The Cal-look Lounge

i'm nearing the point where my car gets painted, as well as my engine compartment.
i emptied it out yesterday and it looks like this:

(http://www.keversite.nl/fotoalbum/fotos/76060.jpg)

i'm still in doubt what to do with the compartment, i was thinking of a back plate to put some stuff like my breatherbox and some electronics plugs on.
also, i don't know if i should put some isolation back in there. is it only there for isolating sound?

tell me some ideas about the best and nicest way to take care of the engine compartment
and let me see some pictures.

thanks

I wanted to go for that clean look so ground all the clips off of the firewall and prepared the compartment to be painted. It really depends on the look you are going for. I have seen firewalls with engine turned stainless steel firewalls that look pretty slick as well. The insulation in the engine compartment is mostly there for sound. I will post some pics later today.

i almost forgot that i have to remove the clips.
and for the style, as you say, a firewall can be very cool, but i like the curves in the backwall as well.
i'm eager to see some pictures!

whatever avenue to take as far as firewall, be doubly sure you are certain that it is secured tightly to body of car. I've seen a few "disaster stories" of motors dying a horrible death because the firewall was allowed to flap loose and ended up getting inhaled by the engine fan, sealing against front opening for fan intake, robbing the motor of all its cooling air.
I had this happen on my way out of town on a roadtrip 18 years ago.... luckily, I had a head temp gauge and noticed it was running WAY above where it normally did.... something was obviously very wrong. Pulled off highway, popped decklid, and lo and behold, the soundproofing was right up and over the air intake on the front of the shroud. I used the factory clips too. I would use the factory clips along with 1" fender washers and self tapping screws to secure the stock tarboard.
An old friend of mine wasn't so lucky. He was driving from NothernCalif to Carlsbad back in 1999 for Drag Day in his '73 convertible Bug, with 1776. when he met us at the hotel in Irvine he said "somewhere before Grapevine the motor lost a lot of power" (Grapevine is a long, steep, extreme grade that snakes over the Transverse Range, the mountains that separate So Cal from the san Joaquin Valley), and when he let it come to lower rpms, the oil light was ON (not flickering).
I opened decklid and sure enough, the engine fan had eaten the tarboard. It was tight up against the fan housing. He tried starting the motor, and by the sound of the "no effort" starter (freewheeling) I knew the motor was gone. Cooked. Dead. Nothing Left.
I popped valve covers off and the wall of Death Stench wafted out (burnt engine oil). It was fried. The insides of the heads were golden brown.
Everything in that motor was junk. Rod bearings... gone. Heads...every seat sunk. Exhaust valves were ghost white with blue on stems just under heads. Rings were siezed in ring grooves. Rockers stuck on shafts (which were blue). Case... spread @ center main and case savers were pulled. It was very sad.
My point here is BE CAREFUL

the idea of using 1 or 2 layers of b-quiet sound deadening topped off with an aluminum firewall is what i might opt for...
i think i'd either use pop rivets to secure the firewall, however, in the absence of a pop rivet gun washers and parker screws are another option. i only wonder how to then "bolt" on a small breather box... any ideas?

I can appreciate a nicely painted firewall, but I prefer the look of the stock insulation in the engine compartment. I had experience similar to Jim, though, so I always put a few of sheet metal scews with very large daimeter flat washers through the firewall in the area behind the fan. As long as the engine is installed, you can't see them. Cheap insurance.

The next time I have my engine out I am going to put some type of insulation on the firewall of the engine bay. My engine is loud and I want the sound level in the cockpit to go down. Right now it is painted a gray color to contrast the black engine tin.

For those of you who want the quite but are concerned about the tarboard getting sucked up by the fan, how about more insulation on the interior side of the firewall? You could pull the carpet back and use some sound deadening like dynamat or similar and just glue the carpet back.

Also have had a friend chase heating problems forever, but when he reved motor, insulation sucked in near fan.. harder to diagnose than you think. Here is a pic of my car (5 yrs ago)when it had a 2332 w 1.3/4 with berg heater boxes, i did the firewall with sound deadner (dyno mat?), then made engine turned firewall one swirl/turn at a time.Luckily only one error deep behind at bottom. New motor, 2442 in works,(dyno'd 182 hp at 4500 feet W belt and muff) thing fanshroud, going to empi cross bar style linkage, fuel lines behind shroud, brand new style compufire on firewall. cleaner look i hope. empi eyebrow decklid allows big berg velocity stacks. Wants and ideas change as I see other neat engine compartment ideas. Oh yeah, ck out eng lites doug berg placed in tin.bill

Bill can you please show us more pics of your car? Your car is one of my favorites and deserves to be on the front cover of a magazine. There are soo many trinkets on your car that can easily be missed. Anyone have the pic. of it parked in front of the legend party at hotel in Ontario the day before Bug In 32? 8)

Are those 155s up front? Looks bitchen.

155's up front, newer nevada lisc plates say "60s look". bill

Lookin' good, Bill! 8) 8) 8)

anothea nevada brotha

Bill, I have to say your car is the best looking Cal Look car I have seen in a long long LONG time. That car is just about PERFECT.

