1302RS

Cleaning up the metal and the garage....

2009-06-18T22:15:00.010+02:00

Ran out of welding gas so I thought it was a good moment to clean the garagebox up a bit. Pushed the bug outside and test fitted some stuff. It all kind of fitted but I'm still a bit iffy about everything. I really need an adapterplate for my subaru engine so I can test fit everything correctly. The cup-brace isn't finished eather because of the lack of welding gas but thus far it looks ok. So nothing really important to show but... well, it's progress anyway.

Had the other stuff on too but It looks really silly without an engine, so I am not going to show those pics. But at least you can see how the closed holes look (still without bondo) Now to make some holes in other places for cooling stuff, weird hu...

The cup-brace is in, still need to weld to lower brackets to the gearbox horns but then it's ready. Guess if the parts are strong enough for a boat they are strong enough for my bug. Let's hope I am right.

Bye bye half moons.....

2009-06-06T21:58:00.005+02:00

Decided to delete the little half moons behind the rear windows. They were going to blow air behind my roofcovering... so they had to go. It all looks really rough, guess I should start to use some bondo after I grind it all down. Time to start to make it look it all a bit more decent... Little note: If you are ever going to do this, do not forget to take the isolating strip out that is in the groove right behind the skin. I forgot it with the first side which resulted in lots of fire, smoke and funky smell. I can still smell it....

After that I cut a square out of the fire wall, just big enough for a 21 inch monitor. Haha, just kiding, it's going to be a 19 inch..... Nooo, it's to give the intake of the subaru engine a bit more space. And it also gives me a lot more room to get to the engine/gearbox bolts which I hadn't even thought about. I'm going to make a box of it which will also house my speakers. Also put a aluminium cover where the vents where (it's gray, probably the color I am going to paint the entire car) and I am working on a cup brace, but I'll show that one when it's finished... because I kind of screwed it up... :(

Some cornerspieces

2009-05-26T15:37:00.003+02:00

Welded in some cornerpieces, makes it all look a bit more original again... well, a little bit. Still trying to figure out where to put the bonnetpins (and also if I'm going to make them myself or buy some) That's pretty much all there is to tell for now.

Less cooling = more welding

2009-05-23T19:43:00.009+02:00

Yes, I deleted the cooling slots under the rear window. Ok, don't ask if it's a good idea or not. I've got pro's and con's, but in the end it's just because I saw the rear of the bugster and wanted mine to be kind of like that too. And because I haven't got the money yet for the adapterplate for the engine I am just looking for things to do on my bug. Well.... it turned out to be a little more work then expected. Which in hindsight wasen't that bad. Found some nasty rust I had never found if I hadn't done this.

Cut the the slots out and was figuring out how I was going to remove the plate where the bonnet is connected to. Well, it almost did it by itself. It was rusted bad. Good thing I took it out.

Welded a plate in and some brackets.

And this is how it looks now. (looks almost like it's photoshoped) Next I'll start making a little spoiler.

Also checked how the decklid looked with the bumper on. Of course it wouldn't open the normal way but I'll use hood pins.

Cleaning up the decklid

2009-05-12T23:32:00.004+02:00

Nothing really important to tell, just took the paint and bondo of the decklid. Used a powerdrill so not to make to much noise but I did take a while because... well I couldn't do big patches at ones. It was almost like coloring with a marker.... if that makes any sence :D

It came of really easy but it was just such a big surface... also made a big mess.

Well, not to bad. But not nearly done.

New rear deck lid... a bit weird.

2009-05-08T23:21:00.005+02:00

Today the mailman delivered my decklid. The guy really knows me and my heavy and/or big packages. He didn't even bother to bring it al the way to my door :D So after finishing some stuff I went to my garagebox to test fit it. Well, 2 things were pretty obvious. First of course, it's the wrong model. Couldn't really see it on the pic in the ad if it was the longer model or not but I didn't care eather way. Well turns out it's a '67 model (right...?) but it's a lot longer then I had anticipated. My bug isn't stock anyway, and I've got some other plans that make the back even less stock but I'm not sure if I am going with this deck lid. It does however have some advantages but I need to see it with the rear bumper on... Secondly, the ad said a plastic (which in my book means fiberglass) bonnet. None of that of course. The thing had a bit of rust on it and after inspecting it more carefully I noticed the inside wasn't fiberglass but thick latex paint. Funny. After taking that gunk off, the inside wasn't that bad. The outside however has had a real lousy paintjob. I'll put the grinder to it to see how it's underneath, wont take that much time I think because I could take the paint and primer of it with my fingernail.... We'll see how this unfolds.

