My newest VW, AKA the 'Sixty9 V-Rod'

[metalmaster1766]

So this is my newest VW project, I need to get a running car as soon as possible.

It's a 69 Bug which has been stripped of the front and rear fenders, the passengers side has a new floor pan and heater channel welded in, I cut the drivers side out over the past few days and I am in need of my grinder so I can finish cutting part out and then grind the lip so I can weld the new floor pan and heater channel in. Only thing is I looked for about 2 hours today looking for the grinder.

Plans for the car after I get another car running (I already put together an engine for the 69 so it does run). next fall or winter I plan on chopping the top and raising the rear torsion housing as well as the front bulkhead so I can lower it as low as I can and keep the suspension as close to stock as I can.

I have another rear torsion housing and I also have a complete 66 floor pan from my V-8 Bug AKA the 'BitchN Bug'.

I could build a custom floor pan using the front bulkhead from the 66 pan and the rear torsion housing I have. I could start as soon as I get this pan in and out of the garage and then start on a nice 1-1/2 inch tube chassis over the next buncha months, then put the body on and cut away what needs be, add onto where it needs it, with a full roll cage as well.

Now it may take me a while but I also work very slow (think I mentioned that a few times before.

Here it is the day after I brought it home -




I'll keep this thread here as my criticism and comment page.

http://www.volksrods.com/forum/showt...306#post482306

That's all for now, y'all come back now, ya hear, take ya shooos off N sit a spell

[metalmaster1766]

Well gosh darn, I took those pictures in the 1st post the day after I got the 69 home, which was October 18th 2010, I had hoped to be driving it by the end of October.

What was I thinking, I'm not as young as I once was, I'm not has healthy as I once was, matter-o-fact, I'm just flat slow.

Most of you all work a job, and some how seem to get a lot of work done either on weekends, or week nights after you get home from work. I haven't worked now for almost 10 years and 4 months (if ya wanna know how many day's I can tell ya, even counting leap years, which should be an off day each year it falls on a Monday thru Friday, that's a whole other topic I won't get into) Anyhow I'd love to go back to work, but I settle for working on my cars and all my other projects. I also dislike cold weather and the snow and ice which go along with super cold weather, see I get cold anywhere below 60 degrees F unless the sun is shining nice and bright, I can even tolerate as low as 30 degrees as long as the sun is shining, anything below that, or the sun hiding I can do without.

So here it is almost the end of Jan 2011 and I almost have this 69 read to drive. I still need to get the headlights wired up along with the turn signals up front, then get the brake lights and turn signals wired up in the rear, the tail lights are already wired up.

I have bit of welding to finish up around the front of the heater channels and the front firewall (why do they call it a fire wall when the engine is in the rear? is it because the fuel tank is up front? ).

I just finished putting all the glass in except the rear oval, I have a seal for it, I just need to get a piece of Lexan and cut me out an oval window. I also put the disc brake setup I had on my Dune Buggy, next is to check the rear brakes and if they look good I'll get them bled and she's ready to drive.

I still need to fab up some front shock mounts for it as the P/O turned the bean as far down as it could go and I don't wanna cut and turn it back up any just yet. I do have a set of short shocks off an old motorcycle that seen to have the right amount of travel for the suspension, I just need to make some new mounts as well as make some new head light mounts, I believe they are a bit to low as per the ORC, I'll need to go back and reread it again then measure and see.

I don't wanna set a time as to when I plan to have it drivable by like I did when I got it, (I needed to get a 2nd car that was drivable at the time, but we made due when I didn't succeed in making my dead line) I just plan to have it ready to drive sometime this year, hopefully before the 1st 6 months pass.

Well enough of my talking (typing).
Here are some pic's to show all my activities since the last post.....

floor pan and heater channel -




Big hole behind rear seat -


the start of covering the hole -


with rear seat in place -




behind the rear seat -


Well that's all for now as for pictures, the rest of the work didn't need pictures, it was just rewire behind the dash (don't know what happened behind there, but it just ain't right) and the addition of disc brakes I put on the front, still need to get the rear drums off and then check them and make sure it doesn't need them.
Then it's just some odds and ends and it's ready to drive.

I'll most likely drive it all summer while I get another car fixed, then next winter I hope to chop the top and possibly put suicide doors on as well as few other things I wanna do to it.

I just can't wait till it get's back up into the mid to hi 90's, it just never gets here fast enough, and before I know it, it's gone

[metalmaster1766]

Well gosh dern, all this time and energy I spent on this car and I haven't updated my build page.

Not to much to say other than what fun it is to drive a Bug again

I'll just add some pictures and type less, or just type when I feel it needs an explanation to something I did.







