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It's started !   Went down to see Greg at VMC and picked up the first piece of my car today.   The rear firewall.. I'm taking it home to veneer the engine compartment side with 22ga engine turned stainless steel. The circles are 1.5" and the cost is $300.00 for a 48" X 48" sheet. This is just enough to cover the full width without getting into the sides flanges of it where it curves forward to mate with the body sidewalls. This is the second half of sheet I used on my Speedster firewall. (48" X 96" originally)

Tomorrow I will lay it out on poster board first then trim to fit. Then I will trace this pattern out on a big sheet of 28ga galvanized sheet metal from Home Depot roofing section ; cut and trim this to fit and then plan where I will slice and bend it to fit the firewall. This may take some soldering and the real SS sheet would/will be welded. If I have to weld, I will talk to a guy who is really good at stainless and I have seen his work where his welds show but there is little no discoloring adjacent to the welds. I would refer to not weld so we'll see how this plays out.  Here's a couple pics.  One id kinda boring because it's the stainless with the plastic protective sheet covering the engine turning. This covering stays on until the firewall is totally installed,  glassed in, and undercoated. Then removal and BRILLIANCE !!.........................Bruce

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Worked on the stainless veneer firewall today.. Pretty touchy, trying to overlay the stainless over a thin flexible piece of fiberglass. The veneer is stiffer than the firewall !

Got the center part bent and will work on the rest tomorrow and post some photos then. It won't look like much because of the plastic coating on the stainless veneer. I have to do this in 3 or 4 pieces. The Speedster was in 4 pieces including the "firewall air intake hole" cover.

I'm curious, does anyone know of a product that I can spray or "squeege" on the firewall between the stainless veneer to take up any gaps ? Something that won't glue them together ? Possibly use mold release on the veneer so they can be separated ?

I changed my Avatar to something totally unrelated today but when you see it you'll see why. It's a divers lifetime quest !................Bruce

 

Now the work begins ! Picked up the Suby Case yesterday, went and bought some new respirators and today I start smoothing out the case for the guy to start polishing it.

Rancho sent out all the external hardware for black oxide coating so that should make a nice contrast in the finished product. Made a trans. holding fixture to make it easier to work on polishing the case.

Almost finished with the stainless veneer for the firewall. Once finished, the firewall goes back to Ensenada Mex. to be installed in my body, then all of it shipped back to Greg...........Bruce

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Went down to the Polisher today to check out progress with putting a shine on my Suby Trans. case.  He's half way and said that he will be finished this Friday! The phots below show what it's looking like with a 320 grit sanding job. All the casting chafe and flash is now gone. Next will be the Cratex in progressively finer grit until it's mirror like.

Bruce

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  • Subaru 5 Sp manual trans case: Smoothing to 320 grit
  • Subaru 5 speed manual trans case: Casting chafe and flash gone

FINALY !!!  The polisher guy finished my Subaru transaxle case so tonight I will spend the evening cleaning all the grit/wax out of all the threaded holes with the appropriate taps plus all the other tiny nooks n crannies. Tomorrow it's back to Rancho down in Fullerton so they can stuff it full of those knarly looking tiny/wide saw blade looking wheels ! All 19 of em ! (assuming the LSD has 4 spiders n 2 side ones) The tension of excitement is elevating !   Heres some photos of the finished polish job.  The bottom looks the same too.............Bruce

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  • POLISHED SUBARU TRANS CASE 1: At the Polisher.   Aidan (626) 494-7036
  • POLISHED SUBARU TRANS CASE 2: At the Polisher. Aidan. (626) 494-7036
  • POLISHEDE SUBARU TRANS CASE 3: On my bench for thread cleaning
aircooled posted:

FINALY !!!  The polisher guy finished my Subaru transaxle case so tonight I will spend the evening cleaning all the grit/wax out of all the threaded holes with the appropriate taps plus all the other tiny nooks n crannies. Tomorrow it's back to Rancho down in Fullerton so they can stuff it full of those knarly looking tiny/wide saw blade looking wheels ! All 19 of em ! (assuming the LSD has 4 spiders n 2 side ones) The tension of excitement is elevating !   Heres some photos of the finished polish job.  The bottom looks the same too.............Bruce

Wow....almost chrome like....beautiful. Bruce..what type of " shop " does that type of polishing ?  Thanks..

