Hello fellow members,
Some background info
2011, the final year before my life was to really start. The final year of college. I had no idea what lay ahead or even what some would say to be luck would happen. I started working when I was 14 and 9 months, worked this job for just over 1 and a half years, and secured multiple other jobs during the term breaks including volunteer work and work at festivals . I then brought my first car at the age of 16 years and 2 months, I seen that it was in my best interest to own my own car, pay the running costs and experience what it was like to have this small burden (fuel, rego and insurance). February 28th, they day that changed my life, I had applied for a job at the ATO in an afterhours environment (5-9pm) back in September of 2010,there was over 600 applicants, I managed to get one of 50 odd positions, I managed the perfect balance between school life, social life and my working life.

In mid October I had been working three jobs for the past eight months, working approximately 20-30 hours a week (between the three jobs) and had saved a lot of money, I decided I would like to reward myself with something nice.

So I test drove a 1994 Nissan 180sx multiple times, it was putting out 220kw on 18psi, but had been running a safer tune on 15psi, it was a very nice car which was clean and well maintained. No finance was needed to purchase the car or for changeover, however it came time to make the insurance quotes before the purchase. It came in at $2200 dollars with a $1300 excess.....this made me really think, did I really want to spend all my money on this car, was it worth it. I built up the stomach to call the owner and stated that it just wasn’t practical for me to paying this sort of money. He fully understood. One month later the 180sx was sold, ironically the new owner had it clamped by the police on the day on which he purchased it. This gave me a good laugh, the car is still seen around, and unfortunately the new owner doesn’t care for it unlike the ex, it has now been impounded a second time.

I thought what now. I had seen a lot of VW’s driving around Tasmania of late (who knows why) and thought, now that would be cool and I would definitely be able to slap a “built, not brought” sticker on that. So started scouting gumtree for beetles, unknown to the difference of the years and altercations at the time. On the Saturday in September, I test drove a 63 beetle, it was worse for wear, it needed a lot of work (visually), it was certainly different to the 180sx I drove, whilst on the test drive, we received a toot from a fellow beetle that drove past. This sent the buzz down my spine. We decided that this one wasn’t what I wanted. I went home and another beetle had been placed on gumtree, it was a 1970 beetle that had the same owner for the previous 18 years, of which she kept all the logbooks and service manuals. We turned up for the test drive on that Sunday, and decided that it was to be the one.
The original intentions of the car was to just go straight out and do a subi-conversion. However I kind of got attached to the car and decided that I couldn’t do it. Over a short time, and many hundreds of articles later, I had decided what was to be done......basically a body off “restoration” in which the intentions where to make the car stand out and really turn heads. It was also to have some modern features like a sound system and alarm system. Furthermore it was something that I am able to stand next to and say “I did this all on my own”. After a close call of a week or so of driving, I had to hit the brakes hard, and wasn’t able to stop in the distance that I felt I should have been able to (no damage what so ever done.
So, the process begun, the car was slowly stripped out, I didn’t know what I was keeping and what I wasn’t (apart from the carpet which was severely rotted). I slowly made up a list of things that I had observed and liked from other cars.....things include:

Now
New headliner
New carpet
Rear seat tears to be fized
New suspension components
Alpine sound system with head unit mounted in glove box with inverted subs or a ported box
Complete rust-seal the pan with KBS
New steering wheel
New horn
Airkewld lowering kit
Airkewld BAD disc brake kits
New bump stops and bush’s
New heater vents and piping
Dynamat all throughout the car
Re-wired

Down the track (after I have saved up again)
Bigger motor, either a 1916 or higher.
New gearbox, possible rhino.

An interestion occurance that happened, was i brought a tool kit from Repco (mechpro?) and used the sockets over the first weekend i had the car, it lasted 5 days all up and a refund was issued, 2 weeks later i brought a 190 odd piece sidchrome tool set as it was on special and came with the tower.Anything of interest I generally save a picture of it (wiring diagrams etc). So now I will stop talking and show some pictures of the process.

do you really need new bump stops if your gonna lower it?

Honestly, while you have the body off do yourself a huge favor and convert it to IRS.

You will kick yourself forever down the track once you put a bigger engine in if you don't.

