tablescraps build

[nshaddox]

its been a long time since I've had the time to work on anything of substance worthy of contribution to this forum. with that said, I now feel I can share my latest build which I've held out on posting anything about since I thought of it 5 yrs ago cuz I didn't want any of you punks to beat me to the chase. I took a sabbatical leave from work just to focus on this project, so I can promise relatively frequent updates.

I call it tablescraps because it basically started when I was looking at the mountain of leftover parts in my backyard down in tx 5 years ago. and I thought, "huh, it would be kind of neat to build a bubble top car using vw fenders to make a donut shaped body; I bet spring plates would look cool popping out of headlight buckets." its mostly a 1960 bug . . . mostly.

I shortened the pan about a foot, right where the shifter was. rear torsion housing raised 6-8 inches I think. no pictures of this phase-I started 5 yrs ago and have lost several phones/computers since then. project went on hold when I moved up to Detroit for work 4.5 yrs ago. in that time I continually sketch it out like crazy person. here are some of the better sketches (sorry about orientation, I only have a tablet to do internet things with and get too frustrated with it to bother with image editing) and pictures of where I'm at with the build.







as I said before, the plan is to go with a Plexiglas bubble top. did some research on how to do that a few years ago but of course I have no idea how any of this is going to work out. I just hope it is drivable when im done-this thing is pretty tiny, the pan fit inside a crown vic wagon I drove up from tx a few years back. top of the bubble will probably be about waist tall. aiming for spring 2016 project 'completion.'

hope everyone enjoys the build. more pics on thesamba gallery under my username.
neil

[Unkl Ian]

Fritz used domed skylights on his bubble tops.

[Jon]

Or you could blow a bubble.
Its involved but not impossible.
You will need to build a heater of sorts, it will be like a box with coiled heater elements.
The Lexan you use will need to build a frame that the heater fits over and is plumbed so you could pressurize it with air once the plastic is heated.
The amount of pressure will determine the height of the bubble....

[crack monkey]

Cool project! Ian Rousseau from full custom garage talks about bubbles. Look up the episode on packards. He blows the tail lights and shows some other car he did a full top on. There is also an episode where he works on some motorcycles and does the windscreen.

[nshaddox]

Yep. Planning on blowing my own bubble. Sounds weird to say. Did some research on it a while back and pretty sure I saved the links somewhere. The general concept didn't seem so hard though.

In the last week I've gotten both 'heater channels' built, bolted to the chassis onto some weld nuts I machines 5yrs ago but just installed. Welded up front trans mount, built shifter stand due to massive trans raise, started shift rod mock up. And modified firewall kick panel a bit and got cowl more or less where I think it should go. Also been playing with an English wheel to try to get it to do what I want. Working on a teardrop tail light housing for the stop light. And just trying to get familiar with the wheel so I can start building body panels. Tricky since everything is only loosely figured out in my head. Still cool how it all seems to be going together like it was supposed to be built this way. I'd like to think that when it's done people might look at it and think someone bought a bug project in pieces and just didn't do a good job of following the assembly instructions. Trying to make stuff look almost factory.

Built the transmission up before my last cross country bicycle ride to tx. Engine was rebuilt when I started the project 5 yrs ago but might have to make some custom tins.

[Unkl Ian]

Originally Posted by crack monkey

Cool project! Ian Rousseau from full custom garage talks about bubbles. Look up the episode on packards. He blows the tail lights and shows some other car he did a full top on. There is also an episode where he works on some motorcycles and does the windscreen.

He is building a bubbletop car right now.

[jaransonT3]

I love the concept Neil! Very original. I see a Type 3 motor in one of the sketches. Is that the plan? Hanging off the back?

[nshaddox]

Yes the plan is type 3 style cooling. Wanted to go pancake style since the motor is going to be so high up. Also thought it would look nice to have a centered spinning fan be the view from the rear. Might doctor the cylinder head tins for a bit more symmetry since motor is going to be exposed, or at least that is the plan right now.

[V8Transporter]

Just when I thought Volksrods were beginning to look pretty similar...WOW!

[crack monkey]

You should do some crazy velocity stack coming off the carbs. I made some for my Kadrons out of exhaust tubing and they came out of the deck lid of my old car

[Unkl Ian]

Anyone have a link ?
Yes, I searched.

[nshaddox]

Yea I was contemplating tall velocity stacks and some weirdo straight pipes. But I want to drive this car a lot when it's done so might have to think about that some more.

Carbs and disc brakes came in yesterday but I haven't even had time to open the box yet. Goal is to finish the tail light housing today. Hopefully will have some pictures later.

[JiI]

I saw these pics on the samba and was like, WTH???
Jeff

[alykat]

Not only outside of the box, but pretty much outside of the building ! Really like where this is headed.

[nshaddox]

Started mocking up carbs and engine tin work to see where things need some modification. Also finished up tail light housing but need to do some more finish body work before I post up pictures. Not 100% happy with it right now so might come back to it later. Pictures tomorrow.

[Unkl Ian]

Originally Posted by Unkl Ian

Anyone have a link ?
Yes, I searched.

[crack monkey]

Link for what Ian?

[Unkl Ian]

Originally Posted by nshaddox

more pics on thesamba gallery under my username.
neil

^^^^

[SCOTTRODS]

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/alb...&sort_dir=DESC

[Unkl Ian]

Originally Posted by SCOTTRODS

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/alb...&sort_dir=DESC

Thank You.

[nshaddox]

here is the build up of the tail light housing. I found this stop light on an old wrecker in a junkyard north of Duluth. its way bigger than most of the ones you come across so im gonna try to rig it up to be the taillight and brake light.

it will be mounted somewhere over the engine/trans along the centerline, but not sure exactly where yet-will have to see once body starts coming together.


started smashing metal on old stumpy, my tree stump shaping device.


all smoothed out on English wheel (still figuring that thing out) and with stop light in place just for motivation.


couple days later, several more steps.


from the outside for an idea of scale and overall shape


with stop light original housing snuggly in place. not sure how to fasten these together. maybe screws. don't really want to weld it because that would make future body work way harder. but screws might look dumb?


and mostly done, for now.

gotta take a food break now and then head back outside to work on this pos car.

[jaransonT3]

Nice work Neil.

Just weld a couple three L-brackets to the inside of the bucket and then mount the tail lamp housing to them with screws through the backside of the housing. Easy Peasy.

[nshaddox]

oh that's a good idea. got some attempt at a wood buck built up for the drivers side today after finishing the tail light thing. then started playing with the front fender/ lower body panel. pretty amazing what English wheels can do. think I might try to form the scallop/new fender well tomorrow.

[metalmaster1766]

Definitely outside the box on this build

Nice work, love the stop lights



Ron

[JiI]

Put some superbright LEDs inside of it!!!!!!! I have some on the back of my bike and I can see them reflecting off the front of a semi 100 feet back in my rear view mirror and they are tiny! Put big ones in!!!!!
Jeff