Fubar 64

[vwhelmot]

Cheers Neil , if it turns out anywhere near as good as your looker then I will be happy.
While the bodywork has taken up all my time and it's still ongoing, all the other parts are being worked on in the background. The odd couple of hours here and there, lunch times etc are being used for all the other stuff that needs doing. A full engine strip and rebuild was reqd even though it ran with no problems or issues, I just wanted it freshening up and a hike in capacity and power will go down well. Cosmetically it needs a tonne of work, linkage and manifolds and a whole host of other parts are being changed too.
  The manifolds needed changing because the tall skat ones made the stacks foul the decklid and that just won't do. I bought a set of unbranded short ones and set about match porting them to my Jeff Denham heads. Shame really as I spent an age polishing the tall ones



Copying the port shape



Bought the necessary tools



And got on with it







They were rough castings



Very rough!



Got there in the end

[vwhelmot]

The strip revealed a few issues, lifters, cam and lifter bores are pretty worn, crank and rods look ok and the case needs a little line bore. The Denham heads will be checked over. I'm going for a hike in cc, 2276 is the order of the day.











Ongoing story...

[leec]

Nice work. What tool and tool bits are you using to do the manifolds?
Lee

[vwhelmot]

Cheers. I used a bergen long burr set but to be honest a short set did the job. HPS supplied the sanding roll set. Not cheap stuff but very handy! Got a blue point die grinder to use with the long burrs so I could regulate the speed. Mainly used a Mikita electric die grinder for most of the job.

[leec]

Great, have been looking for an electric die grinder for a while. What model is yours?
Lee

[vwhelmot]

It's a really old one mate. 110v which I run off a transformer.

[leec]

Ok, that's cool. I've google'd a few 
£30 for the Scat Traks?
Lee

[vwhelmot]

They are on my mantelpiece.

[BeetleBug]

vwhelmot; what is the area at the tightest point in your new manifolds compared to the cylinder head intake channel and valve size? You should try to avoid thight areas throughout the intake channel since you do not want a second venturi.

Best rgs
BB

[vwhelmot]

I've done about as much porting on these manifolds as I can without having to weld them. The tightest area I suppose is the curve on the inside. 

[Deanodynosaurs]

Cheers Neil , if it turns out anywhere near as good as your looker then I will be happy.

Dude, its already better. Honestly, the standard of metal work and attention to detail on this car is another level.

If I ever do another car this will be the standard I aim for.

Dude 

[Rocket Ron]

Ok, that's cool. I've google'd a few  
£30 for the Scat Traks?
Lee

Lee

I've got a nice 110v one if you need to borrow it

Ta Ron

[leec]

Thanks Ron 

[vwhelmot]

Fourteen months ago



It's been a blur!

[vwhelmot]

When it came to the channels , I knew that the closing plates were all wrong. Wrong shape and wrong pressing. I knew it would be a bit of a pain to drill out all the spot welds but it had to be done. 95 in each closing plate, my blair cutter did the trick.

Check out the horrible pressing, it wasn't even a one piece panel



The way the crossmember lip on the outside is wrong too





Steve Hook made me a pair of panels that are slightly different. The way the panel angles forward is different on the later channels , the early pressings had more of a curve so Steve made mine a bit wider at his point but I knew I would have to add more metal to this area to accommodate.

See here



Blasted on the outside, rust on the inside

[vwhelmot]

From the factory, there are some dimples that are pressed into the lip like these



Mine didn't have any. So I made a simple tool and pressed some in







I then made a quick blast cabinet, it had to be done and I was prepared for the mess afterwards





Also blasted and etch primed the new panels too



Starting to line things up





More metal needed







Joy

[vwhelmot]

Crossmember was welded to the inner lip of the channel then the closing panel welded on top










Sorted

[richie]

Fourteen months ago



It's been a blur!

I think I prefer the 1st picture    



Seriously stupid amount of work you have done, well done

cheers Richie

[vwhelmot]

So do I haha

Onto the other side it was much the same story, it also gave me the chance to remove the heater tubes too and the amount of glass dust that was trapped inside was an eye opener

Just from one side



More spot weld drilling



Had one of those rare moments when I had drilled out all the spots in the right place. Stuck the chisel in and it just fell apart. Happy days





Goes to show where rust lurks



So, after filling up the whole are with crushed glass, it was onto cleaning up all the lips and getting the new panel ready for fitting. Welded the crossmember to the channel like this.







