Haven't been updating....shame on me.

The Nose: This sucker was by far the part that needed the most. As some of you may remember I cut the lower part of the nose away to get the radiator in there are also to get as much air in there as possible. With the picture below you can also see how skew the horn grills were as well. Whoever cut the original holes didn't plan much. 

With some proper planning this is not needed and I've actually been able to get way more in the front of the speedster and also to hide pretty much all of it. I've got the following in the nose. 
- Full sized battery, I think that it's a 675
- Full sized golf Mk1 radiator, this was twice the size of the civic radiator that I was using before, it's not only higher, but it's well over twice the width of the old one. 
- Marie biscuit spare wheel up front
- Also space for some smaller items to be packed in. 

Bear in mind, I'd had to re-engineer the whole underside of the nose of the car, it's now wider and has also been made this way so that I can mount stuff stealth. 

A layer of spray filler went on and Willem laid this stuff on really thick. I should be able to hit this with 100 grade water paper this weekend in between a few other things that I have planned. I also still have to plan out where the bumper slots will go as well as the horn grills as well as the indicators. I'm so glad that the bumps are gone. Next big job for the nose of the car will be to finally smooth out the headlights from my modification of dropping them and then I can start with all the other cutting. 

The Dash: The one part of the car that has had a lot of work done on it, with the exception of the nose of the car is the dash. I've gone from the stock beetle stuff that the car came with and a radio slap bang in the middle, to a set of type 3 units that actually looked pretty good, to a set of 912 units. I do get asked why I sold them and the reason was that I needed to take them apart and I couldn't do that to a perfectly working set of units. I've bought a universal set and we'll be making the housings, glass and trim ourselves as the chinese stuff still sin't cheap and after seeing a set in person, I as far from impressed. 

As I got it, beetle speedo, small tach and small clock. This is how the bulk of the cars used to be made as all of the parts literally weer used off the donor car. 

1st cut was to modify the dash to fit the type 3 units

Then the 912 units were installed. 

Then I couldn't bring myself to modifying them, so I sold them and decided to start from scratch. 

Which is where I currently am. Clean slate...........ready to drill it full of holes. 

By the way, this is what I'm going for.............cheers again for all the help and reference pictures Gordon. I have almost everything that I need to do this dash. 

Battery now in place. There will be a tie-down that will bolt this to the base of the nose and included in this tie down, will be a brace for the strap for the spare wheel, where it can be attached to. This will have a leather strap to keep things authentic looking. The plan is actually to be able to take off the panel at shows and to show people what's going on under there. I'm not going to hide the fact that it's water-cooled.

I do however want people to see that with a bit of planning, you don't have to hack up the nose of these things to get a nice sized radiator to fit. To be honest, I could of got a slightly smaller radiator in the nose without cutting a fraction of what I cut, but I was fussy, I wanted it to be serviceable with golf mk1 parts. 

Wow....That's really turning out beautifully!  Rich (the '55 guy) always asks how it's coming along whenever I see him.  He has a "Tech Session" coming up later this month to put a Pre-A and an A up on lifts to show the differences between the two - always gets a lot of people at these events.

Anyway, glad to see you're keeping Willem in Castle Lager with all his hard work!

Hehehehehe, cheers Gord.

You can tell Rich, (the 55 guy) that I’m doing pretty well, but the killer with this car will be the detail and that’s the part where I’m going to have to get tough with the car. I have most of what I need to get the look, but I’m in two minds as to where the hell I’ll put the fuel gauge and at this stage it looks like it’ll be under the dash, or maybe I’ll make a clock face and mount it off to one side as it seems that this was done by a few dealers back in the day.

That sounds AWESOME…….I hope that you’re going???

Lmfao……..I hate to disappoint, but neither myself or Willem drink and Castle lager is a very shitty attempt at a beer, it’s like saying that Budweiser is the best that the USA has to offer.

OK,  then!

