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Back in November 2020, after lurking here for a few months, I pulled the trigger and sent in my deposit to Special Edition for a Beck Speedster Deluxe Pre-assembled body package.    For the engine and gearbox, I went with Carey’s recommendations.  Since I wanted to go Air cooled, I used Pat Downs performance for the engine and Rancho for the gearbox.  

Engine: after a long discussion i with Pat, I elected to have him build a 2017cc type 1, 90.5 bore by 78 stroke.  Dual Weber 44s with 32mm venturis, 1.5” exhaust with A1 sidewinder.  It arrived in July of this year.

33A41242-6722-4740-BBCC-EACE05E16855C3747622-7270-49DE-A52D-6811F7536B4B

Gearbox: Rancho built me a Pro-street IRS with 3.88 R&P.

8700C352-58A2-426C-A02A-C02D76F63378

So, I have the engine and gearbox, just waiting on the car.  After a lot of back and forth regarding the color, with multiple emails to Carey Hines changing the color again and again, I settled on Porsche Aquamarine Metallic.  I paid a visit to Carey and his team earlier this month to see their facility and finalize things.  My car had just been painted:  

C01A7DD4-CD51-4FD9-A36C-C074DBA7DB0D3B1AC96E-3AFF-481A-AC2D-A01FCCA3F8DF48B6376A-5C35-496E-9DD9-0AE2E5E274854618BF3D-7EE8-439F-84C3-6748C80825CE

They have done an amazing job.  Very impressive operation.  Needless to say I’m very excited!  It will have a dark blue top with a light tan interior liner.  Interior is “bamboo” (light tan) with “oatmeal” carpeting.  Also going for the Nardi steering wheel.  It should be nice.  Once the car arrives here in Charleston, SC, I will track the final assembly process here on SOC.  Having met Lane Anderson here at the local cars and coffee, I will take him up on his offer to assist.  It should be fun.  I really appreciate the great support and advice I have received from everyone on this site.

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Original Post

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@Three Pedals (Chris)

THAT.....   Is a lovely color and your other color choices should make this a stunning car.  Pat has built you a great engine that you'll love there in Charleston.

It's also great that you've met a Charleston "old timer", "Mr. Radio Voice" Himself, @Lane Anderson.  

Enjoy the anticipation of the final assembly - This is going to be a lot of fun for all of us.

Hey @Three Pedals (Chris), I just looked at your engine pictures again and think that you should consider either getting some rain hats for the carbs or doing the turbo-look thing @DannyP did.  The design of the engine lid can funnel rainwater into the carbs, as a number of us found out at Carlisle in 2008.  There's a recent thread (Scared Shytless, or something like that) that discusses this very subject.  If Carey provides them he could even paint them to match the car.

Looking great, Chris!  I know we discussed this before, but for those of us with short attention spans, what brakes and wheels?  Anything 2 literish (or over) is great power and so much fun in these things!  It should have really decent bottom end/lower midrange, where you really spend probably 95% (or more) of your time driving.  Do you remember the cam and heads on the engine?  Did Pat say where it would redline at?

Last edited by ALB
@ALB posted:

Looking great, Chris!  I know we discussed this before, but for those of us with short attention spans, what brakes and wheels?  Anything 2 literish (or over) is great power and so much fun in these things!  It should have really decent bottom end/lower midrange, where you really spend probably 95% (or more) of your time driving.  Do you remember the cam and heads on the engine?  Did Pat say where it would redline at?

@ALB it has four wheel disk brakes and wide 5 wheels on an IRS.  I did decide to go for the 5.5" aluminum wide 5 rims to save some un-sprung weight.  Vredestein tires.

As for the engine specs, this is what Pat wrote down on the invoice:

78mm VW journal crank, 5.400 chromoly Pro I beam connecting rods, lightweight flywheel, aluminum super case, full flowed, ported and polished heads with 40x35.5 valves, dual springs, chromoly retainers, reshaped 55cc chambers, black 36hp doghouse shroud, magnaspark ignition, black OEM valve covers, CSP breather, black AN fittings with black nylon AN hose.   

With those specs, it sounds like the heads might be Panchitos.  I did tell Pat I was not into screaming high redlines, more into mid-range usability and reliability.  I don't know the cam specs, he sent the engine just before he had to go into surgery, so he told me the dyno sheet and tune up spec sheet would be a bit delayed.  i will email him to see if it's ready yet.

I will likely need help from this group when it comes to my oil cooler and filter installation, Carey is sending me the cooler and brackets, I will install and plumb them.  I plan to use AN fittings and reinforced hoses.

Last edited by Three Pedals (Chris)

While waiting for the Speedster I decided to take care of some other things ahead of time.  The Rancho IRS gearbox was shipped without a throw out bearing and the heater boxes need the cable brackets.  Since it has been about 36 years since I ordered air cooled VW parts, I was worried about all this talk of poor quality parts.  Back in the eighties your choice was German, Mexican, or Brazilian.  Today it seems anything goes.  I ordered the throw out bearing and brackets from West Coast Metric.  Not cheap but hoping for good quality.

Here are pics of the transaxle before and after the throw out bearing installation:

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Here are pics of the heater boxes before and after the cable bracket intstallation:

E27DAF12-860C-4186-B3A6-A7326379EF817E89A705-42BE-4F10-8F9F-49352E18FB714609C4F4-83E5-4787-98F8-87810309761A86A63C6B-8A5D-4D7B-80C0-1C7C62F61B9B

These were a bit tricky for me as memory was fuzzy.  You Tube to the rescue.

More to come as soon as the Speedster gets here!

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Last edited by Three Pedals (Chris)

... so many parts.  And all new and shiny!!  Looks like you have made some excellent choices, and the satisfaction of putting this puzzle together ... cant be beat.

IIRC, as I heard once, original Beetle T/O bearings were not bearings at all but just a graphite disk.  Graphite is slippery, and I'm supposing cheap, so ...  The first beetles had to be cheap, as the people (volks) had to be able to buy them.

Another question for all of you.  The engine I'm installing has heater boxes.  I need to figure out the plumbing from the front of the rocker behind the front kick panels up to the defroster.  My question is around heat registers, any suggestions on what to use for splitters and registers in the front kick panels?    Keep in mind I don't have high expectations when it comes to heat, I owned and fixed more than a few beetles, busses and type 3s long ago.  Just trying to get some basic functionality in place.

Heater boxes . . . Some here have plumbed them directly in to the rear jump seat space, so the much shorter run gives better, hotter air, but maybe presents a real problem if you want to have air directly at your feet and/or up through defroster vents.  My car has defroster vents, and the air runs in  tubes under both rocker panels, feeds standard looking Porsche floor vents, and the defroster vents too.   My approach is to insulate these tubes under the car with rigid Styrofoam, contoured over the pipes and then sprayed with undercoating. Fitting the Styrofoam is a bit of a pain, but it should help. The system at its finest is only an approximation to heat. l do rather little driving in cold weather.

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