Archive for Chassis

Bolts, Brakes and Bodywork

22 April, 2009 · Filed under Bodywork, Chassis, Electrical, Interior, Mechanical, Shopping, Video

After getting the buggy out in the week I was quite in the mood to get working on it again, so we agreed we would get it out over the weekend and see where we had got too and what the next stage was.

Saturday rolled round and we dragged the buggy out, I popped up the shops to get a 1st few we needed, nuts, bolts, washers, brake light switch, fuel line, low pressure brake line. While i was out we got some assistance from a mate who turned up to see how the project was getting on and ended up staying about most of the weekend.

While I fitted up the brake light switch and lines, Simon replaced our test engine wires with proper cables and I gave the body-shell a quick pressure wash.

We checked the chasis over for things that we still needed to do and it appeared to be that time, so before fitting the shell again we thought “Oh what the hell, lets start the engine”, out came the fuel can and the jump leads, after a few tries it fired up with a nice rumble.

A little off the side please...

A little off the side please...

Once this had been done we where really in the mood. So we lifted the body back on and realised that the fiber glass wouldnt quite bolt down as we had forgotten to remove some body mounts designed for the beetle shell, this was nothing the angle grinder couldnt take care of in a few seconds, with that done the body went on and car really started to take shape again.

Seeing as we had fitted the low pressure side of the brake system we decided to add some fluid and see if they worked so we topped it up and bleed the system through. Low and behold the foot brake started to hold the car without the handbrake.

Given that we had wires and pipes in place we decided it was time to bolt the body back down, out came the nuts, bolts and washers and i got to work with the socket wrench.

Starting to take shape again

Starting to take shape again

As the sun started to set I decided to get the steering column out and see what it looked like with it fitted up, after a bit of fiddling it went in and i bolted the dash support in place to hold it up.

Following the success we had on Saturday we got up Sunday morning with a renewed vigor and set to work again.

We found the brakes had gone spongy and after a quick look around we tightened up one of the nipples on the master cylinder as it had been leaking. After bleeding the air out again, we started connecting up the wiring loom. We had previously fitted this into the shell so it just needed plugging into the engine components and did a bit of tidying.

I went back up the shops and bought a battery for the project and some other bits and bobs and we started working on the wiring. We connected up the engine electrics to the wiring loom and checked it was all in the right places.

Then came another big moment when we released we had the wiring all in place to fire up the engine from the dash switches (well by dash switches i may mean wires hanging out). So we moved all the loose tools and sealed a length of spare fuel hose into the top of a plastic bottle, filled it up with some petrol and taped it to the bodywork.

We put a spare battery on the floor as something to rest on, then came the big moment, we flicked the coil switch and touched the wires together, tick, tick, tick, BROOOOM.  The engine fired up quite easily, all be it with a puff of blue smoke from one side.

With the engine running Simon jumped in, dipped the clutch and and popped the buggy into gear and slowly backed it off the drive. This is the 1st time the buggy has moved under its own power since we started the rebuild.  I have this on video and will post it as a seperate entry once i have sorted it out and uploaded it, at this point the camera ran out of batteries so there are no more pictures from todays work.

Having archived this by lunchtime we both had places we needed to go so we tidied up quickly and went out with big smiles on our faces.

Getting back to the project a few hours later we fitted up the rear lights are back on and connected to the loom, I mounted the volt reg in the boot and tidied up the engine electrics, we tested all the lights worked by connecting up there relevent wires in the front of the loom to the battery, we also accidentally tested the horn.

After so much time and effort, I got chance to fire up the buggy and move it around the drive, oh what a feeling.

We finished off the day by wiring up and testing the headlamps, there where a few more jobs we could have done but we have run out of wire terminals.

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Post Winter Uncovering

15 April, 2009 · Filed under Chassis, Electrical, Mechanical, Uncategorized

Its been too long since we last did any work on the buggy, and a few people have asked about it. While we have been working on this a mate of mine has built a mk2 golf drag car, and another mate has build a street fighter bike, seeing these getting finished has really got me back in the mood to do some work on the buggy.

Buggy

Buggy

While my daily car was off to the garage to have some work done i decided to drag out the buggy and see how it was. Having been under a thin cover all Christmas i was happy to see the drain holes had done there jobs and that it looked to be in the same condition as we left it.

Firstly a quick recap on the few bits we did over christmas, we cleaned up the lights, labeled and rewired them, recieved a few parts and stuck them in the garage.