That's like seeing commercials in the US for "Fosters, Austrailian for Beer" and then going there and finding out nobody drinks that swill down under!

Gordon Nichols posted:

OK,  then!

That's like seeing commercials in the US for "Fosters, Austrailian for Beer" and then going there and finding out nobody drinks that swill down under!

Or that a ton of Coors "brewed with Rocky Mountain spring water" is actually brewed in Milwaukee, home to a plethora of other bad beer  

Gord, I have a question. Do you know the actual diameter of the 3 idiot lights on the 55?

Looking pretty much for the diameter of the light lens as well as the actual holder. 

I'm trying to source something local that will pass off as one of them and I'm thinking of one of these LED holders. They cost like 2 bucks each. 

I'll call Rich to get the dimensions - stay tuned.

I know it has to be there, but so far I have not seen (probably just missed it) where the gas tank is.  so much else happening up in the frunk, I hope you didn't forget that  ;-)

And a serious tip of the hat to you and others around here who can do the magic with FG.  If I cut a hole in the body and then said, shyt that looks wrong, I'd be seriously screwed. You guys just say, Uh, oh, gimme the eraser and we'll start all over, and have it ready to try again by the end of the day.  Amazing, and very cool to learn about.

Gordon Nichols posted:

I'll call Rich to get the dimensions - stay tuned.

cheers much appreciated. 

El Frazoo posted:

I know it has to be there, but so far I have not seen (probably just missed it) where the gas tank is.  so much else happening up in the frunk, I hope you didn't forget that  ;-)

And a serious tip of the hat to you and others around here who can do the magic with FG.  If I cut a hole in the body and then said, shyt that looks wrong, I'd be seriously screwed. You guys just say, Uh, oh, gimme the eraser and we'll start all over, and have it ready to try again by the end of the day.  Amazing, and very cool to learn about.

Gas tank is in the front as well....Locally, they are set up like a beetle and don't leave much space for much of a muchness. So I cut out the base, flipped it and moved it up against the wall. It brought it into the footwell a bit more, but once carpet is in there, you won't know it's there. I also had to change the fill up point, fuel exit point as well as attach a return line for the EFI. 

Here's a few pics of the process as I see all of the old pictures have gone. What we started with before I even started with the nose and radiator. 

And the underside...........as you see, it all looks stock-ish. Now that it's all been painted and coated. Also took the opportunity to move my fuel pump and fuel filter out of the engine bay and under the rockers. Having high pressure fuel lines can be risky. All brand new lines as well. 

Also noticed an issue last night.............can anyone spot it?

El Frazoo posted:

 And a serious tip of the hat to you and others around here who can do the magic with FG.  If I cut a hole in the body and then said, shyt that looks wrong, I'd be seriously screwed. You guys just say, Uh, oh, gimme the eraser and we'll start all over, and have it ready to try again by the end of the day.  Amazing, and very cool to learn about.

Cheers man. I’ve learnt over the years that there are a few basic steps to follow when doing repairs and changes with FG and as long as you stick to those, you won’t have problems further on down the line. I have a picture somewhere of where I started and what I’m able to do now with the stuff. I’ve also had the bonus of having my buddy Willem show me the steps as he’s been working with the stuff in the aeronautical industry in South Africa for 20 years plus. There is more to using FG, than chop strand and resin. (I’ve been using cottonflocks, microballs, 3-4 types of matt as well as your basic chop strand stuff) to get a much nicer finish.

I also used to crap my pants when I made a hash of things and I’d wonder how the hell I was going to fix it. Now I just swear, storm off for 5 minutes and come back and just get on with it. Bear in mind though………doing all this stuff to a body that’s not in paint yet……..makes it easier. If the body was painted, then it would be a TOTALLY different deal.

For your issue, are you referring to the metal short across the battery from the spare?

I wish it was that easy, but you are in the right area. The spare wheel actually clears the battery terminals by at least 4-5 inches. Nope, when I planned everything out to fit up front, the spare wheel was sitting in the area behind the radiator. 

