Fuel Cap

Been a while I updated here, but have been busy with other stuff and had to wait on some stuff. Anyway, I welded in a fuel cap. I was afraid it would stick out but now its to far in. I'll have a look at it tomorrow with daylight because pictures can play tricks on you but I might cut the whole thing out and start over. I was already kind of iffy on the whole motorbike fuel cap, but now with the way it's sitting....

Rust prevention aint easy.

As you might have noticed not a '...day 20..' head. Nope, my holiday is over. Few reasons. First offcourse the holidays are over and I need to make money. Secondly I'm working on something else with a deadline on the 31st of August. And third reason, I was waiting for my rust prevention stuff to arive. Which was kind of an quest by itself. I wanted to buy masters series but I never got an answer back from this guy from Britain. So I went with Por15 instead from this guy in the Netherlands. However, he didn't have part of my order in stock anymore and he asked me if I wanted KBS instead. And that's what the mailman deliverd to me today. About 115 euro for 2 tins and 2 plastic containers. Auwa, was what my bankacount said. Hope it works as good as they claim it works. Heard good stuff about it so as long as I don't screw up :D Kind of funny that 1 of the tins is rusting.... hmmm. So probably monday the 1st of september I'll be working on the bug again.

... day 19...

After yesterday's weld weld weld, today was cut cut cut. Wasn't going to work on the bug today because of the shitty weather but I got bored with doing other stuf. So I made some holes... no wait, I cut out some rust and that was about it. Took the door out (it's always that last screw....) and cleaned the hole up a bit. Tommorow weld weld weld again.... maybe.

and that was already repaired....

looks worse then it is, just needs 3 little plates

still no idea on how I want it

... day 18....

Weld weld weld. Finished the strip and... yes no more petrol 'flap'. Not sure if it was a smart thing to do (I want to do as little modifications as possible) but I really hate those things. They're nice and handy and all, until it gets stuck and your fiddling around at the petrol station for about 10 minutes to get it to open..... Also made some new glasses for my 944 gauges. No more circus cones. Maybe some other facings but for now I have to figure out how I want to make the dash. I 'm not really into custom dashboards but... well I've got at least 2 gauges and more hole then dash....

another before pic....

and the after pic. some rustprimer to make it look a little better...

hmmm, this is a nice view too. maybe a transparent dash...?

new glasses, protectsheet are still on

... day 17...

So I started with the window corner, thinking I should get the difficult things done first. Well, knowing my karma I should have know.... The corner was done quickly, not really perfect but it will do, but welding in just a simple strip turned in cutting out a real big piece. My old neighbour told me it was tin... ok, well it gave me a hole lot of more work. Grmmblll. No pictures because I had a Mudhoen meating (watching that insane really funny wierd futurama movie :D) I had to go too, but tommorow more. With picts and stuff. Oh, and I did something else too, kind of stupid but cool.. more about that tommorow too.

... day off...

Ok ok.... 1 picture of the zinc disaster areas then. Just a before picture :D The red arrows mark the spots. The straight piece won't be a real problem, but the window corner.... IEEEP!!! Didn't do anything today (needed to clean up and stuff) but I'll have a go at it tomorrow. Oh and a pic of the spare. I'm not sure yet how I want it to sit there. Just as the dash, no idea how I am going to fill the giant holes....

the cutting part is easy....

and some real cool hinges on top of the spare, i"m going to fit somewhere...

... day 16...

And there I was happily stripping away paint and welding in little holes when all of a sudden my welds started to act up. It was like fireworks. So I started fiddling with my settings, which didn't work. Tried to weld another spot which worked fine so I started to get confused. Then I took a real good look (I was upside down in the trunk) and the metal looked kind of different and weird. After a good long deliberation I took the angle grinder and started cutting away. I took the weird pieces out and..... it was freaking zinc, or something like that. What the hell, are you kidding me....? Well, now I've got a few new holes in my bug to fill. Great. No pics, they depress me :P

... day 14-15...

Got the cowl in and some reïnforcement. Lots of welding, I even got a little sunburn (weldburn...?). Mocked up a cover and test fitted the spare and it all looks ok. Just a few days and my vacation is over.... hope to get the front done by then.

Off course I cut to much, so I needed to weld in little corners. Doh!

other side too, and the optima does not fit in the wheelwell leftover....

Cleaned up a little too.

... day 13....

Lots of little things today. Wasn't happy with an old piece on the front, so I replaced it. Also replaced a little piece in the wheel well. Filled some of the little holes where the hoodrubber holderthingies sit. Took the brakefluid thing out. And some other misc things.

As I look at the picture I start to wonder why I didn't replace the entire piece in one go. In the front you can see the old part

So why do you think I don't want the brakefluidcontainer there anymore...?

Sprayed some rustprimer on the little welds...

... day 11-12...

Doesn't look like I did a lot of work but I welded a piece of metal in the front, which actually was a lot work. It's a piece of an old stove where I pushed 3 indentations in to make it look a little more like a factory option. In the corners are little 5mm thick plates. Not sure yet how but some brackets will be fitted for some cross braces. Technically the nose is done now, eventhough it doesn't look like it.... :D

... day 10...

