The Cal-look Lounge

Well its been a bit of an interesting week for me, I found a new job (well sort of ;)) A friend of mine has been on at me to done some work on his 68 bug for ages now and when he made me a cash offer I couldn't refuse ;)

Basiclly the car is already up and running with a pretty nice 1915cc type1 motor putting out around 124bhp at the wheels and now he has the engine sorted it time to look at the rest of the car  ::) :)

Over the last few years he has collected together a IRS chassis that has been converted to run a balljoint beam, some HIGH QUALITY floorpan halves, and a 914 5 speed gearbox along with this rather interesting conversion kit - this kit was covered in Ultra a while back and from what I can tell so far it is pretty dam good, Basiclly it allows you to take a standard 914/901 5 speed gearbox (which are pretty cheap on ebay) and with MINIMAL clearencing/modifying (and flipping the diff of course) and BOLT it straight into an IRS chassis.

The kit includes and proper cast rear mount/surrport with rubber bushes, a new nose cone to convert the gear linkage, a new shifter rod for the gearbox, new output flanges (to bolt to VW drive sharfts) a new gearbox craddle and best of all a PROPERLY designed billet 5 speed shifter inc base plate etc, there are also a couple of other bits inc for the clutch cable etc.

So far I have removed the "old" (read badly fitted) floorpan halves and preped the chassis for the new halves which I will start welding in tomorrow, I have also removed the old rear gearbox mount and cut a hole in the base of the tunnel for the new linkage, I will post some proper pic's soon and show you my progress with this cool little project :)

good to hear you're working!
and a nice project it is. sound very cool! looking forward to the pictures! :)

SHHHHHH don't tell the Doll office ;) :) I'll get some proper pic's over the weekend - cheers dude  :)

Its dole office, i didn't know you liked barbie!

Sounds like you're going to be busy which is cool, have fun with the project, that and Barbie.

 :)

I said SHHHHHHHH! ;) :)

i'm off to do a bit more on it today - I'll keep you posted guys  :)

(http://www.forumspile.com/Needs-More-Wookie.jpg)

But more pics will do :)

Should have some pic's for you guys tomorrow - new pan halve are in, tunnel in modified, gearbox is rebuilt, etc etc etc  ;D

oh yeah and i made some COOOOOOOOL custom seat runners for a pair of VW Corrado seats  :o ;D

Pictures at last guys  :)

Painted pan  :)

Here's a COOL "mod" I made to the base of the tunnel firstly to give clearence for the repositioned shifter rod and secondly I waned it to look like this is where the shift rod was from the factory  :)

That "bump" started life as a Empi Stinger! ;) :)

Here's the seat runners i mentioned - The seats are from a VW Corrado and will be recovered - notice I even welded in new bars for the "Trim" to be clipped to just like the original corrado seat ;) :)

I was quite proud of these  ;)

Gearbox - LOTS OF PARTS :o ;) :)

Not a bad place to work - This is my friends resently finished garage, pretty cool huh  ;) :)

Admiring my work  ;) :)

The car in question - a pretty cool 68, you gotta dig the Martini stripes  ;D

The Engine is a 1915cc Type1 motor with 124bhp at the wheels - Not bad! :)

Should have some more news/pic's soon guys - Very interesting ;) :)

Looks a cool project Lee.

Thats an interesting gearbox conversion too! Is that box the dogleg first type then? I had a 74 911 with the Porsche dog leg first and didn't think it was anywhere neaar as bad as some of the Porsche guys made out - you had to drive it with the Porsche-approved finger tip gearchange method though ;)

Cool.

Actually thinking about it my box may have been a 915.

Yep dogleg first - Should be fun when its done - the body is coming back from the blasters this week  ;D

The Billet shifter that comes with the kit is a cool bit of engineering - it has a very narrow/short "gate" I reakon its about 65% reduced throw :o :) Unfortunatly it has no reverse lock out just springs  :-\ :)

No reverse lock out and a dog leg first! I wouldn't let anyone but me drive that car, someone WOULD bang it into reverse (but my friends are like that!)...

I want to know about those Motomags against the wall.

I do know what you mean but they are pretty tough springs - ALOT stronger than the ones on an Empi eliminator :D

If you want to know about the "moto mags" drop him a line - he is on here (downlowmatt) ;) He LOVES old BMX stuff ;)

Hi Lee,

Do you spot weld the new floorpan or do you make a continue line of welding all the way?

Hey buddy - I know you were having trouble with yours - I drilled 7mm holes along the edge of the new pan halfs then I clamped them in place and then drilled into the original "lip" on the chassis BUT NOT ALL THE WAY THROUGH! and then PLUG or PUDDLE welded through each hole.

Build up the heat in the "lip" first then draw it out to the new metal - it is not easy dude but I got some VERY GOOD tips from this site - they even have a few video clips to help, Taught me ALOT ;) :)

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/tutorial.htm

Thanks dude  ;)

Job is done, but yes, I got some troubles to do it nicely.

I use the same way as you. I make holes all along the pan and spot weld it. I also start to weld on the lip to fill the hole.
I first try to weld the pan on the lip but the quality of the the metal seems to be so bad that metal burns really quickly.  :-\

Not so sure on the Martini stripes, but diggin' the Motomag wheels tucked in the corner of the workshop 8)

What none of you has noticed is that there are 3 of thos motomags on a TRIKE/Lowrider ;) :)

P.S thise stripe are goin back on after the body work is done  :-\ :)

Motomags rock! Mine were chrome yellow (not chrome... yellow!) with natural mag ribs.

Are we all old BMX bandits or what??!!! Hahahaha...

I thought it might have been a Sidehack, but couldn't see the forks....

A few crappy cell phone pic's from today - A few things you don't see very often ;)

- CB Dropped spindles (disc) where the calipers actually fit
- CB dropped spindles (disc) WITH original backing plates 
- Modified pitman arm to work with the narrowed beam
- Volvo 240 reservoir that fits a stock dual circuit master cylinder
- AVO coil overs
- etc etc etc  ;)

Some more updates soon guys  ;) :)

How/why did you have to modify the pitman arm?

Looks good :)

Hi Lee is that your 66 Pan or another car you are doing?

Come on dude  ::) try reading a thread before asking silly questions  :D

No not really I just shortened/re-contoured the end section (ringed in red) this is the before shot and as you can see it hits the upright on the beam - NOT GOOD!

I am not even gonna go into the trouble we have had with "Narrowed" anti roll bars  ::) >:( :D

Yep thats exactlt whats its for - I thought it would be a cool mod seeing as I was starting this chassis from fresh - Its a mod I ALWAYS wished I'd done on my Manx etc -

I HATE DOING CLUTCH CABLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  ;) :)

There is also one at the base of the shifter on the side of the tunnel to help with shifter/linkage adjustment  :)

New pic's/updates soon

Please check this thread/link - I need a little help :)
http://cal-look.no/lounge/index.php/topic,10301.0.html

I have one little sneeky trick mod I am gonna be doin on the car - I'll post some pic's as soon as the machining is finished  ;)

If it works aswell as I think it will I think I making kits and selling them  :-\ :)

A couple of pic's  :)

A Couple more  :)

wow lee, never knew this project was gonna be that rigorous!
but you're not gonna weld a ragtop in a late looker are you?

Yep we are going for the "full monty"  ;) :)

and yes its gonna have a "big sunroof" in a late car - Not my personal taste BUT the customer is always right ;) :)