'70 Beetle Volks-Rod (lots of pix, long d/l!!)

Freq2002 · Post by **Freq2002** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 11:16 pm

Have the wiring routed to all the instruments now & mounted the speed sensor to my CV joint, just need to epoxy the magnets on since I dont trust the zip ties. Get this pig on the road & calibrate the speedo & life will be good.

Here's a pic of the dash cluster with the power on:

Shot at night:

Last week I got off my arse & built up a frame & mounted my fuel tank properly. I've decided to mount the fuse block inside the trunk, still have a ways to go with wiring yet so i dont have the bundles all tight & clamped down, will probably use plastic conduit to clean it up once I'm done. Playing with the idea of mounting the Amp up front in that big empty spot, but will more likely have a utility/tool box hard mounted there.

Have discovered that my MityMite arc welder isn't such a piece of poo when I can SEE what I'm doing & use both hands to weld,... That auto darkening helmet is definately worth the money!!!

Not sold on it yet, but I'm toying with the idea of removing the hinges altogether & holding the hood on with 3 pins and having a access door over the fuel filler cap. Probably will do that, will make it MUCH easier to make cover panels up there when I get to the finishing phase.

Freq2002 · Post by **Freq2002** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 5:30 am

Gonna end up redoing the center console. Turns out the guages, while perfect look for my setup, are total crap. Typical ricer products,... Shoulda, woulda, coulda,...
Oh well, live & learn.

Replaced cheesy air horns w. 135 Db. duals. They were working when they wanted to, dont wanna give the police around here anything to hit me on if they feel like testing my knowledge of the vehicle code. Thing is louder than my truck now, scared me when I tested em.

Mounted a spotlight on the drivers side A pillar, but went one better than the common teardrop lights. Found a dual head that has a red flasher on one side & spot on the other. Kinda neat, def. different.

replaced the stock shifter with a bus shifter. Since the bus had a bent stick with a guide pin in the coupler & the beetle just has a flush coupler, it likes to swing around on me. Makes shifting interesting, but the skull knob is up at the level of the main guages now. Not hittin the console in 1st & 3rd anymore is nice.
I messed with my wife once at a stoplight, swung the shifter to her, popped the wheel off, handed it to her & told her to drive, I was tired. She bout freaked out. lol

That lil issue will be fixed when I redo the front end. Gonna replace the rod bushings anyway, so when I pull the rod out I'll cut a groove in the coupler.

Currently lookin for someplace I can store & work on the car for the winter. Gonna tear down the entire front axle & have all of it powdercoated. get the new 4link mounts made up & mounted as well.
Strip the pan bare & see what we can do about that cancer, I'm thinkin aluminum diamond plate, have to see tho, I change my mind alot.
Get that stuff out of the way & then it's onto the rollcage & rear metalwork.

Engine is still on back burner, altho I will be pullin it apart to eyeball the new cam & get the jugs turned down for compression. The engine will be the last part I go crazy on, need to get the rest of the car strong enuf to handle power before i drop a monster in there.

Will keep up on updates & pics to come. Gettin ready to transfer em to my photobucket account. Starphoto is too messed up 90% of the time to get anything done.

racelook · Post by **racelook** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 1:01 pm

Freq2002 wrote:Gonna end up redoing the center console. Turns out the guages, while perfect look for my setup, are total crap. Typical ricer products,... Shoulda, woulda, coulda,...
Oh well, live & learn.

Which mark of gauges did you use?? Because i'm maybe buying gauges from america (not autometer)

Grt Wiebrand

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 2:24 am

Company marketing them is called Megan Racing. I got them thru an Ebay seller.

Nice look for what I wanted, only non LED blackouts that I could find, but just goes to show, pay once, buy right. Will be most likely be putting in some by Nordskog to match my tach/speedo.

look on www.summitracing.com, they have a decent selection of guages at reasonable prices.

racelook · Post by **racelook** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 8:34 am

Ahaa.. The clocks from AC-Autotechnic http://www.acautotechnic.com/achome.html are the onez that I want to buy.

Hopefully they're good.

Greetings Wiebrand

Freq2002 · Post by **Freq2002** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 2:58 pm

Took a couple shots today while the light was good. Needed to run it before I put the cover back on anyway.

Closer shot of front 1/4 fillers. I dont have access to an english wheel, or I would have tried to get closer to the curve of the body, so now i have that shadow where the angle changes a bit. Still pretty close, & I like the way the upper drag links blend into the side.

