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Oct 20, 2019 19:23:23 GMT
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I suspect the reason for so many Beetle-chassis'd cars is because the floorpan is completely self contained. I know of a Citroen Dyane, an Ford 100E, an Allegro estate, a mk2 Jetta, more than a couple of Golf's (mk1, 2 and 3),a Caddy pickup, a K70, a couple of Renault Dauphines, a T4 van, that E-type Jag, a '32 Ford roadster pickup...
Not all of them fully comply with the rebody rules (although not all of them are UK-based) as they've removed the floorpan halves, relocated the handbrake or gearstick etc. The wheelbase is an issue too, more so if it needs to be shortened - a beam extender can be used to lengthen it.
I got as far as sourcing a donor floorpan, a body to go on it and all the running gear, but I think it'd be too much of a compromise for what I want to do, so I'm more likely to go IVA if it ever does get built.
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Oct 20, 2019 18:26:56 GMT
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Oct 20, 2019 17:22:11 GMT
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Same ignition gubbins as I got in mine, seems to work well. Despite internet stories of rubbish quality, breakages, rough running, imminent death of nuns and kittens, etc etc. Feel your pain re the weather. I've now reached the point where I have to drill a hole in the bottom of the door to stop it filling up with water Nick, there should be holes there already. Problem occurs as the door bottom is replaced, the new piece doesn't have the holes, so it rusts out even quicker...
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Oct 17, 2019 22:18:21 GMT
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No to be a pain but, more photos please! I'll see what I can do! It's quite tricky taking photos during lessons - I have to get photos of the students each carrying out the tasks, then I have to make sure that photos I post here don't identify them, as each student and their parents have to have photo release forms filled in, so it gets to be quite a task in itself! Today we did reach a bit of a mini-milestone, as the first pan half has started to be welded in. Used a bit of weld through primer, cranked up the welder and started to plug weld through the holes in the floorpan edge that the kids had previously punched in. Not every weld took (some of the students aren't confident with the welder so just filled up the hole) so we've got to grind back and redrill a couple, and a little bit of tapping the back corner down to fit the flange perfectly will be necessary, but we're getting there. Photos when it's done!
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Oct 17, 2019 18:45:48 GMT
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This might be useful to you... I'm going to make door opening jigs as well, so I can brace the body square. I didn't do this one when it was on the original floorpan due to the accident damage - I don't know how square the body is. It'll be right once we've finished though!
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Oct 17, 2019 18:41:31 GMT
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To be honest, there are a couple of ways of doing it. If the body is bad, chop all the rot out and see what you're left with, then assemble everything to the floorpan and plop the body back on, weld where it touches and fill the gaps. I did one about 15 years ago where I wasn't going to do the standard front and rear quarter panel repairs because although the channels were toast, the rot hadn't spread into the surrounding area. I drilled out the factory spot welds, ground out the seams around the inner a post and b post and cut the channel out in sections. Trickiest bit is at the back, where the crossmember joins the channel - if I remember right we unbolted the body and lifted it just a couple of inches so we didn't have to disturb too much, then slide the channel in, bolt the body back down and weld through the spot weld drill holes. Do one side at a time, obviously! It did help that that particular car was pretty much original and unmolested other than a bad patch on the front bumper mount. It had been repainted once since 1970 and that was it - its the orange one that is in the pictures on the first page of this thread (I think!) - other than that it was untouched. Obviously I built a 1641 for it, lowered the front end and stuck it on fat and thin Empi Sprintstars, Cal Look all the way - but I did re-instate the chrome trim in the (new) window rubbers and even tracked down the correct original year rubber mat for the front to match the rear one. Sold it far too cheap, and still miss it now...
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Oct 12, 2019 21:02:59 GMT
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Try again...
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Oct 12, 2019 21:00:27 GMT
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What's involved with replacing the floor pans? Do you need to line them up with the body? Or can this all be done without having to refit the body before welding them on? I fear I'm going to have to do this at some point on mine Ideally, you'd have either the floors or the channels solid enough to be able to replace the other, which is how I did my Ghia. On this car however, the passenger side channel was original but rotted out, and the drivers side was replaced, possibly due to the accident damage that caused the front quarter to be changed, and it was rotten too. The pans and channels were welded together too, so no chance of saving any reference points! I have found a few diagrams on the internet that give dimensions for the holes along the ends of the pan, so I used a sheet of 8x4 plywood and some wooden blocks to make a rudimentary chassis table with a couple of the holes marked out. This has let us position the floorpan half in exactly the right place relative to the crossmember at the back and napoleon's hat at the front. This phone is a bit rubbish so I might not be able to add the diagrams...
