Hey, I'm currently stripping down a 71 1302S and my aim is to rebuild it as a street legal racecar. What would I do first? (Say, suspension, brakes, gearbox?)
Thanks- Brenton.

That probably depends how much money you have to throw at it...???

I'm only a second year diesel mechanic apprentice, so not a great deal.

I wouldn't call my Baja a race car and it's nothing like what you are doing, but just to give you an idea...
When we tackled the last rebuild, I looked around till I found a good pan, fitted the kombi box and converted the pan to IRS, then made and fitted the 4 inch body lift, set up the suspension, fited the disc brakes to front and bigger drums to rear, then did the new motor, put the body back on then did the full cage... In that order as best as I can remember...
Hope that helps some...
Be interesting to see the opinions of others that are more into the style you're going for...
Good luck with it and remember, Photos all the way through the build up are great to look back on..

Cool, Thanks for that. It's given me a starting point.
I'll definately take a hard drive full of photo's!

We do alot of mods to the 71's to make them handle.
In the front we ad poly bushs to stop any slop in the front end, Lowered struts custom made with small coiled spring to allow more room for wheel choice and sriffer, Fully adjustable strut tops to adjust camber and caster, Front brakes are alfa GTV calipers along with cross drilled and vented porsche rotors.
In the rear we ad Type 3 torsion bars to stiffen them up or we have bigger bars from 26 to 28mm, rear brakes are an EA falcon setup that works very well with the front setup.

My brother races his 1302 and has got it handling sooo good, with a Mild 1916 he pulled a 1min.53sec lap time around eastern creek knockin off a 5.7L mustang that was setup for racing.

If you need more info, or decided you want something give us a ring at V-Force on 9743 1247 or 0408 991 247

More than happy to help someone build a race car!

Heres a picture of him and his 1302 71' having some fun.

Alex

See... I knew "Someone Helpful" would get out of bed evetually....!!!

AND its an EARLY start too!!!

Thanks! Mind you, all of that to me just looks like '$$$$$$' What would I be looking at spending for those mods?

Its been said time and again but there is an old adgage in motorsport.

"Speed costs money-----How fast do you want to go?"

You need to first of all, set youself an amount of money you want to unload into your toy and then choose the most cost effective mods from there.

Initially, spend more time and money on chassis, brake and suspension development and get the thing to STEER & STOP.
Very often, simply powering up a shitter results in more evil handling and sometimes SLOWER lap times!

Start with a good pan, build your cage in first, and then go and add your corners from there.

Once you have a good solid, stiff and tuneable basic chassis package, you can then go and chase the real horsepower.
IMHO of course.
L8tr
E

Ok, thanks!

*poly bush set (front and rear) $99

*Type3 bars $150

*26-28mm bars $360

*Adjustable strut tops $330

*Lowered custom struts $999

It does get abit expensive but the main things for you to get started would be:

*poly bushs
*lowered struts
*Type 3 bars

Total $1249

We picked up another 1302 about a week ago and by only adding the 3 mods above it handles like its on rails!!! Now we have added some street legal race rubber on some of our Spider wheels and now its just insanity!!!

Im sure you will be very happy with the way it will handle.

alex

Okay, once we're in the New year and I can save some money (That's my resolution) I'll give ya's a call. Also, I've seen fibreglass floorpan sections for sale, are they any good?

Also, I've seen a weld-in brace for the gearbox forks (Perhaps from V-Force or somewhere like that) What benifits do they offer?

You would prob be better off with metal pans much stiffer.

Chassis forks can be made urself. they stop flex in the forks on a big start that can turn into bad axle tramp and thats wat busts gearboxes. They only need to be bars made from the end of the gearbox forks to the body with some support above.

alex

Cool.

You should be able to wrench up an engine for yourself being a mechanic. I suggest you start by getting a cheap second handy from the wreckers and rebuild it to almost stock first. Then once you feel confident about that, you should be able to put something more interesting together later on.

Oh, and buy a few books on hot rodding VW motors. Keith Seume from the Uk has published a few as have some guys from the states. A cheap way to get some basic knowledge.