports to fasten the seat to it. Looks pretty standard and is still adjustable on the rails (back and forth). As I ended up a bit lower than the standard seat, I wanted to be able to slide back a bit further, in order to do so I had to cut of and reweld the rails in a new position, also worked like a charm.

I have test driven it, and if my car already drove like a kart, I have now doubled that experience.

Tomorrow some pictures  8)

Where are the pics dude? :)

Tomorrow is a big day, 2276 CC's big!  ;D

Finally :)

Yesterday I went all the way to Portsmouth England to pick up the new motorisation of my 66 (plus a rhino way to put it on the road). We got greeted by Dez and the engine and box on a palette ready for inspection. Jelle did a fst check of the obvious failures and there were none. So in with the old and out with the cash.

Afterwards Dez took us for a FunkenBlitz visit to the Green Hearts HQ and we had a warm welcome of Pete. A good intermezzo before heading back to the Chunnel. Nice to see you don't need a big polished concrete floored garage to turn out some of the nicest VW. Some wooden slats will do  ;)

When back in Ghent we unloaded the gear into the garage. I can now claim to have the most powerfull garage in my street. But as long as I don't get cracking on it my '66 itself will remain less powerfull than my measilly 1100 Golf.

awesome! i think i need to start collecting money for my 48ida's engine

indeed!  ;)

Good job guys! More power in Belgium, less in the UK! ;D

first enjoy your oldspeed engine, after think about an 48 ida engine  ;D ;D

 ;)

You guys definitely picked the wrong day to come over , we've had naked girls in the workshop all day today  :o

Thanks for reminding me  ::) We did consider to stay overnight but how to explain that at home  ???

Don't be shy to post some spypics in my thread though, I'm not afraid of the exposure!

Haha nice to see the engine being measured up already ;)

Seeing naked girls on finely polished Beetles...Well some of us have to ;)

There will be a calendar out shortly and maybe some preview pics but I'm sure Pete will keep us updated ;D

NICE! and all that behind my back!  >:(

I'll be over for a checkup one of these days though.  ;)

Dezz put the engine money to good use and bought this 58 Bug , that had been started as a project by a friend of ours .

Dezz picked it up last night , and has been down this evening . We gave the sides of the car the flat and polish treatment , as they were a bit ' peely ' , much better .

He's like a dog with two dicks , and i can't blame him , lovely car to start off with :cool:

(http://www.funkenblitz.com/upload/IMG_1893.jpg)

(http://www.funkenblitz.com/upload/IMG_1890.jpg)

(http://www.funkenblitz.com/upload/IMG_1888.jpg)

(http://www.funkenblitz.com/upload/IMG_1886.jpg)

(http://www.funkenblitz.com/upload/IMG_1882.jpg)

And Tim,
is all installed yet?
testdrive? ;D

you guys are going down both.  8)  says the man that never been on the strip before...  ;D

Yeah Dem, i have a heavy ghia now  :P

Well, the holidays are here. Still too lazy to get out of bed and into the garage, so had a go at the wiring shedule of my 2276 Sedan.

I have a few questions, first of all how to wire the fuel gauge sender and the gauge itself? Ground the fuel sender and attacht the other end to the gauge or put positve on the sender unit?

Second is, why not ground both the light as the gauge with the same wires, is that to make absolutely sure there are no false readings due to grounding issues? This is per Autometers instructions (the seperate grounds).

And lastly, the grounding per autometer instructions to the extreme. They say to ground the Tachometer with a wire all the way to the negative clamp of the battery. Could this again be to avoid false readings?

Stop playing and go to work! ;D

just ground them together ;)

never grounded my autometers all the way to the battery, and certainly not all separately.  Did this with my autometers and also with my vdo's (which are by the way, waaaaay cooler then you autometers  ;D ) and never had a single problem with them.

DWS

Isnt it finished yet? :)

How are you doing Tim,
when will you install the engine?
If you need help call me :)

Yesterday the 66 was back on all fours, the short gearbox is in (supported by a midmount), brakes have been mounted and today I even shoved the engine into its bay  :o  Apparently the constant nagging of the Wunderwaffles did have the effect they were looking for.

