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Jan 19, 2019 12:05:48 GMT
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End of week two, and students still interested! Not much to show other than rust, and a bit more investigation into repairs. One class had a go at the floorpan bolts, with not a lot of success! The two large ones under each side of the napoleans hat at the front each ended with a score draw - one removed and one snapped on each side, and the M8s around the perimeter of the floorpan broke the captive nut out of the heater channel on every single one, so I've now got the Year 10s using angle grinders to take the heads of the bolts off. The passenger side channel has had a rusty crappy piece taken out which roughly welded the pan to the channel, and the driver side will be the same next week. I'd like the body off by the end of next week, and now that lesson observations for performance management are out of the way we can really crack on! I've spoken to a local soda blasting company who have agreed to blasting the floorpan in a couple of weeks, when it's fully stripped down and the old pan halves are off. Thanks to horrido on here I also had a very productive phone call with Andy at www.vwheritage.com who has agreed to help us out with parts and panels, so a huge thanks to both of them. Rather than me just deciding what we need, I've got a couple of students looking through the website and trying to work out exactly what they need, although it is hard to stop them just ordering one of everything...
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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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Looks great. They were drag raced in the early days of Pro Stock IIRC, so inspiration could be found there. The 302 swap as you say is a factory fit option, but I think I'd be tempted to go for a turbo 4-pot - maybe a Zetec?
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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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Jan 18, 2019 19:30:33 GMT
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Worst comes to the worst Rob, you could always stick the oval shell on a later pan? Rear shock towers are the only issue on a '68 on, other than that its a straight swap. A couple of the Outlaw Flat Four guys have '56 bodies on later pans - James Wotton on a '66 ball joint pan and Lee Crofts on a '64 linkpin pan, both registered with the identity of the floorpan, as they should be.
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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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Jan 14, 2019 15:43:13 GMT
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Nick, there are lots of options, but just keep it simple. You're not trying to make 600bhp so follow what others have already done. I think I said this before - build as big as you can and low stress. John Maher (very well respected engine guy, plus a pretty decent drummer!) once told me I could build a 1776 or a 2276 and get both of them to run 12.99 on the 1/4 mile, but the 1776 would need to be much wilder. For you, I'd go for a 2276cc with a pair of 40 or 44mm carbs, 9:1 compression, easy 120bhp. More compression, bigger cam, heads and carbs and its 180bhp. Less compression and a turbo and you're up to 250+bhp, but the big lazy one will get you where you want to be. Later on you can even change the carbs for EFI, which will up the power without sacrificing driveability.
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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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Jan 14, 2019 11:18:07 GMT
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Yes, it should be fine. Real high compression ratios (like 11:1+) would benefit from one, but with the full flow oiling and the deep sump there's much more oil to dissipate heat anyway. More important is having the correct, well fitting tinware in place, although there is no engine bay to seal up against! I'd get some gauges in place now, see what the little engine does in terms of temp for oil and cylinder head, then when the big engine goes in, try to keep them about the same.
Disclaimer: my 2007cc motor in my Beetle has just a stock doghouse cooler, 10.5:1 compression ratio and no gauges, so I don't always follow my own advice to the letter...
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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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Jan 13, 2019 23:50:59 GMT
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Worth getting that oil cooler flushed out - genuine stuff is good, but only if its clean! Serck have done a couple of coolers for me in the past.
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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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Jan 12, 2019 19:43:51 GMT
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I love the air-cooled Rabbit! I used to have several photos of it but lost them when my old laptop died. I'd forgotten all about it!
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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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Jan 11, 2019 19:38:03 GMT
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Hi Yannick, nice to see you over here! I'll do a thread on the Lounge when I'm a bit further in! Thanks for the nice comments about my other cars - I wish I'd been able to hang on to most of them, but each of the ones that moved on allowed me to build the next one.
Nick, it seems that 8-spokes have fallen from favour, but I really like them! I even had a set of five genuine 2 piece Empi wheels that I nearly put on the '68, but I sold them to pay a vet bill for one of my cats! I like them so much I may be getting another set for the 1200!
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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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Jan 11, 2019 19:25:38 GMT
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Get really jealous - the blue 1200 on the lift, that's in my classroom! There's a lot less metal than I thought in the front of the channel, but the lift is on the pan, not the channel! It will be moving next week though. Going round with the WD40 this afternoon has revealed a couple of bolts have been welded over, and one corner of the pan at least has been welded to the heater channel. The bulkhead looks the same. The bottom of the rear wing on the right hand side was also welded to the body, and every wing had several bolts replaced with self tappers! It's had a pretty hard shunt in the front, and although the spare wheel well has been replaced, I'm not convinced its quite square. In more positive news, being off the road for the last 18 years has meant that it hasn't been repainted several times - in fact, other than blending in the front, it looks like the metallic blue is the only paint job its had.
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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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Thanks for your reply, I'll have a play with my new phone and see if I can work out how to resize them!
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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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Jan 10, 2019 23:58:13 GMT
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Here's some pictures of those previous cars too: My first car, post crash repair. Not cal look yet! In 2006, 8 years after the resto. Paint went flat within months. Ended up like this by 2011 though! The '70 1300 that I loved. curse word picture, but I don't have any others. Race car - best time 12.097 at 109.77mph. Scrapped 8 weeks after I sold it... And the '51 My wife's stalled Karmann Cabrio project And the '70 1500 straight after a full resto.
