Louis' Manx Project

[speedwell]

louis you're buggy would be coolin orange with those american racing wheels  and  you look like a little boy who plays behind the wheels from his toy  ........

and keep the updates coming

[louisb]

Thanks guys, I will keep posting updates. Its been a while since anyone has called me little.  As a compromise with my better half I let her choose the color. She wants it purple so that is what is going to be.

Thanks,

--louis

PS: Here is something else I am working on. A Manx Club event to be held on the Outer Banks of North Carolina:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=449191

[louisb]

Finished rebuilding my 40 IDFs today. I had previously cleaned them in a little sonic cleaner I picked up from HF but there was still some corrosion from where moisture had gotten into the carbs. To clean this out I rigged up a little soda blaster using a HF spot blaster and some Baking Soda. It worked surprisingly well. The carbs are Italian IDFs that have seen a good bit of use before I got them and were pretty dirty. Now they looks almost like new.


Corrosion from the moisture:







Shot of me blasting the carbs. And yes, the baking soda got everywhere.





Carb body getting a quick dip in the sonic cleaner to remove any remaining baking soda. These little sonic cleaners from HF are about $80.00 and work really well for cleaning small parts.




Carb on the left is my "good" carb, the one on the right is my "parts" carb. (Also Italian.) It doesn't really come out well in this pick but both carbs were in about the same shape and now after the soda blasting the one on the left looks almost brand new.





Here you can see where it removed all of the corrosion:








Don't try this at home, at least not when the wife is around    





Clean carbs, check
Carb rebuild kit, check
Air cleaner bases, check
Brass stack, check
Tools, check
Scented Candle, check 





Finished product sans air cleaners. Still waiting on the 3" cleaners to arrive. I set up the carbs according the directions on Mark Harney's site.




Mark Harney's site: http://www.carburetorclinic.com/index.htm


Last shot is of my recently rebuilt Bosch 010 dizzy. I sent it off to Glenn Ring and he worked his magic on it and it looks like new. This is the second 010 I have had rebuilt by Glenn and his work is very good. Thanks Glenn!



Link to Glenn Ring's site: http://www.glenn-ring.com/bosch/
                                                                                       

I hope to start engine assembly here in the next few weeks.

Thanks,

--louis

[Nico86]

Intersting device 

[Wout]

I saw those @ Rosmalen last month @KWF.

http://www.hbm-machines.nl/comasy/templates/Cats.aspx?contentid=237&catid=219&cat=Ultrasoon%20Reinigers

Carbs looking great!!!

gr
Wout

[speedwell]

louis any updates

[louisb]

Funny you should ask: 

Spent the day stripping the underside of the body of accumulated grime and paint to get it ready for the last of the 'glass work and hopefully paint. I picked up a Harbor Freight soda blaster for $99 and a 50 lbs bag of XL blasting media, $35, and went to work. I have to say that I was really impressed with the soda blaster. It stripped everything off except the 1/4" layer of crap in the back that looks to be a combination of dirt and engine oil. That stuff even gave the wire wheel mounted on a grinder a hard time. I was able to get 90% of the body done with the one bag of media so I will finish it next weekend after I run by HF and pick up another bag.

















In other news, instead of fixing my hood I decided to order a new replacement hood for the Meyers. I am waiting on it to ship and it will hopefully be here in the next couple of weeks.

I also found out that Bruce and Winnie Meyers are going to be coming to the Manx Club event I am organizing in October. To bad it doesn't look like my buggy will be done by then. It would be really cool to get a picture of my buggy with the man himself.

--louis

[Nico86]

I also found out that Bruce and Winnie Meyers are going to be coming to the Manx Club event I am organizing in October.

Coooool!! 

[louisb]

New hood showed up today from the Meyers. It cost as much to ship the hood as it did to buy it. Also shown is the new dash I ordered a couple of weeks ago:







I am thinking of metal turning the aluminum insert for the dash. With any luck the body will be ready for primer in a few weeks. Budgeting for paint I figure I am in to this body for almost $2,500. Of course mine was in pretty sad shape when I started.

--louis

[fredy66]

looking nice

[louisb]

More fiberglass work today. (itch, itch)


Started by hot gluing the wiring tubes to the underside of the body, then laying some cloth over that to make it permanent. Early Manxs came with these from the factory but my II, which was produced after Bruce left the company, didn't have them so I decided to add them:














The top lip of my new dash was warped so I am trying to straighten it some here in this pic:





Hood Part Deux. Waiting on the filler to dry so I can sand it:








Here you can see the 3" extension I added using a section from the original hood. The plan is to make the new dash removable and run the front hoop of the roll bar behind the dash. we will see how it works.




In other news I am buying the last of the engine parts I need. I did decide to go with a small stroker crank and picked up a 74mm CB 4140 crank a few weeks ago. That will give me a 74x92 or a 1967 which is also the year of the pan. If for no other reason I could not pass it up just for that. It should help out with the taller tires and possible Bus reduction gear boxes in the future.

--louis

[speedwell]

good work louis as usual 

[danny gabbard]

Looks like your getting real close! So no more itching HUH ?? Looks ggod louis !!

[Speed-Randy]

Louis, what kind of tubing are you using? If it's clear poly tubing it's gonna be a bitch to pull thru, might want to get some clear wire pulling soap at an electric supply house, will save you a lot of mother f€%#ing when that time comes

[louisb]

Louis, what kind of tubing are you using? If it's clear poly tubing it's gonna be a bitch to pull thru, might want to get some clear wire pulling soap at an electric supply house, will save you a lot of mother f€%#ing when that time comes

Thanks for the tip, I will remember that.