Clamping up the rear. It's such a strong structure when finished. Great design





Took a long time to make sure everything was straight. The body had been placed on the pan a few times to align up the bolt holes



Finished

[Zach Gomulka]

You have the patience of a saint. Well done.

[vwhelmot]

I`m single 

[karl h]

running out of superlatives here....

[vwhelmot]

Cheers 
  Getting the front valence on was pretty straight forward, welding the seal clamping strip is a bit of a pain, its very hard to attach it neatly and to bend it right. I found the best way was to run a steel rod up through the strip and after that it was a lot easier to bend without kinking it. I welded it from behind too. The valence itself is an Autocraft engineering item. Its a nice pressing, fitted well but I did clean and straighten some of the edges a bit. It would be nice if they offered one with the seal strip already attached but I guess they know that's its a pain to do.



Wings on to check fitment



Edge needed trimming straight, it was a bit off





The factory used to braze the corner on like this so that what I had to do



One side done







Sorted







Even this small job took a whole day, roughly 8 hours to do and that was not including welding on the seal strip because I did that the night before. Its crazy where the time goes.
This is really it for a while, I have just the wings to work on and a small job on one of the doors and after that its getting it prepped for paint.  There is lots I haven't shown but I will update next year.

Happy Christmas to everyone!   

[Matty c]

Awesome workmanship dude! I have a question regarding the sealing strip on the rear valence, I'm about to do the same thing & was wondering how you managed to put the curve into it without any puckering on the inside edge? I got my strip from autocraft too but it came completely straight   

[vwhelmot]

I managed to find a length of steel rod that I could insert into the sealing strip so that when you form it and bend it etc it will not kink. I bent it as I welded it, little at a time. After I finished , the dowel rod could be just pulled out easy. The job still took time and with the rear valence make sure the strip is high enough not to foul the decklid. Mine took two attempts

[PiL]

What spot weld drill/ cutter do you use? I'm looking for a new one and could do with a recommendation.
Cheers Paul

[vwhelmot]

These are the best I've come across, they work best when instead of using a centre pop , use a small drill to make a dimple first. This way the cutter won't wander at the start.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/351041392853

[vwhelmot]

Awesome workmanship dude! I have a question regarding the sealing strip on the rear valence, I'm about to do the same thing & was wondering how you managed to put the curve into it without any puckering on the inside edge? I got my strip from autocraft too but it came completely straight   

Found some pics

[vwhelmot]

I've got to admit it , I hate working on bug wings. They are just a pain in the arse. You can't clamp them down while working on them easily, if you need to do detail work on them like grinding/ cleaning the mounting flange it's almost impossible to get light to see what you are doing. As soon as you cut them they move etc so all in all its been a chore.  From the start I vowed to get an original set of genuine wings. As you know getting a decent set is getting really difficult and when you do 99% of the time they need work. Even nos ones variably need some sore of dent repair or blasting due to storage rust etc.  The rears have been the most work, I've ended up restoring two sets of rears. I have bought six rear wings to find that I can only use two. I bought what I thought was a nos right side only for it to turn up and I straight away had doubts to whether it was genuine. The return lip just looked wrong etc. The second set turned out to be a IGP set , repo. To be honest these ones fitted great and needed minimal work and I spent quite some time making them perfect. The only problem was that I knew they were repo and they were slightly wrong for the year in that the mounting flanges were dimpled like on earlier cars. They would have stuck out like a sore thumb and I should not have wasted so much time.   The third set is the ones I'll use. Bought off here from Rob the Manx , they too needed work but they fitted and looked right and are genuine.

IGP repo wings. They fitted great



Spent some time cutting out and making good all the untidy lips and returns.






Front was too long so I modded it





Blasted them









Then decided not to use them.

[vwhelmot]

So onto the genuine ones. Spent a lot of time trimming down the return lips and basically doing the same work over again. I had already lost over a weeks worth of evenings on the repo set so I wasn't going to look forward doing it again but hey ho.



Factory pressing isn't always nice. Mass produced after all.











Making sure that the lips match side to side.



Then filling in the US spec over rider holes



Other side



Fronts still needed work. Like this.



New sections welded in.



And welding up the indicator holes which were huge. Careful welding reqd here to avoid distortion.



Making sure the running boards fit took time too.



It turned out that the ones on the car were genuine. I've blasted them and bought new genuine covers.



Been fitting doors and bonnet too.