Just a quick summary of my project so far and my current plans!
Before it came off the road:
I had fitted 996 brakes on all corners and also kerscher front struts with the cup 2 wheels
I then found some serious rust so it was off the road for a BIG overhaul!
Inside the heater channels, same both sides!
I am also using a short nose G50 transmission
It has only done about 30k km and I also have an LSD to go in it.
Engine will be a WRX RA with VOS chip so about 300bhp, I had it in the car temporarily on the bug AT transmission before I decided to go G50:
I was originally thinking about modifying the dash for the subaru instruments, but now I am considering using the complete subaru dashboard complete with heating and air conditioning, also moving the steering column so it is less off-centre
I also have some 996 turbo sports seats:
Rust!
Rear strengthening panels removed:
There are a LOT of spot welds on this car!
I made up a removable frame to add extra body support while the heater channels were cut out
New channels and strengtheners after being stripped and repainted
I have positioned it 25mm higher and about 70mm forwards compared to the standard bug trans to get the subaru engine under the bodywork.
I'm now buildingup something along the lines of the sketch below, made out of 40x60mm tube, that way I can make them suitable for the subaru engine mounts. I am making the new floor perimeter from the same tube so will tie it all in together, I think it will be nice and strong when I'm finished.
Latest progress:
New brackets for the 911 front mount:
Getting the shape for the top of the new framehorns
No going back now!
The splines remade to fit further out inside the torsion tube, I'm using shorter swing axle torsion bars now
All welded in!
More progress during the next week or so, a full 4 days next weekend!
seagull ·
Thumbs up mate , quite a job you have there on the go
ricola ·
Cheers. It has been a bit of a backburner project for me but the family has gone away for a couple of weeks so I'm pushing forwards and making the most of it 😵💫
seagull ·
Is the rust due to the salt on the road ?
whats the going rate for a G50 gear box on your side of the slab ?
cheers seagull
seagull ·
& how did you find a VOS chip in the UK LOL !
reub ·
You are a man possessed Rich!....
Looks great👍 ... as always
ricola ·
Cheers guys... Rust is a problem with all cars over here, climate and salt eventually gets them all!
G50 prices are all over the place, realistically from £1500 upwards, I got lucky finding mine with only 20k miles on it from a pampered car that was written off (a mate looked after the car and had bought it's parts but needed some fast cash). They are very popular for all sorts of mid-engined cars over here, particularly the Ultima GTRs...
VOS chips do get around! I bought it a while back on ebay when scoobyecus were very hard to come by, I may switch back at some point as the original guy over here has started mapping them for bespoke installs and the chips are available again, only really to get rid of the check engine light for the missing chargecooler pump (unless anyone knows how to fix that!)
Gibbo ·
WOW! Nice work mate, its going to be a sweet ride.
ricola ·
Mocked up the trans again tonight to double check clearances and work out how the bottom tube is going to fit in, I have it all planned in my head now 😎
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
Looking good, I hope to get back to mine soon. I'm glad I didn't have a the rust issues to contend with that you had.
Steve
ricola ·
I'm still annoyed with the rust, I paid a good price for a supposedly solid car as I wanted to avoid that part too. At least I know now that it is 100% solid and it's RHD (most here are LHD imports)...
Joel ·
Hi Rich, ive been following the resto and conversion over on VWKD
are you still happy with the radiator setup?
ricola ·
Still happy? I don't plan to change the rads if that is what you mean, I will be cutting a hole into the front apron for direct air flow and it is a fully enclosed intake. The rad is a Pace ally one, it came out of a 500bhp sierra cosworth track car will be overkill if anything... The chargecooler rad sits infront of the main rad.
Joel ·
yeah thats what i meant
just wanted to know if you were happy with the way its cooling
i plan to mount mine in the same manner i just wasnt sure if there was enough metal cut out behind for the hot air to escape out
im going to fit an american style A/C front valance as well
ricola ·
American style A/C valance is still an option and I may yet rework the shape of the rear cover to maximise the outlet for the air to escape at the back but it's not a particular area of concern..
Flintstones ·
looking good Rich👍
Cheers
Dino
ricola ·
Cheers Dino,
I got the idea for what I plan to do with the floors from your build, except I'm going a bit further and replacing the bottom section of the napolean's hat with a single piece going through the centre tunnel (for some reason 1303 napolean hats are very expensive and mine's rusty there too).
GTMac ·
Nice work, love seeing stuff like this that is done well. Like the bracing setup for the gearbox, will have to be doing something heavy duty as well when I put the 915 into the Fasty.
ricola ·
I'll be putting hoops over/under the trans as well some triangulation once I get more bits in place and see what space is left with the body fitted. My big aim is to minimise the affect all this is having on the look of the car, so no roll cage and will hopefully keep the stock rear seat base. I'll have to build in the seatbelt mounting points over the trans too.
ricola ·
A bit more tonight, made up both lower framehorns and done most of the clearancing on one side ready to weld in. Note I have left them over-length to trim down later when the engine is in.
ricola ·
Even though I worked a half day today (we get tuesday off instead), I got out to the garage and got a load done today 😀
End piece tack welded in to keep it all square
Fully seam welded with the new handbrake tubes welded in too
Measuring for the bridging pieces with the trans in place
All welded!
That's the framehorns pretty much done. I'll do a hoop over the trans later on and adapt the ends of the framehorns for the subaru engine mounts but I'm very pleased with today's progress. It's very strong already!
ricola ·
More progress today:
New perimeter rails for the floor, this will be a LOT stiffer than a stock chassis 😀
Flintstones ·
that'll stiffen it up Rich!!
What wall thickness did you end up going with?
ricola ·
It's 3mm. Being a cabrio I need all the help I can get! Next step is to cut the bottom section out of the napoleans hat and weld a single new piece through the front of the tunnel, luckily it should fit just under the master cylinder positions. I'll also be re-working the pedals to have a clutch m/c in a mirror image to the brake m/c.
ricola ·
A bit more done today...
Cut the original floors out
Bolted up the new chassis sections to the body to check for fit
Both rear sections tacked in to the back end of the chassis
I ran out of cutting discs 🙄, have to cut the bottom part of the napolean's hat for the front cross tube before I can progress any more...
Once the new chassis sections are welded together and bolted to the body I'll be abel to do a trial fit of the engine and make it's mounts.
ricola ·
A bit more done now...
Put the body on the chassis to get everything aligned perfectly before welding it all together
Years of bodges! Several plates, filler and pidgeon shit welding.
Front end together, nearly ready for welding...
ricola ·
Went out this evening to weld the chassis sections together, then removed it so I can add some extra sections more easily. Getting there!
Away this weekend so no more progress for a week or so...
GTMac ·
Looking good Rich. What extra weight do you think will be added? Sure it will be well compensated by the new motor!
What type of clutch set up do you use with the G50?
ricola ·
At the moment it really isn't that much heavier, still easy to pull around the garage like a wheelbarrow with the new framehorns!
I'm using a stock 911 clutch for the year of the G50, should be fine for the moment (having thoughts of building a new 2.5sti based engine for the future!)
Flintstones ·
That's a familiar sight 👍
Looks good.
Cheers
D
ricola ·
Thought it might be! 😂
ricola ·
Bit more done...
Cut rust out of chassis:
Then fabricate new panels and weld them in, took a bit of beating to get the right shape with that thick steel!
Added some drain holes to help prevent problems in the future too...
ricola ·
The need to convert to a hydraulic clutch gave me the excuse to splash out on this pedal box...
I'm going to try and fit the pedals less offset than original and will also sink them to the bottom of the chassis tubes so the new floor won't change too much, while covering the master cylinders.
subaruboxer ·
Hi Rich,
you are at it again big time!! Great job!!
All I can say is that you are doing it right again!!
Cheers,
Jörg
ricola ·
Done a bit more, progress has been a bit slower recently. Put my back out flipping the chassis yesterday so I think that will slow me down for a couple of weeks too unfortunately...
I have remade the front pedal area for the new set-up, including locally lowering the floor to compensate for the raised floor over the master cylinders:
Got the seat mounts in:
Next I'm welding in tubing to the main rails at the bolt positions so stop water getting inside and to make them neater/stronger.
pete wood ·
as always, a great job there mate. 👍
crsedge ·
Great job so far, well done!
... and anyone in Australia who wants a 1303 Cab to start their own VWRX Karmann, here is one I prepared earlier 😂 :
It certainly isn't in the same shape you started with Rich, very straight with floors already done, and would make a great base!
Look forward to continuing to read the thread on this build.
Cheers
Craig
ricola ·
Well, I've been making bits of progress here and there...
For all body bolt locations going through the chassis I got out the hole saw and welded in sections of tube. Looks a LOT neater and will keep out the elements.
Sorted the gear linkage and shifter position
extended the shift rod and modifed the tunnel for the 911 shifter
got the engine into position
Now time to make up some engine mounts
1303Steve ·
Hi
Looking good, cant wait to get back to mine.
Steve
Flintstones ·
Like what you did with the tubes for the body mounting positions Rich. Looks really nice.
At the top of the tubes how did you close those off (hope I've explained that well?)
Cheers
ricola ·
Not really sure what you mean...
I've drilled the top and bottom of the main 'rails' and welded in lengths of tube all the way through, so a constant diameter. Obviously the body seal will sit on the top side and on the bottom I will use oversize washers with button head stainless bolts going up into the heater channels. My rails are the same depth as the cabrio sill strengtheners so unfortunately the heads may get the odd scrape, but worst case I can cut the heads off and unthread the remains.
If I remember right you drilled bigger holes in the bottom of your tubes and then planned on rubber plugs? I just wanted to make sure that no elements could get inside the tubes. Also, with the pattern heater channels the accuracy of the captive nuts isn't that great so oversize holes allows for that too.. In a perfect world a stepped tube welded in woul dbe the ideal so the bolt heads could be recessed up from the bottom but I don't have a lathe..
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
I saw this hardware for pan stiffeners at aircooled.net, he wont sell them separately unfortunately.
Steve
ricola ·
It would be a similar thing to that but recessed inside the chassis tube fully, I think those ones still protrude out of the bottom? I'm happy enough with how mine has turned out, button heads aren't exactly going to decrease my ground clearance much..
Flintstones ·
I'm with you now. They are going to be long bolts then.
My reasoning was to get the bolt as short as possible to eliminate any "flex" as I've planned for serious power to be put through the chassis as you know.
Yes an going to put rubber grommets to seal the bigger holes underneath, but I will fish oil inside the box section first for protection.
Cheers
D
ricola ·
Well as long as you have a foam gasket it is never going to be that stiff as an assembly...
Done a bit more today, started making up the engine cradle
ricola ·
Tubes welded through the framehorns for the bolts and then the ends capped.
Couple of M16 bolts on each side hold it together nicely, rest of the mount will be done with body on chassis to make sure everything has suitable clearances and I can maximise ground clearance
1303Steve ·
Nice work
Flintstones ·
there's no way your going to break those frame horns and cradle😉
How much ground clearance you got there? Is that set at ride height?
Cheers
ricola ·
lol, I'm future proofing for silly amounts of horsepower 😎
As for ground clearance, I don't think it is too far off as the chassis stands, but I may well trim the bottom off the cradle if I think it is too low, having said that I think it would be good to have it level with the sump so act a bit like a guard..
Next job will be to make a bit more space around the shift rod linkage so I can get to it all from underneath (very fiddly at the moment) and then join chassis/body before starting to cut the body for the trans nose and then finish off the engine mounts.
ricola ·
Got the engine and trans in position in the chassis with body mounted, time to do some more fabrication!
Flintstones ·
Looks like it was meant to be there.
Sheet metal work over the gearbox will be minimal as well.
Looking great👍
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
I just noticed your number plates, do they say what I thought they say?
Steve
ricola ·
lol, I'd never noticed that!
ricola ·
Engine is now in place on its own 😎
Really happy with its final position, it looks like I have been able to raise the engine a good 2 inches and push it forwards by only an inch, helped in the end by mounting the trans at a slight angle. Other bonus is that the car isn't trying to do wheelies on the rear axle stands (sitting on jacking points) so once all front/rear suspension, seats, fuel tank, doors etc are in place the overall weight distribution won't be too bad.
I'll finish off the engine cradle properly tomorrow and post pics...
ricola ·
Engine mount cradle finished off...
I also hooked up the shifter again, it was rubbing a bit on the bottom of the tunnel before but all good now, in fact VERY good! 😀
Made up a removable brace to go underneath the trans
Flintstones ·
This has got to be the best EJ20T/G50 conversions Rich.👍👍
ricola ·
😵 I've had a few others to learn and pinch ideas from 😉
What's the status with your bug? That has to be one of my all time favourites, can't wait to see that one done!
Flintstones ·
😁Thanks mate,
Haven't touched it for over a year now.
My wife and I added twins to our family (4 kids all up) as well as selling my house to get into a bigger house.
Now I've got to build a garage/workshop/carport before I can even think about starting on the GTO......when will it ever end😵💫
ricola ·
Not surprised you've slowed down with 4 kids! I'm ploughing on while my 2 are away 😂
Chassis modified with a steel tube hoop over the nose of the gearbox and a transmission tunnel built in to the body, I used the edge flange from the old crossmembers to preserve a factory appearance and also left a small gap for the body gasket.
Flintstones ·
Looking good.
I'm guessing the opening that's left now will just be sheeted over.
What are you going to do for rear seating? 2 buckets...
ricola ·
Yes, I'll box in the front bit of the hoop, maybe one of today's jobs.
Standard seats are going back in, there is just about enough space if I modify the framework locally so to anybody looking they won't know what is lurking beneath 😀
reub ·
Nice work to date Rich👍
Seeing all the wrx conversions around the place sure gives me plenty of ideas....
ricola ·
More mods to your VWRX Reub?!
More accomplished today...
Plug welded the rear seatbelt panel back in
Trial fitted a rear seat
Welded in 3mm sheet on the chassis around the trans nose
Made an access panel for the shifter coupling
Flintstones ·
Solid, that's never going to move 🙂
so did you have to mod the seat much in the end?
ricola ·
Just the central brace in the seat base so far to move the kink already in it further forwards to clear the trans tunnel. Nearly set it on fire welding so I'm going to leave doing it properly until I have stripped the covers off. I also need to gain about 15mm clearance to the seat back bottom tube but that won't be noticable after the retrim.
ricola ·
Have been busy on it but mostly lots of smaller jobs that aren't that exciting...
Modified the bulkhead to give more space for pedal travel if needed
I'm now on to remaking the rear end of the body to make space for the engine and to make it removable. To do this I needed to take the roof off to get better access and I was greeted with this:
Bit of cutting
then make new panels and weld all up
VWFREAK ·
Damm your not mucking around with this build. 👍
Flintstones ·
And now for the not so fun stuff😂
Do you have a lot of rust to deal with?
ricola ·
That was about the only remaining hidden area (although I will have to fix a small amount around the windscreen/scuttle area). Just having some lunch now, but this morning I cut most of the back end out! Will make/weld in a frame this afternoon and post pics... At the back of my mind I want to make space for framework between the top damper mounts.
ricola ·
As promised, some more pics...
