I don't have a witty name for this yet...

[Brass Munky]

So, some of you may have seen my thread about my Barn find 59 Beetle, and a ton of other goodies. Now that my Uni exams are over and done with (Forever too! Thank god!) I can start to concentrate on my Vee Dubs.

Might as well start from the beginning...

Upon arrival to finalise the deal and start collecting my new toys...

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/54695.jpg

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/54694.jpg

Engine

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/54696.jpg

At home finally...

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/57108.jpg

Interior

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/54697.jpg

My two Big Window Semaphore Beetles...

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/54700.jpg

So, now that it was all home, i started to concentrate on Uni, but, i have a short attention span to boring things, so i was always trawling and talking to people about the Beetle. Some deals were made, some parts exchanged and I now owned a set of BRM's, 15x5.5 and 15x4.5... Perfect...

Watching the Aussie dollar had me browsing CIP and a few other sites, late last week, order placed for me and a couple of mates, and this morning a knock at the door and 3 boxes of goodies arrived!

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/57111.jpg

Drop Spindles (with provisions for Disc brakes if I go that route...)

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/57112.jpg

In the box, Chrome T-bars, billet roller pedals, gas burners (for my mates square), Full beading kit in black, plus a roll of white...

After unpacking it all in the Kitchen, i grabbed the T bars and threw them on the Beetle...

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/57113.jpg

Now for the overall grand plan!

I was intending to build a car, that was Tough to look at, with a mean stance, clean lines, and my own twist on everything. A lot of show, with a little extra poke, but nothing over the top. A mild 1600 Twin port, with a small hair dryer sounded ideal. I loved the concept behind the "Black Bart" beetle that KCW built, but i wanted something with good paint this time.

Then I spotted this for sale...

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~robert.king5/supercharger.jpg

And im a sucker for doing things a bit different to everyone else. So now i have a small supercharger coming, and some nice engineering and stuff to do to get it to all work! Lucky I have some friends who are well versed in forced induction on a range of engines and configurations, so it shouldnt be too much of an ordeal.

This month, hopefully ill get a Narrowed and adjustable beam into it, and over Christmas, some adjustable spring plates. If it all goes to plan it should be sweet for a drive to Portland in February, and a lick of paint around then too :)

[joeschmo_57]

awesome. I always wanted a Kombi (Samba) but prices are getting stupid for even a rusted split screen. So now i want to get into beetles. Have you considered the EJ option?

[Brass Munky]

Yeah, the EJ option is easy, but no where near as fun, and im a Diehard aircooled fan. Can have a motor out in 20 minutes, a new one built in under two hours, and running again in less than 3 all up!

I'd love a Kombi, but as you said, prices are too high these days, i never really wanted a split, always wanted a Lowlight Baywindow, single cab or panel van, at worst, a bus, but hey, in due time ill get one... I always said i wouldnt own a Beetle unless it was an Early one, and now i have two 59's haha

[joeschmo_57]

Sheesh. To do that in under 3hrs, you must know your way around these lawnmower engines if you can do it in that space of time!

Yeah, dream was to EJ a baywindow then cruise the roads of Aus. There is (not sure if it is stll around) a place in Adelaide that does a drive in drive out conversion for bay window kombis for about 10k?

[bryan3976]

hahah i love thse things kepp us updated


you wana be different

[img]http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/jetBeetle2.jpg[img\]

[spiderman]

http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/jetBeetle2.jpg

Fixed :P

Should be cool mate :)

[Brass Munky]

So... The car didnt make it to the show last month, due to a number of things... But the car as it sits with 2.5inch narrowed front suspension, disc brake front end, dropped spindles, now looks like this...

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/59385.jpg

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/59386.jpg

Hiding in the shed...

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/59387.jpg

Test fitted some narrow front rubber...

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/59388.jpg

And the new wheels

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/59389.jpg

The car is still a good 3 inches higher than what i asked for when i sent it in to be lowered, but that can be rectified next month. The disc brakes wernt meant to go on until late next year, but a few fuck ups and they are on now, so the car has 4x130 stud pattern on the front, and 5x205 on the rear till i get new front brakes for it. Im also getting new springplates for the rear, notched and adjustable so it can go from super low, to close to standard with ease.

Also scored some more wide wheels for the rear, and did a swap for some wide rubber too.

Maybe next month ill get one of my cars on the road... we'll see what happens...

[Brass Munky]

I have no idea if you guys are still interested in this, but an update...

Engine strip time late one night, on a side note, empty Kegs work well as engine stands when your up shit creek for a work surface!

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/62157.jpg

Dirrrrrrty

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/62158.jpg

A trailer full of engines and gearbox's ready to part ways and get stripped. the engine closest to the rear of the trailer in this pic gave me some nice surprises when I started to strip it, an intake port FULL of spider eggs and a very un happy mother!

