Looking great!!
Would love to see how you go with the removable rear apron as I have to do the same for my 54. I want to be able to get the motor out a little easier and just to have access to the rear of the engine. It is a tight fit inside the oval engine bay is it not?
Keep it up.
what he said also for my 60 🙂 looks amaving and keep at it, I know its taken me about a dozen times to bet my 996 brakes frikking working with the wheel that did not fit under the guards etc etc... also make sure you bring it to Warwick 2010 🙂
Sorry guys but I am not talking about just the apron, I am doing it from the firewall. This will enable me to slide the rear end on with the intercoolers in place.
😉 T54
C'mon kids gather round,
there's a new sensation hitting town,
It's moving straight, low to the ground,
it'll pick you up when your feeling down.
T54, I remember a time when you said that you'd never cut up the 54........👍
Cheers
D
Looks sweet as Heath.
Look forward as always to future updates! 👍
Reub
Yeah I remember a time when I wasn't going to cut it but seeing this car has been cut before I have changed my opinion. Also I figure if I sold this car, the new owner would but it for all the modification and uniquness not to turn it back to original... not that I will be selling her. I will keep my other 54 original.
Anyway, some more progress. A long time ago I made up a cardboard muffler and had trouble finding one with a inlet and outlet on the same ends. I eventually found a magnaflow which looked the part, but after fitting it all in the car it was too big. I was looking at other route for the exhaust but I have a plan and I am going to stick with it. I have had far too many sleepness nights planning this thing to change so I have made my mind up to cut it down to fit. This is quite a challenge as it was packed with shit and made it really hard to get the end off the muffler. I finally did it and too 80mm out of it. Also while I was there I made a PVC ( I love this stuff) template of my turbo dump pipe.
When you see the PVC dump and the muffler it is a really nice fit and then it is a rotary style turned down end out of the muffler and that is it. My whole exhaust is only 1.5 feet long. Cant wait to hear what it sounds like.
Thanks to Westi for your help and advice the other day, I was going to send it to you but a friend here is going to do it all cheaper than the freight to get it to you.
Thanks,
T54
What I am aiming for
PVC Dump - It took a while and will be a challenge to get that odd shape in stainless
I used a piece of 2.5" and 2" to mold the shape going into a 2.5 total at the end that will blend into my 2.5 Muffler. It should be fairly free flowing.
The cutdown Magnaflow size difference
Side by side
Total length of my exhaust system minus rotary style dump on end.
C'mon kids gather round,
there's a new sensation hitting town,
It's moving straight, low to the ground,
it'll pick you up when your feeling down.
Looking good there👍
Stainless is such a mongrel to work with, especially if you want it to look pretty. I know how much fun it was make my exhaust......
Have you factored in the twist of the motor under load, and how that muff is going to be supported?
Remembering that the further you move away from the centerline of the crank the more space you'll need for the muff to move around in.
Cheers
D
Great progress Heath, we all know too well the 'one step forward, two steps back, a thousand more dollars spent' scenario! The wider rear guards suit the car well, those wheels really are awesome.
Don't worry about cutting, its only metal - I've got lots to cut on my 54 - in the last couple of years I've seen that many 54 beetles pop up on AVD that I figure theres enough around to keep the purists happy.....and if not, well f*#k em 😉 The knockers are most often the keyboard experts that haven't done a stock resto ever themselves - for those people who criticise I'd love for them to show their cars and let me pick it to bits highlighting all the faults and "non original" aspects. For the select few that do 100 point stock resto's, I find they are usually the ones who are more reasonable and understanding how diffiicult it is keep things 100% stock. Anyhow, enough ranting, keep cutting mate....I'm loving your work. Imagine how boring the scene would be if no-one modified their vw's.
Al
Good response Alan-well said.
Dasdubber wrote:Great progress Heath, we all know too well the 'one step forward, two steps back, a thousand more dollars spent' scenario! The wider rear guards suit the car well, those wheels really are awesome.
Don't worry about cutting, its only metal - I've got lots to cut on my 54 - in the last couple of years I've seen that many 54 beetles pop up on AVD that I figure theres enough around to keep the purists happy.....and if not, well f*#k em 😉 The knockers are most often the keyboard experts that haven't done a stock resto ever themselves - for those people who criticise I'd love for them to show their cars and let me pick it to bits highlighting all the faults and "non original" aspects. For the select few that do 100 point stock resto's, I find they are usually the ones who are more reasonable and understanding how diffiicult it is keep things 100% stock. Anyhow, enough ranting, keep cutting mate....I'm loving your work. Imagine how boring the scene would be if no-one modified their vw's.