This next picture shows how far the front beam was cut and turned by the P/O


This is an uncut beam which I did go ahead and put on, raised it up by almost 6 inches


After the uncut beam was installed


Before switching the front beam with a pop can to show how low it is


After switching the beams


It has settled down a bit and I took off the coil-over shocks as well which lowered it another inch or more.

Rear fenders added because the Law pulled up next to my Bug while I was in the store, he told me that he has seen me driving it more and more so I should put some kind of fenders on it unless it is just a weekend nice day driving car, so since it's gonna be my daily driver I added the rear fenders


I still need to do something to fill in the apron gap, not sure just how I'm gonna do it yet


I also put a front bumper on it,I still need to build some brackets so I can put the matching rear bumper on




I have also started to put a disc brake setup on the rear of the Bug, it already has front disc brakes and I have the entire rear disc brake setup off 1 of my oldest son's 92 Honda Accords which has disc brakes on all 4 corners.
I had to use some old not so good rear VW drums and cut them to fit in the rotors, I just turned them on my lathe until they were the right size










I think this is a picture of the modified VW drum on a rear bearing housing I cut out of the rear trailing arms


I got the bracket cut out but still need to bore a hole in it so it fits over the bearing housing flange and bearing cap, I also need to drill the 4 screw holes so the bearing cap will bolt on thru the brackets.
I will get started on the caliper brackets tomorrow if I get the spark plug holes all heli-coiled so my plugs don't shoot out while driving, once I get the center bore cut to size and the 4 screw holes drilled so it will bolt on, then I need to get a new set of brake pads so I can make sure the brackets don't need any bending so the calipers are in the correct position, then I'll need to find the parking brake cable from the Honda so I can connect the ends to the calipers and make them work with the parking brake cable on the car now.

Then my work will go towards the front end, 1st is a set of front fenders which I'm gonna try to make myself from scratch by pounding them out of sheet metal, then fill in the original wheel wells up front so it looks a bit cleaner.

So I have plenty of time, very little energy, but I try to do something to it a few days a week unless I'm having a bad day, then either I do nothing but rest, or I just work 3 times slower than I already do, which by the way is usually 15 minutes of working, then 15 minutes of rest, so that's 30 minutes of work every hour, but it is all a part of my physical therapy. I hope to be able to get 40 minutes of work done in an hours time by the end of the summer.

We shall see how that works out, I just wish I had more iron in my body, I have been getting iron infusions once a week for 5 weeks, it was only once a year but now it is probly gonna be 2 times a year. I'm also anemic which makes you tired and energy-less, but I fight it all the time by pushing myself all the time, now I wish I had built my garage/workshop 84 feet closer to the back of my house, it is 85 feet from the back of the house now and it's up hill, not really that steep until you get about 30 feet from the garage door.

Enough talk, time to go to bed soon so I can get my engine's spark plug holes all heli-coiled and put back together, then work on adjusting my dual carbs so they are in sync better than they are at the moment.

[metalmaster1766]

I reassembled the engine after putting on another set of heads, I also checked the carbs and the float levels were difference by an 1/8 an inch, so I got them within 0.020 of an inch, now I just need my manometer to synchronize them.

So early in the morning I'm gonna finish boring the hole in my disc brake caliper bracket,then drill the 4 boles which the bearing cap goes on and the bracket goes between the bearing cap and the rear bearing housing where the stub axles go, then put them on and make sure I get them where they go and mark them So the calipers are in the correct position.

I was worried about the bracket needing an offset bend to make the calipers with pads centered where they need to be.

Hope to get them on Monday unless I need to make a bend so they are in the correct position.

Wish me luck


Ron

[metalmaster1766]

Lot's happened since I last updated this build page
So here goes,

Once the heads went on I get it in and everything set, start it up and everything seems ok for about 2 days
Let it sit because of rain for 3 days straight, go out to start it up and the blow-by issue kept me from driving it.
I replace the P/C's with a used set, has good compression
So I have been driving it since, adding this and that and slowly getting things how I want them

I added front sheet metal to replace the missing parts along with the front apron, now maybe I can seal it off so I don't have the wind coming thru the dash, when you get hot, you just drive faster (turn the fan on hi, it's a variable speed fan operated with the accelerator pedal, push and it goes faster )

Got my hands on a uni-sync and hope to get the carbs set as good as they are gonna get. I fooled with them yesterday for about 20 minutes and it did stop the popping, but after driving up the street and back the idle dropped down and wouldn't stay running
It did seem to have much more power then before, I hope this helps my mileage