Anyway onto the few bits i actually did the other day, one of parts i ordered ages ago turned up last month and got chucked in the tool chest. The steering column has a rubber square in the linkage that was all cracked and old. 3 of the bolts came out with a lot of force and some penetrating oil, the last one required a bit of a heavy handed approach, nothing that 2 Min’s with the disk cutter couldn’t fix. Then in went the new one along with some new bolts.

Washer Bottle

Washer Bottle

I fitted the new earth strap to the rear chassis point as it arrived ages ago and got left in the draw. I also re fitted the windscreen washer pump and hoses and give it a quick test.
Then the rain started so the buggy was covered back over and left until the weekend.
Rain :(

Rain :(

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Final Tasks For This Week

9 November, 2008 · Filed under Chassis, Fabrication

Well we have almost got to then end of our weeks holiday. We are not planning on doing any work on the buggy today other than putting it back in the corner till the wiring arrives and we have worked out where it needs to go.

We did complete a few more little bits yesterday, here is a quick list of what we did.

  • As a sort of celebration we started up the engine again, this still involves connecting it to another car with jump leads and sticking the fuel line in a plastic fuel can, But it ran again and still sounds awesome. As a test we made sure that our throttle pedal and linkage worked and it does, we also tested that the clutch system works by putting it in gear and letting it pull itself up the drive a little.
  • Following the engine tests i greased the gear shift mech as it was really stiff.
  • Finished off the tin of hammerite covering up all the open metal from the weeks work, i also went round the outsides of the floor pan as we are planning to put metal plate down over them and we don’t want to see any black round the edges.
  • Covered all the moving parts that couldn’t be painted in a thin layer of grease to stop them rusting.

Later on in the day I picked up the last part for the brake system, the drivers side front flexible line and tried fitting it onto the buggy.It went in ok only then to find that when it was mounted to the original bracket that you could not get full lock as the line wasn’t long enough and also that the solid line we had made up was only just long enough.

The answer to both these problems seemed fairly simple to me, the original bracket was in the wrong place. So out came the grinder and off it came, followed by a quick bit of fabrication from some steel plate and a spot of welding and we have a new bracket that holds the brake line in the right place. You can now go to full lock in both directions and everything is secured properly.

I didn’t take any photos as it was cold and raining but i will get a picture of the new bracket next time we are working on the buggy.

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Time To Get Greasy

7 November, 2008 · Filed under Chassis, Tools

After all the work getting the cables and pedals installed yesterday I realised we had not greased the throttle cable, so I took this out and gave it a good greasing, lucky its not the cable that is inside the center tunnel or it would probably have remained not greased. While i had the grease out I removed the bar that runs through the pedals that operates the accelerator and greased this too, this has made the pedal movement a lot smoother and easier.

Well the time came to do one of the jobs I really had not been looking forward too, but for a lot of things the hardest looking jobs turn out to be fairly easy and the simple stuff takes forever. With that thought in mind I set about removing the wheels and hubs to change the wishbone arm ball joint covers.

My previous thought proved not to be the case, It looked like a hard and annoying job and was both hard and annoying. It probably took a good 1/2 day to change these while doing other stuff and working out how and where things go.

3 Legged Puller and Blow Torch

3 Legged Puller and Blow Torch

Getting the bolts undone was a lot easier then expected and removing them was not too hard with the aid of a long bar to leaver them out.

Once the wheels and hubs where out of the way the real fun started, the top ball joints looked like they would be harder but proved to be easy by comparison, once with got the eccentric camber adjustment things off, these where seized onto the ball joints and needed to be removed to get the new covers in place. Removing these required a 3 leg puller and a large dose of flame, but once off the new covers where not to hard to grease and refit.

The bottom ones that started out the day looking easy turned out to take more time then anything else, getting the new covers into the correct place and seated was just so much harder than it should have been.

Now the bigest problem stopping us reassemble the font end and being able to put the car back down on its wheels is the stuck bolt that sheared off in the steering arm yesterday.

Spot the new part?

Spot the new part?

The last part of the brake system that needed to be replaced was the drivers side flexible brake line as this was leaking when we got the car. This line was also compleatly coroded onto the old solid line and the brake drum, the heads on both ends just disintergrated when we tried to undo them, this was quite easy to fix as the line fits into the back of the piston which can be removed from the hub. We took the pair out as one and replaced the piston, a new line is on order and will be with us tomorrow morning. Once we had the new brake parts in place inside the wheel hub we hooked up the last of our new solid lines and as soon as the flexy line is connected tomorrow that will have ticked another job off the list.