In the mean time the car is pulling eternal wheelies (using axlestands) as I'm putting dropped spindles on at the front. I didn't reaaly like the harsh ride with the lowered to the max Puma. And apparrently the balljoint rubbers didn't either, they were worn to death after maybe 2000 km at the most. I hope they will be less strained with the dropped spindles used for lowering and the Puma only used to adjust to the perfect height.

Next up is installing new wiring, converting to 12V in the process and then I'll be ready to rumble for one more season.

In the mean time I guess my word might not be worth that much anymore, but this time I will add some pics tomorrow. Because the age old adagio still stands: this thread is worthless without pictures!

Well, here it is, as promised: my new power source

And some outstanding (as in late, not as in good photography) stills of the Porsche 914 seat and its custom/standard frame and the roller gas pedal of which I'm highly positive.

nice tim!
didn't know you had 914 seats too. aren't they a little low now?
i still need to get my frames cut and welded.

They are indeed mighty low, I don't mind, I'm tall enough to pull it off. I actually like the driving position, but can imagine that most people would loathe the way you sit mere inches above the chassis. It is also pretty upright, again something I rather like, though most like to be laid back.

I've seen others adding a small platform on top of the seat frame, however if I were to do it again and if I wanted that higher seating, I'd go the extra effort of doing the exact same as I did now except for cutting the upright bars as well and adding a bit of tubing to get to the required hight.

What I did is cut out the bar through which the backrest pivot point is attached to the original seat and welded it back in, lower in the frame to keep it rigid, yet allowing me to mount the seat right onto the frame. I shaped 2 long pieces of sheetmetal that bolt to the bottom of the seat (standard mounting holes) on the left and right hand side, each not wider than 5cm and 30 to 40 cm long. I welded two supports to each side of the frame to which I could in turn bolt the pieces of sheetmetal, as such attaching the seat to the frame. I also cut the rails off of the bottom of the frame only to weld them back on, moved to the front some cm, so I could slide my seat a bit further back as to accomodate my long legs (really needed when sitting so low). I won't be doing that on the passenger seat though, as the passenger does not need to comfortably reach for the pedals. If I do the passenger seat I'll take a few pictures for the copycats.

All I need to do now is paint the frames, cut the seats so they will let the seatbelts go through the midlle of the headrest and in the long run have them re-upholstered.

lookin' mighty good,

So you can still drive it to the dfl 1/4mile throphy in 2weeks   :)

i'll see you in bitburg and check out your seat height then ;)
i've got the porsche frames too and was thinking of retaining the porsche slider by the way.

Finally some progress, although it doesn't ad up to a driving car  :( Yet!

Out with the old:

[attachment=1]

In with the new:

[attachment=2]

I just ordered all the raw material and wired up my own electrical circuit. Much cheaper and it has all my gauge wires and customizations like turn signals in headlights incorporated in a rather stock fashion.

Oh, and this arrived in the mail today, I'm working now on laying out the dash and creating a template. And getting ready, mentally to ruin my cleaned dash  :o

[attachment=3]

I saw this car for sale a month back or so. decided to keep it?

Well, Yes and No. Long story short, we had 4 cars, my Golf I and 3 garage bound projects. It was just a bit too much so at least one had to go. It turned out the Girlfriends notch was the first to sell, so garaging problem solved. It's still for sale though  :-[, sort of, and if the offer is right it might go. But that doesn't mean I stop working on it, anyway it will always sell better driving and scaring the shit out of the potential buyer  ;D

So today I cut the templates out of some cardboard boxes (Ikea and Oatmeal) on which I used assorted kitchen utensils to draw the holes (Duvel glass, pot of mayonaise, scale, spice jar ...). I cut them out for the last fit and then transfered them onto the dash.

[attachment=1]

And then I pulled out the dril bits. I didn't like the idea of using a holesaw as they are not that precise and do not always come in the required sizes. So I decided to go Vintage and drill the circumference of the holes with a 3.5 mm drill and use the file to get to the correct size, man what a job  :o

But the result is nice, I only got the Fuel gauge in today, but decided to Mock up for fun and courage to keep drilling.

[attachment=2]

update?  I know you installed already a few extra gauges...