Thanks Bob.  Dave....It's what this guy does. Just old custom car stuff all the time. guys and companies Bring him parts to polish or to prepare them for triple plate chroming . He has no sign on his doors or business. He has a booth at the Pomona Swap Meet every two months where he shows/sells his work and passes out cards. He took over the business from his Father. His name is AIDAN and his phone is (626) 494-7036. He's not good at staying on a schedule so you have to plan ahead for that. He is who I use to put the polish on my Wing and Visors mounting brackets so many of you already know the quality of his work.  He liked doing this Suby case because he said the aluminum was die cast not sand cast (read smoother here) and of some high quality aluminum that polished  up better than anything he has done in the past. 

I see him shipping stuff out occasionally too....................Bruce

Ray....No R & P flip.   It's going in as a mid engine Spyder by Vintage Motorcars. Both engine and Transaxle are Subaru.  I haven't made up my mind on clear coating it yet.

I do have a pretty cool looking chrome German Eagle that I may attach to the top-smooth part of the trans though. Just for looks.. Sort of strange...Japanese trans with a German symbol  !  Maybe  I should attach a Subaru logo....The one with the constellation of Pleiades ?............Bruce 

Bruce, that looks awesome!  Glad you did that and it'll add a big bit of "Bling" when you open the clamshell.

Someone wondered if you would be clear-coating it.  I have aluminum spokes on my steering wheel and they would cloud every other year or so unless I polished them regularly.  Quickly got tired of that and clear coated them with Krylon clear acrylic.  Been looking great for over 5 years now.  Food for thought.

Dropped off the case at Rancho this morning and then stopped at VMC to see Greg. Here's some photos and more info.

The first is the LSD going in my transaxle. It's a Subaru non-bias sealed unit. Sealed meaning it's welded shut and very few have actually broke one open to look inside . Mike at Rancho says they are very strong. The second is all those funny looking "saws" that go inside my case !  Oh, I got the ratios this time. not much new here.  3.90 R&P, 3.16 1st, 1.88 2nd, 1.29 3rd, .97 4th, and .73 5th.  For such a light car I think this will be fine. I probably will never have it floored in 5th. Age and common sense guides me here !

Greg is real busy as you can see by how many cars are stacked up outside. He wasn't there so I just wandered around. I found a Spyder with the Subaru engine out and photoed one of the coolant hoses from the engine to the front. It looks to be 1.25" hose with braided exterior. The radiator has matching AN connectors. I think they will do just fine.  By the way, that's an old VW Ring gear and carrier sitting in with my gears. Don't know why. Maybe someone was comparing............Bruce

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  • Subaru Factory ltd. slip diff. & carrier
  • Subaru 5 sp. gear stacks
  • Vintage Motorcars  3-14-19
  • Spyder/Subaru coolant hose end at engine

Yours are quite low for sure.....

 

Here are mine in my roadster                                 Yours

 

4.1  R&P                    rpm/mph                                           3.90 R&P,

 

1st gear 3.454                                                            3.16

2nd gear 2.062                                                           1.88

3rd gear 1.448                                                            1.29

4th gear 1.088                                                            0.97

5th gear 0.78             3100/70mph                           0.73   ---- Flight Take off  

aircooled posted:

When I did the calcs as if we were using the same tire size, we would be close to the same speeds if I was cranking 2750 to 2800...  Jeez....at 6000 I'd be ready for take off in 5th.............Bruce

Slow Thursday night here so I did the calcs too and based on the above while Ray is doing 70 mph at 3,100, Bruce will be doing just over 78 mph at 3,100. If Bruce slows his rpm down to 2,775 ( middle of your range noted above just for eg.  )  you'll be doing 70 mph. With a nice 2.5 l Soob I think that would be quite doable with that early, fat and flat torque curve. 

