rickosuave1987 wrote:I thought Fuser was your...oh nevermind...
Engine cage-
Do you know what kind? Firewall or shock mount?
It is fairly simple if you have all the parts.
Hah no worries, friends got confused for a long time too, we're just very close. He's like a really weird brother? As in weird brother relationship and he is just weird. =)
I have no idea! If this is stuff in Baja Bugs and Buggies, then I can answer that...and that's a no. So if I understand what you're asking, I'd say firewall. I don't know what shock mount would mean exactly. The engine cage we are building will be temporary, how temporary, I don't know, but sturdy enough to prevent my engine from harm if I get bumped, and sturdy enough to last for a few months (till fusername buys/builds a pipe bender and we can make a real one?, or i can afford to buy and ship one).
*edit* thanks for the pics. I'm assuming firewall would be simpler, and I assume the shock mount attaches to the shocks, but since I don't understand how that would work (searching it now), we'll stick with firewall.
*edit again* I don't know why Fusername thinks I'll be able to make an engine cage without knowing the engine (no, it's not together yet, I don't even know what it needs at this point, he says he's taking care of it). Graaahhh I'll kill that kid, I finally don't owe him money for parts or gas.
you'll owe me soon enough! need cash for a cam and some bearings to get started on your lower end... I'm gonna be tacktfull and not continue that comment in a public forum cause im just that kinda guy. oh and i want my jugs back, Might need to give those to the guy who is honeing out his set of used cylinders, its a weird situation which ends out w/ your bug not using the set you have. just fyi, not too important. also good news is that the cam we're gonna use is a 2.1 grind on a stock bug cam, which apparently is just a tad milder than an engle 110 or so i understand.
now for engine cage, im working on a bender, as you folks know, so we're just gonna cobble somehting together from the scrap steel i have been collecting, old work benches, exercise bikes, etc. That way it will be road worthy and not be tottaly exposed. that way we can get it on the road and work out any bugs that turn up once it starts moving at speed. by the time we have the car in better shape, mid summer, we will just cut that off and build a real sexy cage w/ the bender out of 1 1/2 tube.
i figure firewall mount will be easiest to cut off later. Where do you guys usually mount it? just to thick plate welded randomly to the firewall? or are there places that are reinforced on the other side?
*I* want to build a bare bones cage for this thing in the future, but thats a ways off. however is there anything that should be kept in mind while setting up the engine cage, ie how it may tie into a future roll cage? I've just never been really clear on how all that works
give a man a watch and he'll allways know what time it is. give him two and he can never be sure again.
Things are rarely just crazy enough to work, but they're frequently just crazy enough to fail hilariously.
The way it sounds, just make it as safe as possible and when you build it out of the right material then you can get everything the way it should be tied in together front to back.
Was hoping to get away with some quick fiberglass reinforcements this week, but something I read said it should be at least 60F in my "workspace" (aka. front half of the garage and driveway) for the resin to set well (it's about 40F). Too much trouble to empty out part of the garage and turn on a space heater, would need to have it that way for a day or so and that's just not possible with the space available to me. Also, I wish I knew where to look for good fiberglass repair instructions...I need to repair cracks, not holes, and I'm not sure how to adapt the instructions appropriately to do this. The cracks are on the edges of the fenders, usually perpendicular to the edge, if it's not just chipped away on the edge. None of the instructions I've found online are very clear about how to apply or use the resin. I'm not sure if I should put some in a separate container (I have a 1 gallon container of it), and I can't really can't tell what tools to use! Frustrating. Still looking. Nudges in the right direction are appreciated.
Trying to figure out ways to fix my warped hood. It either wasn't cut well, or is just warped. So we're going to try and come up with something using a threaded rod on the underside, going across the hood (not along) to reinforce or shape it appropriately. Or I have enough fiberglass to just make a new one. That is just too much, but it is a route we could take.
Going to get bowden tube in a bit, put that in, hopefully get the clutch cable in. We had a fiasco with the new cable, it got stuck in that center channel on the floor pan. Who knows what on. After a lot of maneuvering and no success, we cut it and are using the old one. I'll buy a spare soon. Pedal assembly should go back in today.
Patch panel is mostly welded in place below battery tray/rear passenger foot area. Will sanding down and fiberglassing that area (inside the car) work to reinforce the patch? From what I've read, this is a stupid idea (wish I hadn't bought so much fiberglass), nuts and bolts are required to keep steel and fiberglass together.
Pictures later, maybe not till I'm back at school Saturday night though.