Picture in this lot are:
the head unit,
driver side rear section when i first took the seat out
look what was hiding in the driver side door, sandwiched between the deadener. Magizine is dated 30 October 1972 i think it is, its a piece of history with the car, and has obviously been kept.

In this lot are the rust in the pans and the rear shelf and my Sidchrome toolkit

In these photos are:

The fuel tank after it was taken out
The fatigued connecter which had done 40 years of service
The fuel tank as a seperate component.

After approx 18 hours of glorious wire wheeling and sanding, i had reached this stage. This was a very messy process, covered in black soot, overalls being washed every use. Well worth it though.

Also pictured with the front fenders and bumper off.

I shall endevour to get a photo of the floor pan and tranny tunny, as they came up very well.

Pictured again is the headunit, i just love the look and simplicity of it. It will be going straight back in where it came out of.

Also pictured is the Sidchrome tools and i though it looked nice with the cold chisel across the tyre. I can't complain with sidchrome. The action of the tools are just so smooth.

The most happiest and self-motivating moment of my life so far, taking the engine out. I used a motorcycle jack, jack stands for safety and a 1400kg jack with blocks to jack the car up. Very satisfying removing an engine yourself for the first time.

I first used only one 2x4 between the car and jack, it was enough to get the engine off the grabox, but not enough to come under the car, so back down it went and under a new piece of 2x4 went. I then positioned it and brought the tinware out through the exhaust holes

The engine took a total of 32minutes to remove, i was very happy with that for a first time. The bottom 2 nuts where impossible to see with all the gunk under there. But i found them in the end.

I don't know what it is about this photo, but i just love it =)

The white plastic that is under the car was just to keep the driveway clean and free of oil.

Quote:

Originally posted by BlackBug Quote: Originally posted by dragsters for life do you really need new bump stops if your gonna lower it? What are bumpstops?? Sounds good though! Pics!

IRS is all bolt on except the trailing arm pivot boxes which need the body off to be welded on.

You could always do what smiley on here did and just weld the boxes in place but stay swing axle so its just a quick bolt in job at a later date to swap to IRS.

What kind of welding is involved, i can easily have the welding done, whats the advantages of IRS? Will i need to buy new lowered shock? How will this go with my airkewld setup (disc brakes and lowering package)?

IRS is like speaking another language to me atm.

Thanks Joel,

In other news....

My order from Volks arrived, steering wheel and running boards are orgasmic....=)

It sure put a smile on my dile today

The only welding is to weld in the 2 pivot boxes



You can just do that while the body is off then fit the IRS down the track.

In a straight line theres no real difference between the 2, but once you get into the corners swing axle becomes a problem.

Theres a few bandaid things you can do like camber compensators to them but due to the design of swingaxle they camber out if you get off the gas to quick in corner and that inside tyre jacks up, traction gone, arse over tits they go.

Sorry to use your bug as an example Will, but it shows it so well

Great stuff fella. IRS is the way to go if you can afford it. I like the comment about just getting the puvot boxes welded in... then after a while you can start collecting the changeover parts. Just getting the pivot boxes in would be the the most crucial part. They setup alignment and al sorts of geometry for the back wheels. Good stuff keep it up. IRS conversions are not cheap. You need to buy so many diff parts... if you get them cheap then all the best to ya.

Parts Needed
IRS gearbox
Diagonnals Arms
Stub Axles
CV joints and axles
Torsion bars and spring plates.

Thats pretty much it, but expences are like a piece of string.

What would be a guesstimate for IRS conversion?
I'll can easily do it down the track if i put the pivot box's on. Where are they welded?
any pictures and where can they be purchased from?
How would i go swapping the airkewld brakes im getting over? just how they went on?
or would i need a new kit for the rear?

Thanks Aussie. Yes, slowly collect partrs, basically what i've done now, nearly everything new and ready to put back on once body is off. I just want to get the body off, as then i can start to make real progress on the pan. Ordering parts and seeing them arrive and the quality is very satisfying, along with imagining whats its going to look like.

Gday Jeremy,
The pivot boxes can be bought new, which is the only way to go anyway as cutting them out of a donor car would mangle them.

It's really hard to put a price on the job cos it depends on what you pay for the parts.
You may get lucky and get most of the suspension stuff for free from a car being wrecked, the amount of Sbugs I've sent to the crusher which had all the parts you need is depressing.
Also late type3s the whole IRS subframe just unbolts out, that has everything you need, trailing arms, torsion bars, spring plates stub axles etc, theres heaps of them in wrecking yards.
This was done with my 70 bug to get the bigger torsion bars.

