Hey all. Hope you had a great christmas and that the new year is good to you.

I started the rebuild of my bug on the 21st of December. I'm getting a good start on the new year. The body has been lifted, The front end disassembled and prepainted/primed for top coat and the engine and gearbox removed. I've attached a couple of pics for you to look at. I've been taking heaps of pics during the rebuild and will post a few more as I progress.

Happy New Year too you all.

Looks Great have you got your Engineer lined up for inspections.

Now would be a great time to get him / her along and show your progress and engineering skills etc etc...

Its good to have them on your side.

make sure your fridge is full of

:beer:beer:beer:beer:beer:beer:beer:beer:beer:beer

Hi,
I am in the middel of putting a wrx motor into my convertable 72 beetle ute..
If you ever find yourself in Sydney, i love to have a chat to you & i will supply the beer. I have a few questions, that i would love to run past you... as you have already been through alot of the headaches i am sure to go through.
And buy the way ... your looks awesome.
Cheers & good luck
:thumb:beer

57 cal look

Excellent......From the pic the engineering looks great,
Just wondering is the rear eng support frame tied to the body?

Cheers guys.
the rear frame is tied through the body to an integral roll cage within the car. Check this pic...as you can see the frame goes to 2 top points that the roll cage bolts to. The entire rear firewall has been replaced.

[img]http://home.austarnet.com.au/reubrach/rear end 2 800x600.jpg[/img]

Good luck with it all Reub, I know it will look great when your finished.

i notice you have the pipes that run to the radiator going through the middle or the cabin.... does this get overly hot? i have my radiator pipes running under the sides of the chassis... under the running boards.. and i notice that the gets hot just outside the doors... so your cabin must be boilling?

let me know how you find it.

lookin' good :thumb

Yianni

do you have a web site so we can watch the progress

matt

Just curious, but did you have any problems getting engineering approval for the aluminium fuel tank that you have in the picture.

Or is it not approved at the moment?

Cheers,

Ian.

Yeah - Keep us posted Reub. Now that Wes has nearly finished it would be good to follow another rebuild, although the chances of seeing it in the flesh seem slim with you so far away and the Baja so slow the get even the shortest distances. How about I meet you half way?

'Blood on Cake' for the paint job mate -
Cream with red highlights. That's my vote on the paint.

Cheers again guys for the remarks.

Wes, thanks mate. Your car gives me something to aspire to...and something to go faster on dry land with

Yianni, I'm going to insulate the pipes and shroud them. Fingers crossed that it will help keep down the temp.

Matt, no sorry. Would rather work on the car then learn about setting up a website at the moment. Will keep posting updates here though for all to see.

Ian, I had nothing mentioned to me about the fuel tank when the car had a full inspection to get approval for registration. I have received approcal in principal for the car as it is with minor requirements for rego. I like to take a thorough approach to it all....hence the rebuild.

Bronze, thanks. Half way could be cool. I'm sure that I will have to head down south with the car someday to blow a few peoples minds. Wes says I need to have it finished for Valla to go cruising. We'll see

:thumb:thumb:thumb

To keep you all up to date.

The front end is almost repainted and ready for reassembly, the rear foot wells have been cut out and replacement panels have been made (foot wells are being removed completely for ground clearance...all 1 inch). I have almost completely stripped the pan of rust and sh*t on the top for repainting.

Tomorrow I will be welding the floor panels in. More pics will follow.

Outstanding,
looks bloody nice. Got a q for you , you running AC in it as well? or 1/4 windows at turbo speed enough cooling?
If using AC, are you droping the unit up the front??
Curious, I want to stuff around with my bug when I get the project underway

Am thinking of running A/C. Oz rods in brisbane have a 4 outlet kit for around the $550-600 mark, you supply your own pipes and compressor. I'll use a Subie compressor as they're smaller than the alternator. Will see. $$$ dictate all at the moment.

Thanks,
will look them up (I'm in Sydney, but Bris ain't that far away.... but then again yes it is.............)
Want to go home, back to Bris..........................................................

Hey Reub how about a couple of close up pics of the radiator placment. I really like the way its mounted to the pan, its go me thinking if this would be possiable with a standard front end? or only a walk off front? anyway cheers and keep those pics comming.