Also thanks to everyone for the encouragement. Been dealing with a bad case of project burnout for the past couple of months. Hopefully make some more progress here soon.

Thanks,

--louis

[Harry/FDK]

I know that feeling Louis. But everybody tells me it will come back...  I will start to re-polish the Porsche 5 lug Erco's soon...

[javabug]

I think all that fiberglass would get to me after a while, also. Will say I'm jealous, though. I'd enjoy a cool buggy project.

[louisb]

Yeah I much prefer working with metal to fiberglass. I am also itching to get on to the next project. (sorry, couldn't resist   ) I am thinking of doing an all out baja next and I know of a rather crusty Oval sunroof car that would be the perfect candidate. Of course I still have that rust free '66 I need to do something with as well. So many cars to build and so little time.

Thanks,

--louis

[Speed-Randy]

Louis, whenever I get that feeling, and I get it a lot with the house I'm buiding, I just tell myself "it's not gonna do it itself", put my head down and get after it

[louisb]

Took a week's vacation in Arizona with the wife and while I was there Donny B. took me around to some of the Phoenix area VW shops. I think my favorite was Competition Engineering, they had some serious cars going together there. That got the juices flowing again so I was eager to get back home and do some work on the buggy. I decided to go ahead and start the engine assembly but first I had to build an engine stand using an cheap EMPI bench mount stand and a HF floor stand. It took about an hour of cutting and welding to get a useable roll around engine stand for a VW. Next a friend and I stripped down an old 1600 dual port donor motor for small parts. (crank gears, dizzy gear, etc) Then it was time to mount up the new aluminum case to trial fit the bottom end for clearance. The 74 CB crank and I-beams dropped right in and it doesn't look like I will need to do any additional grinding. Tomorrow I will finish mocking up the bottom end and check my deck height, then send everything out for final machine work. I should be able to get to final assembly in a few weeks.


Engine Stand:




Checking crank & cam clearance





ooo, shiney




Final specs on the engine:

Size: 1967
Aluminum Case bored for 94s & full flowed
74mm CB 4140 forged crank
5.4 CB I-beam rods
92mm thick wall AA cylinders
Webcam 163 Grind (falls between a 110 & 120)
40x35 small oval port heads
40 IDFs w/ 32 vents

This coming weekend I will be at the Outer Banks of NC to scout out the area for the October Manx Club event. Vince SurfNC is going to show me and a friend around and with any luck I can talk him into taking me for a ride on the beach in his blue Manx. It should be a lot of fun.


--louis

[Donny B.]

Louis, Hope you had a good time while you were here.  The engine looks nice.  Keep it up!

[louisb]

Decided to stay home today and recover from my recent trip to the OBX. And of course by recovering I mean spending some time in the garage working on my engine. 

Whipped up a quick crank holder by welding an old gland nut to a piece of 1.5" tubing. Then hung the rods and checked the clearances. Everything was spot on.



Then buttoned up the case to check deck height. I came out with a positive deck height of .050 which was to be expected with the 5.4 rods, 74 crank and 92mm "A" pistons. My heads are set up to give 8.5 comp @ .060 deck height so I need to order some custom .110 shims. With the big bolts torqued to stock specs the crank turned nice and smooth.



I still need to check the crank end play but I don't have a socket big enough for the Scat gland nut. I need to order the shims and a few other small parts and then it will be time for final assembly.

--louis

PS: Here is a link to some pics of my buggy trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was cool to ride in my friend Vince's blue Manx on the beach.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=467411

[Zach Gomulka]

Just get some .100" shims, close enough

[louisb]

lol, I think you should stick to stitching.

--louis

[Zach Gomulka]

Ouch!

Seriously though, I can't see the harm in having a tenth or two more compression, especially if it means it saves you time, and money.

[louisb]

Your probably right but I already ordered the .110 shims from Brothers Machine. They should be here next week. Plus I didn't want to go below .060 deck just to be on the safe side.

--louis

[louisb]

I am waiting on some small parts to arrive for the motor so I decided to bend some tube this weekend. After a couple of false starts I managed to bend a rear hoop that fit. Fortunately I ordered 20" of extra tubing so I could screw up a few times. Tubing is 1.5" x .095".


Always remember, measure once, cut twice   As you can see I am wearing proper eye and ear protection. A lot of good it did me when I dropped one of the dies on my foot while wearing sandals.   






Drawing everything up on the floor. I used an original Manx roll bar as a guide. Mine goes all the way to the floor though.




It is sitting about 2" too high but that is better than 2" too short. I will shorten it when I make the base for the cage.




We mounted the windshield to the new hood so we could get the proper angle for measurements. Almost starting to look like a real buggy.




Hopefully next weekend I will get the front hoop and cross bars done.

--louis

PS: It's 105 deg F here today.

[speedwell]

looks good louis , now just waiting for a nice metalflake paint and the manx will be ready 

 

[louisb]

Yeah I am still leaning towards a bright purple metal flake paint job.

--louis

[louisb]

Finally got a chance to get back out in the garage and get some more done on the roll cage.

A couple of shots with the main and front hoop mocked up with the hard top in place. I really like the look of the hard top but after climbing in and out a few times I don't think I am going to be able to use it. Folding my 6'4" frame up to get through that little opening is a pain and that's without the steering wheel.  I think I will have to go with a soft top of some sort instead.








Front and rear hoop mocked up into place. I found packing tape works real well to hold every thing up.   






A few shots showing how the front hoop will pass behind the dash:










Top and rear bars mocked up. I am still trying to decide if I like the kick up in the top bars. I bent them up so they would follow the hard top contour.







Final shot shows the bottom mounting plates for the cage being measured. When finished they will bolt on top of the body.




Thanks,

--louis