You need a jig to get the pivot boxes aligned, a few places used to hire these out or someone on here may have one.

The worst part of the job though is opening up the chassis forks where the pivot boxes weld in, its really tight to the handbrake cable conduit




It may pay to look into rear disc kit compatibility, I have a feeling swing axle use different mounts to IRS.

Then you just gotta find an IRS gearbox and axles/CV joints.

Thanks for that Joel, the airkewld kit im getting fits 68-75 bugs. it also states "This kit does NOT add any track width to the vehicle and fits on IRS stock 69-75 Axle configurations"....so i assume it fits IRS then, do you have a picture of the pivot box's in place. Whats the worse that can happening when cutting? you hit handbrake cable and need a knew one?

Spoke to Bocchino motors today about spray job and new engine, Nino can get 165hp out of the 1850cc setup and it has virtually no breakdowns and a stronger gearbox isnt required due to the 1500 being a strong one.

As long as you didn't mess up the chassis fork too bad then yes chopping through the cable conduit or cutting the hole abit big.

US stopped using swingaxle in bugs in 68 so everything that comes from there for fat chicks tends to be for IRS.

The pivot boxes weld in to the corner of the torsion bar housings and the chassis forks.






I think Nino may be alittle over ambitious with his engine outputs, especially if his 1850cc setup is based on 92mm barrels
Thats a recipe for a short lived engine.

I'd like to see this 165hp on the dyno......

You have a pic of the fuel line under the fuel tank with the hose perrished and broken on p1 of your members rides thread. Here you describe it as 'The fatigued connecter which had done 40 years of service' It's no connector, just hose that slips onto the steel pipe, take the hose off and replace with new VW hose (5mm) and bigger lines are'nt really required untill you have some real serious horse power, even 165 could run stock pipes.

Quote:

Originally posted by Joel The only welding is to weld in the 2 pivot boxes You can just do that while the body is off then fit the IRS down the track. In a straight line theres no real difference between the 2, but once you get into the corners swing axle becomes a problem. Theres a few bandaid things you can do like camber compensators to them but due to the design of swingaxle they camber out if you get off the gas to quick in corner and that inside tyre jacks up, traction gone, arse over tits they go. Sorry to use your bug as an example Will, but it shows it so well

Hobart. Eastern shore in particular. Nice bottles of beer =)

Just a update of what happened over the weekend:
I worked approx 20 hours of 48 hour period.
Came home friday evening after work and ordered my lowering kit and bad series F/R brake kit and brake line bracket.
During the day on friday i unbolted the body from the pan after and hour and a half of pain stakingly removing all the bolts (thanks to wd40 and inox i think its called) i then lifted the body off the seal, just to brake the seal.
Another feel good moment there.

Also, the 180sx i nearly brought. Now looks exactly like this (exact car):

http://tas.gumtree.com.au/c-Cars-Vehicles-Motorbikes-Parts-cars-Nissan-180sx-...

I spoke to the older owner, he wish's he never sold it to the bloke now.

Thats a part of life though,

and so now i eargly await my parts from Airkewld and will make another order with JustKampers over the coming days.

Also, the 180sx i nearly brought. Now looks exactly like this (exact car):



OOPS

You could say that to the least, facebook stalking has told me that the guy did that the day before he got his licence back....hence the gumtree add (no insurance when driving unlicenced).

I was devo when i seen this, was the cleanest 180 i've seen in tassie and had decent power and was looked after by the previous owner.

You could say i'm hung up on the car.

just a small update, haven't been able to do much, but i have had parts arriving, complete wiring kit in LHD (to be changed over) from cip1 has arrived (5 business days to Tasmania=one happy customer). I also ordered some more KBS rustseal. Over black friday i ordered my lowering kit and stage 3 F/R brake kit from Airkewld......hopefully it arrives before christmas.

I shall also order from Just Kampers in the following days.. things in this order include my BRM's and other small bits and pieces.

Im keen to get the body off. Its just getting them time and mates around to do it.

I wouldn't worry about an IRS conversion unless you were taking it to the track.
Lowering it alone will make it handle a lot better anyway