Flintstones ·
I'm curious and puzzled as to why you need such a big opening, considering directly under the opening is the gearbox, but will wait patiently to see what goes in there.
How's the back part of the body going to be secured, seeing as you've done away with the rear body mounts that are near the dampers?
ricola ·
First off there is the subaru chargecooler. Secondly in the back of my mind I still may redesign the top damper mounts. The clutch slave was practically touching the underside of the parcel shelf before so this just gives it a bit more breathing room. I plan to permanently panel in both sides and have the central section removable, like a bus access panel.
The body mounts are still present, I do need to cut them off to deal with rust in between the double skins and am not sure if I will replace them or make up new ones..
ricola ·
Put in a trailing arm and axle to check clearances. Axle is at about 12 degrees which isn't as bad as I was fearing, what do people think about 944 or should I go with 930 CVs for the extra strength/angle? I may also modify the lower damper position on the arm to get enough clearance for coil-overs...
Got hold of a bay window engine access cover and then shortened it to suit. Have to make up suitable framework now...
Grey 57 ·
Very nice build. 🙂 How much angle can you get away with on CV's
ricola ·
According to blindchickenracing:
Type 1 is 12 degrees
Type 2 is 17 degrees
Type 4/944 is 22 degrees
930 is 25 degrees
To stay with 944 size I already have the hubs, I just have to buy carrera 4 front drive flanges as they bolt straight into the G50 and are the correct bolt pattern.
To go 930 CV I have to sort hub ends and get an extra pair of CVs and then axles (which swayaway do relatively cheaply), bonus will be they are extremely strong!
Flintstones ·
Looking good Rich.
What's the car going to be used for? If its a road/track car then the 944 cv's should be more than able to handle what you dish out.
I can't see that you'll be abusing it. Buy the flanges for the box and your done.
At worst if the cv's fail then you can always spend the money and upgrade to the 930 gear.
Cheers
D
ricola ·
At the moment my long term plan is to use the car as a weekend toy. I'm not going to have the time to build another complete car so I plan to play with engine instead, I feel I have to take advantage of that bulletproof trans! So, I will be going for 4-500bhp later on and I'd rather do it all right first time as in the end that is always cheaper/better...
Sticking with 944 stuff will definitely be cheaper, I'm guessing about £150 instead of over £400 for 930 stuff ($300 for axles, $200 for stubs, $130 for another pair of CVs then shipping from US for all that stuff).
ricola ·
Work has slowed recently but got a bit of time this weekend...
Made the framework for the hatch
I'll probably make the remaining panels bolt-in too
ricola ·
Making up framework to support the rear bodywork and bumper now...
I'll make a bridging piece to go in between leaving as much space as possible under the 'bubble' late valance for a big magnaflow muffler and to make the assembly a bit more rigid.
pete wood ·
man this car is gonna be awesome. UltraVW should do a feature on it when it's finished!
ricola ·
Rear bumper brackets and a cross piece added to stiffen it all up a bit
Quick mock-up...
ricola ·
Done the coolant pipes now:
Here you can see the initial tacked together complete runs. After my speedster I was not keen to use the stock subaru thermostat again, I used an external thermostat on my libra and it worked very well so I am using the same one here.
Adapter piece from the manifold converts from the engine's 38mm pipework down to the thermostat and main line size of 32mm, it also incorporates a bleed line which will go back to the coolant header tank. You can also see how I mounted the return rigid section to the engine with a piece of flex to account for engine movement.
Here's how the outlet pipe drops down just infront of the trailing arm. I mounted them high enough so that they will not get in the way of a 944 anti-roll bar.
pete wood ·
i guess you've already thought of this, but you will get air pockets in the pipe that goes across the top of the trans. I had that very problem myself. are you going to put a bleed nipple in for bleeding the whole system up?
Flintstones ·
looks great Rich.
I like the way you tried to make the pipes look symmetrical underneath.
Not much fabrication work left from the look of it.
Cheers
D
ricola ·
I did have them non-symmetrical to begin with but then changed my mind, looks better for it I think. Inner wings still to be done and also the decision to make a cross piece or not between top damper mounts...
Pete: I already have a bleed point in the pipe between the engine outlet and the thermostat that will be hooked up to the header tank. I guess an additional one might be handy during the fill up phase but will be more or less redundant after that, will have a think about it...
Rich
gerrelt ·
Looks good, Rich!
One thing I encountered in my cooling system was that I made the connections to the engine too rigid. De movement of the engine made the coolant hoses to "walk off".
I then cut out a long piece of metal coolant pipe, and replaced it with a flexible coolant hose. That solved the problem.
I think your flexible pieces look a bit short. The don't allow much engine movement. I would have made them longer.
ricola ·
I read you had that problem on your site, I'm waiting to fit some silicone hoses to see how flexible they are before commiting finally (and maybe getting them galvanized)
ricola ·
Just about got the exhaust done, still have to source an oxygen sensor boss in stainless to weld in and weld on a tailpipe but I'll wait until the bodywork is fully finished for that...
General consensus is that a bellmouth turbo outlet is best for flow and general drivability. It merges the wastegate flow into the main turbo outlet so I had to go round to a mates to open out the flange I had already bought with his plasma cutter (got to get me one of those!!). I made a jig out of plywood offset the size of the plasma nozzle..
Then I had to bend up the bellmouth section and weld it on
with it being 3" stainless tube I decided to go around the axle rather than an extremely tight radius for better performance, it ends going through a 3" magnaflow muffler I found at a kit car show...
I'll wrap it in thermal tape when I'm finished...
Mick058 ·
Looks good - my exhaust does the same, around the axle
Mick058 ·
just 1 thing, where does your sensor sit?
ricola ·
Hi Mick,
I did look at yours before I did mine and saw a comment about that sensor being vulnerable to damage so I will be welding a boss into the downpipe instead. Mine is an early engine which had the O2 sensor before the turbo instead of the more common position post turbo or most recent before and after which you have got...
Rich
Mick058 ·
👍 no probs mate. Your car is really looking the goods. looking forward to the progress 👍
ricola ·
Sorted out a boss for the oxygen sensor tonight...
ricola ·
Got a bit done this morning...
Redid the engine return coolant pipe support, oil was seeping from the rocker cover gasket so I thought it it was that sensitive I don't want to put any rocking forces into it from the pipe when the engine is running. I found an unused boss on the front of the engine block I have used instead
Also fitted up the 944 rear anti-roll bar which meant re-making the Porsche mounts so it sat in the right place
Bit rusty but it will all clean up, I may fit a thicker one anyway..
ricola ·
I got this dash off a fellow swapper, it's from a 1995 WRX. The driver's side end is almost the perfect width, but I will need to take a chunk out of the passenger side which should be fairly easy to blend together, might lose the glovebox though. My main issue is that the heater controls are for full climate control so no cables to adapt to a different heater. I might be able to get the controls off a lesser model which uses cables and adapt to another heater box?
Did a bit of trimming tonight...
ricola ·
After all that I've decided to go back to a more classic look using early 944 VDO gauges with flat lenses. It should look similar to this:
Having thoughts about going with 19" Carrera Sport alloys too which are a modern twist on minilites and will require very slightly widened wings (about 30mm)
Started on the enclosed cold air intake system, panel filter will be built in to inner wing and have a cold air intake on the front of the rear wing like Jak and a few others have done..
Jak Rizzo ·
Hi Rich
My dump pipe was built by a local wrx guru here on the coast, I don't have an open mouth dump pipe like yours, I have a splitter so that the exhaust gasses from the wastegate don't interfere with the turbo main gasses. I noticed an instant difference in performance. Just a thought.
Info here http://www.msengineering.com.au/exhaustsystems.html
regards
Jak
ricola ·
Thanks for the info Jak, I'll look into it, at least it would be nice and easy to implement...
Bizarre ·
You dont need advice from me but that modified 1303 dash is the go!
Damn - this is gunna be one nice ride!
Excellent work 👍
Flintstones ·
The carrera sports look nice.
The classic looking dash looks much better IMO.
cheers
D
ricola ·
lol, I think that has been most peoples' thoughts on the dash due to the silence!
Rich
colonel mustard ·
I like the dash, as long as you can find a wheel that suits and doesnt block all the gauges from view.
72RSbug ·
Go with the classic dash mate, suits the car way better (at least it does judging from the pics). And it will be less work 😉
ricola ·
I've decided to go with the replica carrera sports with 10" rears. If I bite the bullet and adapt the car now then I can easily change wheels later on with standard sets rather than breaking up two sets to use narrow fronts all the time. It will also look better as I think I will be widening the front wings a bit to get the 8,5J wheels on but would not have needed to widen the rears at all which would look odd.
Started doing the dash now...
Sorting out layout:
making up new dash section:
and welding it in (the burn marks are from the foam that kept catching fire!):
All this will be covered by a painted finishing plate which will also cover the trimmed edges and extend right across the dash and glovebox.
just need to make the binnacle cover now...
STIDUB ·
good choice 😀
Flintstones ·
The tacho is going to drive you crazy mounted like that LoL😂😁
Cheers
D
ricola ·
How do you mean? I can see it all...
Flintstones ·
From that perspective I see what you mean. I though that you hadn't put the tacho in the right way up.
But on closer inspection, I'm guessing you've had the face re-done as the digits appear "upside down"
Normally the needle starts from the left then goes to the right in a clockwise fashion.
Looks the business. Nice Alpine wheel by the way👍
Cheers
D
ricola ·
They are stock early Porsche 924/944 gauges, not touched them at all, that's how they come (bargain for £7 on ebay!). I may reface the tach to go higher and I am definitely replacing the 'nipple' lenses for flat.
The steering wheel is an NOS one I found in Belgium! Had them on my last few cars...
Cheers, Rich
Flintstones ·
Well there you go....I can still learn something new everyday 😀
Cheers
D
ricola ·
Wheels arrived! 😀
Specs: Cayman fitment, 19" x 8,5J with 235/35R19 front tyres
19" x 10J with 265/30R19 rear tyres
Rear wings will need to be widened by about 45mm..
Ground clearance is really good!
8" to sill strengtheners and 6" to engine sump at ride height, I still have 4" ground clearance to the sump when on the bumpstops...
reub ·
SWEET RUBBER dude👍
Wow.
1303Steve ·
Hi
Nice wheels, I still crack up when I see your number plate.
Steve
Flintstones ·
that looks great!!
what tyres are they?
Cheers
D
ricola ·
Tyres are Vredestein Ultrac Sessenta...
Camo ·
Just came across your build thread and all I can say is, what an amazing job and you are a pure artist at heart. There has been so much engineering gone into this and I could only wish I was half as good. The end product will be the best reward you could ask for.
I have been following Mick's build here in Sydney and visited it a few times. Would love a Rex motor in mine, but a lot of work and money :-(
Well done and I look forward to following this thread, Kevin
ricola ·
Got some more done today...
Instrument shroud was mocked up in card and then replicated in steel. Just have to find some foam to glue over the top and shape/blend in now.
Rear wings in process of being widened 45mm. I wanted to widen the wings so they would look as close to stock as possible and keep the additional width to an absolute minimum. The end result is that I have clearance down to the bumpstops with no excess coverage. Note the bottom edge lines up much better now, it has slipped on the grippers slightly in this pic.
Wing is pulled into shape to minimise the amount of bodywork needed. There won't be much filler needed at all on these...
Flintstones ·
My guards (wings) were done in a similar fashion, only 3" wide in the rear, 1.5" on the fronts
Its a fun job aint it......
Looks great with the pumped guards 👍
ricola ·
I've now got burnt eyelids from all that tack welding, lol!
badvw68 ·
Rich - did you adjust the ride height any. It looks lowered, but couldn't tell if it were only the new rims/tires making it look this way or not? Its looking good!
ricola ·
Right side wing welds now ground down and left wing all tacked together. I also tried on the stock rear bumper to check for fit, it just needs spacing back about 30mm..
It is lowered but not sure how much, I've lost most references! Final ride height will be set by having hardly any air visible between top of tyre and wing...
Flintstones ·
Its getting there Rich.
how long did each guard take you from start to finish?
ricola ·
Neither of them are finished, will need to finish off both return lips and them filler work. I think I have about 3 hours in the left wing so far so not too bad... Will finish weld and grind tonight hopefully.
I also now have bits to make up new front strut mounts as I want to tune camber/caster angles for new ride height.
Mick058 ·
frig me thats a lot of work - well done. One question though, would widened fiberglass guards be available?
ricola ·
Fibreglass ones are available but not cheap and in limited widths. I want the minimum additional width possible (I need 45mm which isn't a common width). There's also the problem of how long they would take and I also want to put in an air intake to the passenger side to have an enclosed cold air supply.
Mick058 ·
cool, makes sense. loving the progress 👍
ricola ·
Rolled it out to get a better appreciation of how it will all look. I was able to manually pull the stock front wing out slightly to cover the front wheels once I had moved the top strut mount inboards and adjusted the suspension arm as short as it would go.
My problem now is that the tyre rubs the wing at the back and I also need more caster. I have two options:
1: move the anti-roll bar mounts forwards to centralise the wheel in the wing
2: re-shape the rear of the wing, this would give more clearance everywhere
Has anybody else come across this problem before? I've seen some biased bushes for sale that push the bar forwards but it doesn't look like they would be enough for me..
STIDUB ·
cant hurt to try, bushings are pretty cheap...
perhaps a guard roller could help, dont know how it would go on bug guards though but the jap car crowd seem to love them...
looking good though, will chat to you soon 👍
ricola ·
Nah, roller wouldn't work, the lip actually overlaps the tyre at the back and would also give a problem in bump with much of a steering angle. Think I'll try unbolting the bar brackets and moving it forwards to see how much it needs moving and if that fixes the problem. I'm thinking about an inch would do it...
Flintstones ·
Rich,
The reason why the back of the front guard now rubs, is because you pulled the centre of the arch outwards, which forced the rear part to move inwards, thus giving you the problem you have now.
If you have the flexibility in being able to move the suspension forward do that as it's going to be an easier/cheaper method, other wise widening the guard in similar fashion to the rears I think would be better, as the shape of the guards are different front to rear. (rears go up and then curve inwards to the body where the fronts are sort of diagonal from the tyre with a flat curve to the body)
One thing that really bothers me now is the look of the front bar in relation to the position of the guards (I know its all standard fitment) but the rear bar looks so nice shaped to the widen rear guards.
Personally I'd have to cut'n'shut the front bar so that it resembles the rear arrangement as I like the way the rear bar doesn't interrupt the lines of the guards flowing onto the rear apron.
On another note, I was studying your wheels and if you painted them black, and polished up just the crest of each of the spokes as well as the rim, it would like like a modern big diameter Porsche gas burner rim!😉
Looking great by the way👍
Cheers
D
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
Inspiring post as usual. When you move the wheel forward you need to watch the tyre touching the headlight bucket, I had this issue with my yellow bug.
Can you get a front sway bar with adjustable caster over there? It might be a case of adjustable front sway bar and moving the strut tops around to get it where you want it.