Further, Bruce's 1st gear will be 11.5% taller than Ray's. This should be a real nice comparison of similar stuff on a high level for real apples to apples comparison. 

Interestingly, and way out of this apple barrell, my first gear stock VW ratio with the 3.44 R&P was about right in between that of both of you guys and I wished mine was a bit taller in first even with my lesser powered home brew Soob. 

 

Last edited by David Stroud IM Roadster D

I agree David.  From my previous calculation at 3.91 R&P and the final of 0.73 which are the ratio's that I was interested in getting should I need another tranny it would give me 70mph at 2750 ish 

Not sure which tranny set Bruce's tranny is from but I think it might be from a turbo unit with lots of power in his case less power but a lot less weigh so given the weight of a spyder it should be a good combo. 

The only issue he will have is that the air current and no top he will never truly hear how quiet his engine and tranny are  

Last edited by IaM-Ray

I believe Mike at Rancho said it was from a turbo car. He got the LSD thru a friend on a racing team down in Florida. He told me the name of the exclusive Subaru component company but I forgot it. The LSD is totally welded shut. Disassembly is not possible. Mike said he knew of someone who cut thru the welds to disassemble and said that it could not be reassembled once that had been done. I guess that means it's a "throw-away" component. It has clutches and gears inside. When I tried to turn the input shafts it was not possible. It's really tight !

I truly do like the numbers from the gear ratio calculations ! It really is too bad about not having the opportunity to enjoy the quietness of this engine/transaxle combo. VW's are whiny  and that coupled with a performance exhaust can be fatiquing after a while. Well...maybe it will be a little more pleasing noise and I won't whine so much ? .....Bruce

FYI, according to Chuck Beck, directional control starts to cease at about 110 in a Spyder with 1 person in it. I've gone 2 up with Cory Drake in the right seat at an indicated 125, but the VDO gauges were a little optimistic at the upper end. I'm thinking it was closer to 115 or so.

I have gone 110 in the new car and I know it's accurate due to the GPS speedo. My car has always felt surefooted at the upper end. However, you start to realize how small and fragile the car is at those speeds, so you want to slow down at that point.

I agree that Bruce's gearing will be perfectly fine in his light car with plenty of torque and power. I am following this build with interest.

Having said all that, I'm going to build a close-ratio 4 speed for mine. I want a canyon-carver at say 30-100mph. I want to always have the perfect gear for that situation, and out-accelerate anything by being in the powerband. Highway cruising is easy for me now, but not as important. Bruce's 5 speed should be pretty close to what I'll end up with, minus his 5th.

Earlier, I was hot for lower ratios. All my previous cars were lower. After really thinking about how and where I drive out here in SoCal, I'm gonna go with this, this time.When I'm on the freeway, I'm in the high 70s no matter what Im driving. The rest is city or curvy mountain roads and I think this gear-set from 1 to 4 will be ideal. I'm counting on the lightness of the car and the power curves of the engine to be what I want in between.  I've never owned such a light weight street car with this much power so I'm pretty excited about its potential. The fact that it's stance is even lower than my Speedster is a concern.  JEEZ ! the Speedster was low enough ! With this car a 10.00X20 set of truck wheels right next to me singing away at 60 mph is definately scary !! Hell...I think the top of the tire will higher than my head !   Then again......All I should hafta do is "punch it" !

I really appreciate all ya guys comments and opinions.  It certainly helps ease the decision making. My only regret is that I couldn't afford to do this when I was about 21 years old. Hmmmm.....Maybe I still am..............Bruce

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  • 1960 Fiat 600.        Circa July 1963: Suicide doors & me with a 6 pack   Age 21
  • 1960.  FIAT.   (Fix It Again Tony): I may have pushed it more than drive it !
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