Mkay, pictures tonight, my camera is having issues, so let's hope I can upload them (dropped it outside and the batteries flew out...but I've dropped it enough that that means it's okay, right? hah).
Things we got done this week:
-thought about how to fix the hood
-talked about engine stuff briefly, I need to save up for cylinder heads, next paycheck should do it if I don't spend much on this one. And maybe a road trip to see my favorite band in NJ to make up for such responsible use of money...
-new bowden tube on
-clutch cable attached to pedal assembly (finally! kept slipping off the hook and we were very frustrated, couldn't figure out how to use the zipties to help)
-brakes & accelerator cable hooked up to pedal assembly thus...
-pedal assembly installed! that was pretty exciting
-steering wheel back on because we don't need to stick our heads down under the dash anymore
-homemade floor panel under battery tray is installed very securely and we are all very happy with it. the welding machine behaved long enough to get some really good welds in, which was very exciting also
-a patch or two on the back near the bottom corners of the rear window were welded in, welds ground down and painted
-Bought a new tarp, which isn't on the car and it's raining which is important because...
-fusername is a demi-god and got the hood to sit straight WHO KNOWS HOW. it's pretty awesome. just needs some adjustments so it STAYS THAT WAY. hope it will stay still for a few more weeks until I can come home again and drill more holes to make it work. The hood kind of sits off the car at the top, which is good because it doesn't get caught on anything anymore, but a little weird, also lots of water will probably get in that way. Thus need for tarp.
-I read up on some fiberglass repair, cracks can be ground down and filled with resin and sanded. Woohoo. Will have to wait for warmer weather. In the meantime, I will keep the fiberglass and resin in the basement, since there really is no practical room in the garage
-I don't really have any exciting pictures. A few pictures of my dad working on his biodiesel, if anyone is interested, I'll leave links for that (just some pictures of soda bottles with the biodiesel in a couple stages).
-Oh yeah! We put the horn in a new place (behind front driver's fender), attached that, and my boy and fusername labelled all the rear wiring. Some was tested, but my battery ran out of juice and we didn't have fusername's charger. So wiring will be that much easier when we get to it.
So the driver's seat can go back in now, I need to buy some of the plastic feet for the seats so they don't eat up the seat tracks though. Want to buy something else with that, so it's not a teeny order, but I can't think of anything else...
Maybe next summer we can take the body off and give the passenger's side a full new floor pan. It really needs it. As we ground and banged, more holes appeared, but fortunately they're all below the passenger's seat, so it's not exactly a structurally important part =P
Probably getting tired of me by now, some pictures...
^That is my boy. =P
Trying to make the hood more secure, we took these out.
I tried to get a straight shot of the hood (before fusername made it awesome), to show the crookedness, didn't really work, but I guess you can see on the little white marks where the hood latches were.
Where the hood was getting stuck when we tried to open it.
Yay it's all in!
Unflattering picture of my dad with the biodiesel (for his Jetta)
Looking great nice to see your son helping out too.
Hot, humid air is less dense than cooler, drier air. This can allow a golf ball to fly through the air with greater ease, as there won't be as much resistance on the ball.
Leatherneck wrote:You have a great bunch of people helping you out on your Baja, good to see it.
That I do! Fusername has his acquired knowledge from who knows where, as well as the internet, trial and error, and his bosses. Duk (my boyfriend) is willing to try anything (burned a lovely hole trying to weld a patch, not structurally important, plus he had fun so I don't mind) and keep me motivated. My dad has his VW experiences, starting with his own "keep the bug running" cars when he was my age, to "keep the Karman Ghia running" car, to playing with a biodiesel Jetta. So he's got some good "expertise", and generally likes to poke around, he's an engineer. =) And my sister keeps us fortified with hot tea and delicious desserts.
Skidmark wrote:No gloves when welding, but gloves when using the cutting wheel... Hmmmm....
C'mon, you know us old guys would chime in and point out the safety violations!!
I aint saying nothin.
Hot, humid air is less dense than cooler, drier air. This can allow a golf ball to fly through the air with greater ease, as there won't be as much resistance on the ball.
Skidmark wrote:No gloves when welding, but gloves when using the cutting wheel... Hmmmm....
C'mon, you know us old guys would chime in and point out the safety violations!!
Hahah oh dear, I didn't even notice, and I usually flip over the safety stuff 'cause my dad gets frustrated when he sees something "dangerous". Or dangerous. Like keeping the cords unplugged after we're done 'cause the garage floods a little in the back near the outlet.