I never did get the rear disc brakes finished, I just need to modify the caliper brackets, gonna weld a piece on so the calipers will bolt on in the right location so the caliper moves as the pads wear

Here are some pictures

Right front sheet metal


Front apron


Beam bracing and front body mount, still in the works


Front wheel wells with cardboard patterns, hope to have enough sheet metal to do both sides (I may hafta use the 2 Honda Accord hoods my son has sitting here), if not I can just enclose the front section so it's much more rigid, I can do the fender wells later



Plenty more to come, it's slowly coming together, but then again I'm slow as well

So it's ALL Good, C'ya


Ron

[metalmaster1766]

So I have almost gotten all the front sheet metal welded into place, still have a few holes I need to fill, but other than that it is slowly coming together

I'm planning to mount the fenders once the Holiday weekend is over

Here are a few pictures with the fenders just resting in place, I will be cutting the ends of the fenders so they aren't so straight, kinda round them up a bit




I was lucky enough to pick these up for $0.00 which makes them the "Best" fenders around <--thinks that looks funny, MR. Big Ear



Ron

[metalmaster1766]

Made my fender brackets over the weekend, mounted them on and turned the wheels side to side and made sure nothing was touching, did a small amount of grinding a bit off to clear the left tie-rod

Yesterday I went for a ride and had no troubles with them, now to mount the fenders to the brackets

I think I'm just gonna weld the same angle iron pieces onto the fenders then drill and tap some holes and use some flat head screws to screw them to the brackets

I'll post a few pictures at the end

The fender brackets which still need top be cleaned up to look good, maybe I'll put some light'nin holes in em
The fenders are just resting about a half inch above the tire on some pieces of wood

Still not sure how far forward or back to mount them, guess I'll go sit back and see what looks the best, then put them on and see what happens









Fenders are resting with brackets in place








They need a bit of adjustment, but I think it's gonna work

Ron

[metalmaster1766]

So this morning I spent most of my time doing things around the house, then I went out to make some fender mounts, drill some holes, and tap them

I only got the left side finished and mounted on the car, it looks purty good altho I'm still up in the air on whether I wanna round the front edge of the fenders because they are completely square except they have a radius on each corner, I'll just hafta leave them go for now
If it starts to annoy me I'll just round them up a little bit at a time until I get them to my likening

OK here's pictures after I mounted the tabs on the left fender, drilled and tapped all the holes, then painted it Black

Here both fenders are sitting where I want them, the drivers side has 1/2 inch space between the fender and the tire




Here is the left fender with brackets welded to them, then I will bolt them to the brackets that bolt onto the steering spindles





With a bit of paint on them






I plan to mount the right side fender tomorrow, I will also need to make a bracket support to bolt on at the front top and run it down to the bottom rear mount

I tried to get a video of the fender while I was driving so I could see how much it bounces around, it didn't work out very well because it made shifting tought to do, and I had a tough time holing the camera on the same place, so maybe I'll bring it with me when I pick up my son and hand him the camera, I do know they bounce around a lot up near the top, so I'm gonna make a bracket to try to keep it from bouncing around like it/they did

Next I'm gonna hafta make a set of two emblems to mount at the front and center of each fender, still thinking about that

MMMMMMyyyaaaaaa, What's up Doc ?

That's all for today, now it's bed time, feel free to comment good or bad

I hope by next spring to have the pan dropped or the front and rear suspension raised 4 to 5 inches, so the body sits about 4 inches off the ground, much more than that and it's gonna make sparks where ever I will go



Ron

[metalmaster1766]

Got my hands on a set of lowered spindles and put them on Friday afternoon, took it for a drive that night and it sits about as low as it did when I first got the car which had the beam cut and turned about as far as it possibly could be turned while on the car, the ride sucked as it bottomed out having maybe 2 inches of suspension travel

I put a stock beam back on with no adjusters, it was only lowered with the beam extender which I believe was made by Tin Beater and sat up purty high

well now it sits real low, my tag drags the ground and hits all the speed bumps as well as the curb when pulling into my driveway

Well here are a few pictures showing ride height using a Mt Dew can

The 1st is when I got the car, then after I changed beams, and finally after the lowered spindles were put on this past Friday







I don't think I'll need to drop the body down much except in the rear, I may just get away with turning the spring plates a few notches and then get some taller and wider rear wheels and tires and it's ready for a Top Chop


Ron

[metalmaster1766]

Well I suppose I should update the build thread before I update my build page on the Cutting board, but seeing how I missed a few of the things I did in the past month or so, here it is