Steve
ricola ·
D: I'll try moving the ARB first, I know what you are saying about the p;ullking about moving the rear but I haven't moved things that much, all by hand, not real brute force... What do you mean by the bar? Bumper? I'll be running the rims as they are for a while, it isn't that noticeable but the rims are polished wiht the centres silver, should show up nicely in sunlight.
Steve: Not checked bucket clearance but will do. I haven't seen adjustable ARBs here for caster, think I have seen 'lowered' versions which are a bit shorter. I was all set to make up the new top mounts but will obviously play around with it all now until I get where I need to be...
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
I had one on my yellow 1302 which I will reuse on my 1303, they were made by Whiteline, the straight shank part that goes through the control arm is longer in as it allows the control arm to be moved forward further, it then adjusted with shims.
Whiteline stopped making the adjustable caster front bars but they are now made by these people http://www.selbys.com.au/
I've seen caster adjustment setups on other makes of cars, they used an adjustable section where the sway bar bolts to the front point of the chassis.
Steve
ricola ·
Cheers for info Steve, but I've already spent the cash on an uprated bar, I'll just work with what I've already got or costs will spiral, lol!
I just went out and made up a simple 20mm spacer and it pushes the wheel forwards to exactly the right position, lucky guess! Really good clearance to wing at all steering angles and plenty of space to the headlight bucket (maybe it's just sloping headlight buckets which have clearance problems?
VWFREAK ·
Coming along nicely and awesome work on the guards👍
Flintstones ·
ricola wrote:What do you mean by the bar? Bumper?
Yep, the bumper bars.
Sorry about the slang🙂
Cheers
ricola ·
Had a spare hour or so today so welded in the air intake to the rear wing. It will feed a panel filter within a custom airbox built in to the inner wing
Flintstones ·
Looks sweet!!
How much clearance have you got between the intake and the tyre?
Cheers
D
ricola ·
I didn't measuree, but probably at least 3" at ride height? If I went any higher the intake would have got too big with the curvature of the wing...
ricola ·
Been busy improving my CV lately but did get a chance to do some more work on one of the wings, return lips remade and lots of metal-bashing to get the panels as close to the final shape as possible to absolutely minimise the amount of filler required. Hard to see in this pic but the flat in-fill strip now has a nice amount of curvature to it and blends with the other halves of the wing.
Flintstones ·
one more to go 🙂
reminds me of the effort I went through for mine, but I did all four!!
Cheers
ricola ·
I had to shorten the outside section of the rear wings to line up vertically with the bottom of the running boards. I'll be splicing a long thin triangle to make the running board fit like stock to hide the extra width a bit.
Inner wing cut away to make space for the panel air filter
Both wings now done apart from final paint prep which I'll do in the summer, bit of paint on them to stop rusting
Flintstones ·
now it's really starting to look complete.
How are you going to close in the filter panel opening to the guard intake, fibreglass?
That dub's rear end looks nice!!
Cheers
Jak Rizzo ·
That air intake looks familiar Rich, awesome job, makes mine look like a stocker.
Thanks for the updates, even though we on the other side of the world, we all appreciatte your work.
regards
Jak
colonel mustard ·
Looks awesome man. having an air intake on both sides??
ricola ·
Cheers guys, will be making a load of progress now as I've finished work for the year!
I'm making closing panels around the filter on both sides out of steel, bought a beadroller so will probably put some small features in them too 🙂 I'm just going with the one side intake, I thought about two but not sure what to use it for on the other side and I hate dummy features. Besides, it will make people do a double take!
Jak Rizzo ·
my spray painter wanted to put a sticker on mine that said no junk mail.......
Jak
ricola ·
lol, I'll be putting a mesh shield at the back of the intake tube to stop people poking stuff down it. Out of interest, how does your cope with rain Jak? I was wondering about a water drain but don't want to lose all that ram air..
Jak Rizzo ·
I too was worried about people putting rubbish in there, but as yet it's never happened & my car is driven & left everywhere, ie: school, shopping centre carparks etc. I think that most people don't even see it, especially being a dark colur, it blends in quite nicely.
As for the rain, i had to keep reminding myself to put some drain holes in my duct for rain & after all this time I still havn't done it & I have driven through some terrential rain. it's never been a problem.
regards
Jak
ricola ·
Filter housing to wing intake made up of angle for the framework which compresses the panel filter perimeter seal, then some beadrolled sheet metal to fill in the gaps. Just need a 90 degree silicone bend now to join them up.
ElusiveStranger ·
Really nice work Rich.
Umm you could always do a servo'd flap on that intake
pete wood ·
yeah, much betterer, I was worried about an open air filter in the guard [wing]. I know how dirty mine gets and it's way above everything else. corse I do go doing donuts in the dust though I guess. 😊
ricola ·
Bit more work on the chassis in preparation for making the floors. Template on left hand side (wallpaper lining makes great templates!) and also welding in more strip as I plan to have the driver's side front floor section removable.
I managed to find a suitable reducing elbow to go between the MAF and turbo intake and started making the framework for the MAF side of the filter assembly. I'll have to wait until the body and chassis are together again before finalising the positions.
surfbeetle ·
Excellent build! Can't wait to see it's continued progress!
ricola ·
To gain more caster and centralise the wheel in the wing, the simplest way was to move the anti-roll bar mountings forwards, I trialled a 20mm spacer and that worked perfectly so that is how much I have extended the chassis by..
All welded up and ground smooth
Chassis closed up around the front of the trans to give some extra strength.
ricola ·
Beadroller paying for itself now! Rear floor section is flat (apart from the ribs), the dropped floor section by the pedals will be a removable aluminium panel so won't be done until after paint.
Will do other rear section tomorrow then it's time for paint!
71-BEETLE-SEDAN ·
wow, this is gunna be one awsom bug. Great work kep i up.
Flintstones ·
ah, those floor pan sections...they bring back memories.
Looking good Rich.
You going to have passengers in the rear?
If yes, just check to see if they will have enough clearance for their feet under the front seats, seeing as you've gone a totally flat floor.
Cheers
D
ricola ·
Passengers will be rare, mostly my kids.. The seats are raised up off the floor as you can see from the seat mount heights, the seats sit higher than those too and the seats are height adjustable if necessary.
Done some more this morning, finished off the floors! Next, paint...
ricola ·
First coat of paint, still wet! I'm using epoxy mastic 121 this time as I've heard very good reports. POR-15 can be good but is a real pain with so many prep stages required for it to work well. I didn't get on with rust bullet, easier prep than POR but vulnerable to chipping.
Flintstones ·
you aren't wasting time 👍
What details do you have about the epoxy mastic 121 as I want to redo my chassis. I'm not happy about the finish of POR-15
I can't wait till I finish my house extension and get the garage built. The wait is killing me as I want to finish my GTO!!
Cheers
D
ricola ·
I want you to finish it too! Any more progress at all to see?
To be honest, I didn't have any problem with the finish of the POR, it went on really smooth and glossy. This is much thicker stuff so I would say the finish is not as good, it says you can spray it which would give a better finish but I've found it too thick to spray. However, it should be much better at corrosion protection which is what I really need in the UK, I won't even need seam sealer around the pan edges as it has filled all those gaps!
I've just put on the first coat on the bottom of the chassis, will sort out bits to get my new sandblasting cabinet up and running and then maybe to the trailing arms tonight too...
Oh, my wife has taken the kids away to the in-laws for a week whihc is why I'm getting so much done 👍
Flintstones ·
Bonus for you, seeing as it's thicker that it filled in the gaps.
How did you end up getting out of visiting the in-laws for a week?!! LoL😁
No progress unfortunately other than getting the shell in epoxy primer, and I've made a fibreglass headliner than goes around the roll cage and sunroof just before I put it into storage.
Still need to finish it off nicer though as it was my first attempt at glassing. Was more to see what it can do, and how it reacts, as to what I'm expecting it to do, as I learnt a fair bit out of the experience.
Will end up redoing the headliner to get it to the standard than will match the rest of the car.
Cheers
ricola ·
The in-laws stayed with us for a week just before christmas, don't worry, I see more than enough of them! My wife is spanish so a fair amount of travel goes on..
Trailing arms and spring plates also stripped and painted. I'll be replacing the stubaxles with G50 sized ones...
Not much space for the brake bias adjuster cable, so I routed it inside the chassis tube. The knob will probably be fitted on the A post just below the base of the dash. I damaged a couple of areas of the coating, not a big deal as I have to touch it up where I cut for the cable anyway...
I had to transport the body back in to the garage on the chassis so took the opportunity to check a couple of things...
Chassis mod has worked out great, wheel now nicely centred.
Quick image of how it looks with the body on, now time to get cracking on the body!
ricola ·
Right, time to start finishing off the body...
Filter frame now welded into the body
Hooks up to the wing pipe nicely
Inner wing finished off, note angle along bottom edge for strength, I will make a brace off this down to the bumper mount on each side to strengthen the back end
I've half done the other side, it will be the same apart from having the 'filter' area as a removable panel for maintenance.
Flintstones ·
Nice work Rich, looking real good👍👍
Cheers
D
ricola ·
😎 I've remade the join area in thicker steel as part of the body too to make it more robust, also squared off that bit as it was only a matter of time before I did myself some damage!
STIDUB ·
farrrrk, 10s on the back are perfect fit! i need to find some in +37et to fit mine, dont like my chances, but after seeing that... i wouldnt mind trying for shits & giggles
ricola ·
Pair of pro-tech dampers for the rear end (15" open, 10" closed), they only have 125lb/inch springs as I still have the 'short' torsion bars which will be stiffer than the original IRS longer bars, together they should be about right for the heavier engine and trans.
I went for the biggest bushes pro-tech had and didn't need any spacers at the top mounting, small ones either side at the lower end.
I held a G50 911 axle in position and luckily it looks like there will be enough clearance to the spring. Normally this wouldn't be an issue but with the trans moved forwards it was something I needed to check...
Paneling part way through, just section by air filter to do now and some general tidying up...
ttriebler ·
Hey Rich can you give us some more info on the pro-tech dampers. I have been struggling to find a decent set of coil overs for the back of my irs buggy, particularly with eyes that are metric and will just bolt into a vw. Did these have the right eyes? Where did you get them from?
bargain prices too and built to your specs... RRP is £80+VAT per damper
Flintstones ·
I held a G50 911 axle in position and luckily it looks like there will be enough clearance to the spring. Normally this wouldn't be an issue but with the trans moved forwards it was something I needed to check...
You sure there's enough clearance Rich, otherwise you can just send these my way😂 they look like nice units
Cheers
D
ricola ·
lol, don't worry, if there were clearance problems I'd just remake the bracket on the trailing arm 😂
ricola ·
Done some more bits and pieces. Put the engine/trans back in to finalise placement of a lot of ancillaries..
Paneling now done, might add another few fixings depending on how it they are with a foam seal in place
MAF side of the air filter assembly done, MAF bolts on to the side of the housing, reducing elbow connects to original Subaru turbo intake pipe.
Flintstones ·
looks good Rich.
Your getting real handy with the tools now.👍👍
Cheers
D
ricola ·
cheers, certainly getting the practice! 😁
subever ·
ricola wrote:cheers, certainly getting the practice! 😁
Got a question for you, what kinda spacers do you use for the rear wheels?
ricola ·
No spacers, althout track is widened a bit from stock (23mm ish) by using the early 944 trailing arms.
subever ·
ricola wrote:No spacers, althout track is widened a bit from stock (23mm ish) by using the early 944 trailing arms.
And you're using the stock 944 brake assembly's? Because I heard fitting 10J's is a big job??
The stock trailing arms, are they steel or alu?
Thanks for the answers,
By the way, love those rim's... They fit nicely, maybe even better on a beetle than on a porsche?
ricola ·
Your best bet is to look on my website where all the detail is covered. I've used bug steel arms, using the early 944 handbrake set-up, but with 1986 944 turbo discs and adapted for 996 calipers... Rear wings are widened by 45mm in steel...
ricola ·
Additional brace to support the rear bumper mount. It is now strong enough that I can lift the body off the chassis with no flexing but still unbolts to aid engine removal.
ricola ·
Rear bumper mounts needed to be extended by 35mm to clear wider wings
Now everything is at ride height and, a quick mock-up of the kamei spoiler to my set ground clearance. I will trim this back to the bottom of the valance/wings and flush mount it, this will make it much more subtle and less 'plasticy' and keep the radiator intake clear.
STIDUB ·
lookin gooood 👍
Bugaru03 ·
Very nice!
ricola ·
Some more progress:
Decided to make up my own spherical top strut mounts.
Mocked up to check the positioning
All welded up
Suspension arm narrowed 15mm to help pull the big front wheels under stock wings (I'll add some more bracing to the join later on)
Another mock-up of spoiler showing better how the wing intake looks
Spoiler now trimmed to fit and roughly clamped to bottom of body panels. This gives me 120mm of ground clearance which is about level with my lowest chasssis point. I'm happy with this as a final ride height too.
It tucks back much more than it would as standard (which is bolted to the underside of the bumper) and looks much less like it's doing an impression of a snow-plough!
Flintstones ·
really starting to come together now Rich.
It's funny when you start modifying you can't stop. Those top mounts look good.
Cutting and shutting the suspension parts wouldn't even get a look in here on OZ. Our local engineers would walk away. What's the go up your way when it comes to registering a modified car, do you have to go through the drama's we have to and consult engineers?
ricola wrote:
question, how handy are you with fiberglass?
Reason I ask, is that I think the front will look much nicer if you can continue the spoiler line into the wing edge so that it gets rid of that void where you can see the tyre.
Plus it will look more integrated.
i hope I've explained that well enough.
Cheers
D
ricola ·
I've done a fair bit of fibreglass before
The spoiler is plastic but it has been repaired before with a bit of fibreglass paste which seems to have stuck, so I'll see about a bit of blending later on when the body is off the chassis.
It is fairly easy to modify cars here but it is getting harder. We have Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA, used to be SVA) if the car is too heavily modified from stock.
STIDUB ·
i was about to say precisely what flintstones said about the kamei 👍
offers still there to come finish mine while im at work 😁
ricola ·
Idle air control valve return pipe uses cut down standard pipe.
Header tank is from a Vauxhall Corsa/Tigra as it had the right connections. I didn't like the subaru system as it is based on an external overflow tank. An aftermarket one would have been solid aluminium so levels are not so easy to check. I welded on a couple of brackets to the body to support the standard fitting points on the tank
Fill point is accessable when the decklid is open.
The OBP pedal box had no provision for the throttle cable so this is what I came up with. I also made up the cable from a universal kit using the subaru fittings/adjuster on the engine end. It feeds through the standard tube in the chassis tunnel.
VW polo heater matrix/blower fan will be mounted to access panel and will blow in to the existing ducting behind the dash. I will fabricate an intake for the fan so it draws in air from the scuttle grill.
ricola ·
I thought the body line above the trim didn't look quite right and this is what I found under all the filler! NOS VW 1/4 panels are no longer available so I went down to my local VW breakers, angle grinder in hand!
This is what was left after cutting out all the bodged repairs of the past
Donor section clamped roughly in place, it took a bit of searching to find one this good as it is a common rust area, unfortunately it was balanced on top of another car and was full of suspension parts!