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/62159.jpg


Following on from this... Two engines are now completely in pieces, with two more to dismantle. Anything stock and useless has been thrown out (Cam, exhaust etc), while anything that we can still use for the new motor, and as spares for any of our cars will be kept. At the moment there are 5 or more complete engines on the shelves at the workshop, with the two more i have to take apart, we wont be short on good stuff for the new build.

Shitty phone cam shot (excuse those ones, i hate handling my DSLR with grease caked hands!) with the block almost split in two (Its meant to ;) )

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/62160.jpg

Ill get a shot of the engines completely dismantled next time im at the workshop.

The new engine has been decided on, and I should be ordering everything tomorrow, if it all goes to plan (Fingers crossed, its been a shitty start to the year so far!) it will run by the 17th of feb at the latest. Given that we will be assembling it all ourselves, theres no labour charges, thank god!

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/62161.jpg

Front tyres are going to be 145 wide, while rears are 195 wide, just have to decide on which 145s im going to run... More ground clearance, or more clearance in the guards to stop me bashing headlight buckets and shit!

[JDMWheels]

Awesome Bettle - I'd love to hear more about how you discovered it in a barn ?

Keep it up Man :)

[Pidgey]

Awesome work dude!
I've loved these things for ages, so many good memories haha.

[joeschmo_57]

spiders and bugs are synonymous for a reason.

[Plelz]

Hey man nice beetle. Im doing up a 69 squareback. Its inspiring to see someone else who has time for aircooled oil stain-leaving goodness. Looking forward to seeing how this ends up.

[bg89]

Great project dude. I come from a VW obsessed family (hence owning a mk2 gti) my old man has a clean original 56 oval, a rat 74' bay window single cab sporting an EJ22, an 89 T25 Syncro/camper with an EJ20 and a 89 T25 caravelle with an EJ22 haha.
Gotta keep the early beetles aircooled, keep it up man :)

[Brass Munky]

69 Squareback hey Plelz? I have a 73 Square, and a 70 square thats been converted to a Panel van as well. But the panel has been raided for parts for the beetle, well, the engine case anyway!

Heres a Pic of my Panel, yes I know, not a genuine, but i never claim it is!

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/63644.jpg

Build thread Here>>>> http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/showthread.php/18598-My-Type-3-Panel...-By-Request...-Image-Heavy!! (http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/showthread.php/18598-My-Type-3-Panel...-By-Request...-Image-Heavy%21%21)

Cheers bg, im not a massive fan of Ovals, or Split windown Bugs for that matter, people just overrate them, plus, you cant see shit out the back! Im chasing a Bay window of some sort, there wont be any EJ conversion in my stable though, if its not Aircooled, im not interested! (Within reason of course, I respect them, i just wont drive them ;) )

Parts keep turning up for the Beetle, no point sharing much until it all falls together though, Shit keeps going wrong and holding the build up. If i get all my parts by friday (Which could be difficult, im meant to be heading to Winton for the drifts Friday morning, better make sure someones home!) Ill post something up next week sometime hopefully.

Anyone in the know should know whats special about these that showed up last week...

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/63645.jpg


Awesome Bettle - I'd love to hear more about how you discovered it in a barn ?

Keep it up Man :)

It was sheer luck really, I was literally ordering a set of Porsche wheels for my Panel van when a mate called and asked if i wanted it, i couldnt say no! It was advertised on The Trading Post of all places, a deceased estate, 3 cars, 7+ motors, spare pans, trim, glass, EVERYTHING... I could almost build a 4th car from the parts we got. It was a trying week with others offering more money than Me and my Mate did, and then not trumping up with the cash, so we rolled up, paid, took a bunch of stuff, and put our own locks on everything and collected the rest a little later.

[08ftwyo]

one day i wish to build a sick aircooled beetle...one day i tell you. nice build though!

[Brass Munky]

I havn't had my camera with me most of the time im working on the car, so shitty camera phone... Not much you can see in this photo, but Disc brake front end completed, inner guards painted, T bars in place, guard beading finished. Ordered new tyres for it today too, just waiting for the engine to come back from the Machine shop so we can assemble it, and it should be sweet to go.

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/65730.jpg

I have photos of various things, but i hate the camera on my phone, so that will do for now.

The car needs to run for a Show on sunday this week, but due to other comitments, it needs to be finished and driveable by Thursday night (Even if its an all nighter)

[Brass Munky]

It lives!!

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/66305.jpg

We finally got the car on the road Saturday night/Sunday morning for the Day of the VW show here in SA. At about 2am we took it for a quick blat around the farm, but not being able to get 12v globes to suit the headlights (It slipped our minds and at midday on a Saturday there isn't much open) we couldnt go far without a torch lighting the way.

