I pulled a wreck into the shed today and stripped out the pan.It isn't as good as I thought-has a lot more rust than I remembered.

I was going to cut out the rear floor sections anyway,but I will have to do full pan halves now.Gives me more scope to change a few more things.I will cut the floors both sides tomorrow then get it blasted ready for welding.

I have to modify my jigs to fit the second torsion bar tube.I am going 6 inches longer this time and 3 inches higher.

sounds interesting a new project

Looks like you have a great garage setup for doing all of this.

Keep the photos coming

Kev

A question if under the length of the tunnel has 2 x small rust holes can it be fixed and re regod or is it stuffed ? how is yours?

If only 2 small rust holes it can be fixed and shouldn't affect the rego- well not in SA any way. I will put some more pics of mine on later - there is nothing left, only the centre spine. I will make new pan halves from 2mm flat plate and it will fly thru rego here.

Thanks to somebody on here who put me onto these power window kits,it arrived today.Really good value if the motors give a reasonable life cycle.Ther is plenty of bits in the box.I cut both pan halves out today-pointless having the blaster doing stuff that is being cut out anyway.I finished overhauling the king and link pins in the dropped spindles and put some colour on them.

Can you send me 2 boxes of your enthusiasm PLEASE

I am having trouble getting motivated but with your pics I may get going

Maybe if you had a Drag Car that you had been building for 10 years and had been pissed around by every expert this side of everywhere,and it's still not going- you would look for any new project to divert the "I'm truly over it " feeling.I can't box it up,but it's sure given me a new sensation and I'm loving it.

Cheers Nbturbo ive got a donor pan but looking at its orignal and its still pretty good except a few very small holes?
ill be watching this thread for sure.

Came up with a simple way to do the rear of the cab and look sort of factory.I have cut a B pillar from the wreck and tried it on the opposite side.I can cut the the body I am using at the desired length and graft this piece in.I will patch over where the striker went,then bring the sheet metal to close the back in right up to the double skin where the pinch mould originally went.Here I can drill the sheet metal and plug weld it to the grafted in piece.It will be easy to weld a panel on the inside full length and fill the hole where the windows once went.I will be keeping the Semaphores on this one and have them working.

I can see this as being a thread to watch Gary.

I hope so. Was over your way last weekend. My Daughter has bought a house in Orroroo and she started work there last Tuesday. It was one of my Grand Daughters 14th birthday,so went for a visit. Guess I will be spending a fair bit of time there now. Will try n get to Peterborough one trip n catch up

Always welcome mate.
Notch is off the road for a few weeks. needs a new battery and a service. Want it running right for Dubs by the River in September.

Just finished doing the IRS arm mods to swap them to opposite sides.Picked up my Suby donor car on the weekend.

Somebody has taken the air con belt tensioner/adjuster wheel should be easy to replace.Have stripped one of my graveyard bugs to start cutting bits out to repair my Oval Body.

The best part of this body are the heater channels-they are perfect when everything else is rusted out.I will use the gutters from both sides to make the roof line and rear of the cab on my ute body.I have just stripped a Country Buggy front beam to use,and it has split torsion bars like a Beetle.

I thought all CB's had 1 piece torsion bars.I need to cut 40mm out to cover the extra width of the dropped spindles,and was going to weld in adjusters-but I just bit the bullet and purchased a full air ride kit from Airkewld in the US,so wont need adjusters now.

So, can I have the CB front beam now Gary?? Been waiting 10 years for you to get sick of it.

You wouldn't recognise it now Tony- it's in 2 pieces,40mm narrower and I have cut the insides of the shock towers to clear the body.Will weld it all back together tommorrow.There are no signs of wear on any of the bearing surfaces of the suspension arms- it hasn't done a lot of work.From memory, I reckon I found it laying in the dirt in King Earthmovers yard.

Got one side shock tower done tonight.

Cut out the original top shock anchor and machined a new one - shorter so as not to poke out the back with 12x 1.5 thread.I welded a small piece of 16x3mm flat bar down the tower to give some more strength, but not interfere with the shocker.