Hell yeah and talk about a BITCHEN color!

love that car

killer looking car! Love the engine turned firewall and the t-bar license plate bracket  :)

yep jason, bahama blue. orig color of car.thanks for the compliments,but need to thank doug berg for his MANY added additional touches/ideas. Pedal assby cnc'd of brm, clutch and brake pedals beefed up and chromed.Tach and mount. Tach is an OLD "football" sun unit with late model moon guts inside calibrated to 4 cyc.SUN and moon eyes logos etched/cnc'd in tach brkt with outside view etching of "william rodgers" der kliener panzers volkswagon club.Berg 5 speed shift handle signitured dkps2 etc.line loc switch just below handle.MANY other "douged" items. deep sump with breather holes/jackets,..polished tranny ribs with dkp emplem and cutouts for empi camber compensator to go through. Weber side vent panels with dkp bird emblem..He redid tranny, looks like a polished watch. DOUG IS AN ARTIST... and friend...bill

Hey Bill, how ya doing? Yup! I remember Doug working on that car, he did alot of work on that thing. Bill that car really looks good. Oh ya! finally going to put my BIG motor together. I'll e-mail you the details. Take care Bill!

Ted

Thanks Bill for sharing. Just added a few more to my fav. pics. :)

just wondering if there are anymore ideas on how to give the engine compartment a cal-look treatment.
any related photos would be nice :)

Thats what I did .   But straight cuts,magnaflow & IDA's barking ,who wants to quiet that down!  ;D

Ok.. maybe if it was your sole transportation...............and then ,ONLY maybe.

It will be for me  ::) lol

if you want quiet get some earplugs.. :)

I just went through this.  My car was already painted, but the engine was out, and i wanted to paint the engine bay.  I had a tar board style insulation up, hated it.  It warperd and looked like crap after 2 yrs.  Painted, it looks soooooo much cleaner!  I cut the spikes off, ground them flush, and it really made things nice.  We don't need no stinking sound insulation!

Before:
(http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a6/Hotrodvw/IMG_1802.jpg)

After:
(http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a6/Hotrodvw/2007cc/0122092323-00.jpg)

(http://cal-look.no/lounge/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=7928.0;attach=25656;image)

grate looking engine bay, I'm shooting into that kinda look of an engine :D just briliant :) I'll put some photos in march :D wish me luck.

Either body colour with satin black tin or satin black with gloss black tin would be my preferences.

In the old days, no one did much with the engine compartment... they just slid the old stocker out and added an IDA equipped piece in it's place.  I like the idea of a detailed and body color painted firewall, but I'm not sure if I'd like the extra noise. 

Bugpack makes a universal aluminum firewall that I like. Its just a simple rectangular piece of aluminum with a bead rolled edge. I put some Dynamat on the body and rivet the firewall right over it. I`ll get some pics of my 66 later.

that's what i wanna do.
please do show some pics :)

When ya scratch it........then what?  :-\

You scotch brite it or pull it and powdercoat it.

But it's not coming out w/o pulling the engine.....that sux.  Painted, you can touch it up w. a brush. ;)

I don`t have pics of the 66 yet but heres a scanned photo of my old 64 with the same firewall. As far as scratching it goes..... just be careful.
(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/166955.jpg)

How about attaching it with dzus fasteners. I have been thinking of doing something like that with my car.

--louis

what are those, louis?

Like this:

(http://static.summitracing.com/global/images/prod/norm/mor-71382_w_m.jpg)

You use them for racing body panels.

--louis

How about heavy duty velcro ?

i picked up some nice ribbed aluminium sheet at my local B&Q ,which i'm halfway thru getting all fitted on my firewall,
i have a couple of pretty cool ducts coming through it for a little extra air.
i'm finishing it off next week and i'll get some photo's up.

cool jick, please do :)

another thing i was wondering, how to install my fuel regulator and breather box on the alu firewall. with self tapping screws?

i like the idea of a firewall with dynamat as well!
i'm thinking of putting some sounddevice in my car so some isolation would be welcome.

what about the side panels in the engine compartment?
that's not easy to put a firewall or any plate on.

more pictures guys!:)

Here's mine with the 2056 T4, no mat plenty of noise.

(http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m208/benito26/cal%20look%20honey/P1020405.jpg)

Hi Fred, no you not living under a rock its just that Porsche style fans have been the run of mill.

However, the type1 36 doghouse cooler set up was among the first to be played with by the likes of Joe Cali, Joe Loccicero, Mike Sharp and i think Udo, correct me if wrong.
It's a simple conversion if you are handy and looks like a type 1 to the layman. In stock form its an affordable mod, but not so if stroked, bored, cam, heads, exhaust, etc. because T4 parts are usually double the price of T1. Although, reliability and street performance outway the cost, in AFAIC.

Sorry for the thread hijack,

The cooling tins can either be customized as per Cali manual or purchased from www.sharpbuilt.com.au, CSP, BAS, RAT, etc.

There is much debate as to the cooling capabilities of the type 1 conversion, but from personal experience no problems at all even in 38c heat.

You can find heaps of info on Tuna's excellent site:
http://www.tunacan.net/t4/index.shtml

and also:
http://www.shoptalkforums.net/index.php?sid=7535fc2ac35d6a749d43628ecd213f38

i hope Richie Webb will read this.  ;D ;D