It's in. The radiator that is. It took like forever. Pfieuw. Now on to the sheet metal.

Yeah, I know it's kind of small. But it's a race radiator so it must be really good....

I keep telling myself....

6 bolts and it's out

... day 9...

A few days ago I got some melting metal in my shoe while welding and yesterday it started to get kind of grose. So today I decided not to wear shoes. Which off course means I didn't really work on the 1302. Did make some brackets for the radiator that took more time then anticipated and other then that I enjoyed the sun. It was to hot to work anyway. Tomorrow I'll hope to test fit the radiator.

amazing how much time drilling 12 holes takes

... day 8...

Got a good few hours in. My old neighbour needed some help again and my buddy came back with new parts (you know, from yesterday) for his bike, but other then that I got the driverside front done and I made the ridge for the front. That's about it. Oh, and my good old friend would see if he could get me a blind date with an asian girl as thanx for the bike. Yes, they are strange times we life in nowadays :D

here's the little ridge, lots of little cuts to bend it

here is the new front part and the ridge

and the front clammed on again, it fits

and from the back. welds look bad and rusty. maybe it's the flash

and one happy friend with new shinny bike.

... day 7...

Day 7 started ok. Cut a piece of metal for the front and started shaping it. And then it started to rain. Cats and dogs that is. Now I'm not made of sugar but welding when it rains is asking for cursing your longs out and it started to get really dark. So I went to a DIY store to get some metal and after that the weather cleared. But a buddy of mine came to see me because he needed some help with his bike. Which turned out in me giving him one of my old projects... that we needed to finish first. Hopefully I get to put some hours in my bug again tomorrow. This beetle vacation is turning out to be harder then I imagined......

... day 6...

Yes, I'm not counting the weekends... So this is day 6. I did some more cutting. I cut out some ugly repair stuff and the spare tire well. Didn't know were to cut the well (looked at a identical project 1303 on the net, but they turn out to be a little bit different there....) so I just cut the half. Luckely, because the support brackets I thought were there, were really there. After that a lot of thinking on how to put the radiator in there. Haven't come up with a plan yet, need some more looking :D Then I started with welding a new piece in the front. Doesn't look that great in the pic but it's a lot better then the previous piece. Tommorow we'll start with the other side.

Yup, it's cut.

The extra lip looks wierd but I still need to cut that.

...day 5....

Today a lot of cleaning up my workspace and... more cleaning up. Also made a few templates out of cardboard en did some sanding on the front. No picts. Sounds kind of boaring? Well, it was. Tomorrow I'm going to see my dad. We're going to a flee market so I hope I can pick up some parts and stuff. No work on the bug tomorrow....

ps. Found out that the color on the car (white) is not the right color (white) :-/

...day 4.....

Like they say: measure twice, cut once. So yesterday I did some cutting and today I measured. Even more then 2 times. :D Nothing much to show tho, maybe more tomorrow.

soooo... how am I going to get this to bare metal....

Beetle holiday day 1 ....or uhm day 3?

Yes, that is correct, a beetle holiday. Well kind off. Not one that I am cruising around europe in my bug. No, it means me taking a 3 week break to work on my beetle. No other jobs or stuff, just me working on my 1302.
Well off course that's never gonna happen. Already day one was spend indoors because of bad weather and lots of other stuff that had to get finished, day 2 I spend on cleaning up the garage and day 3 I had to help my old neighbor. But at the end of the day I did get some work done on my bug. I cut off the front to get better excess to the spare tire well. I am going to cut it out to make room for the radiator. My dad called me insane to cut out a perfectly good spare tire well.... hmmm, not much rust but perfectly good.... Anyway, the previous owner didn't do a very nice job on repairing the front (race car means race repairs) so getting the front off went kind of ruff. Some welding and new panels needed here.
Here are the pictures to give you an idea. More news tomorrow (I hope :D)

321 and off with the front.

I promise, I did not touch the well in anyway....

Now for sump-thing completely different

Next on the list for my engine was the oil sump. The standard subaru sump sits way to low for a beetle (especially my very low beetle) so you need a shortened one. Bug @5 speed sells a very nice one but at 340 euros it's kind of to expensive for my tight budget. But if you can afford it, go with the bug @ 5 speed one. You could also shorten a standard one but I don't trust my welding (machine) to be up for the job. So I had to come up with something different. And I found it. 80 euro for a new alu sump from a different car and I just needed to make an adapter plate. Which I did and tada, here it is. Not very difficult and it should work fine. Still need to shorten the pick up and some other misc stuff, but here's the test fit. Now I can make the headers fit....

I made a little mistake on the mill which I had to weld up and filling the holes didn't go perfectly too. So it al looks a little bit ruff but it should work just fine....

Here's the sump on the engine. To bad the cooling fins on the sump are going the wrong way.... Not sure what I'm going to do about that.

And under the engine. Still sticks out a fair bit but it's about 5 cm less than the original. Hey, is that the relocated fuel pressure regulator with it's nifty bracket and my new multi rib belt....

