An old shot of the pan.
An old shot of the pan.
Things are slowly happenning. Pedals have been installed and, after some hours of frustration, the clutch cable. I have also finished the mounts for the steering column and have painted them. Once the car is a bit more together it will go off to the sparky for the electrics. I don't have time to them myself.
Sometimes pulling apart VWs is too hard.
No pictures but, the engineer came the other day to check out the work so far and gave everything the thumbs up. Even my welding.
The next job is to assemble things and book the car into the auto electrician. The pressure is on now too. I HAVE to finish the car by the end of the year. More about that later.
July 12, 2003.
Things have progressed a bit further.
The bonnet is now in situ and the headlights are mountable. After having concerns about how to fit the headlights into the recesses in the body, I had some special mounts turned up out of Aluminium by a local machine shop, Viasun Engineering, right here in Seven Hills. They look really shmicko and actually fit great.
Also, the wiring is currently being done by Brian. He is a legend in terms of doing this sort of thing, and it is much cheaper and meant I didn't have to trailer the car out to someone else.
August 15, 2003.
The car looks totally retro.Everyone that has seen it is blown away.
Things are so close, but so far away at this stage.
The fuel and electrical systems are fully operation save for the driving lights and aircon. They will come later.
The radiator hoses have been made as well. I got two bits of wire and bent them into the shapes I needed. Then Charlestone exhausts bent up some 2.5" mild steel pipe into the S bend shapes I had made with the wire.
I've turned my attention to the plight of the intake. I have almost finished a snorkel set-up for the car that has cost me around the $150 mark.
Viasun Engineering made these flanges up for me in a day's notice. I figured it would be better to spend my time strategically. They looked so good I was afraid to weld them. I drilled the bolt pattern into the plates (or flanges) after making up a pattern and then welding each of them to the end of this 3" pipe I got from a local exhaust shop for a huge Ten Bucks!. Then cut 4" off the pipe with the flange on the end and instant snorkel attachment. All I had to do was weld on some mounts to locate the airflow sensor at one end and the air filter at the other.
The filter end is the bit yet to be finished.
This 76mm ID rubber duct goes from one attachment to the other. It was a bit expensive at $75 for a metre. When Liz saw it at the shop she said it looked like an elephant's trunk. When she found out the price she said it would be cheaper to buy an elephant and cut trunk off it. Then she reconsidered and said that even if I had bought the elephant for that purpose she wouldn't have let me cut the trunk off anyway, coz then it wouldn't be as much fun to hug...... But I digress, we don't have room for the zebra she always dreamed of, let alone an elephant.
December 1, 2003.
Sorry, it's been a while. You'll be pleased to know that work has started again. The windscreen is now on the car and the seatbelt mounts are all drilled in the cage.
My trusty fifteen year old bosch drill is so hot I could barely touch it.
After two years I have also finally found the appropriate rubber to pad the cage with. Now all I have to do is figure out how to shape it into a tube.
December 3, 2003.
This screen was made by Marine Windscreen Service in Bankstown, Sydney. These guys do lots of glass screens and windows for boats as well as perspex screens for marine and car racing applications. They were the only company in Sydney I could find to do a custom windscreen. They used the original sideposts from the old and screen and used a special extruded channel to support the glass.
On other fronts, I have started final placement of the new shift mechanism tonight. Brian dreamed it up when he was wiring the car up but now it is time to weld it to the tunnel. I am also trying to make the welds on the cage as good as possible by puttying them up a bit before painting.
Went to get some new plugs for the motor yesterday. The standard ones are platinum and so only $25.....EACH!!!!. But there is an alternative: Iridium! (even more expensive), now all I have to do is sell a kidney to properly service the engine.