When we fitted the rust repair section at the bottom of the pillar the bolt hole did not line up with the guard hole and was too far out to re-drill the guard so i bogged over it and thought i'd deal with it later. Well i dealt with it... and this is what i did.
I drilled the hole on the body in the right spot and used a T-nut ( i know you can buy the actual nutserts but i worked with what i had) I cut the prongs off, tacked it into the hole then built up the weld around it until i could shape it similar to the originals. I think it worked ok, I aint no master fabricator! Still teaching myself how to weld....
Guard on... I am using these front guards, They have a little bit of history behind them... They are actually the guards that were put on the camel filter drag bug after he sold it to volks mod, I noticed the similarity in colour and took them to show dave butler and he seems to think this is the case, I was given them by Daryl yates, he told me at the time they were off his old drag bug but i thought nothing of it back then. I think it's kinda cool anyway...
Thanks guys, yeah warwick.... Looking good for it, Dave R now has all my engine parts, all balanced and ready to assemble. He'll be starting that when he gets time.... hopefully before warwick 😂
And here you go, My first solo rust repair! It's not perfect and it took ages but it'll work and i'm stoked i gave it a shot.
That looks ok Mick , just keep practicing dude , hell we all still blow holes in auto panels even old buggers like me and i'vve been welding for 20 + years
Don't let body work get in the way of real suspension travel
yeah, it got to the point where i was doing more bad than good trying to fill in pin holes so i'll let some sikaflex do the rest.... Hey are you gonna come grab those seats or should i put them away??
My wife got bored last weekend so i put her to work with some painting.... I ended up using gloss black rustguard, It seems to have come up ok at this stage. I know it looks like i'm doing things backwards but if you see where i'm building the car it will make sense. I'm painting all the underbody, front end, rear end and floorpan first so i can get it rolling, then i'll put it on a trailer take it to daves, mask it all up and spray the body.
I finally got the rollcage back, Mistakes were made ( note the different brand of steel on one of the rear bars) through a slight mis-understanding, But it will be painted anyway so it don't matter. I'm going to mount the harness to the firewall/luggage area at this stage, will probably look at putting in another bar at a later date for the harness. It's just tacked in at the moment, I'll be fabricating the frame horn brace soon then i'll get it all welded in at once.
Now i will be mounting up the gearbox and the rear end, also the front end can all go together! It's all there just gotta find the time. Soon to be a roller!
Mick.
It's a little heavy, I'm losing weight elsewhere though.... Lexann windows, gutted interior, fibreglass guards.... and I'll go on a diet too! I have an extra 10 kgs my waist I don't really need!
Mine weighs 600kg add 120kg for me. Ive already got a bigger seat and now im outgrowing that one😠😠. Hoping to loose 20kg before warwick and fibreglass front and rear will helpout too.
Here ya go Aussie dubbin, As i said it's only tacked in at the moment until i fabricate the framehorn braces. The ones behind the door are 3mm plate boxed up and cut to the shape of the heater channel, It will be welded to the floorpan and body. The rear is 5mm x 100mm plate, the bars that go down the back will be welded to it then the whole plate will be bolted to the firewall, the framehorn braces will come up and meet with the bottom of those bars and bolt up to the same bolts.
Because in the majority of roll cage pics in beetles i looked at they were in roughly the same position as mine, i could probably move them out a couple of inches if you recommend it?. There is much room for improvement as time goes on, Once i start running a turbo set up and decent times i'll look into adding to the cage.
Cheers for the pics. I would agree with your thoughts, on the bars i have seen have they go parallel and meet in a similar place???
PS i would run a horozontal bar across to tie in your seatbelts. I hear people say that in the event of a crash you really dont want excess harness (from seat to X) This way you put a bar about half to 3/4 back height... Something to think about.
I could probably find out but what steel do you need to use?
I will be putting in a bar from the crossbrace to the hoop at a later date. I wanna get my seat in there and set up first. As far as steel goes, you'd be best off with cromoly but thats expensive and not as simple to weld together from what I hear. I used mild steel and believe andra rules state with 50mm tube must have minimum 2.9mm wall, then the smaller diameter tube less wall thickness. You would have to check with your cams rules to get it right for your type of racing. I just roughly kept to the guidelines so if I want andra to tech the car one day it's just a matter of adding and making adjustments rather than re-doing the whole thing.
Aussie - definitely do your homework on the cage mate, cos Andra and CAMS have very different requirements. Also your friendly transport dept will have their own requirements too if you ever plan to road register the car.
There's also rules about how harnesses are mounted, angles of the straps and so-on.
I know Mick isn't planning to go road rego, and a half cage like he has is definitely not allowed with CAMS.
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I had a good day on it today, and last week i managed to brave the cold and put a few nights in also! It now steers! and i hope by the end of this week it will stop too.... but hey i won't count my chickens.
I mounted the gearbox up last week, so today i made up the framehorn braces. They are not fully welded yet and i'm thinking when i take them back out to weld them i might put a gusset on the corners?? they tie into the rollcage at the luggage area. From the side view they look a bit dicky, it's because of the angle they are on, the photo makes them look a bit odd. I'll tidy them up a bit when we weld them too. The bolts are obviously too long, i still need to get the right ones.
I also made up and tacked in a bar to mount my harness to. Hopefully i'll venture out into the cold again this week and get a bit more done.... I'm gonna have to if i want this thing ready for warwick!