Sorry I just get carried away at times

Since lowering the front with dropped spindles it now sits about 6 inches lower than stock up front, the other inch is from removing all the small torsion leaves, I should prolly put 1 set back in to 1 of the tubes to stiffen it up just a bit and also raise it a bit, the lowest point under the car it where the original beam bolted onto the bulk head the spot there is 3-3/4 inches from the ground, when I lower the rear a few notches I hope to raise the front up a little bit

The next thing I did was to get my brakes working better, I put the front disc brake setup I had from my Rail Buggy onto the V-Rod back in March when I started driving it, I had to push the pedal real hard in order to stop, after a few months I had to do something about it
So I put a larger bore master cylinder (M/C) on, you need a large bore M/C for disc brakes because the piston in the calipers are also very large
I only had a single circuit M/C from my Rail Buggy so all I needed was a new reservoir for the brake fluid. The original plastic one was all broken up from sitting since 1997.
It just so happened the plastic reservoir had a threaded fitting that screwed into the M/C which had a hole thru it the same size as the tap drill for a 1/4 inch NPT pipe tap, so I tapped it then gathered all the pipe fittings I had laying around and made a reservoir using 1-1/4 pipe nipple as the main part with a few reducers at the bottom to fit the thread I tapped into the M/C more fitting a few reducers to make the top a 3/4 inch pipe fitting and used a plug as my cap

Now it stops real good and using much less leg muscles, now my leg doesn't feel like jello after a drive

Next I started filling in sheet metal up front so I can begin to seal all the air that comes thru the dash, during the winter time, it makes a great deal of difference as to how fast you drive, if it's 20 degrees F outside and your driving 35 MPH the wind chill factor is well let's just say it's a bit to cold for me
IF I drive the V-Rod any during the winter this year it will be the first time in 16 years and never did I have heat, altho I did drive my Rail Buggy on the street for 3 years, and I drove it 1 day when it was 19 degrees F, and it was cold, so FUN in fact I drove it a lot when it snowed back then

I had to use my stick welder to weld the sheet metal, by the time I start welding good, it's time to finish, and if I cut the welding rods in half it's much easier for me, other wise I get the dadgum tip stuck on everything around except what I'm trying to weld
I also have a tough time seeing the weld thru the welding hood, so I do short welds or just a bunch of tac welds, it soooo much easier tac welding sheet metal with my little 120 V mig, but I'm out of gas, not enough $ to buy any flux core wire for a while, so I just do the best I can and will grind it once I fix at least 1 of my grinders, or go buy 2 cheap H/F grinders

I wonder if I can use compressed air, I have used CO-2 tanks in the past, maybe I can hook it up to my air compressor and tac weld the sheet metal ya never know until your try

Well enough typing for now, pictures speak for themselves so here are few pics






















I still need to put my heater boxes on it, then put new heater control cables on it, then plum all the hoses to and from the heater channels

Once that is finished I will get my rear disc brakes finished and on the car, or it can wait till I cut the floor pan some time this winter so I can drop the bottom another 4 inches without messing with the suspension

If I get that finished before Spring next year I hope to have all the stuff I need so I can chop the top as well





Ron

[metalmaster1766]

So nothing much new other than putting a set of coil over shocks on the front, it raised it up an inch, but I had to do something

Where the extender adapter bolts onto where the beam originally bolted to was the lowest part of the front, the part of the thick sheet that make up the hmm the craddle that holds the beam bends down at the bottom and extends about 1/2 an inch to 1/4 or an inch keeps hitting the blacktop or the concrete which ever I'm driving on when I take a big gouge out of it

I mean it hits hard if my tire goes into a large enough pot-hole, or at intersections that have a stop sign only and lots of traffic which leaves a trench from all the car tires on hot days

The bottom of my car drags for almost 10 feet at an intersection like I described which is less than a half mile from my house

So I put on the coil over shocks and raised it up about 1-1/2 inches, after I drive it a bit to let it settle I'll measure it to see how close that flange section is, I'll feel better if it is an inch higher

A few pics






I also fixed the rear drum brakes, I had a leaky wheel cylinder which I replaced as well as all the metal brake lines in the back, it stops so much better now

One of these days I wanna get the disc brakes on the rear, all I need to do is buy four 10mm bolts and drill 4 holes so a 10mm bolt will pass thru, bolt it up then weld 1 piece per side and it's finished, like I said, one of these days


Ron

[metalmaster1766]

So today I started something I have wanted to do since being told to run rear fenders on my V-Rod if I'm gonna use it as my daily driver, and I drive it everyday.
I wanted to cut the rear fenders so they are about at the center line of the rear tires that are on the rear of the car now, my future plan are to use some 8 inch wide wheels in the rear and use the widest tire I can on them, so that means they will stick out a bunch.