71-BEETLE-SEDAN ·
wow i thought you were nearly finished
ricola ·
lol, well I have a few months until the weather is warm enough for paint and this was really bugging me. I'd have really regretted not sorting it out properly...
71-BEETLE-SEDAN ·
okay, thats cool then, its looking really good.
ricola ·
Had a good couple of days on the rear 1/4 panel...
All hidden areas were treated with Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80, then painted, weld areas were taken back to fresh metal and Roberlo weld through copper primer used.
Tacked in...
Fully welded...
all welds ground down
couple of coats of Hydrate 80 to protect the fresh metal before I get to paint, it will only need a very small amount of filler at the weld seams..
ricola ·
Bit more done today, sorted the exhaust tip and modified the rear valance to match. Left cutout was filled with section from old panel. I got the panelbeating hammers out and widened the right cutout to match the 3" exhaust..
Flintstones ·
what, your not going with the stock pea shooters😂
looks like you had fun with the rear qtr panel, she's come up good👍
Cheers
ricola ·
Yet more bodgery! Bumper repair panels poorly welded over rusted edges, overlapping the strut reinforcements and internally the bumper mounts have been stuck on with what can only be descibed as pidgeon shit to the reinforcements. It will all be cut out and done properly, I'm hopefull of being able to re-use the repair panels as there is so much overlap.
Finally on to the radiator intake! I cut the valance off and cut out this hole (same size as the license plate). I've shaped a bar hoop the same shape but a bit bigger and will tack weld that on the back side, I will then hammer form a nice rolled edge to keep it looking 'right' and will also weld on some captive studs so I can fit some mesh. I'm also considering bonding some letters to the mesh so it can be the numberplate and not restrict air flow.
STIDUB ·
nice looking radiator hole 🙂 bout time someone did one thats not just hacked into it, will be curious how it turns out, what are the po-po going to think about the bonded/sprayed on numberplate?
Joel ·
common trick in the UK 😉
sorry for the hi-jack
x2, looks good Rich 👍
ricola ·
I'm not certain of using it as the number plate yet as it may be a bit too hidden to get away with it. Once the bumper is on and the car is on the ground it is going to be fairly well out of view...
I did consider a US style valance but hear the repro ones aren't too good and fancied experimenting with this one first, I like the way it is turning out.
ricola ·
Here's the bar tacked on to the back of the panel after bare-metalling both parts and applying some weld through primer.
I then hammered the metal around the bar, it has created a really rigid panel now and looks much better than a plain cut edge.
ElusiveStranger ·
Really nice work Rich.
When you welded in the rear quarter, roughly how much did the weld line pull in? I've just done my van's rear arch and it pulled in approx 6mm. Using mig I tacked every 5" or so, allowed to cool, tacked again - took ages.
Rear corner I did stitch back with a tig and dressed the weld - almost perfect.
Seeing your shot has made me wonder what/where I went wrong with my arch
ricola ·
It did pull in a bit, but it only took a minute or so to work it back out with hammer/dolly
ElusiveStranger ·
Thanks Rich. I think I have the normal "small" amount by the sounds of it. I can't get access to the back so I'm going to tack some washers on & dress it out
ricola ·
Made a start on the bumper mount panels, they were a mess!
This is what was under the 'repair' panels...
Small repair done on the 'leg' and the jagged edge trimmed back
Body captive plate needed re-making
STIDUB ·
looks like your lucky you fixed it 🙂
ricola ·
I had just about finished both bumper mount panel repairs but then my powerfile sander belt broke and threw a piece of metal straight in the centre of my eye! I was wearing safety glasses but they obviously weren't good enough for that sort of angle.
So, last few weeks I have been in and out of the eye surgery and it still hasn't healed properly. My plan was to paint late july but will have to wait and see how my recovery goes as the last thing I need is to get crap in an unhealed eye wound!
Here are some pics of where I got to though:
Main and chargecooler radiator mocked up to finalise mounting.
small section still needs repairing on near side...
I've also decided to redo the bodywork I did a while back over the back of the radiator. Also trying to come up with a nice compact way of ducting hot air flow into the stock ventilation system in the dash. That's a stock polo matrix/blower but I may just use the matrix and the stock bug blower. I also have to cut down the headlight washer reservoir to clear the radiator.
Flintstones ·
looks real nice Rich, like OEM
Shame about the eye, hope it doesn't take to long to heal.
Can you still fit a spare wheel?
Cheers
D
ElusiveStranger ·
ricola wrote:threw a piece of metal straight in the centre of my eye! I was wearing safety glasses but they obviously weren't good enough for that sort of angle.
Shit mate, you ok now?
I've had splinters & weld splatter removed on more than 1 occasion
Bolle blast goggles or Sperian seem to be good IMHO. Comfy and don't steam up that much
My worst episode was being allergic to the cream they gobbed in my eye. That was worse than then shrapnel, looked like I'd done 3 rounds with Tyson.
ricola ·
I've had bits removed a couple of times before so wasn't too concerned at the time. The problem this time is that the A&E doctor I saw first couldn't get it all out as it was too deep and the eye went and healed over it by the time I got to see somebody in the eye clinic so the 'scraping was made much worse. I've had 4 different doctors scraping so far and am now on steroids to reduce the swelling on the back of the lense which is causing bad light sensitivity. Got to go back again on friday and the steroids seem to be working so I do feel like I'm on the mend now.
Thanks for those recommendations elusive, I've been pouring over the catalogues trying to find some better ones but going by pictures isn't that helpful..
I'm happy with how the rads are turning out. I plan to weld in a round tube to mount the chargecooler off and something that it slots in to at the base to locate the bottom...
Cheers for the words guys, eye is getting much better with the steroids so went out did some work on the bug!
As I was working on the front end I wasn't happy with how I did the new panelwork behind the radiator so I'm redoing it now I have decent access with the body in the air.
Front section of spare wheel well filled in with new beadrolled panel and framework is being made up with captive nuts so a removable cover can go over the top.
ricola ·
Finished off the NS bumper mount area:
I added some fillet pieces at the top and filled in the sides to seal off the radiator from the underbonnet area.
The pace chargecooler radiator only had mounts at the top, so I've welded in a tube with tabs for the top mounts and a Y shaped piece at the bottom of each side that the radiator drops into. The tube is sleeved with rubber tube to give a nice cushioned mounting.
STIDUB ·
that cooler almost looks factory 👍
wait a sec u never comment on my work! 🥲 shall i blame msn? 😂
colonel mustard ·
So much metal work going into this car!!
ricola ·
Definitely blame msn Dave!
I want to get everything done right while the body is off the chassis, makes life so much easier and more satisfying later on...
ricola ·
Had a last play before I go off on holiday for a week...
Steel cover to go over the radiators made up and all edges folded back on themselves to avoid sharp edges and scratching the body later on. It also stiffens up the panel nicely. Once I've welded on the front valance panel I'll add an extra couple of fixing points at the front.
STIDUB ·
will that whole
.._
/.......ignore dots
section be removable?
similar to what im doing, hoping to squeeze battery in a box up front aswell as fuel pump etc, considering an in tank option currently though, will see how it turns out, whats yours going to be again?
ricola ·
Yup, that whole new bit is removable. I'm definitely going with an in-tank pump and will be putting in plenty of baffling. It's the tidiest and most compact option and also nice and quiet...
Rich
ricola ·
Sorry for the lack of posts recently, the biggest job has been stripping the underneath of the whole body to get it all painted in epoxy mastic. Bloody horrible job!
I took a gamble on a 996/boxster spacesaver wheel fitting and it does with loads of space to spare in a variety of positions! For interest, the tyre size is 105/95R17.
I cleaned up the rear of the front valance and welded on some bolts for the intake mesh, all edges prepped for plug welding on.
50x3mm strip with captive nuts welded on to the bottom between the inner wings to give a rigid mounting face for the air dam.
Front valance plug welded back on along the sides and bottom and then painted up in the epoxy. It's made the whole front end incredibly rigid!You can see I also painted the whole underside of the body in epoxy.
Carpet strip plug welded back on to the top of the heater channel and painted.
rear interior modified bodywork given a good epoxy coating
Rear end also got the epoxy treatment. Just about ready to start on the external paint prep now!
crimson ghost ·
Looking good !!! 👍
ricola ·
Bit of an update...
I have done some work recently but not overly exciting for pictures as it's all paint prepwork.
Rear quarter panel skimmed and smoothed...
I welded up the LHD wiper holes
Bonnet needed a few sections replaced due to poor previous repairs rusting
Kamei mocked up again, luckily there is a suitable double bend on the bottom of the front wings to mount to. I plan to make a mould out of the cut down Kamei piece and a metal strip that will be bolted up on to the body, I'll then make up a fibreglass part.
All mocked up to see the final effect. I don't think I'll get away with running the numberplate there unfortunately!
Bodyworking the rear wings now...
I'm changing jobs and have a couple of weeks holiday to use up over the next month so hopefully I might even get it in paint by the end of August!
Rich
STIDUB ·
front end with everything on looks awesome 👍
if the locals dont like that as your plate perhaps run bumperless for a little bit to get around it, other than the big holes for later bumper mounts that would look nice 🙂
ElusiveStranger ·
Where's the rest of it gone?
Glad to see you on the "other side" where you don't post 😉
ricola ·
The chassis is shifted out of the way under a tarpaulin to give me a bit mroe space in my single garage!
I'm still out there working...
More rust found on the bottom of the door...
and repaired...
More sanding! I have to give praise to the How to guides on www.mig-welding.co.uk for bodywork, especially the ruler trick and also a tip I found elsewhere of adding a bit of fibreglass resin to the filler to make it thinner.
I cut a metal flange piece which was bolted to the body, the remains of the Kamei was then bolted in place and the two bonded together with fibreglass filler. The ends will be reshaped and the whole thing smoothed before I use it as a master to create a mould for a new fibreglass part.
Flintstones ·
it's getting there👍
Cheers
D
ricola ·
Another good day!
All 4 wings in etch...
and two coats of high build primer...
ricola ·
First colour coats! I'll do the final coats and clear with them loosely attached to the body, this is more to just cover the primer so I can put them out of the way while I do the rest of the prep work...
STIDUB ·
imposter, theres hints of sun in those pics, you cant be in the UK 😂
hope theres no cat hair in the paint - good to see your using the peaceful week to your advantage 🙂
ricola ·
We get sun sometimes, unfortunately today we got rain just as I decided to do some more painting!
I decided to just finish the wings, the metallic particles are so small I can't see them being painted separately from the body making any difference. I put on some wetter coats of the cellulose metallic and finished off with 3 coats of 1K acrylic clear.
For information, I used a cheapo spray gun for the etch and primer coats, then an Iwata AZ3 HTE2 spray gun with a 1.3mm tip for the colour and clear coats. This was all running from my 3hp 150l compressor that I made up a short copper section with water drain. It has actually given a really nice finish out of the gun with not a single run! A couple of small bits of dirt got in one wing but should easily polish out when it has fully cured. I had to paint the wings in two lots under my workshop porch bit as it was threatening to rain...
ElusiveStranger ·
Looking good Rich
colonel mustard ·
Looking fantastic!!! bring it to aus! 🙂
reub ·
Nice work to date dude!
ricola ·
OK, small update:
Decklid painted, no real problems, although I did sandblast the slats as they were too fiddly to sand nicely.
Bonnet finally painted. I've done this 3 times now! First time there was some striping visible in the colour coat as the passes weren't wet enough to flow into each other nicely. Then I got a really good second colour/clear coat and left it in the sun for a few hours to dry before putting it on some cushions in the conservatory just to have it out of the way but they left imprints all over the bonnet! I had to wet sand it all back and paint for a third time, I'm not doing it again!!
I'm working on the doors now and I've found out why somebody had put a gold pinstripe under the normal sidetrim. They had drilled one of the doors in the wrong place and the stripe was to cover it up! So, filler removed and the extra trim clip holes were welded up. Another useful tip: hold a piece of copper against the back of the panel and the weld won't blow through. I also had to repair a few local bits of the door bottom and the copper strip trick also worked well to stop the weld melting away the metal at the edges.
I'm definitely on track for finishing all the paint by the end of the month!
trickysimon ·
Nice work dude! 👍
ricola ·
Doors painted...
More rust uncovered! This is the drain tube from the scuttle area by the wipers, it's a well known rust trap in 1303s so I wasn't too surprised. Repair from the inside of the car was the easiest way to go. Here I have opened out the rusty areas ready to weld new sections in.
To repair the tube I decided to use another trick I saw, bend some copper strip around the part and weld straight onto the strip creating the new section.
The outside surface is smooth (as it went straight on to the copper surface) but the inside needed some work with the die grinder . All good in the end though!
I've been busy doing minor bodywork too getting the main shell ready for paint, nearly there!
ricola ·
Another good day today!
Body now etch primed..
and two coats of high build primer!
next job to wet sand this back ready for colour...
Flintstones ·
your almost done!👍
ricola ·
Got the shell in paint today! 😀
Now I just have to restrain myself for a while to let it fully cure...
pete wood ·
just went back through a few of the pages to page one. Jeez, this has been a hard slog. Well done. Are you planning on a little bit of cage for some trackdays or will it only be a street car?
STIDUB ·
that last pic of the front end looks absolutely mint, cant wait to see that same angle with guards & the lid on it 😀
so for another similar sunny day ill look in about.... 10yrs? 😂
nice work rich, jealous of your progress as usual 🥲
ricola ·
It will be a street car. I'm sure I'll take it down the strip or round a track at some point before they ban me for being too fast without a cage 🙅 In my head I have thought out how I'd put in some mounts on the chassis for a removable cage if it's really required, one of the benefits of having a strong chassis with decent framework 🙂
ricola ·
Last concentrated burst of activity before I start my new job tomorrow at Jaguar Land Rover.
I made up a couple of aluminium plates to stop the torsion bars sliding inside, also a small bracket for the 2 new fuel pipes (5/16" kinifer) which ended up clashing with the body so I'll have to redo that!
You can just make out the chargecooler pipes coming out through a new plate at the front of the chassis, I also ran new front and rear brake lines. Instead of the usual cheap rubber body gaskets, I bought a long length of foam gasket and made my own VW style one, didn't take too long, hole punching it as I went to line up with the body mount holes and then glued any ends together with sikaflex.
Body on! I also mounted the bonnet as it was taking up far too much space in my workshop.
The rear frame will get stripped/painted, but that's for another time. it makes a very good carry handle when lifting the body about...
Flintstones ·
I can see that it's going to look HOT!!👍👍
Cheers
D
ricola ·
Rear valance panel needed extending at the top to meet what was left of the body neatly. It bolts in place at the top and is then clamped between the body and wings down each side.
Plenty of ground clearance!
Body panels all 'thrown' on for the moment as my wife was sick of them spread out everywhere, lol!
I'm happy with how it's all sitting...
71-BEETLE-SEDAN ·
Id be happy too if mine looked like that.
surfbeetle ·
71-BEETLE-SEDAN wrote:Id be happy too if mine looked like that.