Al
hahaha very fukin true.....and sometimes we try to make a square wheel go round
😊hey Heath
whatever happened to this beast? any updates??
hope it is going well, this is one of my all time fav builds along with 2443TT's
...................( O \ l / O ).....................
I think he has been busy building a house..
fractal geometry; the inner most limits of mind altering abuse
Fantasy
http://seventhchronicle.com
Z = Z2 + C1/r = 1/0 = infinity
Barrels
www.barrelman.com.au
VW Workshop - aircooledgarage.com.au
allcooled.com.au
Hi All,
Yeah not much on the car. Moved it the other day so i could do some work in the garage but planning a bit effort real soon. Have unpacked some of the boxes and got parts ready for mods. Also after thinking a little about it have changed my mind on a few areas. You will find these out. As for the house. nearly finished. Just won a SA award and entering a few more. Grass is now down and some stirs off the deck to the lawn.
Just got to tidy up the hot tub and some fans, daughters bedroom inside and back to the car.
As for the car. New wheels are on the cards, seats have been chosen as well as interior. Guards have been test fitted and just trying to sort out plumbing and where it is all going to fit.
Thanks for the compliment Golde, goes for both of us, I am in love with the 550.
Updates soon I promise.
T54
C'mon kids gather round,
there's a new sensation hitting town,
It's moving straight, low to the ground,
it'll pick you up when your feeling down.
Hi in this post below there is some photos of your hub. It looks to me like youve cut down an EMPI combo hub??? Is that right and if so do you have some more pics please. I am a little cautious of the rear brakes i have chosen but like the idea of being able to lathe them down and use my own hub Bolted to it... They seem really meaty.
Cheers
Aaron
posted on January 29th, 2009 at 11:15 PM
Here is a few more as promised,
The rear stub axles are from a type 181 which are meant to be really strong. These have been mated to the hub which is a machined down rear drum and then drilled and tapped for a ford stud pattern. I have also used fully threaded wheel studs. This is because I am going to mount the brake disk to the back of the hub and sandwich it on using the spacer to lock it down. As you can see in the image the spacer is also tapped and it will all be torqued up together to form a strong unit. The spacers aer machined out of aircraft grade aluminium as the material is already hardened.
The whole lot has been put together and spun on a lathe to work out where the best balance was and then marked so it could be out back together again the same way left and right. Also after this the whole unit including the disks was balanced. It should be all back together and assembled on the rear arms next week after being painted.
The hub assembly
Brakes masked, look back in this post to see condition before machining.
Amazing what a slight skim with wet and dry can do.
Brake disks and parts
Close up of all spacers
181 Stubs
New bushes
Hey Aussie,
From memory they are machined down beetle drum back halves. Don't quote me. I bought them off a guy that used to be on here called Macolm and all the machining was done. I suspect thats what they were and the cross that on them is the strengthening.
Someone on here might know more. Post it in the general section and you might get the right answer.
Sorry T54
C'mon kids gather round,
there's a new sensation hitting town,
It's moving straight, low to the ground,
it'll pick you up when your feeling down.
Cheers i will just borrow a couple of pics though hope thats ok
lurve the pad heath.. hmmm
fractal geometry; the inner most limits of mind altering abuse
Fantasy
http://seventhchronicle.com
Z = Z2 + C1/r = 1/0 = infinity
Barrels
www.barrelman.com.au
VW Workshop - aircooledgarage.com.au
allcooled.com.au
oh damn :O thats an awesome built loving it Wanting to see more
You're pimping an old Mac, so not only are you a VW bloke, but you're an Apple one too.
Respect.
House looks crazy by the way, where are you in Adelaide?
Wouldn't mind catching up and meeting up with you at some point.
Hey Sebastien, I'm in Adelaide hills, Don't really get out to things VW related, mainly blow through to say hi to a few people. Lookout for the Turbo54 Tee Shirt. More into Hot rods and street machines.
I'll keep my eye out for the car in the avator.
T54
C'mon kids gather round,
there's a new sensation hitting town,
It's moving straight, low to the ground,
it'll pick you up when your feeling down.
Wow, I remember looking at your house plans about 2 years ago and it looks great as per the plans. It's great to see your dreams and drawings become reality, well done. Although it must of been hard putting the VW on hold.
Congratulations, Kevin
I thought rebuilding a VW would be cheap - Shit I was wrong, just don't let the wife know !!!!
Click here for my (slowy) modded 1961 Beetle build.Yeah, I figured you were up in the hills from the house photos, you around Stirling/Bridgewater?