Rather than cutting the original steel fenders, I had a set of baja fenders that weren't in to good of shape so I cut those about where I thought I wanted them and not ruin the steel fenders by cutting to much off. I cut both of the baja rear fenders, then cut and drilled the holes for the tail lights and turn signals, the turn signals aren't the ones I plan to use when I get around to finishing everything, I just used them because I had them, and because they have reflectors on them just in case my tail lights of brake lights burn out after dark.

Well here are a few pictures of what I did to the rear baja fenders, they almost look like what I want except the back of the rear fenders need to go down more so they line up as good as possible with an early rear deck lid, I may need to use some filler metal if there are any gaps between the deck lid and fenders where they meet near the bottom in the rear

Pictures
Front view


Left rear view


Right rear view


Rear view


Side view


Once I get the steel fenders cut and on and done a bit different than what the fiberglass baja fenders look like, I could only cut them where the fenders stopped in the rear otherwise I would have left more hang down closer to the bottom of the deck lid.

Well I best rest up because I think I heard something on the news about "Rain" tomorrow, and as sore as I am this evening I think rain will be here tomorrow or Thursday.
I guess I'll just plan it out in the morning as to what I'm a do depending on how the day turns out.
I will still keep my sun glasses on top of my head all day from Sun up to Sun down, I do this in hopes the rain will stop and the Sun will come out.

Nothing wrong with Wishful Thinking now is there



Ron

[metalmaster1766]

So I decided to lower the ass end of my V-Rod now that I have smaller fenders on it in back, now the fenders are only temporary until I decide to cut the original steel fenders, as I mentioned before I used a set of fiberglass Baja rear fenders to get an idea what it's gonna look like once I do it right.

I lowered it down 3 outer notches on each side, I checked the pre-load before raising the spring plates over the lower stops and they were at about 0 degrees (plus or minus a degree) they were at 20 degrees when I pushed the spring plates off their lower stops, after checking everything out once I finished both sides and took it for a ride so it could settle into place the front was about 1/2 inch higher than the rear, I want the rear about an inch or maybe 2 higher than the front

The spring plates also bottomed out on the upper spring plate stops at every bump in the road I hit, yes I could have notched the top of the spring plates to give more room but I'll do that to another set of spring plates because these are dual spring plates and I wanna keep them for my Dune Buggy, so maybe in the next week or two I'll take a set of the spring plates and notch them so it won't hit them

Here are a few pictures of it after I finished lowering it, I had to raise it back up 1 outer notch because I had to drive it Friday to have my hand surgery which means I hafta take it easy with my hand for a week or two, that gives me time to notch a set of extra spring plates I have, then I'll buy a set of front beam adjusters and lower it to where I want it, I may even put a set of coilover rear shocks on it so it rides a bit stiffer than it did when I lowered it down 3 notches, or I'll just hafta just adjust the rear torsion bars so both sides are as close to one another as possible because there was an inch difference between the rear sides

A few pictures







Look at our grand daughter's cat by the front tire, I think it's eyes almost look wicked


I still haven't edited the rear view to show where I plan to cut the fenders so they extend down a bit further because I have an early deck lid that isn't as bent up as the one from my 66 Bug

I plan to cut the rear fenders so they blend in with the longer deck lid, I may even need to add some sheet metal somewhere between the fenders and the deck lid, but I'll wait and see once I get it how I want it.

Now I guess would be a good time to buy some more flux core welding wire, I can't stick weld sheet metal at all, I end up burning more holes in the metal unless it is 1/4 inch thick


Ron

[metalmaster1766]

Well it's about time to update this thread, nothing interesting except I did buy a new set of piston rings, the ones I got used are slowly starting to wear out
It puffs out a big blue cloud of smoke the first time I start it in the morning, and I can tell the compression is slowly going

I hope to get them soon as well as an oil temp gauge and sender, I also wanted to get a head temp gauge until I seen the price, it's gonna hafta wait a few months until I can save my pennies up for one of those

When I was looking at the head temp gauge and sender it looks like the sender is only an electric wire with a large diameter crimp on connector that goes around the spark plug before you put the spark plug into the head, it's gotta be more to it than that, but then again it was just a picture and I have never had a head temp gauge before so maybe there is more to it than I seen, guess I'll find out when I get one, may as well get a deep oil sump as well so it stays cooler during the Summer months


Ron

[metalmaster1766]

I just copied and pasted everything from here to my other thread on the cutting board, I think I added a bit more, but it's the pics for me, I like to look at all the ideas everyone comes up with