Well, I didn't want to spill the beans before I was finished. First picture is an example of the amount of holes I had to drill. Imagine doing that for the Monster Tach  :o

[attachment=1]

And the result, I just need to ad some some warning light in between the Oil temp and oil pressure gauge (oil pressure and charging) and then a set of warning lights below the shiftlight: left blinker, high beam, right blinker

[attachment=2]

[attachment=3]

And finally, for those who are wondering, this is by how much the tacho clears the window wiper assembly. Millimeters!

[attachment=4]

The engine is out again, straight to the engine stand for a professional start-up. Just to satisfy the mechanics curiosity we have dismounted the oilpump (shadek) to know the camshaft: an FK10. From there on it was one small step to measuring the lift of the valves to get a reading on the rocker ratio. Those rockers are Scats, apparently known for not delivering the ratio rockers they advertise, always a bit wilder. Seems I have a sly bit more than 1.5 ratio rockers.

Tomorrow might be fire up day, depending on some other jobs, let's hope it runs  ;D

allright!  :)

you can paint the enginebay already satin black so the engine can be mounted again in no time.

and how did she run? :)

Well gave the mechanic a call around seven if he was going to work on my engine. About to fire her up was the answer. So I hightailed it to Destelbergen to witness her barking back to life.

A bit of pre-startup testing and a bit of cleaning of the rusted out MSD later and thar she blew at 8 o'clock. The engine is running smooth! Idles good and low, purring like a kitten. Picks up very nice and revs up barking like a dog  :o

Thanks to the Geko Tuning Team.

Hey Tim,"geko" tuning,is that still Koen Desmet?

yeeehaaaaaaaaaaa, another WW car  ready for DDD !

Well, if they ever get to a DDD9, I'll be there  8)

As for Geko, yes indeed Koen is still wrenching. In the pictures, he's the one making the Geko favourite color proud: GREY  ;D

It almost looks like open heart surgery 8)

[attachment=1]

This was my partner in crime today to help me bleed the brakes  :(

[attachment=1]

Like I promised a long time ago, first picture of my custom 914 seat frames, just the standard bottom of a regular seat, all cleaned up. Next step will be relocating the tube at the back so the 914 seat will fit.

[attachment=2]

And here's the result of a few cans of spraypaint back and front. And look, the new electricity is in  8)

[attachment=3]

[attachment=4]

nice one tim!

Got the final missing part for my engine out of the US last Friday!

yet a few more days to get your ass kicked...  :-*

club spirit :D

so tim, this weekend a trip to bitburg to test it?  ;D

Now that dem has a spare car, he probably wont mind racing his beetle.

If you guys are going,
i am not sure i can stay at home :)

How is the car doing?
Finished?

Dem, You re going as well I presume?

nope, unfortunately I can't make it.  saturday is "taking care of the baby" day and I skipped it too many times the last few weeks.  Have fun guys!!

I didn't make it to Bitburg due to some things I couldn't finish in time, but at least I had some fun today.

In between the having fun yesterday I managed to get Jelle to weld in the safety belt connection points. The workshop is every backyard engineer's wet dream. Well, possibly on to greener pastries in the near future  8)

[attachment=1]

When finished, we took a trip down to the harbor where I took a shot of the back. Don't you just hate the look of that muffler. Does any one know where to find a 1 3/4 inch pipe dual quiet pack?

[attachment=2]

And when I finally got home it was already dark, but this is what lighted up my night.

[attachment=3]

well done tim!!!

Nice,  too bad I couldn't make it.
Now paint that ride asap!

Great to see your car is running, Tim!
I guess the dual quiet you are looking for is available nowhere. How about welding one yourself? all you need is some tubing, two silencers and a flange. Everything can be bought easily off ebay or the internet. And in the end you can be sure that the mufflers fit YOUR car! DO IT! 8) BTW: I think that a nice period looking glasspack would suit your car very good as well! Those mufflers are very cheap and non-restrictive....

Tobi

I'd go for the dua quiet packs and as Tobi said, make them yourself. One thing I would do though is move the number plate light down a little - it looks a bit high to me. Love that lid though! :)

Thanks guys! Both for the hands on help of the WW as for the kind words.