I would be beyond happy if mine looked that good.
pete wood ·
I want to see the look on the face of the first focus/cavelier/SRI/GTI owner that takes you on at the lights! 😂
ricola ·
If anybody else had a feeling that the doors didn't look quite right in the previous pictures I was having the same thoughts! In the end after repainting and then re-clearing they have come out right. I also wet-sanded and machine polished the whole car so I can start refitting brightwork and other fittings...
Much better!
Door windows in, it was like doing a 3D jigsaw puzzle that would only go together in a particular sequence!
I've put in all the door hinge screw not too and am really please with how the doors line up with the rear quarter panels, the swage line is perfect. I just need to pack up the rear body spacer a small amount to get the door gap parallel.
pete wood ·
there's something very 'hotwheels' about those rims. very cool. looks great mate. I think this one might be a keeper eh?
ricola ·
That's the plan this time but you never know! Might try playing with engines for a while using this car as the rolling testbed.. A 2.5 CDB or H6 turbo'd is appealing right now and the gearbox should cope no problem!
pete wood ·
2.5 CBD?
what's that?
turbo H6 would be very cool... and tyre destruction on a stick 👍
ricola ·
CDB=closed deck block, stronger starting point for boost 😬 You can get a CDB re-sleeved up to 2.5 rather than going for the weaker semi-closed 2.5 sti block...
pete wood ·
🤓
in the words of Arnie, "DO IT, DO IT NOW!!!"
ricola ·
I've been doing loads of little jobs, mainly refurbishing parts before refitting them.
Definitely getting there! All glass now in after spending a small fortune on various rubber seals which were too far gone to re-use.
The G50 was a real pain to detail! Porsche use a really thick type of wax and liberally spray it on all over the underside. A 10mm wire brush was the best thing to get it out in the end. Lots of degreasers and finally etched and painted in alloy wheel silver should keep it looking much better and cleaner in the long run... You can also see the steel spacer under the front mount.
The engine's turn on the stand for some detailing... I'm probably going to go with black wrinckle paint for the alloy bits (cam covers and intake manifold).
ricola ·
Engine stripped back to a bare longblock and painted in POR engine enamel..
Cam covers were stripped back and treated to some VHT black wrinkle paint.
Coming back together, new cambelt hiding under there too...
Lots of now redundant bosses were cut off and smoothed to give a cleaner look and the manifold also painted in wrinkle. This is how it looks straight away...
....and after a couple of hours!
ricola ·
Engine just about ready to go back in the car...
I decided to shorten the sump but only by an inch or so as that will just about bring it level with the exhaust manifold and oil filter and maximise ground clearance.
Cut up and new component parts. I filled in the slope at the front part to regain lost capacity and it turned out near enough identical to the original volume. I cut slots at the top and bottom of the additional triangular section so the old sloped wall acts like a baffle.
All welded up, just needs a clean and like of paint, then to shorten the pick-up tube. Note the drain plug is at the low point...
Looking and thinking about it now I might weld on some strengthening ribs on the bottom level wiht the drain plug to add some strength...
pete wood ·
how did you weld it, MIG?
ricola ·
Yes, had to chase down a couple of tiny leaks but not too bad. I'll be brazing the pick-up pipe to guarantee no pin holes...
ricola ·
In the end I welded on some strengthening ribs which also serve as a flat bottom and stop the drain point getting damaged. Note that the old sump drain 'bulge' has already been flattened on the old sump so the gain is better than it looks here...
Stock pick-up pipe
shortened to suit the new sump. I also had to shorten the support piece. Normal clearance to the bottom is 16mm but I reduced this to both gain useful capacity and it was easier to just shorten the vertical section and braze it back together, I ended up with 9mm to the bottom. Apparently subaru rally cars are modified to only 6mm...
Finally fitted, the actual oil part of the sump is level with the bottom of the oil filter and I didn't want that to be the lowest point. All in I have gained about an inch ground clearance.
pete wood ·
your windage tray and motor look nice and clean. that's a good motor there.
gaz58t2 ·
What an Awsome F*#king build
Congrats ,Engine came up sweet
ricola ·
While the header was off and in pieces I took the opportunity to get the die grinder out and do some match porting, apparently this is good for a fair few bhp!
All painted in high temp paint and mocked up on the engine to check ground clearance. The aim was to make sure the oil filter wasn't going to be the lowest point and this looks about right to me...
The original up-pipe lagging was savable so just painted but the rest will be wrapped and repainted.
Manifolds wrapped. I used the stainless ties that came with the wrap but found stainless MIG wire worked better, fitted every few inches.
8m of 2" wrap went into the manifold and another 10m for the downpipe! The wrap was soaked in water first as it later shrinks to a tighter fit as it dries out. Due to the low temperatures at the moment it was taking forever to dry out so I improvised and left the hot air gun blowing down the inside of the exhaust and it worked great!
Additional support made up to support the muffler end of the exhaust. I managed to scrounge enough stainless bar to make a bracket on the exhaust and made up the support using a mini style exhaust rubber mount.
All fitted up. Note I also painted the wrap to stop it absorbing water, oil etc later on..
Quick check to confirm the muffler is not the lowest part..
ElusiveStranger ·
Looking good, Rich
1303Steve ·
Hi
Looks great Rich, are you running a cat or is that in the up pipe?
Steve
Flintstones ·
looks sweet👍
not long now🙂
Cheers
D
ricola ·
No cat on this Steve..
Next job is to finish off a few bits and pieces in/around the engine bay before putting the engine and trans back in, it's amazing how much workshop space they use up!
crimson ghost ·
I can't wait to hear this thing 👍
h ·
wow.. nice work
ricola ·
A while back I realised that the dowel alignment holes in the adapter plate were machined incorrectly and the supplier refused to fix it so I either had to buy a new one or sort it out myself! Previously I had filed out the holes to get the adapter plate to bolt on but it was not concentric to the crank centerline. I decided to cut the old holes out, then weld in new thick sections in the correct place. Here's one of the new sections before cutting into the plate.
There are two alignment holes, one on each side, so I turned up the MIG and welded the new sections after making sure the plate was aligned correctly, this was done by using a depth gauge all around the trans locating ring up to the flywheel diameter and repeatedly tweaking things until it was all perfectly aligned. While I was at it, I also welded on a small plate on the upper left corner to cover up an opening.
All cleaned up and repainted before fitting to the nice and clean engine!
Stock 911 clutch all fitted up, the release arm needs to be attached to the release bearing before you mate the engine and trans, the pivot bar is then slid through it's centre through bosses in the bellhousing.
All together again for the last time before it goes into the car! I also made up a new clutch hose to mate to the slave cylinder.
pete wood ·
who made the plate?
ricola ·
Was done by DS tuning... standard VW trans one was fine, but first time they made up a kit for the wrong year 911 trans and second time trashed the 911 flywheel that I sent them as a reference as well as this dowel position problem! Ended up costing a fair bit with all the postage between UK and Germany...
ricola ·
Making up an access panel for the offside rear inner wheel arch
Engine and trans in! You can also see the inspection panel in place..
I welded up an adapter for the clutch slave pipe. It was an M14x1.50 thread and 8mm pipe which I thought was very big, I've decided to use normal brake pipe size so had to adapt down to M10x1.0 and used a spare brake flexi pipe I had.. It is all kinked over a bit to get extra clearance to the exhaust downpipe. If it turns out to be too restrictive I can easily go up a size later on.
New turbo coolant pipe hardline was made up and bolted on to the top of the bulkhead to neaten things up a bit.
The thermostat bypass will be used as the heater supply in my installation so I made up this adapter to go down to the smaller pipe size.
It's just a long list of time consuming little jobs from now on! Gutted to hear that Le Bug Show at Spa Francorchamps isn't going to be on next year as that was going to be the debut, I guess I'll have to find something else...
ricola ·
Time for an update! There's been a lot done and most is in the details now it's coming together. We are due to move mid January so I'll finally have a double garage so I want to assemble as much to the car as possible to make it easier to move...
A hell of a lot of pipework has been completed and the chargecooler repainted and fitted.
Radiators in and piped up, you can just about make out a steel pipe I made which incorporates a bleed point at the top which connects to the header tank at the back via the original fuel line.
I welded on a heater return pipe and also connected up the fuel lines
Brake reservoir (911) fitted under bonnet and supply lines pipes down to the master cylinders. The system is now all bled and seems to work OK with no leaks...
New false floor...
I modified one of the front bumper brackets to take a removable towing eye.
All body trim now fitted, you can just about make out mesh in the radiator opening, I'll sort out the airdam later..
Just to give an idea of how the intake looks.
I painted the rear light housings satin black which I think gives the lights a slightly darker look without looking aftermarket..
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
Inspiring as usual.
I didn't buy a new slave cylinder hose when I had the chance from Pelican, they were $45, I thought that I could get one made locally the correct length, wrong.
It will have to wait until the new year when the 14mm adaptor arrives.
Where did you set your spring plates up height wise? I'm told that the heavy torsion bars sink very little when the car is put on its wheels, I've set mine roughly where the spring plate sits at rest on my sons 1303, so no preload, lucky I have adjustable spring plates.
Steve
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
I like what you did with your brake light switch, how thoughtful VW to provide a T piece to use. I'm going to do the same on my clutch line, I need to have a signal to turn off the cruise control I'm going to fit to it.
Steve
Flintstones ·
it's looking really nice now Rich
Do you have more fabricating left to get it going, or does it just have to get put back together now?
Cheers
D
ricola ·
Cheers guys...
Steve, the torsion bars I´ve used are just stock swing axle ones (out of my old speedster) and they were set with no preload on the rebound stops, I wanted to make sure the springs on the dampers did some work otherwise they would be loose at full rebound.. The brake T is actually a 4 way adapter, not sure if VW ever used them, I just got it off ebay.
D, main bits of fabrication left are:
full wiring loom and mounts
chargecooler pump mount under back seat
heater system to blow into original ductwork
pie widening the running boards to help disguise the extra rear width
there are bound to be a few other bits and pieces but they are the main ones..
ricola ·
Here are a couple of update pics for the time being, I'm concentrating on the move for the and the cab is stuffed full of parts/tools ready!
Chargecooler pump is a bosch one and is said to be very quiet and efficient, I think it's the same one as used in the Ford Focus RS. It fits with plenty of space under the back seat. Luckily the 16mm heater hose just stretched over the pipe fittings (which are 17mm on the chargecooelr and 19mm on the pump) with the heat gun and a bit of lubrication.
I made a small stand for the pump which is bonded on to the floor, depending on how noisey it turns out to be I may wrap some rubber around the pump for better isolation.
Ground level view shows that there is a decent direct flow area available for the radiator.
Roof and interior loosely fitted for the house move. The outer roof will get replaced by a nice mohair one later on..
Just the running boards and front air dam to finish off the look...
ricola ·
The workshop/garage will develop over time but I've got it into a state I can use it now...
The bug's new home and my new workshop! Finally got a double garage... I have lost a lot of alternate storage though so I've had a bit of a clearout. All walls and floors have been painted, I've welded up a frame to mount the compressor up on the walls and made a new workbench.
Sandblasting cabinet has a new set of wheels to make best use of space.
You can see the compressor mounted up out of the way. Also, I've put up some hooks so I can hang a tarpualin down the middle to protect the car when I'm grinding etc etc
I bought a couple of 7'x4' bike stores for outside storage, the drive isn't really full double width so it's no big loss of space.
I'm pondering over whether to get a single full width roller shutter door or not as it would be fairly pricey. I'm also not sure whether I'd have to replace this wooden lintel, it's full width and 4" x 8". Can anybody advise? Could I bolt on some metal strengtheners and leave it in place?
Jak Rizzo ·
If your roof trusses were turned the other way ie: bearing from side to side rather then front to back you could easily remove the centre pillar quite easily as it wouldn't be load bearing, but to remove the double doors for a single would undoubtably require a steel beam over to take the load of the roof. Quite costly for any real advantage.
You may also need an engineer to check the existing external footings as they would now be taking more load than originally designed for.
regards
Jak
ricola ·
Cheers Jak, I'm slowly coming round to the idea of leaving it as is and putting some effort into sealing around the doors better. The money to convert the door could quite easily buy a TIG, plasma and some other toys!
1303Steve ·
Welcome back Rich, I've missed your updates, nice garage BTW
ricola ·
Slightly sidetracked but not for long, just bought myself a more interesting daily driver!
Jak: the main trusses do actually go side to side, the ones you see above are just extra ones...
Camo ·
Wow, new house, new car, someone is doing well. Very nice, but which car will be quicker 😂
Kev
ricola ·
the bug will be quicker by some margin!
Like most other places, I presume, now is the cheapest it has been for a long time to trade up for houses and cars so I'm taking advantage of my salary jump from changing jobs 😏
ricola ·
Time to get back to the bug!
This was the whole loom out of the subaru before I started removing bits...
..and now stripped down to the bare essentials! I plan to work out placement of it all in the bug now and then get the soldering iron out to start the shortening process...
ricola ·
Subaru loom stripped to it's basics now and all sections shortened to the correct lengths. It is laid out in 5 main groups: boost pack, engine, relays, diagnostics and dash feeds. Next is to put it in the car and add a few other rear end related items. I'm waiting for a large order of wire/relays/fuseboxes etc to re-make the rest of the loom.
I thought it would be a good idea to better monitor the engine so got a couple of stack gauges, due to their reputed accuracy.
The oil pressure sender required a T piece to keep the stock pressure switch, as there isn't enough room under the alternator this short extension places them both remotely.
Time to modify the stock fuel tank for fuel injection, I was surprise to see that the stock tank incorporates a baffle across it.
The tank is shallower than the subaru one so I shortened the subaru fuel pump mounting assembly and removed the stock level sender.
I made up a baffle to hold fuel around the pump as the last thing you want is to lose fuel pressure on boost in a turbo engine! I drilled some holes through the plates to allow fuel to flow through it.
I also increased the fuel tank volume by filling in the LHD steering column recess. I left the metalwork in place so it acts like a baffled volume.
Topside done! I welded up the stock level sender hole and made up a new one for the Porsche dip tube type to match my gauges. The fuel pump section from the subaru tank was welded in to the top of the tank.
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
Great work as usual, using the subi pump is a good move, less complicated. I've seen articles on fitting 044 pumps on internal set ups if you find the stock one not up to the task.
Steve
seagull ·
Hi Rich, would you have a part number for the intercooler water pump ??
I'm pretty sure it's the same as the one used in the Ford Focus RS...
cam070 ·
Do your cars argue over garage space?
ricola ·
The 996 hasn't even been in there yet, no contest really, it's the cab's home!
Pickpocket ·
You're alot braver than I am about cutting and welding on the gas tank. Did you do any special prep to clean it out before hand or just let it air out for a while?
I'm pretty sure it's the same as the one used in the Ford Focus RS...
Hi
There is some good information on that charge cooler site. Good to see that they use some aussie stuff as well.
Steve
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
Rude question, what do the Porsches like yours go for? There was an article recently in newspaper that showed the prices of new exotic cars in overseas markets, we get shafted down here.