Well, did a few things while this warmer than usual weather was here, ground stays nice and warm

So I wanted to rebuild and put my 2 barrel progressive carb kit I got many years ago on, been on a bunch of different Bugs as well a few engines

It's been sitting in a cabinet since '97, I took it in in the house and disassembled it, then I cleaned it all out up, compressor and blew air thru it, I couldn't get a carb rebuild kit where I usually get my VW parts, they are gonna have it Monday

I went ahead and put it on, it was running really good, had much more power than it did with the dual Solex carbs I took off, I believe they were way over jetted for my engine, it got terrible mileage, the past 2 - 3 month it's been around 20 MPG, I know when I ran my progressive carb I was getting about 28 MPG when I kept a lite foot on the pedal, on the highway I could get 33 MPG

I took the V-Rod out for another ride an hour later and it acted like it was fouling out a plug or 2 at a stop, then just bareley giving it much pedal it would creep up to about 10 MPH, then it would take off without pushing the pedal down further, and when I did push it down, it just took off like a Bug-outa-Hell

Only thing is, when I got home I let it run, walked back behind the car and it had all this oil running down the engine compartment again, it was blowing oil out the oil vent hoses I had added to each valve cover, I'm hoping it's the rings, because it was also blowing oil out of a large crack I have in my 1 header pipe, tit was blowing oil out right into my hand into my hand

I bought a set of piston rings back in September, I guess I'm gonna be putting them in Saturday

I also added a new fuse block, the kind that take the little glass tube fuses , I didn't like the original German "SHIT" fuses, I'd knock all the fuses out 1 by1 if I had to change one, we wont talk about my accidental bumping 1 out, it turns into a big deal
I also made the fuse block much easier to get to, they are under the hood facing up which is much better than under the dash facing down (that's so when you drop one you say "SHIT" that fuse

I also thew a little bit of blue pant on the very front of the car back to the the door hinges

I used 1 can and I have 1 more left, so I'm gonna do the doors and a little on the front most part of the roof next time it warms up
Then I'm gonna sand it all down, then put a few more coats on the front, then sand it down a bit more, then make the doors fade into black the closer you get to the B-pillars

The back is gonna be black, in between in between it's gonna look like a bruise
I think I'm gonna paint someplace on the car "Black-N-Back"


Here are a few new pictures
Here is one of the fuse blocks I bought, I got 6 of them so I have 12 fuses now, I also have everything hocked up and working really good, well except for the horn


Fuse block in car


Here it is with the blues






Still needs lots of paint, and then comes the sanding in the middle, I think the blue is a bit to light for me, I may hafta get me darker blue paint, that will go on the front, and after sanding it the way I wanna sand it, it's gonna look just like I imagine it, maybe it will remind me of a Bruise has the blues---->



Ron

[metalmaster1766]

So I removed the rear fenders, added a new exhaust system, as well as added a set of coil over shocks I had laying around that were from a Yamaha Blaster, I wanna lower them to the lowest notch after I get the engine back in, this morning I started installing the new set of piston rings I've had for a few months now

It should run much better, it was starting to burn a lot of oil and I was gettin g a lot of blow by again, so I did buy a new set of rings rather than keep using used rings, this makes the 4th time I have had the heads off to replace a piston ring or two over the last year, tomorrow 3/15/2012 will be 366 days since I took it on it's first drive

No pictures of the engine, but here are a few after I put the exhaust on and removed the rear fenders, it sits up a bit high, but I 'm starting to like it, may drop the shocks now as far as they will go












Ron

[metalmaster1766]

I have been thinking about moving the body forward a few inches, I'd like to lower the rear shocks a few notches, or as far down as they go, they are on the highest notch

Anyhow if I moved the body forward a few inches so the inner wheel wells are centered with the arch (side view in previous post) it will look much better

I can widen my wheels with out cutting the center out, I'll spit the wheel just past the welded section on my lathe (I have 2 wheels that only run out 0.010" when bolted to rear stub axle between centers

Then I'll roll up two 4 inch wide pieces of 11 ga sheet , then weld it between the wheel halves, weld and balance it, put the rear tires that are on the V-Rod now, they went to my Jeep Comanchee truck which had 8 inch wide wheel

I also finished re-ringing my engine Friday, took ma while to do it, when I bought the rings and gasket set back in November, I went to re-ring it a few months ago and couldn't find the rings (I put stuff in crazy stupid places so I won't forget where I put it) I found the rings 6 weeks ago, so last Wednesday I took I pulled the engine out, took # 1 & 2 cylinder head off, cleaned the pistons, honed the 2 cylinders, all was good

