I decided to have a little fun, and installed Dzus quick release fasteners for the front apron. This isn't super necessary, but might make working on the front end and under the hood a little easier. Doing the same on the rear will really be nice when pulling the engine.
I cut some of the spare tire well out, just to make this project easier. I plan on cutting most of it out later, but want to wait until I'm building the cage before I get over enthusiastic with the cutting wheel.
The rear quarter hasn't arrived yet, so I'm going to dink around on some more fun stuff in the meantime.
Last edited by ChadH on Sat Aug 05, 2017 8:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
Been on a deadline at work, so not a ton of stuff since last week. I installed hood pins. In hindsight, the factory hinges didn't weigh a lot, and this makes removing the hood a big PITA. They look cool though.
I also welded up the windshield wiper and squirter holes...still need to sand down the filler. i removed the rubber seal sheet-metal around the entire hood area. There was a lot of surface rust living below the strip. I'm not how people doing a "real" restoration live knowing that rust is there.
Last..Mid America Motoworks is letting me down. I ordered the rear quarter 2-weeks ago. They sent a verification of my order, but haven't shipped the part or charged me for it yet. I have an email in to find out if it's on back-order..or what. I have the feeling I'll be ordering from someplace else shortly. Any leads on a good source for the full quarter panel (up to the window) would be appreciated.
Last edited by ChadH on Sat Aug 05, 2017 8:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
Well, the panel is on a slow boat from China (literally). It's expected in around Christmas. Fortunately, I'm in no big hurry for it. There's plenty of other stuff to work on in the meantime.
Had my kid help make a ghetto temporary strut bar.
Then I proceeded to hack out the entire front end
I'm starting think about a cage and tying this all back together. I have a decent tube bender for 1.5" tube. I've done one cage before, and found that bending the two main hoops is really the hardest part to get right..the rest is mostly straight tube, or bends that don't have to be as precise. I'm sort of thinking about getting a Class 11 cage to get me off to a good start...but then again, they're kind of expensive just to save some frustration on the main bends. Hmmm.
Last edited by ChadH on Sat Aug 05, 2017 8:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
Awesome links!! I'll need to spend some time looking through them after work today. I was planing a 5-gal cell between the strut towers, just like the picture above. Rules require the fuel tank (even if it's a metal cell) has to be separated from the driver by a metal bulkhead, so the rear bench (baja style) isn't do-able. It wouldn't be a good place for weight distribution anyway.
Edit:
On the battery, I was thinking the passenger foot well. This will have a passenger seat though, so I'll have to be sure there's some room for feet. Smack in middle of the front sway bar supports, on top of the frame horns maybe seems like a good place, but in a previous post, someone mentioned a more central location is better for polar moment of inertia.
Some slightly related pondering. I drove a fellow autocrosser's newly acquired 914, with old (hard) race tires, while setting up last weeks autocross course. I wasn't used to the car, but it gave me very little warning before I spun it at least 360-degrees. Sooo...maybe hanging the battery on my car as far forward as possible might help. I don't know.
The center of gravity on supers near the floor, just behind the front two seats. I wouldn't move the battery. I spent a lot of time and effort on my bug moving everything as close to the CoG as possible. I mounted the fuel cell as far back as I could in the trunk, moved the electric fuel pump to the rear (just above the trans.), mounted the electronics for the ignition near the floor on the drivers' side, replaced the front door glass with lexan, etc.
My car wound up being very neutral and very predictable. The weight distribution was 46F/54R. I've driven other cars like you described--very little warning before things start oversteering.
Definitely consider spending the extra few bucks to get lighter battery though. That's 50lbs. you'd be lugging around which could be dieted down to half of that at least.
I had my car weighed with scales under each wheel when I had it dyno'ed. Further down the road in your project, do you know a local club member with scales like that you could borrow?
I wish I had access to them for 1/2 day to dial in the alignment settings on my bug.
Yes, our club has scales that a member can borrow. Murphy's law says they'll be MIA when I want to borrow them. I'm sure If I ask around, there's someone with alignment tools, I can use too. It's too bad, one of our members had a shop, and he catered to racers needing specialized alignments. He closed up shop, but is still in the club. I might be able to recruit some help from him when the time comes.
The SB's stock battery position is okay, and we've even moved some Ghia batteries from the engine compartment to the stock Bug position. It does get them within the wheelbase.
Being old school, I favor the battery in the nose (356 and 911 style) or foot well (Spyder and 904 style), but I understand Jade's concept of clustering weight near the CG. It seems to me that (with complementary suspension compliance) would give you some excellent pivot and toss-around abilities.
In our serious slalom days (going for the championships and we took three out of four) we made an official FIA looking metal fuel cell can concealing a six-gallon marine plastic gas tank. We painted it red and no one ever questioned it!