Replaced cheesy air horns w. 135 Db. duals. Thing is louder than my truck now, MUCH louder,... Still need to make some braces for the filler panels & add a lip on top to prevent rattling & give a solid mount for the hood.
The "Lone Wolf" plaque got some attention from the local club at the drive in last time I went. That was the point tho.

Mounted a dual head spotlight on the drivers side A pillar
replaced the stock shifter with a bus shifter, moved it way up & back. Diggin it too. Bus shifter in a bug needs a spacer anyway, so it shortened the throw alot.

Freq2002 · Post by **Freq2002** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 5:51 pm

Currently have the bomber on blocks. Front axle broken down to parade rest, ready to got the powder coaters Monday. Got PAID dammit! Heading to Home Depot to pick up a MIG & then it's to work on the rear body panels & my roll cage. Might even put in the replacement floor panels while I'm at it.

At work today had jack goin on so I designed, laid out, & cut these nifty decals for the car out of black reflective tape. Did it all by hand, time consuming to say the least.

Yep, your tax dollars hardly at work!

Should be getting the front axle back by next weekend & will post pix of the newly refinished product.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 5:04 pm

just saw your setup. Great work! Love the reflecto tape.

Freq2002 · Post by **Freq2002** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 2:55 pm

Newly powder coated axle assy is in, just took it in for alignment yesterday. All 4 corners are tight & when I eyeballed the camber on installation I hit it dead on. Scary concept!

Made a lower mount for the steering column, no more slop there, & adjusted the Mustang box. Much better feel, but still a tiiiiny bit more slop than I like. Easy to fix tho.

Removed the crap guages from Megan Racing & installed a set of Nordskog digitals. Look awesome, match my tach/speedo set, & best of all, they frikkin WORK! Damn ricer crap products anyway,...

Pix to come, has been too dark by the time I finish every day & I'm off to work.

Freq2002 · Post by **Freq2002** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 12:26 am

OK, so I FINALY got a couple shots.

Here's the finish on the axle. Did the axle, tie rods, spindles, caliper brackets & drag links in a grey hammertone. I love the color 7 the finish is fantastic. you can sort of see what I had before on the headlight bar. Lighter grey/silver hammertone paint that is WAY too easy to damage & not as "rust resistant" as they claimed seeing as it rusted thru the paint even tho I started with clean bare metal.

Shot of the new dash cluster powered up with the engine running. Dont have a sensor mounted yet, but the center guage is the oil temp. Oil press on the left, volts on the right. All of the guages have recall functions as well. Oil temp & volts have hi limit recall & the press guage gives hi & lo recall.
& of course my bus shifter & knob is easy to see, it's actualy easy to shift, just need to mill a guide pin slot on the shifter shaft so it wont swing around.

Not satisfied with the whole setup, gonna redo the center console so it's a bit narrower & still want a closable cover for the stereo face. But for now it does the job, time to get to work on the rear body work!

stock60 · Post by **stock60** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 10:05 pm

haha how do you idle at exactly 900 rpm?

i'm impressed

Freq2002 · Post by **Freq2002** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 12:22 am

Pure skill man, puuuuure skill!

Actualy it only reads by the 100 mark, & the engine was cold so I was holding it high. Usualy bumps along at 6-700.
Good for general engine monitoring, but I still use my trusty Craftsman analog engine analyzer for tuning.

Freq2002 · Post by **Freq2002** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 3:14 am

Went to Cruisin the Harbor show here in Oak Harbor on the 6th. Was a decent day, we enjoyed it, & the rain even held off till the tail end of the awards ceremony.

I had a good shot at the under const class, but the ladies in registration accidently gave me number 1106 instead of 1606. Someone noticed & told me, but it was a couple hours into the show so everyone that I saw voting for my car actualy voted for this Ford Bronco in the stock trucks class. Ah well. lol
Still had a good day & the turn out was awesome with clubs from as far as 85 miles makin the trip in the nasty windy cold to be here. The entire street was filled up & most of the merchants were open & gettin great business. The best was after the ceremony when the whole street was emptying out, bein in that line of cars streaming down the main drag,... It was an awesome sight, even better from inside!

I'll link the pics when the local club posts them (I forgot my camera, sue me!)

Next show in June, hope to have more metal work done!

zeroaxe · Post by **zeroaxe** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 6:15 am

Freq2002,

Nice work there! Love the look and creativity. I would like to ask you a favour. I really like that decal of yours. Mind if I put it to use here in France? Cheers!

Freq2002 · Post by **Freq2002** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 12:24 am

Shot of the display board I tossed together last week. Had the decal I made, the generic info & name, & the dash plaques from the events I've been in so far.

Zeroaxe> thanks for the compliment, & sure you can use it.