I made these beam extenders tonight.From their Website,sometimes the front air shocks won't lift the car back up for several reasons-not enough air,front suspension arms a little too tight etc.They suggest these extenders are a good idea for all air ride front ends.I have ordered the lower shock mount extenders-the bottom shocker pivot point is moved 50mm further away from the lower arm pivot point-to make lifting easier and to give a bit better ride.

Tony-pretty sure you won't want it now.This is what it took to keep it all square.

It'll do the job nicely Gary. Good stuff.

Decided I will use the same Speedy rims as I just fitted to my Oval-but discovered they don't do 19x9.5 any longer.I contacted their Sales dept and found out that they have just bought back a lot of stock from an Agent in LA who has closed shop.My luck,there were a few 19x9.5's in the list with an ET of 30 which works OK for me.I could only get 19x8.5 under the back guards on my Oval,but the Hot Rod will have much wider guards.

Got a bit more done today.I am going to shift the handbrake and gear shifter back 150mm and raise them both up 60mm.I cut the bits I need from a rusty pan,and will splice it on top of the base pan.There is a bit of work to get the handbrake cable steel tubes into position.I am going to use the existing heater levers on one side of the handbrake lever to operate the heater tap to a hotrod heater, which will go behind the seats.I plan on plumbing it into the existing heater tubes in the heater channels,and bring the hot air into the cab like a standard Beetle.I have a pair of Mitsubishi Starion seats for the job.I refurbished some Superbug pedals for it,and just cut the clutch pedal off the sleeve and machined all the weld marks out.I cut the brake pedal off and bent the pedal inwards.I cut a small piece from the clutch pedal and used it to strengthen the brake pedal.I have a new VW auto pedal rubber coming,so will cut some flat steel to suit and weld it to the pedal.My Oval body has some bad rust in the heater channels,so I cut a channel from the Beetle I am using for donor bits.It looked pretty good before I cut it,but ended up being bad around the A pillar area.I have ordered 2 heater channel front repair sections and ordered front pan half replacements as well.They list the front sections as being 27 inches long,so they should come back to where the front of the seats should be.

Cleaned up the back of the pan tonight ready to start welding the 2 torsion bar tubes together.Got it bolted in position.My new rims for the back turned up today-so bolted 1 onto my Oval to see if all the calculations were OK.Got 18mm of rim clearance on the inside lip-heaps.

new rims.

Finished all the fuel,handbrake and heater tap steel tubes in the pan today.I have fitted a 10mm supply and 8mm return line.I will fit the Bosch pump on top of the pans original torsion bar tube,and will use the Suby original inline fuel filter just after the pump.Started to fit the auto shifter and the top plastic cover tonight.The shifter will be 7 inches further back than the OG manual shift lever.I have decided to run the copper tubes for the airconditioner inside the pan as well.Ordered some threaded brass fittings today which I will silver solder to each end of the copper tube.Ordered -10,-8 and -6 fittings.I have done another conversion on this pan to use LH drive master cylinders.I have 2 spare 22mm cylinders.

and some more

looking good. can't wait to see more

Ended up with 3/8" pressure line and 1/2" suction line for the air con.Bought weld on fittings with O ring hose ends.Had me beat how I was going to secure the fittings at each end so they didn't move around,and didn't turn while tightening the hoses.Came up with this idea.I have to sacrifice 4 off 3/4" sockets,but its turned out real good.I drilled out the sockets to clear the copper tube,then cut the a slot in the side for the tube to slip thru,drop the fitting back into the socket,then put a small hose clamp around it to stop any movement.Got one end done.I will make the piece I cut from the tunnel a removable panel.I have kept them on the left side to not obstruct the dip switch.

I have started to fabricate the rear engine/trans support bar work.I have to cut into the torsion bar housing to shift the trans forward 20mm for the CV's to line up.It's probably not that critical though.I am thinking of setting the trans up with a slight incline up to give the Suby sump some more ground clearance.Has any body done this before and if so,how much have you lifted the front of the tranny above horizontal?