Fernons Chop - Page 4 - Cut-Weld-Drive Forums

fernon · January 4th, 2009, 11:04 AM

By mounting it where the stock steering box was it does not throw off the geometry of the front suspension and therefore you don't have the problem with bump steer and all the other problems that most people have when they extend the front end. Yes it would look better if it was centered but I intend to drive the hell out of this thing.

mkparker · January 4th, 2009, 12:42 PM

Most every off-road car I've owned has had a center mounted Wright R&P. I'm sure they had much more travel than you will have and bump steer was not an issue. And they all were driven very hard. The benefit of a center mount would be equal length tierods. I'm not trying to be argumentative, just sayin'.....

Even a center mounted stock box can work great if done correctly.

duct-tape · January 4th, 2009, 01:56 PM

thats hot

**Unkl Ian** · January 4th, 2009, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fernon

By mounting it where the stock steering box was it does not throw off the geometry of the front suspension and therefore you don't have the problem with bump steer and all the other problems that most people have when they extend the front end. Yes it would look better if it was centered but I intend to drive the hell out of this thing.

Your left tie rod needs to be shorter than stock,
so you end up changing Ackerman and bump steer.

fernon · January 4th, 2009, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mkparker

Most every off-road car I've owned has had a center mounted Wright R&P. I'm sure they had much more travel than you will have and bump steer was not an issue. And they all were driven very hard. The benefit of a center mount would be equal length tierods. I'm not trying to be argumentative, just sayin'.....

Quote:

Originally Posted by mkparker

Even a center mounted stock box can work great if done correctly.

Yes, I agree that a center-mount Rack & Pinion set-up works great when you have a raised suspension and plenty of travel, but when your beam is slammed to the ground and you have less than 2" of travel in your suspension everything is exaggerated and a pebble in the road feels like a boulder so we tried to eliminate as much play in the suspension as possible so this thing doesn't drive like a go-cart. Plus we also didn't want the steering shaft to cut across he front end we need the space for something else we are doing. Nice rides by the way...

rostigbug · January 4th, 2009, 10:30 PM

I gave up trying to explain all of that shit to people, everyone thinks they are an expert. All I get is arguement

Besides I am in Iraq, so I 'otta STFU.

fernon · January 19th, 2009, 07:19 AM

A Dashing Idea

So after getting the front end set-up we wanted to get the steering in so that we could start working on the dash, as usual we couldn't just use a stock steering shaft that would be too easy, so we decided to custom fabricate our own since we are going to do something very cool to it later on.

I was able to score a 1959 Bus dash pod and perfectly working clear needle speedo so as usual, we decided to start cutting it up to fit our needs.

Building up the sides of the pod.

Removing the bottom brace.

Welding in a new plate to cover the bottom.

Filling in all the holes in the dash.

Cutting out an opening in the dash.
(I love sparks)

Nice big opening to work with.

Tacking the pod in place.

The dash all cut out.

Filling in the panels of the dash.

The pod is offset away from the dash quite a bit because again we are going to do something different than just setting a bus pod in a dash, but you will have to wait and see.

All tacked in, now we have to start working our magic with the dash.

fungus · January 19th, 2009, 08:51 AM

Totally badass!!! I've never been a fan of the type 2 dash in a beetle, but that looks awesome!

JiI · January 19th, 2009, 08:56 AM

I was thinking about something like that for my rod as if I put it in flat it would hit the gas tank.
Jeff

carlbugs · January 19th, 2009, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vwfanatic

pretty sure those front fenders were by arnie boyle, the same guy that did the original molds for cliffs volksrod (pirahnna) kit.

Pretty sure they are from BGW, Randy is in petty tight with them.

Next time I go by his shop I"ll take some updated pics and start its own thread.

hotsauce · January 19th, 2009, 10:29 AM

Damnit Fernon, i was gonna do a center mounted bus dash pod in mine. shit. Looks awesome tho!!!!!!! Keep up the sick work.

mkparker · January 19th, 2009, 10:38 AM

Nice work...looks great!