On the topic of the exhaust, right now I have a loud and ugly muffler. I looked at the summit website today, and cherry bombs would be rather cheap, add some mandrel bent tubing and I might have a loud and good looking muffler. At least i'd have solved one of my issues  ::)

Oh and Tobi, I said it before, compliments from you always are nice to get, after all you have one of the nicest, cleanest cars I know  :-*

Cherry's suck. Taiwan pisbakijzer, don't do it. That's what my V8 rodders tell me. At least go stainless....

I have succumbed!

Instead of using my hard earned Euro's on new paint for the car I bought an  Ipad  ::) I'm a long time Mac afficionado and even though I had some doubts on what I was going to use this for, it actually turns out a very nice Media Player, I only look at the lounge using the Ipad now (little lie  ;) I write this from my work based laptop, a Dell for F*Cks sake)

Yesterday, by coincidence I stumbled upon one of the reasons I always had wanted an Iphone or Ipad. The thing harbours an accelerometer. If used with the correct app it will give you your quarter mile time (together with reaction time, 60 foot, ...). I installed, calibrated and then had to test it!

So, in the evening the monthly VW dinner was on and I invited Jelle to hold the Ipad steady in the passenger seat (don't want it to float around the cabin while flying!). Took the car out on the street behind the restaurant, lined it up and spanked it. I spun the wheels, so a bit of a slow start but didn't end up in the ditch either side of the street. I had to let of the gas a bit early, it was pretty dark and thought I had seen a speed bump up ahead. But all in all, according to the Ipad I had just run a 14.09 at 150 something Km!

Now this is fun, I'm sure it is not flawless, but it does give me an idea of what the car could do, most of all it'll be fun to share the Ipad with the other Wunderwaffe Boy Racers, starting next saturday on Jelle's Garage opening drink!

always those speed bumps huh?  ::)  never seen one in that street before, I suppose you just got scared!  ;D

;D   ;D     ;D    ;)

iPhone is more userfriendly for that purpose ;-)

i guess i bought this topic as well when i bought the car... so i hope i can keep this project going and make something nice out of this. here we go for my first bug.

i collected it yesterday and like it was said a few times it doesn't look like much, but it is a good base and it drives smooth, brakes decent and overall has a good del to it.

thanks Tim.

Good to hear that you bought it Nicolas.
(PM me your address,so I can check it out in the near future).
Grtz.  ;)

nice to see that it goes to a good home ;)

Congrats and good luck!

gr
Wout

You are going to slap a big ass turbo on it???  ;D

in short, yes. but unfortunately not very soon... i will first finish the bits and bobs that are still left to do and after that get a good feel of the car to see what needs to be done.

well it has begun i have let it all sink in for a bit and i think i know what i am up to for now. i had been planning out a car for the last few years so i think i am finally ready to actually do something.

the big plus on the car for now is the engine as it is already built. but eventually there will be a turbo engine in there, but again this may take a few years and pesos.

anyway here is what i did with the handbrake. it's 60mm shorter and thanks to a removeable lockout pin for the button it will fall back down when i stage instead of jamming as it normally does.

[attachment=1]

Hi Wünderwolff.

 just stumbled across this thread....this is a cool car you have built there 8).... style! And I must say one of the cool'est, styled dashboards i have seen.  8)

cheers. magic

just a little update.

it was a bit of a rush to get it all finished before Drag day, but i made it ( on a trailer though, no MOT yet...) and i trashed all week long every evening to get the engine back in, fit the line lock, reset the torsion bars (twice) and fit carb windows. the result was OK, i am still not 100% satisfied with the details and finish, but what else is winter for, right.

so i made some passes at Bitburg and managed a best of 13.56 with a lot of wheelspin and hop. but it was a good shakedown for the car and also i got the know the car a bit better now.

i will be pulling the engine out again as there seems to be a sealing problem on number 3 cylinder. i am staring to have a list of things to do so watch this space for updates in the future.  ;)

Cool, I'm glad someone finally had the guts to take it on the strip.  It was nice to see it running again!

Next year a nice colour on the car?  ???

 ;)

Good job Nicolas!
Cannot wait to see it finished ;-)

I agree, get it to the paintshop, it deserves a nice coat.

and bring your fixie over, so I can give it the attention it needs

i need the fixie every day, since the car isn't running  ;)

i have been tinkering on the car though, so i need to put up some picks of what goes one.