With it in the above position, everything fits nicely under the hood as you can see below. 

Now put the spare wheel on top of the cowling that covers the back of the radiator and like so.........

And you get this.....

The solution? Well it's actually not a big deal, I'm basically going to make a half moon cut out in my cowling cover and will drop it to the height of the radiator and then glass it all back in. The funny thing is, when I was building the cowling, something in the back of my head was telling me that something had to be modified. I brushed it off and thought, nah not important. 

Tomorrow I want to be done with all the silly small stuff. 
- headlight buckets need to be finished and smoothed off, and body filled. 
- flat both the nose, ass and dash from the spray filler
- battery tray needs to be boxed in and finished as well as the cowling needs to be modified, trimmed up and glassed
- Rear area needs to be final trimmed around the back seat
- ECU box needs to be finished and cotton flocks need to be added.

I have about 3 hours to get all of that done as it's my wife's birthday tomorrow and I have tonnes of crap to do at home.

From next weekend if all goes right tomorrow.........here's hoping......Then the front can be rubberized and then the work on the dash can start with the layout of everything and then...................we can start putting the car back together.

In case anyone missed it......I have 2 targets

1) back in running condition with everything on the car for mock-up by the end of September with the removable roof sorted
2) totally finished and  complete car by the 15th of December (this year)

Is it possible to just lower the spare tires air pressure or is the rim hitting too?

Pete

mtflyr posted:

Is it possible to just lower the spare tires air pressure or is the rim hitting too?

Pete

But... what good is a flat spare? I know you can pump it up with a can of fix-a-flat or an on-board compressor- but the whole purpose of a spare is to be read to go when called upon.

flatfourfan posted:

 

Tomorrow I want to be done with all the silly small stuff. 
- headlight buckets need to be finished and smoothed off, and body filled. 
- flat both the nose, ass and dash from the spray filler
- battery tray needs to be boxed in and finished as well as the cowling needs to be modified, trimmed up and glassed
- Rear area needs to be final trimmed around the back seat
- ECU box needs to be finished and cotton flocks need to be added.

I have about 3 hours to get all of that done as it's my wife's birthday tomorrow and I have tonnes of crap to do at home.

Dude, I could get maybe one of those items checked-off in three hours.

In all my speedster builds, I would do a "To Do List"  w/ 3 columns:  1) Easy  2)PITA (but do-able) and lastly  3) First AM only , timeline is unknown....  alternating from one column to the other this kept my sanity in check....IMHO physically crossing out an item on the last was gratifying.

Yeah, I understand Stan but one has to do what one has to do... My Beck Speedster has a full size spare in order for it to fit I can only put 18 Lbs of pressure in. 

Stan Galat posted:

mtflyr posted:

Is it possible to just lower the spare tires air pressure or is the rim hitting too?

Pete

But... what good is a flat spare? I know you can pump it up with a can of fix-a-flat or an on-board compressor- but the whole purpose of a spare is to be read to go when called upon.

Spot on Stan. The whole idea with this build is to be practical above anything else. Form will follow function. Willem informed me that he knew this all the time, but thought that he'd let me figure it out. (cheers buddy) He said that we really couldn't get it sorted without building a complete cowl anyway and then trimming the cowl to insert the insert section, so he let me realise it later rather than sooner. 

So as a few people may have seen on FaceBook, here is what we did. 

First part was to attached 2 pieces of 4mm cardboard that I then taped over and then started on the resin and then the chop mat. All in all have 3 layers of mat, which is about 3mm thick. I didn't go too thick as the rest of the build up will happen once it's been attached to the cowl cover. 

Pulled off nice and easy and it's still to be trimmed down to about half its size before we start attaching it. 

Overall on my list, i didn't get half of what I wanted to do. I had to go and shop for stuff for the BBQ and also scoot on home an hour into the job so the missus could go and pamper herself a bit before the party. We did this job as well as glass up the last of the holes in the front of the car, so next week we can finish the insert as well as the last of the front of the car. We also sanded down the rough stuff on the headlights as this is going full blast next weekend. I got the bulk of the sanding done on the car on the exterior and I can now look at spot filling. 