Then I went to get the gasket set so I can finally have a new set of push rod tube seals, that's when the problems started
Still haven't found the NEW gasket set
Did re-used the old ones, AGAIN, this makes 3 times over the last year

On the good side of things, it runs so much better
I hope to get better MPG as well as OPM

Took a few pictures of the 3 & 4 side when I was putting it back together

Then yesterday I finally painted my deck lid black to match the rest of the back










I also put some insulation in front of the engine, it sure does cut down the noise inside the car
It sounds much better with the mega duals on, I think that is because my other header had a nice long split in one of the bends





It's all black in back now


I think the next thing to do is chop the top, drop the seats, and as I mentioned at the beginning, pushing the body back a few inches

Guess I better get the Eldorado's engine put in and running so we have a 2nd car, makes it tough to do a chop top when your driving it every day

[metalmaster1766]

Well I tried the after market oil filter adapter, ended up with problems, I've mentioned it before, the tapped hole where the oil filter itself screws on was out of square with the sealing surface, I tried to face it off but only had a long screw to chuck up in the lathe, it was within 0.015" out when I screwed the filter on until the seal just touched at one point I could push the 0.015" thickness gauge thru the gap, well it blew the seal out after a 100 miles or so

Last weekend I found the oil filter adapter that came as original equipment on my 1988 Chevy S-10 Blazer with the 4.3 V6 engine, the oil lines bolt on the adapter using 1 bolt screwed thru an aluminum block which had about 3/8" sticking out past the block, "O" rings went on the short section, then that got bolted onto the adapter and to the engine as well as an oil cooler (most GM cars have A/C connections similar on the compressor)

Turns out the holes going into the adapter were 9/16", a tap drill for a 3/8" pipe tap is 37/64" (0.578") so I drilled all 4 holes out and tapped them so I can use the hose and fittings I already have, I tapped the holes on the opposite side which are for an oil cooler, I'm just gonna plug them unless I ever have an oil cooling problem, if so then I'll just go buy two 3/8" male pipe thread that is barbed for 3/8" oil line

Tomorrow I hope to make up a crude mount so I can put this thing back on, I just hate running it without a filter, plus this filter adapter also has an oil pressure relief built into it so it should work well during the colder months

Few pictures of the adapter with old filter on, need to clean and de-burr everything so no metal chips get pushed into the engine's oil










Maybe tomorrow evening I can post pictures if I get it mounted, the easiest place to mount it will be right behind the crank shaft pulley, it will be hidden from sight by the deck lid, and maybe I can make a deck lid latch from the oil filter bracket

It looks like my case was new, it's one of the universal type that has the dip stick opening on lower right hand side of the oil sump, I'm gonna try to use the threaded holes that are used for a rear engine mount on the square backs and fast backs

That just seems to be the best place to put it so it won't get hit by rocks and junk getting flung up from the rear tires, that and anyplace else means I'd need to buy more 3/8" hose, and I can't have that


Ron

[metalmaster1766]

Before temporary oil filter mounting bracket was constructed



Mounted with deck lid closed


Very crudely built temporary bracket in need of a gusset or two welded where needed






Here is a windshield wiper arm nut that I tapped to fit the wiper arms on, I made 2 of them but the hood won't open up all the way, so I took them off to get gas, and forgot to put them back on
When I got home only 1 was left, I have about 30 of them, I may cut 1 shorter so the hood will open all the way



Ron

[metalmaster1766]

On Friday I was moving rather slow (sudden weather changes can dampen ones morning every now & then, but I try not to let it stop me all together), didn't get up from the couch until almost 9am, that's late for me, most days I'm out the door before 6am driving my son to work, but this past Friday he had to go to a different place, so he was able to ride with his mother

So I was just moving a few small boxes around in my garage/workshop in hopes of straightening it up, when I ran across the box I put all the letter emblems I keep from cars I've had (I keep almost everything space allows), while going thru them to see what I could come up with by scrambling them to spell anything unusual to put on my V-Rod

I didn't even hafta break all the letters apart to come up with this, just broke the first & last letters off a name emblem from the 93 Cadillac Sedan Deville I traded for the oval windowed baja to get this


I kinda like it, maybe go to a junkyard to see what else I can find to add to it, like maybe "Bug eVill" or "The evill V Rod" or some other catchy name, then start an "evil" theme of some kind, maybe paint a few skulls, spiders, & witches or wizards, then make some evil looking cast aluminum pieces to go along with it

I think I'm gonna like turning down this path insert wicked evill smiley face here ~~>


Ron

[metalmaster1766]