Steve: I think they have about bottomed out in price now, the cheapest are about £10k, boxsters are down to £5k. www.pistonheads.co.uk is a good start for sports cars. If you think we get a good deal then they are even cheaper in the US!
Bizarre ·
down to £5k
If only!
We are at least 2 - 3 times that
$20,000 Aus would be the cheapest
Still good value here - but still!
ricola ·
It's alive!!!
I haven't had it running for long as I don't have any gauges hooked up yet and just wanted to make sure my engine section works and it seems to be fine. No coolant in the system either, so I will now wait until the rest of the wiring is done before. It took a bit of coughing and spluttering before it ran properly but now it turns on the first crank every time so very happy! The internal fuel pump is inaudible when the engine's running so well worth the extra effort.
Camo ·
Excellent, I recently know that feeling. Now the hard part is waiting for the wiring to be finished. You know you are going to want to go out there and just start it every day 😁
Kev
pete wood ·
ricola wrote:It's alive!!!
I haven't had it running for long as I don't have any gauges hooked up yet and just wanted to make sure my engine section works and it seems to be fine. No coolant in the system either, so I will now wait until the rest of the wiring is done before. It took a bit of coughing and spluttering before it ran properly but now it turns on the first crank every time so very happy! The internal fuel pump is inaudible when the engine's running so well worth the extra effort.
awesome. but I expect a little vid when it runs in anger finally. 👍
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
That must feel satisfying. I like the sound of mine so much I flattened the battery, as the charging circuit is not operating because the warning light is not connected
Steve
ricola ·
I can see that happening to me too Steve.. Except it's not just me, my 8 year old son wants to start it up every time he comes outside too!
I've cleaned up a set of 944 axles and CVs ready to fit over the weekend, the exhaust needs fitting properly and then I'll try moving it under its own power 😵💫
ttriebler ·
Rich, getting close now....we can feel the boxer rumble from over here!
Flintstones ·
Great news mate.
post some vids please😎
Cheers
D
ricola ·
I've sorted out the axles now and it can finally drive under its own power!
Bizarre ·
brilliant - just briliant 👍
Joel ·
Guaranteed to put a smile on your dial 👍
Yours makes that Subaru whine as well, gotta be the timing belts , people think mine has straight cut gears or a supercharger on it 😂
A woman in a bog stock Forester pulled up next to me yesterday at the service station and even hers was making it.
Flintstones ·
That sounds so sweet Rich, Congrats!!
Cheers
D
ricola ·
Here's the main section of the wiring, bank of 20 blade fuses and 5 relay sockets, when you are sitting in the car they aren't visible, they sit flush with the bottom of the dash.
New dash finishing panel and the stack oil pressure and boost pressure gauges fitted in place. As I'm re-doing all the wiring I decided to source some switches that took a proper plug on the back rather than the VW ones that are separate lucar connections. I ended up with classic mini ones as they are cheap to source and in keeping with the rest of the car.
View through the steering wheel shows that everything is nicely visible
ricola ·
Flintstones ·
idling there it sounds like such a sleeper, until you see the GT3 badge!
ricola ·
The GT3 badge is definitely NOT staying, I took it off my 996 as I'm not a fan of badging things up like that. It's just on there as a placeholder, I'm thinking about getting a VWRX badge made up in VW script.. Or maybe I could use a 1303 badge with the porsche GT letters afterwards?
ricola ·
Finally road legal!!! Time for some de-bugging now and then off to the trimmer...
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
Congratulations, now the fun can begin.
Steve
Flintstones ·
Congrats mate!!
STIDUB ·
👍
ElusiveStranger ·
Joel wrote:A woman in a bog stock Forester pulled up next to me yesterday at the service station and even hers was making it.
NSS 😀
ricola ·
This is how the interior looks at the moment and gives a better idea of how it will look when finished. I have to reshape the foam area over the gauges properly before it can be trimmed.
The running boards have now been pie-cut and widened at the rear to match the new width of the rear wings. I've bought some ribbed rubber sheet so they will be re-covered to look stock and help disguise the rear wing width.
ricola ·
After destroying the big ends of the first engine, its replacement is now in and working well! The only issue I have is hitting the fuel cut with overboosting but this should be relatively easy to sort out and is an indication that my exhaust porting and downpipe are working better.
I'm doing some fine tuning of the set-up and found that the air dam was definitely a necessity, rather than put all my time into something untested I cleaned it up with a bit of paint and got it on the car and I'm pleased with how it looks and works.
I wanted the rear seat to look stock over the transmission tunnel so modified the seat framework to clear it.
All in and no evidence of what's underneath!
Flintstones ·
Rich, that looks so nice just sitting there👍
what kind of power output are you hoping for once its sorted?
Cheers
D
ricola ·
Cheers 😵💫
As it stands it shouldn't be too far off 300bhp. I'm kind of seeing where Jak is coming from now as it's almost too fast as it is. More power would be unusable on the normal back roads by me and with the aerodynamics of a bug being thrown around it definitely keeps the adrenaline pumping!
Rich
pete wood ·
any vids? love to see some action.
as per usual, stunning work mate.
reub ·
I'm with Pete... might get me more motivated on my vwrx - and the power upgrade (who said you can have too much power 😉)
ricola ·
Time to finish off the dash... Some wooden strips were used as a guide to keep a constant thickness of the binnacle over the instruments
I then filled in the gaps frm underneath with some fibreglass matting
Cavity builders expanding foam was then used to build up the volume without adding too much weight, it is very easy to sculpt to about the right shape too
Then skimmed with filler. I just need to radius off all the edges and do some final finishing now..
Camo ·
Love ya work 👍
Will the dash top be a painted or covered surface. Nearly there, not long now to completion.
Kev
ricola ·
😀
The whole lot will be trimmed in leather..
Aussie Dubbin ·
Nice work bud, i love those porsche wheels too, really set it up as a performance car.
300BHP sounds nice what was the replacement engine? (yes i know you are running subie)
Cheers
ricola ·
The replacement was another early closed deck block WRX engine with td05 turbo, I just transferred all the bits over to the replacement block...
ricola ·
I really wasn't keen on the Porsche 'nipple' lenses so after carefully picking the surrounds off I was able to remove the lenses and make up some new flat ones from polycarbonate sheet. While they were apart I sandblasted and repainted the rims and they look brand new now.
All back in the car I'm happy with how it's all looking. I painted the dash binnacle as a temporary measure until it's re-trimmed in leather.
I also re-fitted the running board chrome trim and I think it finishes them off nicely.
I also made up a strut brace. Coming off it are a brake reservoir bracket and also a cover to protect the fuel pump and fuel level sender.
Next big job will be the heater but I have to figure out what matrix to use, I need one that is about 100x200mm, any ideas?
surfbeetle ·
Thanks for the ongoing inspiration. Everything looks great. I know you probably already said it, but what type of steering wheel is that and what are the buttons in the center connected to?
ricola ·
The steering wheel is a very rare limited edition Momo/Alpine part. The centre has infra-red controls for the stereo, it controls Alpine by default but can be changed to also control Sony, Kenwood & Pioneer.
My dilemna now to do with this is how to trim the interior. I'd like chocolate brown leather but with just a black steering wheel it wouldn't look right, I'm thinking if I can add some black to the trimwork it might fit into the theme better. I suppose it might be OK with the black strip across the dash in contrast? I'm also considering doing that bit in wrinkle paint to give a slightly more classic look..
Flintstones ·
Rich,
please, please, please don't wrinkle paint the dash strip. Trim it in black leather if you can.
I'm sure you will be able to incorporate bit's of black into your door trims and seats for an integrated look.
Cheers
D
ricola ·
Lol, you're not a fan of wrinkle then! I'm sure 911s of this era had some sort of textured finish for the middle strip? Re-thinking, it may be enough that the central strip being black will be enough to let the steering wheel blend in?
Flintstones ·
Hey Rich,
Definately not a fan🙅
I've just sent you an email also
Cheers
D
ricola ·
I've cut into the wiper box cover to build a housing for the heater matrix. The corner piece had to be clearanced for the wiper mechanism and the tube connects straight up to the stock air ducting so all the stock dash controls can still be used.
Fiat cinquecento heater matrix in place, note the neat positions of the connections down the side of the car.
I initially planned to fit the stock fresh air blower fan roughly in the position shown but when connecting it up to a spare battery it was more a breeze than a decent flow.
This is the polo heater blower which gave much better flow and will also be easier to mount up to the matrix.
Flintstones ·
Nice and compact👍
Cheers
D
ricola ·
I finally had enough of the restricted steering, tyre rubbing and compromised steering geometry so found a set of wider front wings in conjunction with some concentric wheel spacers. I also plan to rebuild the steering rack with adjustable end stops to maximise the lock available. The wings will also need modifying to provide a better mounting surface for the air damn. From a quick drive around it is significantly better.. The front bumper brackets will need to be extended slightly to give a bit more space to the wings too but I think it will end up looking better with more flowing lines.
ricola ·
Bit overdue an update!
Plenty of stone chip was sprayed on underneath the wings and then high build primer, final colour and clear before letting the paint settle for a week or so and then refitting them.
I actually got some stonechip overspray on the air damn so ended up giving that a full coat along with satin black paint as it could do with the protection anyway.
All re-fitted!
I don't think the car looks noticeably different but with the wheel spacers and re-done steering rack with adjustable end stops I now have a lot more steering lock as well as a much more predictable and nice feeling balance to the car.There was far too much negative scrub radius with everything forced inboard to fit under stock width wings.
Another mod I've done is switch to smaller 5/8" brake master cylinders along with a calculated balance bar position and this has made the brakes MUCH more confidence inspiring with less pedal effort and a bit more travel!
I made up this metal cover to cover the shifter base and allow trimming, still not sure how I will do it but it's a start.
I've been putting this off for a while... The old vinyl roof shrunk whilst in storage folded up so when I came to close it on the car the stress broke the wooden bow over the rear window. This meant a new bow and roof!
Bow from the original tooling was sourced from Germany along with a new roof outer skin, in Sonnenland (similar to mohair) this time around and a change of colour. A fair amount of repair of sound deadening material as well as repainting sections of the roof frame were done at the same time.
Here's the roof ready for it's new outer skin. The foam strip over the bow is to cover up the staples holding fabric to the bow and stop wear on the outer hood.
Almost there! I'm letting it all settle for a few days now before I get the knife out and cut the rear window aperture out. All seals and wires are refitted in this picture, just a couple of screws to fit at the base of the C pillars to take up any final slack in the material.
vlad01 ·
Sweeeet! 🙂
TCR7 ·
Car looks great, love the new soft top.
ricola ·
Roof just about done now...
I'm going for the light tan colour leather on the right for the interior, I was originally going to go for a cocoa colour but having thought about it I think it would be too much of the same and some contrast is called for.
Seat backs are a bit marked and as the seats will soon be dismantled for trim now is the perfect time to colour-code the backs to body colour.
The old trim panels were moisture damaged so I've made up some new ones. I will also be making some new moisture barriers to keep these ones dry!! You can also see in the background I've put sound deadening in the door panels
These are the cut-down aluminium Porsche 944 spring plate covers with much wider aftermarket urethane bushes to better locate the spring plates.
ricola ·
Seat backs after a lot of work with paint stripper, etch and high-build primer
before finally getting the body colour top coats..
More sound deadening pads fitted to the floor panels and new MDF trim panels made up to fit speakers under the back seat
Door membranes to stop the new door panels suffering from water damage (I've also painted them in yacht varnish before I give them to the trimmer)
Automotive underlay cut to shape for the floor, only lightly glued in case they need to be removed to dry out if I ever get caught out by rain!
The first piece of carpet going in. I've spent far too much time planning the layout in my head to minimise joins and exposed edges to give it a more OEM look.
First panel finished...
Then on to the tunnel section. I bonded on a metal reinforcement to the handbrake hole, this means I can fit the standard type rubber which will hide the cut edge nicely and the hole won't get opened up. A bit of foam also stops any potential rattles.
Passenger bit now done, just behind the back seat to sort out. Still undecided what to do about under the bonnet
Front end done. The floor and bulkhead panels will go to the trimmer to have the edges bound.
Flintstones ·
Colour combo looks good Rich.
cheers
D
ElusiveStranger ·
Looking stunning, Rich!
ricola ·
LSD as received with the gearbox when I bought it, bit of an unknown quantity!
The ramps show it is out of a 964 RS/turbo which means 20% lock on acceleration and 100% lock on overun. This has really helped the car feel much more predictable and also stable, especially after the suspension unloads after hard acceleration. I was going to have a go at fitting it myself but was unable to measure everything accurately enough. The trans had different brands of bearing either side of the differential so during the swap I had to replace: bearings, ring gear bolts (longer on LSDs), seals, oil, shims. With labour that lot added up to £580!!!
The main reason for taking the engine out (other than boredom waiting for the trimmer), was to sort out a minor oil leak coming from behind the engine, a very common fault with subarus.
Here's the updated subaru part, steel plate and new screws fitted with a sealant. The black screw is supplied with dry loctite on it, forgot to look why, probably as it was a through hole so needed sealing?
After being messed about by 'Car Audio Centre' for the best part of two months (avoid them at all costs!!) I bought a secondhand head unit from a friend. I wanted Alpine to go with my steering wheel controls. I ended up with an IDA-X001 which is a media head unit with graphic display and ipod/iphone controls. Rather than use a wire and screen mount I have hacked up a dock which fits snuggly into the ashtray with minimal mods.
Happy with how it looks! Lucky this head unit has the main control centrally so out of the way of the phone. I'll use it for satnav and music as well as keeping my phone charged.
iwantbus ·
Wow just went through the whole build and that is very impressive.
ricola ·
The old 944 CVs were clicking a bit and my plan was to upgrade to 930 CVs anyway. Here are the bits needed for conversion; new stub axles, I already had G50 trans drive-flanges, custom length axles (16 1/4") in 28 spline to match the CVs.
Here are the GKN CVs, I cleaned up the flanges that came with my gearbox but needed an extra pair. After getting up off the floor after being quoted £120 each from Porsche I found some cheaper options from prolinx.
CVs are being 'clocked' as this gives them the best alignment relative to each other, just like you do with a UJ.
All ready to go on the car
And fitted!
Clearance is very tight to the coil-over but is pass-able (this is worst case compression clearance). I spent ages trying to get some smaller motorsport CV boots from GKN only to find that they had stopped making the size I needed!
I've been asked so many times about my cooling system I've finally modified a schematic to show how it is all plumbed up. This system works perfectly, gets up to temperature fast and stays at a constant temperature. The other bonus is that I don't even have to bleed the system from an empty fill as it is completely self bleeding!
Ollie ·
Just found this tread...
Homigod this is amazing
SebastienPeek ·
I agree Ollie, just read the whole thing, absolutely awesome.
Those seats,I think they could find there way into Zelda.
What did you have to do to the rails to get them in?
Ollie ·
I've been keen to see those wheels on a bug for a while and they look sooooo good!!
(not as badass as yours'll look Seb 😉 )
Kabs rock
SebastienPeek ·
Ahaha yeah, this bug is epic, only bug that I actually like that is a Cabriolet...