Headers up

Today my package from the US arrived. It's my subaru header manifold. With the low dollar some things are surprisingly cheap to buy from the states. To put it in perspective, new including shipping from the US this thing is cheaper then a secondhand from the Netherlands (and I'm talking about the same quality) and buying stainless bends and making it myself would have been twice as much.... Weird.

Anyway, I'm very busy at the moment with drawing stuff butt I just had to put this thing together and fit it on my engine to see how it looks. At this moment you might think I'm very happy with this thing and I am..... but. The thing is a piece of crap. Sold as stainless steel, the flanges are ordinary steel. The bends are horribly put together and some welds aren't even finished. If I would have bought this thing to put it on my car just like that I would have send it back without a second thought. But I am not going to put it on my car like that. I'm going to cut it up and re-weld it.

Why you ask? Well, as you can see on the last picture the thing sticks way out (or in this case up, because the engine is upside down) and on a subaru that wouldn't be a problem but on my bug it is. The entire manifold has to be as low as the lowest pipe in the up side down pic. Also I want the pipes to be shorter so I'm going to wrap the pipes the other way around. (I'll make a photoshop soon to give you an idea) And headers like that just don't exist...or at least not for little money. :D So I bought this header just for the bends (like I said, this is cheaper then buying stainless bends and weld it myself) I'll buy a flange for the turbo from stainless (it comes with a downpipe flange that I need) so in the end just the head flanges are steel which I'm not happy with. The rest is ok.

So next up is buying/making a shortened oil pan and buying a tig welder (I'm so good in giving myself excuses to buy machinery) so I can rebuild the headers. I already know it's going to be a drama but.... You can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs or some wise remark like that.

Tick Tock....

Today I made a little bracket to mount the fuel pressure regulator on. The bracket looks kind of stupid (might make it look a little bit cooler) but the little pressure clock looks very funny. Kind of like the motor is a bomb :D Anyway... just need to buy some fuel lines next to finish the fuel part. And next on the list is the intercooler. That's going to be an interesting project because I'm going to flip the intercooler upside down and I need to make a cowl for cooling hoses. Oh, and a stand and bracket to attach the intercooler to the engine. We'll see.... Here are some pictures. One of the fpr and one of the wheels again, because I think they just look so cool.

I've got Wheeeeeels!!!!!

Yesterday I made a little roadtrip to collect some wheels I bought on the internet. And today, while the sun was shining, I put them on my car. And man, am I happy. :D They are 17 inch Cup 2 7J ET55 on the front and 9J ET55 on the back. They're not very spectacular or anything, just nice neutral big a$$ wheels. The front needs a little skinnier tires but they are mud and snow tires so I need to buy new ones anyway. And they weren't expensive either so all in all a good day. Oh and bought on of those folding spares too. Little downside on today.... I had a good look at what I still need to do on the car. And it's a lot!!! But for now I am enjoying the pictures.

Yes, that's a lot of rubber.

To give you an idea on how big they are.... :D

Pay less get more....?

Bought some stuff on eBay for the engine. Have got a big list for more stuff but for now I'm the proud owner of an underdrive pulley, a fuel pressure regulator and a silicone coupler for the intercooler with some clamps. I'm on a thight budget so it's all on the cheap off course. Well, after taking a good look at the underdrive pulley I was kind of wondering why the grooves looked so strange. In a sense I got more then I payed for :D The grooves weren't finished or something like that so I decided to just put the pulley on the lathe and go to work. Guess it looks a lot better and even with the work the price was still good.

Left how it was and right how it should be....

Some nice stuff to put on the engine, but off course there is something else to do first. (making money that is... :D)

Fuel Rails.... Check!

After searching, with no succes, for some subaru injectors (my engine only came with one rail and 2 injectors...) I decided to buy the cheapest I could find and just make them fit. I bought some new ones on ebay, which where cheaper then second hand subaru ones, and started looking on how to make them fit on my manifold. Hours and hours of looking at pics on the internet made me come up with this design.

Here are the fuel rails for my top feeds.

Bolted on the manifold with some really wierd bosses I am not going to show....

...and bolted to the engine. Looking good. This is another one of those "we'll see if it works" projects so let's hope these really are 440cc injectors and the rails are not going to leek. But at least I made them so that I can switch real easy to other injectors....

From Quick and Easy to AAAARGH!!!

While reading on how to make fuel rails I 'discovered' catch cans. When I pulled my engine apart I was really unhappy with al the dirty oil in the turbo and when I read that a catch can can catch that oil I thought I needed one. Or two actually. Of course you can buy them but I think they are kind of expensive for what they are, so I decided to build my own. A catch can is a very simple device, so I thought that making 2 of them would be quick and easy.... Well, I was wrong. It took me 6 freakin' days to build them. No, they didn't turn out to be complicated and it didn't take me hours and hours, it just didn't go smoothly. The 2 holes for the bracket for instants took (the machine) 4 hours to drill. Going to 7 different shops all across town to get the little fittings and then to find out I bought the wrong ones just after the shop closed, didn't help either. Well I can go on like that but I wont. I still need to finish the fuel rail, coolant tank and swirl tank. So I'll just lie to myself and say it all went super smoothly.... :D