I do prefere the longer deck lid because it makes the line of the back run on longer but it's so not stock... (maybe I should run a W-deck lid :D)

In the end I did find some little pieces of fiberglass under all that latex junk. But that gray stuff really has metal under it. Still it doesn't look all that bad actually.... the other side I'll leavy for another time.

Front is done, for now... again

2009-05-05T17:06:00.004+02:00

Well... turned out that my Tig welding skills weren't up for it. I just couldn't get it to work so I had to switch to Mig. Sadly that thing only has one setting when welding aluminium (that works) and that's full blast. Which resluted in a 1cm thick blob. After grinding it down it didn't look to bad, hopefully it won't leak.

Also made some gussets to make the front bracing look a bit beefier. After that I put everything together again. Also put the bonnet on, which somehow doesn't really want to fit. Weird.... Anyway, I rolled the bug out and turned it around again. For now I have had enough of working on the front and I also just bought a plastic rear bonnet which should be here tommorow or the day after. Interested if it fits and all.

Always nice to have a look at the car when it's outside. It just looks like nothing changed though.....

Some more bracing

2009-05-01T20:24:00.002+02:00

Welded 2 extra stainless tubes in the front. Of course I would have prefered to cross the 2 but then the spare wouldn't fit anymore. Oh and the water bottle got deleted. Will have to think of another system for that. After that I cut one of the bongs of my radiator, because it didn't fit anymore. Scarry. Need to weld it together again, hope my tig welding is good enough.

Spare tire

2009-04-28T16:16:00.003+02:00

Got the spare in and locked. I will show you how I made the bracket another time. The black stuff (no idea what it's called) is in too but I am not totally happy with it. Hope to change it to carbon sheet someday. Next I want to fit 2 brace pipes from the shock towers to the front and then I need to figure out how i am going to make that waterbottle work without a airfilled spare.

De-anodizing my amp

2009-04-26T21:16:00.008+02:00

Got a bit side tracked. Was working out how I was going to fit stuff in the trunk and then remembered the amp I had. I need it to make my ipod work as a stereo so it's probably going in the trunk. It's purple (or lilac) and eventough I've got all sorts of colors in and on the car, purple was not going to be one of those colors. I was going to de-anodize some wheels for my motorbike with sink declogger but haven't found a bucket big enough to fit a wheel in. However, the amp was a good object to test the de-anodizing. I have seen it online that it works but wanted to see it with my own eyes. So I started on this little project.

The amp. Just a few euro on a flee market but it works. Eventhough they had left it out in the rain....

Took it apart and cleaned it with soap. It's a perfect fit for my sink.

Filled the sink with warm water en de-clogger.

Half an hour later, a lot of foam which started to turn purple.

One hour and I took it out. Had turned it upside down ones during the proces. Well guess it really does work. One hour might have been a bit long because it got a bit pitted. After a good rinse I saw some brown spots....

Not really sure what those spots were (heat or something) but I decided to sand them down. Well, not a good idea but the spots were gone. After that I gave it a glassbeat to get rid of the shine...

The plastic strip was purple-ish too so I made a black one. Just a sony badge from an old reciever to make it not to bland. All ready to fit in the bug. But I might put it in the back......

Fuel pumps

2009-04-24T21:34:00.004+02:00

Had some minutes to spend so I started on the second part of the trunk cover. And then I realized that the fuelpumps were getting in the way. So I relocated them. Made some brackets, welded them in and now the pumps are lower. They were where those little holes are. Cover on top and you don't see them. Not really important but.. hey. So, low presure pumps on a injected engine...? Well, I don't want high presure lines going through the car, so I'll put a swirltank in the back. And this way I can always put a carburated engine in the back if I blow up the EJ20 :D
Almost done with the front so I can paint it.

Back on the front

2009-04-22T22:25:00.004+02:00

Made some little brackets on the back. Don't look like much but they make a big difference.

After that I turned the car around again and started to clean up the trunk. Still trying to figure out how to lock the spare in one place.....