Overall not very productive. :-( 

This weekend also showed me a flaw in my plans for the speedster.....mainly money. I have enough time to get everything in, but the last big ticket items are going to milk me dry. The last big projects are with wiring which is about $500 and the plumbing which is about $250.

I have to keep the project going, so a lot of smaller, labour intensive jobs will be done that won't need a lot of money to be thrown at it.

So work will carry on with the body, but what I'll be filling in the bulk of the time, will be all the smaller jobs. First Job on the list will be the dash of the car and included in this will be the steering column and steering wheel. My plan was to make a wood derrington style wheel as buying on here is damn expensive and the quality is suspect. I got this banjo which I believe is from an early ford and we're going to be repairing it with filler, get it looking 110% and the case a mold for it and then break it apart and then cast a new one from a mixture of goodies. 

Using this steering wheel means I don't have to use my existing hub and also I'm not bound to using a splined shaft. We'll make an extension and then make a keyway to lock it in place. Willem actually had a random center section from another car that we're going to modify to fit. Overall done over in cream it'll blend in just fine, plus I'll have a banjo.  

I actually like the fact that it won't have a Porsche logo on it. The size is also SPOT on, nice and big. 

As you see, we're going to have to repair the wheel as well as repair the center hub section. 

Regarding money:

I've always worked and been paid by the hour. My career has given me nice financial rewards, but I've never been paid for a day off. Sick, holidays, vacation: nothing. No workey, no money.

I find that generally: when I have time, I feel like I've got no money. When I've got money, I really don't have much time.

The trick is deciding when it's worth it to hire stuff out and make more money to pay for it, and when it's best to just work away like a little beaver.

For me, my worst decisions come when I've got more money than time. Throwing money so somebody else can complete work on my hobby is generally stupid, and ends up feeling like paying somebody to take my wife on a date. The worst situation of all is when you have time and money, but lack the confidence to do something you should be doing, and end up paying somebody else to do it.

You aren't doing that, Gary. You're tackling stuff that most of us are skittish of. At the end of the day, these cars are a hobby-- you are fully engaged in yours, and it shows with the choices you are making. You're car is something really special.

I will be 78 in a couple months and so I know that I have more money than time.... I call it the new normal as opposed to the time when I had time....

I would rather have more time but it is what it is....the money lets me buy "doing what I want time."

And Stan is right as usual, I watch people fix things, build things, maintain things I used to do myself.

When it comes to the cars, I do absolutely nothing but put gas in then and take gas out of them. 

I don't even wash them. There is a carwash and detail outfit in town called " The Naked College Girls" and their motto is " We will do it at your house" .  They only charge $500 per car for a hand wash.,  so I have them up here several times a month. Some of my neighbors will kick in some money to help with the fee.

We all want to help the young girls thru college.   I wish I could afford a detail. 

flatfourfan posted:

 

...My plan was to make a wood derrington style wheel as buying on here is damn expensive and the quality is suspect.. 

 What Stan said, Gary.

I'm starting to think that if your cell phone were to die in the middle of all this, you'd just shrug it off and make a new one out of some wires and odd bits you've got lying about the shop!

Cheers Stan.....I have pretty much had to learn to do the stuff on the car as I know that I plainly and simply would not be able to afford it if I had to hand it to a shop or a professional.

I've been spending some time reading up on making a harness and it's well within my ability to do so, it's the unknown. Buying a pre-made beach buggy harness would put me back about $300, but they are well known for  having shitty grounds and have to be modified anyway. Making one would maybe put me back in the region of $80 all in, using decent quality wiring. Time to research this one again I think. 

