Hello. I'm Smiley's old man. Because I'm a lazy bugger, I'm using his account for my bug. After years of being bugless I've decided to build one for myself. My last real bug was a 1957 oval that was sold in 1976. ( don't we wish we had hindsight). I will post photos of progress as we move along with the build.


Leigh.

Now that I have some training in uploading photos I can give you an idea of what's been happening. Whilst the thread title will give you an idea, I had decided I wanted a ball joint, IRS floor pan. This all had to start somewhere, so a look around Daniel's collection revealed this....





Clearly there is some work here, so I have started a clean up.





Once all the tree debris was removed, I was able to remove the totally rusted floor pans, the completely rusted pedal assembly, the front end and torsion bars. Not much left.






Leigh.

Being mechanically inept, Daniel decided I should have a clutch access hole in case I broke a cable.To this end we cut into the tunnel and then made a surround for the hole. This was then welded in.










Then i spend time cleaning up and grinding the area and tapping holes for the cover.





I also cut into the bottom of the pan to access the clutch tube and for ease of installing a new fuel line.




The clutch tube and accelerator tube were Ok but the fuel line was rusted and broken. not surprising given the condition of the pan.


More to come.

Leigh

Hah! LOVE it

I always cut a 2" hole for clutch cable replacement.
My mate can hook a clutch cable in less time it takes me to down a beer - show off

personally I like the 2 handed approach you are going to take

Barry

Barry, Daniel (Smiley) you'll have to excuse me because I named the little bugger, feels i need all the help I can get. I know where your coming from.....






This photo can be superimposed throughout this thread.


Leigh

In addition we looked at the frame head. This had some rust issues but we decided to replace those areas rather than try to put in a new framehead.











The welding skills of a certain son certainly saved alot of time and effort.



Leigh

Well things have been a little slow on the update front on here. The bug has been on the road since the middle of June or July so I figured that I would jump on here and put some pictures up for dad.


A few more little repairs on the framehead and it was good to go.

















The intention for this car was to build a tough streeter. Dad dislikes stupid low cars (and I crave the opposite ) so we started going through the piles at home to find the perfect combination of bits for the bug. We wanted a little lower than stock and nice handling. Swingaxle was out, so we pulled the complete rear suspension out of a rusted Type 3 wagon that was sinking into the ground. All of this would be making its way into the bug. Double spring plates, IRS, wagon torsion bars, Type three rear drums and the single side plate IRS box.








With the rear end shaping up nicely the front end was obviously going to be balljoint, you know this already because of the pan. We also got our hands on some dropped spindles and fitted some adjusters. When I welded them in I set them halfway so they could lower or raise the front of the bug. In hindsight I should have fitted them to just raise As we have run them on the highest setting since the car has been together. The spindles offer plenty enough drop for dad's taste.
It also got new balljoints, rotors, calipers bearings etc.



























































Smiley and Leigh

With the front progressing nicely it was time to look at the back again. I am fortunate enough to have gotten a pair of IRS rear jigs at some point. First thing I did was double check that they were accurate on a spare torsion housing.
I had some heavy duty IRS pivot boxes left over from my Baja so we decided to use them. Just have to slowly grind the holes in the side of the frame horn until the box will just fit in. Before welding you should bolt the rear gearbox cradle in place to stop the frame horns from pulling out of shape. Tack them in then go to town.











You can see that we have also run a new fuel line through the tunnel.





Then we could start prepping the tunnel up ready to fit the new floor halves.











While I was glue metal bits together dad had been cleaning up and painting various bits and pieces.








Still have a lot more pictures to go. I need to upload some more to Photobucket and then they will be straight on here.

Thanks for looking


Smiley and Leigh