Removable rear valance part 2

2009-04-15T18:42:00.005+02:00

After a few days of other stuff to do, weird weather and a neighbourhood swarming with cops because of a double homicide (wow) 1 block from my home (I was not going to risk atrackting a bored cop with my noise making endevours) today I finally started on the other side of the rear. Also testfitted the rear bonnet. It all needs a lot of tweaking but I am ok with how it came out.

Brrrr, that hideous green keeps popping up everywhere....

Removable rear valance part 1

2009-04-10T20:45:00.005+02:00

Started on the removable rear valance. Since the rear is already in 2 parts I first did the drivers side. Will do the other side in a few days. Oh, and I got the idea from Hebster52.

So easy now to get to the gearbox and stuff.

Let's see if I can get this a bit cleaner.

4 bolts and it's on, just need to make a little bracket on top.
(at this moment I am going to ingnore the rust)

Front is 'done' back to the back....

2009-04-05T16:38:00.005+02:00

It was such a nice sunny sunday I decided to finish the little brackets on the front and after that take my bug outside. There's still a lot to do on the front but I need to buy stuff for it and also need to think about what I am going to do (bonnet clamps, radiator fans, bumper brackets, etc) so for now it's done. So up next is the back. I'm going to make the rear valance removable but not just the exhaust gard but the entire part up to the fire wall.... Going to be interesting. But first, boring normal life stuff. Juck!!!

If you look carefully you can see the little bracket on the bottom of the front. Just 4 bolts and the radiator is exposed

All the junk in the trunck....

Bonnet on and you can't even see it's going to be watercooled.

So next up, cutting up all of the back...

Cutting corners (me and my silly titles)

2009-04-04T21:44:00.004+02:00

Seeing as my replacement dash came with the window corners, I decided to switch those corners too. So I cut the ugly patched stuff out I had made before and replaced it with the somewhat better looking pieces. Ok, I had not used the grinder on those corners so they could of ended up a lot neater but this was a much easier solution....

First the drivers side....

Then the passenger side, look at what I replaced... juck.

Some grinding and primer makes it all look kind of decent. Started on the front too, 4 bolts and it's off.

Dashing

2009-04-03T21:09:00.005+02:00

Taddaaa....
Yes, that's right. Got my dashboard fitted. Took a lot of figuring out 'how to' tho. Stil needs a lot of work and bondo and stuff but for that I need to get the rolecage out of the way. So, want to know how I did it...?

First I cut the left over piece of the dash up so it was close to what I wanted...

Then welded everything together again....

And then cut it again, holes this time and after that welded rings in it...

Then drilled holes in it so I could weld threaded studs in it (also checked if the gauge ring fitted)

Used a piece of wood for now to hold the gauges but I don't like wood in my car. Still it has to be something that doesn't conducts electricity. Thinking of PE.

And finally welded everything together.... Next up, the front.

Finally back at it.... for now.

2009-03-21T18:08:00.004+01:00

It feels like forever since I've worked on my bug. After the cold and rain and snow, the weather finally started to get better. But somehow I found myself working behind my computer for about 2 weeks now while watching the sun shine and thinking it was such beautiful weather to work on the bug. So today I couldn't take it anymore and went at it. I had picked up a dash a few weeks ago and had been contemplating on how I was going to fit the 944 gauches in it and today I decided I had thought about it long enough. So I took my grinder and my welding machine and had some fun. My snot is black now and one welding spark landed way to close to my crotch but I haven't felt this content about myself in ages. Even the stupid police ticket I got in the mail today didn't phase me. I really need to find a way to make a living from tinkering on beetles...... Here are some pics.

Because I need to change the tacho hole I decided to do this in steps.

First I cut a piece out the new dash...

Then I cut the same size out of the old dash.
All that metal is really wobly without a dash.

Weld weld, grind grind and we're done. For now anyway, the rolcage is in the way so I can't weld everything. To bad I need to lift the body to take the rollcage out...

And here is part 2, changing 1 hole into 2. Hmmm......

Fuel Cap

2008-12-12T23:44:00.003+01:00

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.

2008-08-26T13:17:00.003+02:00

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...

2008-08-13T18:31:00.004+02:00

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....

2008-08-12T21:44:00.004+02:00

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...

2008-08-11T22:40:00.002+02:00

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...

2008-08-10T22:24:00.003+02:00

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...

2008-08-09T18:47:00.003+02:00

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...

2008-08-09T00:17:00.005+02:00

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....