Daniel · January 19th, 2009, 12:37 PM

Looks awesome!

fernon · January 24th, 2009, 03:45 PM

Starting to take Shape

It's back to work on the dash, since we can't just stick a bus pod in the center of the dash we decided to actually make it look like it was suppose to be there by using the body lines and curves of the original dash. That being said we had to make a jig to shape the metal for the dash. We started by heating and bending a steel rod to the radius that we wanted.

Then we proceeded to form the metal to the shape that we wanted.

After we got the look that we wanted we had to start building up the sides.

Checking for fit.

Then it was time to strip down the dash and start to make everything fit.

With both sides tacked in it was time to work on the top

Now this is what it looks like all welded in and ground down, after we finish welding up the dash and adding a skim coat it will look factory (or what the factory should have done). Notice how the top of the dash flows into the pod and all of the radiuses match up (OOOOOOOOOOH Detail)

vwfanatic · January 24th, 2009, 03:50 PM

FUCK YEAH!!!!

Trebor13 · January 24th, 2009, 04:36 PM

what he ^^ said.

fungus · January 24th, 2009, 05:18 PM

WOW.

hotsauce · January 24th, 2009, 05:55 PM

Holy shit!!!!!!!!

way cooler than mine was gonna be. Carry on.

XrayDean · January 24th, 2009, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trebor13

what he ^^ said.

FYeah!

bugdust · January 24th, 2009, 06:40 PM

Very nice...gonna have to get you guys up here when I start mine.

fernon · January 25th, 2009, 04:04 PM

Column Drop

We started working on mounting the column and then thought it would look better if it had a column drop, so as usual it's back to fabbing a custom piece for what we want.

Test fitting the column drop.

Once we set the steering height that we want we will start to work on the column (we have something a little special we are going to do to this), again you have to wait and see.

Also finished welding all the panels in the dash, now I just need to grind the shit out of all the welds.

Flipper_1938 · January 25th, 2009, 08:13 PM

Looking good. Keep up the good work.

fernon · February 15th, 2009, 05:26 PM

Suicidal Tendencies

Time to do a little work to the doors, and as always time to replace a shitload of metal. We started by replacing the entire bottom of the doors since most of the metal was gone we had to replace the front and backs at the same time.

As you can see the back half of these doors are shot.
(Like the pissing on purists logo - never mind)

OK, back to work welding up the back of the door.

With the back welded in we can cut the bottom of the door off so we can replace the metal.

Now we just Cleco the panels together and start welding the door skin on.

Time for a test fit.

My son is a little excited about getting the car done.

OK, so we got our hinge kit in and let me tell you this kit is nice, it is a Williams Hidden Hinge / Suicide Kit and they did a nice job making this kit.

The kit also came with Bear Claw latches and the latch install kit.

Starting to cut into the body for the hinges

The Evil Metal Genius in action.

Checking the fit on the inside

Welding the hinges into the body.

Setting the hinges up.

Hinges installed on the body, now we just have to make the doors fit.

Cutting the doors for the hinges.

Pocket holes cut into the door.

One side done. - That's it for today...

trikertroy · February 16th, 2009, 05:02 AM

How are the doors attached to the hinges? and Id love to see the latch set up.. You made it look too EASY!!

fernon · February 16th, 2009, 01:18 PM

Remember, it takes twice as much work to make it look easy.
Just like all of those Ass Clowns on TV, there is a lot that you don't see that happens behind the scenes. So here are some shots of the hinges on the door, keep in mind everything is just tacked in right now and not cut down, this is our test door (Passenger side) to see if everything works out before we mangle the Drivers side.

We also added some bracing to the inner door panel so that we had something to weld the hinge to.

This hinge system is a dream to work with, the tops and bottoms are connected so you don't have any twisting when the door opens and the action on them is smooth.

Close-up of the top hinge in the door.

Close-up of the bottom hinge in the door. the hinge doesn't sit very deep in the door so extra bracing is required.