Soon Ollie, soon 😉
ricola ·
SebastienPeek wrote:Those seats,I think they could find there way into Zelda.
What did you have to do to the rails to get them in?
Didn't you notice that I don't have any of the original floors left?! 😂
SebastienPeek ·
I did notice, was just wondering if you used the same rails or not?
But obviously not 😉
I'll see what I can do to get the seats into mine, will see if I can find anything on them 🙂
ricola ·
Send me your email, I have an article on fitting them onto existing 3 point VW mounting if you like...
Rich
SebastienPeek ·
Thanks Rich,
Sent you a PM 🙂
flat_iv ·
What year BMW E30 thermostat housing/thermostate did you use? I did a google search and it seems there were different styles used thru the years. I am all for not having to burp the cooling systems for hours to get the air out. Are you using the ECU to turn on your cooling fan?
Thanks...
ricola ·
I think there was only one choice for the four cylinder engines, that's the one I'm using.. Yes, using the ECU to switch the fan, I was previously one for using the adjustable thermostat switches but they seem to end up failing and aren't particularly neat.
flat_iv ·
Thanks for the reply and I was able to locate a thermostat locally in the US. Since I have the radiator removed I have decided to replum the lines like yours. Currently I am using a Jetta coolant recovery tank and the top of the tank has a 1/4" line at the top and a 5/8 line at the bottom. The 1/4 line seems small for the coolant to return from the reversed manifold to the coolant tank. What size is your line? Might need to find me a new tank. Also, did you plug the end of reversed manifold where the heater supply line use to be? Sorry for all the questions just trying to get all my ducks in a row.
ricola ·
Both lines at the top of the coolant tank are purely for self burping, NOT flow, mine are 6mm. The main bypass flow is the heater circuit which must remain permanently open.
5/8" is what I used at the bottom of the tank to stock heater return.
I actually put an additional manual bleed point on the other end of the coolant manifold but it wasn't needed at all so wouldn't bother, just block it up.
When you remove the stock thermostat, don't actually refit with nothing there are you need to maintain the correct compression for the seal, I cut the centre out of the original thermostat and reokaced the remaining ring, you could just cut out a ring in the right thickness material too..
Rich
ricola ·
After 9 weeks of chasing, my second trimmer only managed to get the door panels and roof hinge covers done... I've now bitten the bullet and gone with a very good guy I've used before, just more expensive, but I know that he will do very good work and for my deadline which is the end of June.
I also had issues with the iphone dock, it seems the docks aren't straight through electrically and Alpine have a particular way of connecting together. I tried opening it up and making more connections but it still doesn't work... Any ideas?!?
ricola ·
I finally got the call to say the interior was ready late yesterday afternoon... I left work early to pick it up and now it's in!!
under artificial light
Natural light
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
That looks very nice.
Steve
reub ·
Very nice indeed👍
pete wood ·
beyond awesome! as per usual. Love you work Rich. 👍
Flintstones ·
Rich, that looks sensational👍
but what about the visors?
1303Steve ·
Flintstones wrote:Rich, that looks sensational👍
but what about the visors?
Do they have sun over there, they can probably be deleted
ricola ·
Flintstones wrote:Rich, that looks sensational👍
but what about the visors?
I know exactly what you mean, I'll either get some new identical ones or trim those with leather, just don't think they'd look right against the white headlining which is why I'm still wavering...
boyerlita ·
Rich that looks awesome. great job!
Flintstones ·
ricola wrote:
Flintstones wrote:Rich, that looks sensational👍
but what about the visors?
I know exactly what you mean, I'll either get some new identical ones or trim those with leather, just don't think they'd look right against the white headlining which is why I'm still wavering...
ahh,i see your delema...damned if you do, and damned if you don't.
Headlining's been trimmed I gather? if not, trim it the same as the interior, then your visors will be right, otherwise tough decision.
ricola ·
the headlining in a cabrio is a bitch and I've already done it, you have to practically dismantle the roof to get access to it all and I think a headlining the same colour as the trim would be a bit oppressive....
gerrelt ·
I think black sunvisors will look very good. And it's neutral.
Bizarre ·
That dash is sensational 👍
Yogie ·
Bizarre wrote:That dash is sensational 👍
I agree but then, the whole car is just brilliant.
Yogie
ricola ·
Another idea... I could make up some black perspex sunvisors like the really early VWs, I think with them being a different material would stop any clashes and I've been wanting to do some of those for years...
cam070 ·
ricola wrote:Another idea... I could make up some black perspex sunvisors like the really early VWs, I think with them being a different material would stop any clashes and I've been wanting to do some of those for years...
Cool idea. I am looking at a similaer idea for mine using something different
Bizarre ·
A dark perspex would be spot on im my opinion
Good thinking 99 👍
Flintstones ·
Great idea, going perspex👍
ricola ·
The pictures above drove me into coming up with a replacement set of sunvisors quickly! Although they matched the headlining I think they clashed badly with the roof down. I'd have the idea of making up some smoked plastic ones, in the style of early VWs, for a while so decided now was the time! Above is what a stripped sunvisor looks like, all this just to get the pivot.
I then made up a hinge assembly and cut some 5mm tinted perspex to shape and this is how they ended up, I'm very happy with this look.. At the same time I also painted the rear-view mirror base black to match.
flatfourfan ·
damn that looks neat.......have you taken a heatgun to the edges of the plexi? That will get them super mirror smooth.
Damn I love your build. It was your speedster that got me into the mood to convert mine.
- FFF
Flintstones ·
That's definately done the trick👍👍
Cheers
D
ricola ·
I've tried flame polishing and a heat gun on scraps but it was distorting the edges slightly. I'll do a bit more wet sanding and polish at some point but they are pretty good as they are... I was impatient to see the effect!
cam070 ·
Looks fantastic. I think they suit your car well.
Any chance of some close ups? I'd like to see how you attached the perspex to the frames if I could.
ricola ·
I'm probably going to make some more hinge bits better at some point. These are just thick sheet aluminium bent around the rod and bolts through the sheet and perspex sandwiching it. Tightening up the bolts gives more friction to the hinge. Really nothing complicated
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
They look great and would be very practical but they wouldn't be legal in Australia, they have to be padded in case you hit your head on them.
Steve
ricola ·
I got fed up with messing around trying to trick the stock ECU to make the correct boost with my much modified from stock (subaru) intake and exhaust so I have now fitted a Gizzmo MS-2 electronic boost controller. This has closed loop boost control as well as turbo timer and FCD (which I won't be using). It now finally makes 1.1 bar without overshooting and hitting the fuel cut but I will still be playing with the rate at which boost comes in. I had a second ashtray surround which I welded up and modified to fit the Gizzmo controller. It certainly feels a lot quicker now so my times will undoubtedly be better!
Jak Rizzo ·
Hi mate
do u know how much your car weighs?
Jak
ricola ·
Sorry, missed your reply, got bored of the million notifications so turned them off!
It's no lightweight, heading for 1100kg with a full tank from the MOT, shold get it weighed properly at some point..
ricola ·
Time for an update...
I took the car on track and although it was struggling with the ignition side of things, at 1.2Bar boost, it was going OK. GPS'd it at 130mph with loads more to go but then I blew the intercooler pipe and sudden loss of power along with clouds of smoke out of the back end! You should be able to spot the hole in the turbo to chargecooler pipe in the pic above..
I was hoping for an easy fix (and excuse to upgrade to silicone pipe), worst case it may have been the turbo but I have a spare one of those. I've also got some newage coilpacks on the way to upgrade from the old ones which degrade quite badly with age.
The parts arrived so I got cracking...
New silicone pipe bought to replace the holed one, this should be good for much higher boost too.
Unfortunately after swapping the pipe and the turbo the oil filter seal blew dumping oil all over the garage floor. I tried another filter and the same thing happened. Googling pointed towards the relief valve on the oil pump being jammed shut.
After fitting another oil pump the engine seems to run ok with normal oil pressure, albeit chucking out a lot of smoke from the oil it has in the intake! The old oil pump relief valve was jammed solid almost closed, even with the pump off the car I can't move it!
Changing the pump meant stripping the rear panels off the car as well as cambelt etc etc so now I had to refit and seal things back up. I'm also using the opportunity of it being up in the air to convert to newage coilpacks which will also help it run better on boost. I made new looms for them tonight as a change and will bypass the old ignitor as the new coilpacks have built in igniters..
The early optimism ended in disappointment, I went for a drive and it was gutless and the oil screen didn't improve. I got a compression tester and one of the cylinders showed no compression at all. There was nothing to do but pull the engine and get the head off to assess...
You can just about make out some damage to the top of the cylinder wall
and if you look carefully you can see that the ring is distorted, I'm assuming that the piston ring land has failed underneath...
So, after contemplating my options and considering where I want to be realistically with this car I've decided to rebuild it with a 2.5 sti bottom end. It's a semi-closed deck block but they are good for about 450bhp, I think that should be enough in a bug!! I was also considering a forged 2 or 2.1 stroker but for drivability the torque of a 2.5 wins for me. I'll upgrade the externals to allow greater power at a later date.
vlad01 ·
I heard this is really common problem with the turbo models, the ring land collapses.
ricola ·
With the old block unusable in its state I decided to bring the final plan forwards... So, with a bit of hunting I found a 'rebuilt' 2.5l STI shortblock on ebay.
Final build will consist of 2.5 sti upgraded with forged pistons, V3/V4 sti heads which I will rebuild, upgrade one of my turbos to td05-20g, new bigger injectors, new oil modine, sump baffle plate and probably some other supporting mods being topped off with a remap on an ESL daughterboard, probably by Bob Rawle when he visits API.
The shortblock as I received it. With some thought I decided that I will always feel uneasy about the stock pistons as they haven't got a very good reputation. After a chat with David at API (well respeced Impreza engine builders only 5 miles away from my house!) I decided to go with some forged pistons. Supertechs have a good reputation for not being rattly like most and API have experience of them so that's the way I have gone. The stock rods are good for 450bhp ish as they are the latest spec ones. My goal is a good 400bhp.
Time to split the block as the cylinders needed honing to fit the pistons. It would also give me a good opportunity to inspect the 'rebuild'.
The big end bearings were supposedly new! I've replaced them with ACL bearings
Main bearing clearances checked with plastigage, they are all good, as are the bearings. Luckily this is the better nitrided crank too..
Block halves back from API after being honed, they have been done to 3.8thou piston clearance.
Here's the first supertech piston, I've gapped the rings to specs..
I'm quite enjoying this engine building lark, this is my first attempt!!
vlad01 ·
umm? something seems wrong with that wear pattern on the big ends.
looks like if might be a problem with bearing crush, I could be wrong though? have the rods been re-sized correctly if at all? They very well might be new bearing but big ends incorrectly set and ended up with this damage.
I would use an inside micrometer to check the big end bore see if its in spec, fully torqued of course before considering the bearings.
do you have a workshop manual for these engines? better yet, get a workshop to check it out for you that has experience with these engines.
good luck with your build. 👍
ricola ·
That was the only one showing wear like that, the others were more usual wear patterns. I'm not even convinced those bearings were with the rods to get that wear which is another reason I went with new parts. The rods and crank were both checked over by the local builders and are fine. I'm working from a factory workshop manual too 👍
Jak Rizzo ·
Hi Rich,
Thats exactly what my engine did way back in January of 2005, broken ringlands after a track day. I only had mine rebuilt (nothing like yours) back to factory specs albeit with 20thou oversized pistons, the little engine has now done 223'000 klms 🙂
Your car is going to fly !!!
Jak
vlad01 ·
ricola wrote:That was the only one showing wear like that, the others were more usual wear patterns. I'm not even convinced those bearings were with the rods to get that wear which is another reason I went with new parts. The rods and crank were both checked over by the local builders and are fine. I'm working from a factory workshop manual too 👍
awesome 👍
ricola ·
Block ready to go back together with new seals, note tape on rod little ends to avoid the risk of scratching the bores on assembly.
All torqued and sealed up..
first piston going in...
all pistons in, you have to make sure they are all orientated correctly as well as positioning the piston ring gaps too
V4 STI cylinder heads stripped for refresh. All valves cleaned up, re-lapped in to the heads and then ready for first lash measurement. These heads use under-bucket solid shims which come in various different thicknesses and you change shims to get the correct clearances.
I knocked off any sharp edges in the combustion chamber to help avoid detonation, this can sometimes be an issue when fitting 2l heads on a 2.5 block due to the slight cylinder diameter mismatch
You can see one of the shims sitting on top of a valve.
Lots of measuring!
and measuring, then swapping shims
Ready to go on the engine!
ARP head studs fitted to give better head gasket clamping under boost
Back to a longblock! I had to fit the cambelt and re-check the valve clearances as the cam loading can change things. Luckily only one shim needed swapping after assembly.
V3/4 cam covers were cleaned up and treated to some VHT wrinkle paint, note one on left hadn't had any heat applied ot get the wrinkle effect started yet.
Coolant manifold needs modifying to clear the central 2.5l breather pipe.
Now I just have to decide what turbo and injectors to go with!
Flintstones ·
ricola wrote:Now I just have to decide what turbo and injectors to go with!
The biggest ones you can fit of course😂😂
Cheers
D
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
Excellent work as usual. Lucky you have a drive line that can handle this sort of power.
Are you going to stick with the VF series turbos?
Steve
ricola ·
I'm going to have to go to about 730cc/min injectors, 550s seem to max out at 400-420bhp and I want a bit more than that, as long as I go with un-modified ones I should still get decent idle control. Turbo is looking like a scooby clinic sc46, it's a billet garret ball bearing direct fit and it can do up to about 500bhp. People seem to rave about them and they deliver the power without having to run excessively high boost levels.
Definitely happy I went with the G50 and 930 CVs now!! Have a feeling I'll end up having to get a KEP clutch after the running in period though, possibly a re-think on the chargecooler to a better spec too, it never ends..
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
That's really going to mess up your hair with the top down.
How have you found the G50 ratios? I love mine, 1st gear is amazing.
Steve
ricola ·
Gearing is great for a road car which is what this is primarily. I guess with the new engine it will probably be well matched for the strip too, it was a bit long for the old engine.
Have you been driving yours much? Are you happy with the grimmspeed oil separator? I'm probably going to fabricate a group N style sump too while it's all apart. Pondering options about intake too, I could lift the intake manifold and run a bigger bore intake direct with less restrictions and use the heat isolators. Think I have to do this in stages or it will never get back together!!
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
I have to pull my bug apart soon to fix gearbox noise but I just want to keep driving it, its so much fun and makes a heavy 1303 feel like it weighs nothing.
I will have look in my inlet tract for any oil when I pull the car down, my local Subaru guy highly praised the Grimmspeed oil separator.
I fitted my bigger bore inlet without lifting the manifold after I cut it up a bit in place.
Steve
ricola ·
As it was apart, I've gone with an RCM oil baffle plate to help avoid surge.
