Archive for Video

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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We finally have floors!

27 October, 2008 · Filed under Fabrication, Tools, Video, Welding · Tagged , ,

We finally decided to pull our thumbs out and do some more work, the new floors have been sat in the garage for like a month or so. So we got up fairly early on Saturday morning and cleared the driveway shortly to be joined by this updates guest star. Simon’s fiance’s dad just so happens to be a welder and also loves boys toys so the buggy is right up his street.

Jacked...kinda

Jacked...kinda

After getting the front wheels off and the buggy lifted up onto a makeshift framework we had in the garden, we set to work on cleaning off the remaining dirt.

Phil brought out his gas welding set and a length of steel right angled plate and the real work began. With Simon and Phil shouting out measurements, I cut some plates and angle bars to remake the missing front sections. Rebuilding these took most of the morning and a steady supply of cups of tea. (Cheers Rachel!)

After stopping for some chip shop lunch we cracked on with getting the new floors in place and started the welding, this is where we ran into problems.

Fixing the front of the pan in place

Fixing the front of the pan in place

The new floors are nice new thin metal and the original center tunnel is heavy steal, there was just no way we could get enough heat into the center tunnel with the gas torch to weld them together before the metal of the floor pan melted away. Next we tried the arc welder, this is a unit I picked up cheap a few weeks back but this had the same sort of problems, with the thicker rods the arc just blew the floorpan metal away and with the thin ones there wasnt enough power to heat the tunnel.

While all of this was going on Simon disassembled the front right brake drum and hub to find out why it was so stiff, after adjusting the brakes and a bit of wiggling and testing it now spins a lot better.

By this point it was starting to get on towards dusk and we wherent getting anywhere with the welding kit we had, so I pulled out the phone and made another quick call. Knowing that Edd (Previously mentioned for the lending of his airline and generator) had just bought a MIG set, I scrounged and mangaed to borrow this while he was out.

So with a bodged uplighter + flood lamp combo and the flash from the welding sets lighting up the drive we carried on into the darkess.

Working into the night

Working into the night

Once simon had finished getting his technique down the welds where going in quick and steady. Top it off with a good brusing down then a coat of hammerite over all the bare metal and the floors are in and protected.

Seeing as its nearly payday and we both have next week off work we are planning on getting on with the little bits and bobs that need replacing and rebuilding before the body goes back on.

Simon knows a man who knows a man who happens to work in a body shop as a painter so is in the middle of aranging to get the car resprayed. (That means you Steve!)

The Flickr gallerys for me and Simon have both been flooded with pictures, and Have a fantastic slapped together video of the days efforts:

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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 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 17 – Guest starring

15 July, 2008 · Filed under Rust, Video

Robin removing the last few floor pan bolts

Robin removing the last few floor pan bolts

Back to the weekday short tasks today. Painting and the like is definitly a weekend job so we’ll come back to that later. It’s being a fairly successful evening. We’ve taken a major step and got the body off.  Robin “The Persuader” kindly volunteered to come over and help with the removal of the remaining bolts down the sides of the floor pan. 4 hours, and a lot of blood (Robin spent a while this morning researching Tetanus), later all the bolts are out and we were able to just lift the body away.

This revealed a lot more of the chassis and floor than we were able to inspect before (obviously). It looks like we’re going to have to replace a lot of small parts, which isn’t so good considering how long we don’t have. All the major components look like they are in OK condition, it’s just things like bushes, grommets, seals, tubes… in fact every piece of rubber needs replacing. We may also need to replace suspension coils and brake drums, but that’s not a certainty yet.

The whole thing will look a lot less depressing once the old floor pans are out which is happening this weekend. Jon has agreed to borrow a generator and air line off a friend so he’s going to be air chiseling the welds out.

Here’s a look at some of the rust in video form:

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