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Oct 11, 2019 18:02:43 GMT
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I think it's going to be a mobile tanning booth. Grizz riding around persuading young ladies to strip down to their undercrackers while he sprays them with creosote...
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Oct 11, 2019 18:00:22 GMT
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Looking great Phil, and those wheels really work with the dark paint. I wasn't convinced with them earlier in the thread, but didn't want to say! Glad I've been proven wrong!
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Oct 11, 2019 17:58:22 GMT
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End of the week and we've been progressing well. Both rear crossmembers are done, both ends of the napoleon's hat are pretty much finished - just need a little fine tuning with the power file. Weld through primer next and the driver side floor pan is ready to go in. Passenger side needs trimming down and it'll be ready too, so potentially we're going to be done with welding the floorpan by the end of next week. Still thinking of IRS brackets, and maybe a gearbox mid mount too!
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Oct 10, 2019 20:24:39 GMT
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Thanks Chris, I'm glad you got that photo up - they're the ones that some of the kids use in brickwork. Ive been asked about them a few times so I'll see if I can get some ordered.
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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I was clearing out the loft at the weekend and found the feature in PPC with the Ghia when it had been turbo'd! Wonder where it is now?
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Lack of feel and the possibility of gloves getting caught are the issues. The thought of gloves caught in rotating tools makes my skin crawl! I did once have a grinder with a flap wheel kick back and slap me flat in the chest. Fortunately I was wearing an apron, which tangled right around the wheel and stopped it dead. Apparently I went rather white... The one thing I really hate seeing is angle grinders without guards on them. Some of the videos I use in class have some great fabrication but without the guards makes me wince. It seems to be primarily Americans, but I've seen a couple of Aussies (in America with borrowed equipment, admittedly) and even the odd well-known Brit doing it too.
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Points taken gents - full face masks and ear defenders are available in the workshop and I do recommend them to the students, but not all will follow advice given all of the time. Some even use ear defenders as an excuse not to listen to the teacher... With the type of school we are, I often get kids who won't take part in practical lessons because I insist on overalls and toe caps before they even set foot in the room! That's an argument I won't even enter into! Having said that, quite a few of them do wear all that and a dust mask too, which I think is pretty much essential when doing a lot of grinding. It's frightening how far the grinding dust travels - I've got a really big classroom / workshop and it gets all over the place, and I'm quite conscious that we're all breathing it in. I'd like a decent extractor, but they're not exactly quiet either! I've just got the school to buy 10 new welding helmets, as the ones they'd got were getting less and less reliable, and the grind setting on those is pretty good. They fit better than my full face grinding masks too, so most of the students have started wearing those. I'm certainly going to be searching out those ones that @grumpynorthener recommends though as I've got a bit of budget left to spend... I'm kind of with VW on the gloves thing - one of my tutors at uni even used to cut down the sleeves of his labcoats so they didn't get caught in anything. I've got a couple of pairs of the thin Tig welding gloves that most of the students prefer to the big thick welding gloves, but this lad has said that he doesn't like the lack of feel with the grinder. I have to say that I know what he means, especially with the other grinders with the really awkward switches that are virtually impossible to turn on with gloves on!
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Funny how I think of myself as an engineer but then read your threads and realise Iām not. On the rungs of engineer I think Iām just holding the ladder for you. I've got an engineering degree but I won't call myself an engineer! I'm just an enthusiastic amateur with a tiny bit of barely remembered, 20 year old knowledge. In comparison to the Lego inspector, reading this thread is something like being off to see the wizard...
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Last Edit: Oct 9, 2019 19:33:56 GMT by neilsdavies: Can't even add a poxy photo...
1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Used the end of the crossmember to repair the grot from before. Only problem is, it's not quite the same shape. No stepped shape for the pan to sit on, and a little too long, so after we'd drilled 12mm holes to plug weld through, we nipped about 8mm off the end as the photo shows. Welded up and the pan half fits up to the spine again now!
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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I can't belive we're five weeks into term already! My new tools turned up, so the floor pan is now punched for plug welding, and the old welds we couldn't reach before are now gone. The end of the napoleon's hat is almost finished (school table legs are decent thick steel, and we have a ready supply of them getting smashed up by kids...) but the rear crossmember is proving problematic. Repro ones are single skinned, but the originals have a double skinned part towards the end. We're trying to split the two pieces apart and graft a section of the new crossmember in place, but cutting the top skin without going into the bottom one or the torsion housing requires finesse. And my sabresaw from home. That's going to be Mondays job!
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Sept 30, 2019 17:59:45 GMT
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Something we all use...
You can weld bog roll??!! š
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim 1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started. 1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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