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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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Jan 10, 2019 23:30:02 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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Jan 10, 2019 23:11:19 GMT
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I've not read all 7 pages but just wondering if there's a limit on file size for photos, as I'm having trouble uploading them to posts. Thanks, Neil
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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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Jan 10, 2019 23:08:17 GMT
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Sounds awesome, how long will it take? and will the students see it through to the finish, or will it take longer than their time at school? It'll take longer than they've got. I work in a Key Stage 4 Pupil Referral Unit, so I've got a maximum of 18 months with the Year 10s and only 6 months with Year 11. I've told them that I'd like the floorpan rolling by the summer, and the body started next academic year.
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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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Jan 10, 2019 22:23:55 GMT
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For some reason I'm struggling to add pictures - bear with me!
While I try vainly to get photos from my phone to add onto here, I'll add a bit more about me and my car history. Started with a 1968 Beetle at 17, way back in 1995. Crashed it after 13 days, so when the new front axle went on it just happened to be a lowered one... some rust repair turned into quite a bit of work, ending up with the car being dechromed, backdated to a US-spec '67 look and painted the brightest white I could find. When I went to uni I signed the car over to my brother, and over the next 18 months or so we did a full body-off resto on it, eventually sticking a warm 1600 in it. In my second year at uni I got a student loan and bought a '61 Beetle, which was written off by being t-boned with a few months. This was replaced by a GP LDV beach buggy, which got swapped for a Karmann Ghia, later owned by VW of this site. It got a bit silly after this - I decided to go drag racing in 1999 in the Ghia, but during the season thought I'd be better off with a Beetle so picked up a '66 Bug, felt guilty that the ring binders full of history meant that chopping it into a race car probably wasn't a good idea, so tidied it up and sold it on, then bought another '66, this time with a roof chop and flip front already started, and raced it in primer in 2000. Another student loan got me a '70 bay window camper, which I used to tow the Beetle for a couple of seasons until it too got written off and replaced with an '81 T25. Over the next couple of years I picked up and sold a '70 1300 bug (loved it), a '71 1200 (went to a mates son, who still has it in bits 15 years on!), a '51 split window Beetle, a 1970 1500 Beetle that got fully restored for my cousins husband and a few donor cars along the way. In 2006 or so I took back my first Beetle as my brother had given up on it, and put it back on the road. I'd stopped drag racing in 2005 but kept a lot of bits, so initially put in my 15-second 1600 motor. It was repainted for my wedding in 2011, but spun a big end bearing soon after. The replacement 1500 was horrible, so the car sat on the drive for a few years before getting my spare 12-second 2007cc race motor stuffed into it! That livened it up a bit, quadrupling the horsepower and getting a couple of 14 second timeslips, which I was pretty pleased with! And now here we are with this one. Its rotten, but nothing I've not come across before. Just got to get these damn photos to work...
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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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Jan 10, 2019 22:21:23 GMT
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School project? Yes, I'm a teacher and this is my 1971 1200 Beetle. Donated by a good friend and work colleague, with the purpose of helping these kids learn skills related to their Automotive Studies course, and saving the car from being turned into a series of body cuts for other projects. I've told the students that the progress they will see depends on the effort they put in, and we've already got some very interested young people. The car is a 1200 model Beetle, so blade bumpers, small rear lights, partial headlining and other detail differences, and came with a few modifications already done. Pre-'67 front wings and lowered front beam are the obvious ones along with dechromed sides and those wheels. Inside the seats have been chopped down to just the bottom frame to mount some Opel Manta Recaros and the dash has been chopped out to fit a modern stereo. The thing is, the last tax disc in the window ran out in August 2000, so before any of the students working on it were born! Condition is as poor as you'd expect, but it will have a full nut and bolt, body off restoration with a few more modifications along the way.
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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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Jan 10, 2019 21:34:52 GMT
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Looks like an interesting project, and I can relate to those breakages - for the 36mm hub nuts on the back of the Beetle we ended up buying a 3/4" drive bar and socket, which tends to get the job done with a 6 foot scaffold tube! We've also got a piece of 2" angle iron a similar length which gets bolted across two of the wheel studs and has a fat man stood on it while another uses the breaker bar...
Just wondering where in Wolves you are - I work in a school on the way into town and my unit is the other side.
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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'm with Pistonpopper - for me its just a bit too chopped. Roof chops are very difficult to pull off, which is why my Beetle looked nowhere near as good as the Tar Babe VW (Google it!), and for me this just doesn't quite work. I think the body is too tall - a two inch section should sort it. They have tried to keep the roof chop faithful to the original car I think, It's explained in the video. I guessed so, but I'm not sure that the original got it exactly right either!😉
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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'm with Pistonpopper - for me its just a bit too chopped. Roof chops are very difficult to pull off, which is why my Beetle looked nowhere near as good as the Tar Babe VW (Google it!), and for me this just doesn't quite work. I think the body is too tall - a two inch section should sort it.
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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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It's really interesting looking at different motorsport disciplines - I'm from a drag racing background and our cages require a bar between the b-post hoop at shoulder height, can be curved at the ends to allow the seat to be further back, and often have the harnesses mounted to it. I do love this build though! I`ve seen that on drag cars. You would think `a good cage is a good cage`. I have no answer to why different disciplines require different bars etc. If having bar X is proven to be safer, why not have it for every type of cage It's very strange. We have to use 1 5/8" tube, so dies are expensive for tube benders because no other motorsport uses it. We're not allowed bolt together cages, whereas I know some other motorsports demand them - something to do with being able to check the number on a bolt easily. Apparently our rules came from the NHRA rules, which are concerned with great big 3500lb muscle cars potentially crashing at 150mph, but we're supposed to be going in the same direction as the one other car on track! It does make it very difficult to have a multi-purpose race car. I don't think I'd be any less safe crashing on a drag strip or on a circuit!
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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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