I’ve started to mock up the Accusump, Dry-Sump Tank and Oil Cooler. I think I’m going to set the car up with a “summer mount” and a “winter mount” for the oil-cooler. The winter mount will actually double as a heater for the inside of the bug. Packaging space for everything, as always, is a problem. Originally the drysump tank was going to go on the passenger side, but it needs to be sunk into the luggage floor. You can’t do that, as the starter is in the way…so now it goes on the left. Then, since it’s on the left, there is no longer any room for the Oil Cooler under the car…which means moving it into the car. Now the space where the Accusump was going is taken, so the musical chairs continue. Hopefully I don’t get kicked out of the car before everything finds a space!

A little rust on engine bay shelf, but ultimately not bad.

Right-side front quarter...rust FREE. Not a mark, except for some transfer from the rusting bumper mount.

The Left front quarter shows some very minor damage on the front by the apron (there's minor bondo in there), but three of the fender bolt nuts pulled out, which me a little wary for the rest of this side.

There are a couple of odd holes behind the front strut. The lower hole looked like it was punched through and then seam-sealed over, and there's no rust. Very odd. Above this spot, but not visible in the photos, are two rust holes that are coming from the other side. They originate somewhere under the fuel tank (which I haven't pulled yet) so there is a surprise or two needing some attention. The photo on the right, however, shows the lower seam at the rear of the front fender. This is a well known rust spot, and I usually assume a beetle is rusty here. This car has some minor surface rust, which I believe is from me scraping the spot when I went to buy it a month ago!

Moving back, it starts to get worse. The bottom of the heater channel has some holes, and some surface rust. Rust here, though, doesn't start from the outside...it comes from within. One of the running board mounting holes has significant rot around it...but the worst is in the rear. Even if the mid section can be patched, the rear most 8" of the heater channel needs complete replacement. I've asked one of my buddies who builds show-winning and magazine bugs whether or not I should patch or replace the entire heater channel. Other then that, no surprises so far. A bit of bondo in the rear fender, and the underside shows the hammer marks where it was pounded out. Not quite sure what the damage was (it's very odd to damage a fender inboard of the tail lamp but nowhere else)...but no worries, it's fully reusable.

-Dave

Basically, I messed up on the tire machine. Rally car tires are super, super, super stiff. And while I have mounted hundreds on alloy wheels, I’ve only ever mounted one a onto a steel wheel four times before. If you don’t get the bead down enough on an alloy wheel, the machine just stops. On a steel wheel, apparently, it bends the *&$#!!! out of the wheel. Took two of us to eventually get the second bead on, and then my buddy Gord got the rim as round as he could with the hammer. Guess I know which one will be my spare! (sigh)

But you have to put these things behind you…I mean, yes I destroyed a rare wheel, but this is a race car project…quite frankly I’m more then likely to bend all four in the first 100km of an event anyways. Such is life, move on.

-Dave

On the rear I’m ditching the torsion bars and going with a rod-end for the pivot. Currently working with some steel to put them into double-shear, figuring it out as I go along. It has to all fit under the fender and clear the main body, but at the same time be easily removed for swapping out the Rod end. The Audi Rally car taught me that rod-ends are not necessarily a long-life solution to suspension applications! I haven’t yet decided if the second plate will bolt on, or be welded to the first plate for the double-shear. Need to go back to the books and do some reading before I make a decision. The rear shock mounts will get braced with a Kafer-Bar to take the increased load of coil-overs, and that will give me a suspension setup which allows for easy rear-end ride height adjustment. Much easier then rotating torsion bars at least. The downside is losing a relatively simple suspension setup with naturally progressive action.

-Dave

I did also pickup a rather rare addition to the project…details after you click more.

Now this is a nice score. 5.5″ width Sport rim! Rally car tires will fit on it, and the swap meet guy says he’s got another four for me. Seriously big score, I’ve been looking for a set of the 5.5′s close to home for a long while. The new project needs to run on Factory wheels, the reason for which I’ll reveal later.

And now I’m working on how I’m going to fit the oil-sump tank filler. I’d really like to go with a Newton Flush Fill Valve, but have you ever priced one out? Lets put it this way, for the cost of one Newton Flush Fill cap I could buy a bladder’d fuel cell. Don’t need a bladder? Well then that will cost you only half as much as the valve. Geesh, I just want a locking flush mount Apparently the Newton valves will flex slightly for curves, but I’m not 100% sure that I’ve got a flat enough surface.

-Dave

Finally found a suitable donor for the ’71 beetle project. I ended up having to drive over 6 hours south to find a “rust free” version, but I think I’ve done pretty well. Truthfully, I don’t think you can really find a completely rust-free shell, so it will be interesting to see what surprises lie underneath. For the most part, though, this bug is solid and doesn’t show any rust in the usual places.

-Dave

The black paint I laid down earlier was actually semi-gloss black. With the semi-gloss paint dry, I was able to seam seal the bottom of the pan.

And then tonight I laid down a coat of POR15 Silver. It’s brushed on, and silver never looks good when it’s brushed. Lots of track marks, brush marks and uneven silvering…but that’s okay. I originally wanted to have the Pan finished in Silver, everyone does black, but realized with the first strokes that it wasn’t going to work out. The main reason for the silver, though, was to ensure I get a full coat on everything. I started with bare metal, painted black and then went over the pan with a trouble light the next night. Any silver showed where I had missed with the black and I could touch up. Now that the pan is silver again, it’s the same process tomorrow night…but this time looking for black areas. Once I’m convinced I’ve got a full two coats on the pan, I’ll finish up with a third. I think I’m going to go Gloss Black. Three coats of POR15 should be damned near bulletproof.

-Dave

Well, truthfully I didn’t really have a plan for how to get around it, and probably started cutting with the angle grinder far earlier then I should have. But sometimes you get lucky, or I’m just improving. It took me one big cut and two fine adjustments to get it to where I was happy.

It’s not perfect, but only because I had to leave a little bit of the crunched sheet metal on my pan in order to keep the mounting nut. As far as the front suspension should be concerned though, it’s all lined up. Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends. Normally I use POR15 for projects like this, but a number of factors had me switch to Zero Rust for this pan. Brush marks with POR15 disappear and it dries with a hard glossy shine. Zero rust, it would seem, dries in a semi gloss, and with the worst brush marks I’ve ever seen. I only did the top of the frame head and rear suspension mounts, but I’m gutted. All that work for it to look like this:

Once the car is together no one is going to see this stuff…but it’s going to be a long while before that happens. With the hours I have in so far, it sucks to have it finish like this.

…a few hours pass…

And here is the pan with a coat of POR15 over top. Much happier with the results.

-Dave

Grinding and Sandblasting on the spine are now complete. I’ve started welding up the various holes and spots that require attention, but in doing so discovered a more significant problem. I knew the tow-hook area was rough when I started on the pan, but blasting and grinding revealed that the problem is deeper then I first thought. To the right of the tow hook you can see two nut inserts, with a channel between them. For non Super people, those nut inserts are for the sway-bar brace, the channel for the sway bar. Simply patching the holes isn’t enough, not to mention the channel should look straight. I’ll need to source a second frame head to repair this section, or replace it with new sheetmetal. In the meantime, though, I couldn’t resist doing some test fitting…

…and then after hours of wire wheeling, grinding, cutting and trimming, I have the pan halves ready for welding.

-Dave