Coolant manifold TIG'd back together, I deleted the normal heater pipe as I found as it's new role as a manual bleed I never actually got any air out of it and this way I have more space if I decide to go with a direct turbo intake under the intake manifold
Parts to make up a large bore exhaust crosspipe. I had already ported the stock item but it was still very restrictive. Grimmspeed sell one but I thought I may as well make one myself
tacked together and now ready for finish welding
Bought a set of 740cc/min Nismo phase 2 injectors, the phase 2 fuel rail can apparently be fettled to fit the phase 1 so I prefer this to using adapter rings. Note mounting tabs are on the wrong side of the rail, I might make an adapter out of a piece of 5mm plate like this...
Shiney go-faster bits have arrived! Scooby Clinic SC46 billet turbo based on a Garrett ball bearing core, good for 460bhp on V-power and an Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator to go with an uprated fuel pump and parallel fuel rail conversion.
I've had to make a new intake to suit the front entry turbo, I could have gone under the inlet manifold but it would have lengthened the intake by a fair bit.
Engine back in the car and fired up for the first time, it sounds good! This is on the old map & injectors, mainly to get the oil system primed and make sure everything on the engine is good.
More bits arriving soon are:
oil breather catch tank
inlet manifold thermal insulating spacers
HRC 310 lpm fuel pump
Then I'll be ready for the re-map!
ricola ·
Oil breather tank hanging off the back, there wasn't much space anywhere else! I also made up a new bracket which supports both the oil pressure senders and the Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator
I was advised by my mapper that the old Legacy chargecooler would be limiting my performance so it was time to upgrade. I considered an air/air using enlarged ducts built into the rear wings but I don't really think I've got space for it. I eventually found a very good thread on using a frozenboost type 14 chargecooler. It is apparently good for 700 CFM / 600 BHP and one person reported that when running 22psi he sees a maximum of 10 degrees above ambiant but normally only about 5 degrees which is pretty efficient in my book!
2 weeks later and this arrived in the post:
I wasn't satisfied that the system would be working well without trapping air so I decided to drill and tap a bleed point. I drilled on a tilted table on my pillar drill very cautiously as I didn't want to wreck the core! Turns out the end tank isn't completely solid as it looks but cast and it hollowed out a bit with extra clearance to the air core so wasn't too bad to do. A small M6 bolt with O-ring will serve as a manual bleed.
The turbo pipe I made up to join to the chargecooler inlet. 2" going up to 2 1/2" with a fitting for the reciculating dump valve. I had off-cuts of stainless lying around from old exhaust system build so I'm sure it will do the job fine. The 2 1/2" end joins to the chargecooler with a 3" to 2 1/2" silicone reducer elbow.
You can see a strap supporting the weight of the chargecooler off the frame above via some rubber washers to isolate it. Just in sight is a filler cap from a Suzuki motorbike which has the correct size fittings for the water pipes.
Finally I had to some some re-shaping of the bulkead panel to clear the end tank.
Now it's ready for the running in map on an ESL daughterboard, just hope the recent snow doesn't delay things...
ricola ·
Update from the mapping session..
The engine runs really well, nice and smooth with very good early turbo spool. By the end of the run the new chargecooler was still stone cold so all in fairly happy! The downside is that the clutch can't take the torque, we were limited to just under 1 bar boost pressure which is fine for running in but I'll have to sort out an uprated one before getting the final map up to full boost done.
vlad01 ·
wow this great.
I read you blocked off the heater ports?
As I understand it the heater was also part of the thermostat and temp control, I also hear that it must be looped if no heater is being used so the engine temp remain stable as intended by the factory.
I am no expert on the matter but many experts stress this as this one cooling system difference that sets suby apart from from most cars.
have you heard about this too?
ricola ·
If you look back you'll see that I have completely reworked the system so that the thermostat is on the outlet, not the return. This works much better with the additional coolant volume of our conversions. I also have ZERO bleeding hassles, from dry I literally just fill up with coolant at the header tank and it's done..
vlad01 ·
fair enough but i think thats just trying to out smart the engineers who designed the engine and its cooling system.
its might work ok but the internal thermal dissipation will be totally different from stock setup and may effect the engine long term.
only one way to find out, suck it and see. 😵💫
ricola ·
Well I am an engineer and we have a totally different set up to when the engine was in the subaru. The extra volume of the long radiator lines totally messes with the original thermostat's ability to maintain a stable temperature, particularly in cooler climates. My system works great, so I'm happy!
ancientbugger ·
Just sat here on a very rainy afternoon and read all this, 'impressed' is just not a good enough word. Brilliant work. Only one comment to make though - a video of it please on Youtube😵
ricola ·
Cheers... It's in bits at the moment, I ended up having to go with an upgraded clutch so bit the bullet and fitted a KEP stage 1 good for about 550ftlbs. There are a few videos on youtube but I really need to do an up to date tour around with maybe some driving...
badvw68 ·
Looks great Rich! Too bad you have had all the issues you've had...
We are all looking forward to some in action videos...
Do you mind, could you post a few pics of below of how you are mounting you rear bumper?
Thanks,
Alden
ricola ·
That should be fairly obvious how I did it?
ricola ·
Bit of an update:
I made up a new bulkhead panel to properly clear the new chargecooler
New stage 1 KEP clutch, this is rated to 550ft lbs torque so fine for my target level of about 450..
The release bearings changed to include a plastic liner, this meant that I needed to buy a new bearing guide tube from Porsche..
While the chargecooler was off again I thought I would take the opportunity to improve the mounting and filling system. Here is a new support bracket using a locost type suspension rubber bushing I had lying around
New filler neck welded to the chargecooler makes the pipework much neater and is obviously much easier to bleed and keep full. The filler neck was decent and came from Mishimoto, most others were pretty flimsy pressed items.
All fitted again, the chargecooler is much better mounted and easier to fill now.
Flintstones ·
Just so neat, Rich.
Cheers
D
surfbeetle ·
ricola wrote:That should be fairly obvious how I did it?
Yes it is and it's great. I will be borrowing this idea for my rear bumper. Thank you for the photos.
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
Did you find the KEP pressure plate a lot lighter in weight than the Porsche one? It should speed up engine response.
Steve
ricola ·
Steve: yes the KEP is much lighter, I didn't bother to weigh it as I've seen them quoted quite a lot on Porsche forums. TBH the engine spun up quickly before but as now I get power to the wheels rather than burning up the clutch it isn't a proper back to back comparison.
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
I saw on another forum (I'm not a stalker) that you found it much heavier to operate than the old clutch, mine took a bit of getting used to but I thought it was maybe my set up causing the heaviness.
Steve
ricola ·
lol, yes it's much heaver and shorter. I'm starting to think that the old one was way past its best as I don't think there should be this much difference. I may well investigate a different size master cylinder to make it lighter and longer, seems to be quite a common thing to do on Ultimas which also use the G50..
reub ·
I should weigh my pressure plate while it is all apart... I picked up a brand new 964 pressure plate by chance too which is lighter than the one I've been using. Need to measure it all up and see if it is usable...
ricola ·
I'd be interested to hear if it works, all listings I've seen have different clutches for short & long G50s but I don't know what the differences are..
ricola ·
The mapper was booked up solid for a while but I'm booked in for May 14th, I've done about 1200 miles now and given it an oil change and it's all going very well. As I do I got bored with nothing to do so thought I'd work on the heating system.
A problem I had on a previous kit car was that the heating system was ducted so efficiently with the intake in a high pressure zone that I would always get warm air coming through the system into the car. I couldn't have the fans on with ambiant temperature air as the heater matrix was part of the thermostat bypass flow. This was a particular problem during some heavy summer rain where I needed a good amount of air flow to keep the screens de-misted and my only option was hot heated air which turned the interior into a steam room! The solution is to fit a valve which can bypass the matrix but still enable constant flow, handily Ford fit one to many of their small cars so I bought one.
The valve could be connected up to an on/off switch but a better solution (as well as how it is used in Fords) is to use a low frequency PWM controller, this gives proper temperature control by cycling the valve on and off depending on demand of a rotary switch which I have fitted in the glovebox. Mine came from ebay as a generic part but was modified by the seller to reduce the frequency to something more suitable. The valve connector was a generic mini timer type that was also from ebay.
Finally getting around to fitting the valve in the car after cutting off superfluous brackets, a quick test of the electrics to make sure it was fitted the correct way around and it's in!
A test in the car and I'm extremely happy with how it works, the temperature is easily adjusted and changes surprisingly quickly.
ricola ·
As the car is more or less done now I thought I'd post a bit of a summary of the final spec and some finished pictures (still waiting to get a proper photoshoot sorted!). In the mean time I've had it on the test track at work and got it up to an easy 150mph (GPS not speedo) and there was plenty more in it. Just need to give it a clean ready for a trip over to Spa next weekend..
Body
oMain body restored with new heater channels, strengtheners, bulkhead, etc etc
oSpare wheel well modified to take main radiator and charge-cooler radiator
oFuel tank extended, baffled and fitted with internal up-rated fuel pump (HRC 310lpm)
oRear end removable on frame, VW bus inspection hatch above engine
oFront wings: 2” wider in fibreglass
oRear wings: 40mm wider in steel with forced cold air intake incorporated into left hand wing
oK&N panel air filter built in to inner wing, with water drain
oLengthened bumper irons with stock bumpers
oRepaint in original colour (Schwartz Metallic)
oGerman Sonnenland roof
•Chassis
oCustom framehorns, torsion housing central section removed
oCustom perimeter frame rails with one-off bead-rolled floors, finished in epoxy mastic 121.
oOBP reverse mounted pedal box with twin brake master cylinders for adjustable bias and hydraulic clutch under false floor
oFront: Kerscher coil-over struts, heavy duty anti-roll bar
oRear: IRS with Protech coil-over dampers and swing axle length torsion bars, 944 anti-roll bar
o19” Porsche Carrera Sport wheels, 10j rear, 8,5j front
oVredestein Ultrac Sessenta tyres, 265/30R19 & 235/35R19
oPorsche 911 (996) brembo brakes front & rear
oBraided hoses, 911 fluid reservoir.
oSpacesaver 996 spare wheel •Powertrain
oRebuilt subaru EJ257 shortblock (2.5l STI), forged supertech pistons, rebuilt V4 sti heads, ARP 11mm head studs, external oil breather catch tank, shortened/extended sump with RCM baffle plate, Garrett SC46 turbo, ported headers with custom 2” crosspipe, 3” bellmouth from turbo back, magnaflow 3" muffler, Nismo 740cc injectors, ESL daughterboard mapped by Bob Rawle, Aeromotive FPR on reversed parallel fuel rails, new-age subaru coilpack conversion. Estimated 400-450bhp, 450ftlbs.
oCustom charge-cooler system with bosch water pump and Pace pre-rad, inlet manifold spacers/insulaters
oCooling system modified to external thermostat with Pace sierra cosworth radiator, fans controlled by ECU
o1989 Porsche 911 ‘G50 shortnose’ transaxle fitted with rebuilt 964 RS LSD (80/20). 930 CVs, aftermarket axles and drive flanges, KEP uprated Porsche stage 1 clutch (550ftlbs) •Interior
•Square weave carpets
•Heated Porsche 996 sports seats and seatbelts
•Rear seat modified to clear transmission tunnel
•Dashboard widened to fit early Porsche 924 gauges with additional Stack Oil pressure and turbo pressure gauges. Mini switches.
•Seats and dash re-trimmed in saddle tan leather by Auto-trim, Leicester
•Alpine CDA-X001 head unit, Rainbow component speakers up front in one-off fibreglass foot well enclosures, pioneer rear speakers in kick panels
•One-off heater system built into stock duct system, stock dash controls with t25 fan switch & electronic Ford heater valve
Bizarre ·
W........O........W
Unbelievable.
I know the motor is brilliant, but it is the art direction - the visual package that just blows me away.
The interior of this just beautiful.
1303Steve ·
Beautiful Rich, any idea on horsepower/kilowatts? Have you weighed the car yet?
Camo ·
That is exactly what the modern day Beetle should look like and fitted with those appointments 👍
Kev
Flintstones ·
All class mate👍👍
Congrats on building such an incredible car Rich
Cheers
D
ricola ·
Cheers guys, it was important for me to not build it too much to any particular style to keep it timeless and subtle.
1303Steve wrote:Beautiful Rich, any idea on horsepower/kilowatts? Have you weighed the car yet?
It hasn't been on a dyno but the mapper reckoned comfortably over 400bhp and I didn't want over 450bhp/ftlbs to save my rods. The light billet compressor wheel really helps with early spool, 1 Bar by 3000rpm easily.
When I had it on the brake tester for its MOT (annual UK road worthiness check) it weighed 1200kg full of fuel/fluids (no driver) with a 60/40 axle split which is pretty much what a 911 is so I'm happy with the distribution, I guess I could move the battery up front and I might fit a dual circuit brake booster as they are a bit heavy. Not a light car but I've built it with all the toys and it has PLENTY of traction in the dry..
vlad01 ·
very nice! one of the best for sure.
lou0060 ·
if only the designers at VW were watching.......
certainly the pick out of the current 4 seater cabrios on the market today....
well done Rich!
ricola ·
Road trip to Spa was awesome, loads of cars I've never seen before and after seeing other pictures plenty I missed so I'll definitely be back! Was great to get a chance to drive around the track and got a top 20 award which finished off a top weekend 🙂 Good to meet birdman/Ron after making the big trip over too!
I also finally got the photoshoot for Volksworld done with some strange attachments, should be some good action shots and I can't wait to see them (http://www.stevehallphotography.net).
After the trip to Spa, the race style compact boots finally gave up with dealing with the CV angle. They are mainly designed for race cars and are basically an inverted cone with little give so not surprising really. They were necessary to clear the coil-over springs. This picture is from underneath with the car on a 2 post lift and the suspension at full rebound so definitely not the worst position, the damper swings closer to the axle at ride height.
The long term fix was always to relocate the coil-over. I had a spare pair of trailing arms from a 944, these are identical to the beetle ones with the exception of some internal strengthening.
I made up new curved section to take a scallop out of the arm and also reweld the lower damper mount about 15mm further forwards.
All back together ready for clean up and paint.
Better view showing the additional clearance made.
As before this is with the suspension in full droop but now with a nice big silicone off road style CV boot that is designed for much more angularity than I will subject it to. At ride height I can get a finger between the spring and boot so clearance is no longer an issue. While I was at it I also fitted the 944 spring plates with the built in capability of a camber bolt anti-roll bar fitting to set the camber, it is also designed to take a toe adjustment tool. I had to lose the ride height adjustment due to clearance problems with the wheel but with the adjustable coil-overs this really isn't an issue for me...
1303Steve ·
Hi Rich
Great thinking as usual, well done on the award, I'm taking Birdman for a spin tonight in my bug.
Steve
madness726 ·
Nice build. I went thru your build, But never saw if you made a master mold for the front spoiler? and if you make some to sell or if it was just a one off.. I want one like that for my super since I dont run bumpers..
ricola ·
Sorry, the spoiler mock-up ended up being so strong I just tidied it up and used it as was! The car is still going great, even used it as my daily through last winter (in the snow!) with no issues. Just bought a Tesla Model S as my daily and a massive contrast to the weekend toy!
madness726 ·
I will just copy what you did and make one myself as well..