I finally got around to making a different seat fit inside the V-Rod, they were from a 1992 Honda Accord, they are so much more comfy to sit in than the stock VW seats

I didn't need a passengers seat this week, so I did the passengers side so I can have everything cut, welded, and ready to go when I do the drivers seat (tomorrow morning)

They are tan, but I may be able to use the VW seat covers on the Honda seats after some slight altercations, it looks like only the bottom covers will work, I'll need to remove the seat back cover & see if I can alter it to fit the seat backs, but their gonna stay tan for a while

Here is the bottom of the seat


Here it is next to the uncovered VW seat, as you can see the cover may fit on the Honda seats with a bit of altering, not sure about the seat back covers, but I may just make my own seat covers when I decide on material I wanna use


Once I stripped the main part of the VW seat bottoms down to just the frame (so they can be used in most early VW Bugs until 73)


Here it is in the car reclined & upright, I still need to weld the seat bottoms to the sliding VW seat mount





Tomorrow I'll weld & finish the passengers seat, then get the drivers seat out & get it finished

By using the VW seat frame it should be very easy to lower them down when I get around to the top chop, I'll worry about that when the time comes, I just want something more comfortable than worn out VW seats


Ron


My 1966 V8 Bug AKA - The "Bitch~N~Bug http://www.volksrods.com/forum/showt...etalmaster1766

My 1969 V-Rod AKA - (no name yet) http://www.volksrods.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32284

My Web Site
http://metalmaster1766.webs.com/

[metalmaster1766]

I finished both seats, put most of the roll cage in as well, I'm gonna need to modify the rear cage tubes so I have a place to mount the rear bumper/cage to protect the engine

The seat covers are in great shape, I may try something to darken them up a bit, then maybe later I can recover them in blue & black, as well as the door panels















Ron

My 1966 V8 Bug AKA - The "Bitch~N~Bug http://www.volksrods.com/forum/showt...etalmaster1766
My 1969 V-Rod AKA - Fire Bug
http://www.volksrods.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32284
My Web Site
http://metalmaster1766.webs.com/

[metalmaster1766]

Today my brother threw some black paint onto the V-Rod, only painted from the doors back to the rear, I took a few pictures while he was painting it, he finished it in the dark

I guess I'll add a few pictures that I took after he was finished, then tomorrow I'll get more

flames







Black paint








May as well put the rear wheels on, I can finish welding 1 of them, the other runs out to much, so I'll cut a few tack welds, tap it around until it's true, finish weld them & pray they don't leak










Ron

My 1966 V8 Bug AKA - The "Bitch~N~Bug http://www.volksrods.com/forum/showt...etalmaster1766

My 1969 V-Rod AKA - not set on a name yet
http://www.volksrods.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32284

My Web Site
http://metalmaster1766.webs.com/

[metalmaster1766]

So for the past few days (could have been a few weeks) but I finally got my rear wheels painted, put the tires on them, & put them on the V-Rod & have driven it about 100 miles, 30 miles of which were on the high way at about 70 mph, it rides better now, but only because of the wider rear wheel I put on, that's my story & I'm sticking to it

Some pics, I even painted the front wheels to match the rear wheel, that's until I can get a tire for my VW wheels I painted to match the rear wheels

The first two pictures are with the matching wheels which are much smaller than a regular VW tire, I had to drive it for a day until I could put the rear tires put back on the widened wheels, driving it that one day was a drag, literally a drag, every bump I hit it just scraped the ground

OK here are a few pics





With the 8 inch wide wheels on












Ron



My 1966 V8 Bug AKA - The "Bitch~N~Bug http://www.volksrods.com/forum/showt...etalmaster1766

My 1969 V-Rod AKA - not set on a name yet
http://www.volksrods.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32284

My Web Site
http://metalmaster1766.webs.com/

[metalmaster1766]

So, I've been using bungy cords to hold my deck lid & hood closed for a while, I have wanted to use an old leather belt to keep the back end closed, & keep it from bouncing open on the large bumps, then I bought another leather belt yesterday & put it on the hood

Now they stay closed, & look good too














That's about as exciting as it's gonna get for a while, I'm just having to much fun driving the hell out of it
All new ball joints & tie rod ends sure make a difference when you going 85 mph on the highway (been doing a lotta highway driving lately), & that's just to keep up with traffic, I can cruise at 90 & it rides purty smooth
Now all I need are some wider tires up front (widening 2 VW wheels to 6-1/2 inches), since I went back to the original size up front, the tires chirp when braking hard, but it stops really good, when it's wet, you drive very slowly
I hope to buy 2 new rear calipers so I can get the rear disc brake set-up on, it should stop real good then

Ron