I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for the man in the shirt 😉
I'll have to update the avatar soon, check out my thread on what I'm doing to her and you'll see what I mean.
See you around!
nice house there heath. congrats
love the outriggers done at two different levels, makes you look twice, and the big black beams at the top give it a real presence and structure.
still got to finish the cfc on the front? metal clad i presume?
...................( O \ l / O ).....................
Hey Golde,
The CFC at the front? If you mean the rammed earth, no it's staying natural. If you mean the underneath of the house, this will be in stage 2 of the house with another hip roof and build in to house the beetle when done. polished concrete, bi-folds etc.
There is another set of outriggers going up in a few weeks in the middle section made out of steel. These will look light weight and have slatted timber across the top. I will update pics.
Thanks for all the compliments.
Heath
C'mon kids gather round,
there's a new sensation hitting town,
It's moving straight, low to the ground,
it'll pick you up when your feeling down.
got much polished concrete? have a mate who does it and he is rolling in money, they are downright thieves!
EVERLAST CONCRETE TANKS
1800 552 123
Hi All,
Been a while since I have posted. You all know how it is life gets in the way. The best thing is the house is now at a place where I can start concentrating back on the car again. I have been scratching at it over the last couple of months but never got into it too seriously. The best thing about the house build is for the last 5 years is the fact I have had time to think about what I want to achieve with this car, the use for it and the final look. This is now locked down in my head in a solid plan. I have a photo-shopped goal on the wall of the shed to keep me on track next to the dirty calender!
Over this period I have almost sorted/collected/swapped out all the parts needed to finish the car, turbo system, injection etc which is nicely boxed on the shelves.
The main thing to do with the car now is getting everything to fit and look like it should be there. This is hard with 3 big pumps, and ice box and a motor that should not really fit and looks nothing like factory.
I have a plan.
Over the next few months there should be a significant progression in this build so keep posted!
The first agenda is the body. Since I opened this thread I have had 3 54 bodies and this is the worst. Finn you got the best one and I am kicking myself now!
Anyhow as it has been bumped around a fair bit and sometime in its life (about 12years ago) got a nice paint job I am now not too concerned about cutting it up to get what I want out of it.
The previous repairs are done well but finished badly. I set out to find out how bad and spent months scraping all the deadner off the body. That was a while ago.
I bought new quarters and rear apron from wolfparts sweden and tracked down a new front clip here in adelaide that will be replacing the previous repair work.
The rear apron will be removable to allow me to get the motor out easier. The guards and w lid are going to be fibreglass.
I have spent the last 2 weeks modifying a rotisserie (thanks Paul for the ends and Dave for the ideas) that mounted up on the bumper mounts that I cut off my car. So I had to build a frame that mounted off the original pan bolts. I think it worked well. It needs to have a few more brackets in it to take out some flex. Once I sorted this it was off to the soda blasters so now I await what I get back.
Always a scary scenario when your car has seen previous work!
I'll keep you posted.
T54
This is the first time it has seen daylight for years. Was waiting for one of those mummy effects where it all starts crumbling to dust.
C'mon kids gather round,
there's a new sensation hitting town,
It's moving straight, low to the ground,
it'll pick you up when your feeling down.
👍
Reub
Got it back from the blasters. Not much to tell. Nothing showed up that we didn't know about and no rust. A few sections that have been repaired but hey it over 50 years old. Also had the new front clip blasted and that is perfect. As some of the car was really good I made the decision not to touch bits that I didn't have too. The paint is already over 10 years old and have come out in anything so the plan is to scrub it back and paint over it.This is the roof, 4 quarters and doors.
The worst bit is trying to get out all the dust and blasting compound.
T54
After that I removed all the tabs and other bits on the shell I didn't want and cleaned it all over and started taping it up for the 2Pac Epoxy Primer.
Primer on
New wolfparts replacement panels
Masking ripped off.
So overall it was a very busy weekend. Now the fun starts of the replacement panels and straightening the interior out.
Peace,
T54
C'mon kids gather round,
there's a new sensation hitting town,
It's moving straight, low to the ground,
it'll pick you up when your feeling down.
Coming together really well, can't wait to see it on the road!
When you thinking it'll be back on the road?
Not sure, as soon as I can get it there. Have been working pretty hard on here lately and I think the family is forgetting who I am.
The panel beater is coming over the week after next and then off to him for a few weeks. While that's happening it will be full swing on the pans and brakes suspension which is almost all done.
T54
C'mon kids gather round,
there's a new sensation hitting town,
It's moving straight, low to the ground,
it'll pick you up when your feeling down.