I used the donor harness from my '69 VW sedan, and then added a bunch to it.  IIRC, I used most of the rear section (but added four more wires for other things), kept everything going to the dash, and tossed the entire front section (front lighting) in favor of a custom setup which uses relays for every major function to relieve current load from any switches.  The only switch carrying full current is the new wiper switch, but it came with my wiper system from Specialty Power Windows.

Using the VW harness was a PITA, but it works.  It would have helped to make a harness board based on measurements to various termination points, but "Real men don't need harness boards", right?  If I were to do another one, I would take the time to make the board with basic routing points.  Then, stringing and containing the wire bundles would be a cinch.  One of my first jobs as a Manufacturing Engineer out of College was managing a cable shop.  They used boards.

bart posted:

I will be 78 in a couple months and so I know that I have more money than time.... I call it the new normal as opposed to the time when I had time....

I would rather have more time but it is what it is....the money lets me buy "doing what I want time."

And Stan is right as usual, I watch people fix things, build things, maintain things I used to do myself.

When it comes to the cars, I do absolutely nothing but put gas in then and take gas out of them. 

I don't even wash them. There is a carwash and detail outfit in town called " The Naked College Girls" and their motto is " We will do it at your house" .  They only charge $500 per car for a hand wash.,  so I have them up here several times a month. Some of my neighbors will kick in some money to help with the fee.

 

We all want to help the young girls thru college.   I wish I could afford a detail. 

just a polish would do me..............

Sacto Mitch posted:

 

flatfourfan posted:

 

...My plan was to make a wood derrington style wheel as buying on here is damn expensive and the quality is suspect.. 

 What Stan said, Gary.

I'm starting to think that if your cell phone were to die in the middle of all this, you'd just shrug it off and make a new one out of some wires and odd bits you've got lying about the shop!

 

Cheers man, but hell no........I have a spare in the cupboard. :-)

flatfourfan posted:

bart posted:

I will be 78 in a couple months and so I know that I have more money than time.... I call it the new normal as opposed to the time when I had time....

I would rather have more time but it is what it is....the money lets me buy "doing what I want time."

And Stan is right as usual, I watch people fix things, build things, maintain things I used to do myself.

When it comes to the cars, I do absolutely nothing but put gas in then and take gas out of them. 

I don't even wash them. There is a carwash and detail outfit in town called " The Naked College Girls" and their motto is " We will do it at your house" .  They only charge $500 per car for a hand wash.,  so I have them up here several times a month. Some of my neighbors will kick in some money to help with the fee.

 

We all want to help the young girls thru college.   I wish I could afford a detail. 

just a polish would do me..............

I forgot to mention that my accountant says it is a charitable deduction minus the actual value of a car wash , about #10 bucks.

Since he has been in jail, he is easy to get ahold of...

78.... is that the point when you reached the stage where IT IS .... all in your mind.

nope

"I got this banjo which I believe is from an early ford and we're going to be repairing it with filler"

That is an MG and/or maybe Triumph wheel from the 1950s or maybe early '60s. Nice find.

Hey, Ed........

I've got a ton of digital photos of Spyder #90 (the last one from Porsche) as well as the repro #91 and #92

I have something hogging my Dropbox folder right now for the next two weeks, but if there is another way to get them to you, let me know and I'll ship them over.

gn

edsnova posted:

"I got this banjo which I believe is from an early ford and we're going to be repairing it with filler"

That is an MG and/or maybe Triumph wheel from the 1950s or maybe early '60s. Nice find.

Cheers, I haven't had time to properly investigate that wheel, but what you say makes sense when you look at what cars were available at the time in South Africa. Fords not so much, MG's and UK stuff, quite plenty. 

And here it is....MG TD steering wheel, took me all of 5 minutes to find the one. 

As to spare tires: what's that??  Don't have one.  So far so good, but I know one day . . . I get to find out if Fix-a-Flat really works.  But I do carry an honest amt of gas.  And an AAA card.

Cheers!!

Well, we have the AA in this country, but they suck and as I said before, if you get stranded along side the road in this country in a secluded spot.......you're in a whole heap of crap.