2008-08-06T23:44:00.004+02:00

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...

2008-08-05T20:26:00.003+02:00

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...

2008-08-02T21:25:00.003+02:00

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...

2008-07-31T22:57:00.001+02:00

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...

2008-07-31T00:07:00.007+02:00

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...

2008-07-30T00:21:00.003+02:00

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...

2008-07-29T15:10:00.006+02:00

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....

2008-07-26T00:09:00.002+02:00

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.....

2008-07-24T23:30:00.002+02:00

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?

2008-07-23T21:57:00.007+02:00

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

2008-05-25T17:52:00.004+02:00

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

2008-05-05T15:59:00.005+02:00

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....

2008-04-16T23:14:00.004+02:00

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!!!!!

2008-04-09T15:59:00.007+02:00

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....?

2008-04-05T21:09:00.008+02:00

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!

2008-03-30T18:36:00.006+02:00

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!!!

2008-03-20T00:28:00.002+01:00

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

Hmmm...

2008-03-05T13:56:00.005+01:00

Fitted the watermanifold. Fits great but after I cleaned some of the coolant lines I found out they kind of don't fit anymore. Doh. Well, if it wasn't that funny I could've gotten upset :D At least now I now why everybody else has the watermanifold kick out in a straight line.... No worries though, I might get the coolant lines to fit and probably I'm not even going to need them seeing as I need to redirect all the cooling and breather lines.
Also fitted the intake manifold for haha's and man, is there way to much red..... Luckily I'm out of red paint. Need to fit the fuelrails on the manifold first before I can install it. So much for the little update. Hope to be able to put some real hours in this project next week.

Paint and Welding

2008-02-27T14:25:00.007+01:00

After much deliberation I finally decided to paint the manifold in wrinkle red. I now, kind of rice but in the end it was al about the money. I already had the can of wrinkle red and wasn't going to use it on anything else so... why not.

Anyway, I always feel kind of like an alchemist when painting with the wrinkle paint. As you can see in the pics, it first looks like a thick gloss paint. I just put all the paint on in one go without any primer. Smart thing would be to use an etching primer and start with one thick coat wrinkle and then a few thin layers... but the can doesn't say anything about primer and spraying in one go seems to work to. Ok, there are a few runners, but in the end you can hardly see them. After that I get the hot air gun and blow on the paint until it starts to 'shrink'. You can go all wild and make the wrinkles really big, which I did on the valve covers, but I didn't like that and I ended up sanding the wrinkles down on them. It's really fascinating to see the paint react on the heat. After the entire manifold was lightly wrinkled I put it inside to dry. It takes about 7 days for the paint to really harden up. After that I'll spray it with a little bit of heat resisting clear. Off course I've got no idea how it's going to hold up when the engine runs, we'll just have to wait and see. Next up is finishing the fuel rail and fitting it to the manifold.

And I got the water manifold welded. My old neighbor told me I shouldn't even try and weld it myself (he used to be a professional welder) and took me to a factory where they could do it for me. Well the people at FIB did a fantastic (and really inexpensive) job and I already test fitted it and it fits just perfect. Very happy right now. Picts of it fitted coming soon. That's it for now. I need to draw a comic now......

Cover up....

2008-02-20T13:51:00.003+01:00

I finally got the valve covers on. I had painted them in a nice wrinkle red but I had destroyed the little half moons and I couldn't find new ones anywhere. So I had to make them myself. I wasn't looking forward to doing that and had put it off for a few months.... Well, in the end I did make them myself and it was about a 2 hours job (for parts that can't be more then a few euro's) Good thing, the buzz I got from putting the valve covers on was great. Next on the list, re-weld the water manifold (hope my welder is going to be up to the job) and make my new fuel rails.... And I am still not sure what color I want to make my intake manifold. The alu looks dirty, polishing is going to take far to long, black looks good but I can't find the paint I used on the altenator and I've got another can of wrinkle red but I find that a bit pretentious because it's not a sti engine.... decisions decisions.... :D

First post.....

2008-02-13T23:34:00.004+01:00

I was just updating my site and noticed that, while I am slowly building away on my engine, I wasn't taking pictures or updating any of it on the part of my site dedicated to my beetle. So I decided to change the updating to a blog. Here's an old picture of the 1302 half a year ago, I'll take some new pictures and place them here soon.