February 25, 2002.

There's a heck of a lot going on at the moment, but I've got a bit done lately. It was my birthday yesterday and I got an air conditioning unit for the car. I've also recently ordered a pod filter for the motor and the rubbers for the rear suspension. I've also now got the headlight buckets.

These pictures were taken a little while back.

The guards more than cover the rear tyres now, after some serious widening.
I did this by moving the back of the inner curve of the guards out by five inches and bolted on some supports.
I then formed it up with masking tape and layed many layers of glass over the taunt tape on the inside.

The bonnet had two serious fractures in it and the dodgiest looking fuel filler hole you've ever seen.
These repairs still need to be filled.

Despite the picture, the car actually looks huge in person.
The tyres that are on it in the picture are worn 31 inch on the back and tall skinny ones on the front.
The body is quite big.

February 28, 2002.

The other thing I've been doing recently is modifying a pair of early model (swingaxle) spring plates to be used with the IRS back suspension. The reason I am using them is that the protruding ends off the IRS model torsion bars limit the tyre clearance substantially. Using these bars I can only just squeeze 31" tyres onto the rear with between a 1/4 and 1/2 an inch of clearance between the tyre and the torsion tube on the spring plate. The shorter (and marginally stiffer) early model torsion bar and cover allow much more tyre clearance. In fact I could now comfortably run up to a 35" tyre. The next tyre clearance issue after that would be the pan. I don't think I'll get that carried away. Tyres of that size would be prohibitively expensive and I would probably need to run a 1600 Kombi box to get usable ratios, sacrificing gearbox strength into the bargain.

But I digress, I have shortened the early model spring plates and drilled the IRS bolt pattern in them. The plates have also been notched for extra suspension height. In fact I have gained extra 1 & 1/2 inches of ride height using this notching procedure. I have scanned the pattern I made up for use. The scanner changed the size alittle too, so make sure you have an IRS spring plate to compare it to if you use it.

The round opening on the torsion bar end go around the inward facing (nonsplined) side of the torsion bar.
Make sure it fits well before marking off the pattern.

Got my pod filter this week. It's big. If it flows half as well as the one I just put on my beetle, the subaru motor will benefit big time.

These photos were taken during January.
This is the first of the fibre-glassing.
Roy from next door was a great in getting me started.

The timber was added at the back.

This is the inside of the back seat.

March 8, 2002.

Picked up a pair of Cibie Super-oscars yesterday for a bargain $200. I was even more stoked when I found out that the salesman who gave me the price had underquoted me. They'd been quoting everyone else $350.

March 26, 2002.

The spending spree that parallels Giligans Island for length continues, "a three hour cruise", or so we all thought. I found out that the super oscars I got for $200 were fog lights so I had to buy some driving super oscars as well.

April 4, 2002.

After talking to a guy at the nationals on the weekend I checked with my engineer to make sure I could run big tyres.

To my horror I found out that the limit for me in terms of height is about 28". The engineer is prepared to let me go up to 30" subject to testing on completion. I also found out that the wheels I want to use are not legal for my car either. I can use a max of 6" wide on the back (due to type 3 suspension)and 5.5" on the front.

NOT HAPPY!

I have found a set of wheels that I like that are legal, however, I have already got the wheels I wanted blasted and powder coated. They are now up for sale. Check the index page for details.

April 30, 2002.

The wheel saga is solved. I have bought a set of alloy wheels. They look like a fuchs alloy (ala Porsche) but they fit the early bolt pattern.

Over the last couple weeks (I've had holidays) I have drilled, removed and intalled crushtubes in the underframe for the front roll hoop mounts. After four months of practice on and off my welding skills are gradually improving. Sometimes I'd like to blame the machine but you know they say about bad tradesmen.........

One disturbing thing, when I drilled the holes in the frame, about a cup of dirty rusty water drained out and onto the garage floor. Hope this isn't a sign for the future. Kimm was puzzled too, as the frame and steel it was made from were stored inside at all times.

I also picked up the mounting bolts for the roll hoops. They are 12mm High Tensile and cost nearly $80 for 20 bolts. However, If the day comes when I need the bars in an accident I'd like to think I've half a chance of surviving.