Simon has gone to Phil’s (The Phil that helped us with the welding) to try and fix the current arm, he will post an update when he is back with the freshly fixed part.

The next really major task to come is to build the new wireing loom, this is going to be a whole different set of challenges.

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Going, Stopping, Turning the Rebuild Continues

7 November, 2008 · Filed under Chassis, Fabrication, Mechanical, Photos, Shopping, Tools

We have both had this week off work so have been getting down to some more of the bits and bobs that need doing. We are slightly ahead of our planning so that’s a bonus as the original plan doesn’t allow for any slacking over the winter and Christmas.

Since the last update we have done a whole load of stuff and things are starting to take shape again.

Top Mount

We have removed the front and rear suspension, changed the top mounts as the old ones where perished and disintegrated as we took them off, then refitted them with nice new ones and returned them to the chassis.

Thanks need to go to Pete, a fellow VW fan, for lending me his spring compressors the other week, needed them again for the suspension work on this.

We have fitted, modified, built and generally re assembled the pedals and all the linkages for them. This involved a lot of swearing as they where not the easiest of things to get back in place, then only to find they had to come in and out a further 4 or 5 times to get all the bits the right shape and in the correct place and then finally connected up and bolted down.

We had to adjust the mounting for the brake master cylinder as we bought a LHD one for 1/3 of the price of the RHD ones.

This is all well and good but the brake pipes come out into the center tunnel.

Master Cylinder

Master Cylinder

So we have spun it around 90 degrees and refitted it. This allowed us to get away with using the cheaper part but might make filling and bleeding a bit more tricky.

We have made up and fitted new brake solid lines as the old ones got chopped up and/or lost and wouldn’t have gone too our newly mounted master cylinder anyway.

We have replaced the throttle and clutch cables and refitted them to the new pedal linkages, and adjusted them roughly into place.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3012/3010580686_17c7e25dfa_m.jpg

Pedals, Master Cylinder and Brake Lines

We ended up with some new toys as well, we needed a second workbench and some more sockets and some grease so off we went shopping, came back with a new bottom cabnet tool chest and a heap of other stuff

You wouldnt know I didnt have the tool chest before as its now full up with stuff that just seemed to be floating about.

We have removed the tie rods and cleaned them up, replaced the rubber ball joint covers and given them a good re-greasing.

Getting the split pins and the nuts off was not too hard but we had to get out the good old blow torch to losen the pins off and then a swift smack with a mallet to remove them. This might have caused a small fire as the grease that had leaked from the torn ball joint covers went up.

Flame

Flame

Only problem is that in the process of taking the arm off the bottom of the steering box the bolt sheared off inside the arm, I have spoken to www.vwheritage.com who have been nothing but helpfull throughout the whole project and they imparted some bad news on us. The arm is not in production anymore and can’t be bought new, so we either need to repair ours or find a 2nd hand one (or forge our own :D – Simon).

Steering Arm With Snapped Off Bolt

Steering Arm With Snapped Off Bolt

So if anyone is breaking an old beetle we need a new arm now, or if someone knows how to get good and proper seized sheared off bolt out please let me know.

Next on the list is to replace the wishbone ball joint covers, and this is a job I am not looking forward too.

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Engine and Hammer Time

22 August, 2008 · Filed under Chassis, Mechanical, Painting, Rust, Video · Tagged , , , , , ,

Best couple of days yet – by a long way. Well, possibly not as good as the day we first went to see it before buying the buggy, but it ranks pretty high!

Last cutting and grinding

Last cutting and grinding

Yesterday we did the last bits of cutting and trimming with the angle grinder (Which is lucky, because we also broke the angle grinder!). We got the little bits around the pedals removed, and cut away some old brake line sections. With a borrowed angle grinder we smooth out the burrs from the floor pan welds.

Next we moved onto attacking the entire thing with the wire brush attatchment for the drill. This is, by the way, clearly the best tool you can ever buy for 49p! We used it to get into all sorts of tight places in the transaxle, the suspension, and the front member. With the help of the drill and a traditional hand held wire brush, the last of the (fixable) rust was gone. YAY.

Pressure washing

Pressure washing

To get off the remaining dirt and rust we got out the pressure washer and blasted it all back. At this point, we found new colour on some parts we hadn’t yet seen, and discovered some newer components which had been replaced. We also washed and scrubbed down the body inside to get out the mud, mould and plants that were living there.

To make sure we could do it, we decided to test the engine. It took about 30 minutes with the wiring diagram and some creative use of old cables we had to rig the engine up to run. In the absence of a battery, we had to start it from my car. In the absence of a fuel tank, we dunked the line in a fuel can from my old buggy :) This was a very worth while activity, as it’s massively rejuvenated our want to work on the thing! She sounded beautiful – see the video at the end.

Hammerite the front member

Hammerite the front member

Last task of the day was to seal what we’d cleaned up before we started welding on the floor. We popped to Andersons and picked up a large-ish tin of hammerite – silver hammered look. This was so easy to apply it shocked us. You could litterally slap it all on and it would stay there! The chassis is now looking silver everywhere it should be, and ready to receive floors.

Next steps:

  • Purchase and weld in place new floor pans
  • Investigate/Repair/Replace brake master cylinder
  • Build brake lines

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Day “lots” – Floor be Gone

18 August, 2008 · Filed under Chassis

Well it has to be said, we have been slacking – it’s over a month since we last posted.

With both of us about and some good weather it was long overdue a session working on the buggy, so out it came and we got back to work.

I have got time off next week so we decided to get stuck into the other floor pan and get it ready to spend some time cleaning up the welds and possibly putting the new floors in. I have found a mate selling an arc welder cheap so as soon as I have some cash I will grab that.

Things hit a small hitch today as we realised we may need to replace more than we planned, that and as we haven’t yet ordered any new parts we are going to be a little stuck next week. But there is always plenty to get on with.

So I started by taking out the last bit of the floor pan under the pedals and then the pedals themselves. Simon made much shorter work of cutting out the passenger floor than the drivers, once the majority of this was cut out I started up the airline and took out the edge and all the spot welds.

All in all this side took less than 2 hours to get out so I don’t think that’s bad going.

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Day 31 – Back to Business

31 July, 2008 · Filed under Chassis, Fabrication, Tools, Video · Tagged , ,

It’s been a while since we did any work as we’ve had quite the hectic week. We’re back on task now though, and the next step is to get the last of that floorpan out. We wheeled the buggy around onto the driveway and powered up the airline. As it’s being so long I’ve even got some video for you.

Getting the floorpan edge off it’s welds is supposed to be simple, and for once, it was! We simply wedged the air chisel into the welds and hammered them till they came out. It was then a case of rolling the metal along moving from one weld to the next. We got 3/4 through removing the first pan in about an hours work which isn’t bad going. Time to get the new ones ordered and ready to weld into place.

We also will need a new copper brake line made up because the old one needed braking away to get the welds out – it ran right on top of them. It does look like whoever last changed the pans went a little over the top with the spot welds. There is meant to be one every 6-7 inches, we were finding them every 1-3 centimeters :S

There is a few new photos in my Flickr set

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Day 20 – Rust is evil and must be punished

18 July, 2008 · Filed under Chassis, Fabrication, Rust, Tools · Tagged , , ,

Equipment all set, lets get to it

Equipment all set, lets get to it

Right, the big day has arrived; all the tools have been assembled and it’s time to start cutting out the floor pans.  Replacing these is one of the most important, longest, and hardest jobs in the project. So down to the lockup we went, pulled the buggy out, lifted out all the rubbish and took the shell off. Read the rest of this entry »

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Day 13 – Nuts

10 July, 2008 · Filed under Chassis

Rust. Dont ya love it?

Rust. Don't ya just love it?

…and bolts for that matter. Didn’t get as much done today as hoped at all. This evening, we managed to undo 8 bolts holding the body onto the floorpan. That may not sound that respectable, but they were bastards. These 8 bolts were the ones holding the floorpan down the side to the bottom of the body and were stuck in with a combination of rust, anti-rust gunk (great job that did), paint, and voodoo. I was sat inside, the car Jon was on the floor, and there was lots of swearing, pain, WD40, and broken socket heads. We now need new 13mm spanners and sockets. Donations welcome.

There’s not a lot else to say other than that really. I stopped by Halfords on the way home to see what spray paints they held in stock, and picked up some fluorescent green to trial out, as well as some primer and lacquer. We (Jay) will probably test that out at the weekend on the nose cone.

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