After a few hours sleep I Headed to the workshop early Sunday to get the car and head to the show, aside from a stiff throttle and a bit of wandering (Need a new steering box) all was sweet till i was about 10k's down the road and I got a puncture in the left rear... A bad start to the day, but shit happens. No Tyre places open on a Sunday, no repair, get a lift back to the workshop, no spare wheels that will fit there, grab the other car, drive half hour back home, and half hour back to the Beetle to get some spare wheels and tyres, 1st problem, the wide wheels dont fit the rear, they hit the springplates, OK, i bought some narrow ones up too, 2nd problem, Wheel studs for BRM's dont really work with standard smoothies, back to the workshop for the old studs.

Finally back on the road, another 5k's and i stop to check out where the burning rubber smell is coming from... Front drivers side tyre is scrubbing on the guard... Shit... its not too bad, i can still make the show... 1k down the road, throttle jams, free rev, shut it down and pull over. Open engine cover, missing fan belt... Crap... Cant find it...

Make a few calls, my Engine builder comes up, go get the truck, 45minutes to get the car onto the truck, back to the workshop, unload, another 45minutes, and by now, its almost 5pm. After an 8am departure from the workshop, i made it barely 15k's, and its back on the back of a truck.

Shit happens, ill sort it out this week!

But heres what it looked like!

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/66306.jpg

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/66307.jpg

Ill add these pics too...

Old Motor

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/66308.jpg

New Motor

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/66309.jpg

[Brass Munky]

I forgot these two vids...

Time Lapse... http://www.vimeo.com/21472700

And engine on its first start... http://www.vimeo.com/21468709

[k.aaron]

This is seriously cool. Good luck on the rest of the build mate.

[MINIHORSE]

was hoping to see this at the VW show on the weekend, looks like its coming alone swimmingly

[Brass Munky]

Cheers Lads, I was hoping to be there too, really not happy missing the show, but shit happens.

It will be back on the road Very Soon...

[Brass Munky]

Its alive! (again....)

Last night was the last step in the engine reassembly, and the start of another time lapse! There is a time lapse of the engine going into the car... heres a snapshot of the process...

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/67347.jpg

There's always one clown...

A short time later and the car is off the hoist, a couple of quick laps up and down the driveway with some minor clutch and throttle adjustments, and it ends up here...

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/67348.jpg

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/67349.jpg

All that's left now, is finding some 12v headlight globes to replace the 6v ones, and working out how the fuck we are going to put seatbelts in the car. I've always been a bit of a rebel... but i gotta have seatbelts in this car! (Wish i never sold that 4 point harness i had....).

The tyre that got the puncture on my way to Day of here, is rooted... the 100m i had to crawl to get to the servo, destroyed it. So i have some spare wider, lower profile rubber going on, but I dont want to run that indefinitely, the car is just too low for the $$$ spent on the engine to run a lower profile rubber on the rear.

[Panda BVB700]

what pipes are you going to run on this thing, i done some work on a beetle last year and put that same looking alternator/carrier/oil filler on we put these stainless extractors and it sounded really good strong and raspy looks like this thing is getting there to goodluck

[GOT-20V]

Awesome car, will follow this thread now. Nice to see some quality pics, they basically told the story for me

[Brass Munky]

It's running an off the shelf EMPI header and muffler setup, can't beat the off the shelf stuff for a build like this. These engines LOVE back pressure, like a 2 stroke Motorbike. I've had custom exhausts done before, and you can never get them exactly right without a lot of stuffing around, so off the shelf fitted this build perfectly, quality is A1 and the price was awesome. Alternator stand, oil filler is a standard thing on this type of motor, simple and very effective.

Cheers GOT-20V... Photography is another of those things I indulge in and spend too much money on!

The car is home now, and ready for some driving duties. No speedo means im careful on the throttle, and the engine needs another week of running in before we really start to give it some beans. But its a tourqy motor, and really wants to get up and go! Once i replace the steering box and get rid of the bad wandering, Ill start to give it some beans and enjoy the money spent. Until then, ill putt around trying to fly under the radar!

I sourced some custom 12v halogen globes for the car late last week, and managed to get some 4 point harnesses to run in the car so I dont need to modify the body at all.

I plan on taking some nice pics of the finished product on Friday when I go for a cruise with a few mates in some aircooled cool.

I have also settled on a Colour for the car later this year, needs a few mods before we paint it, but it should look Schmick!

[dreny...]

Bit of inspiration for you!!

http://vimeo.com/23887556

[Brass Munky]

Saw that not long after he uploaded it... Man has talent!

I can get mine that low, but with a Hypo motor in it, It wont go that low. I dont want to rip the bottom of the engine out!

The car is being de-registered and taken off driving duties, I've done my ACL in my left knee and cant drive!

[Brass Munky]

Just realised this thread missed the last update...

Borrowed some 4 point harnesses, will end up buying them when im working again, and got one in, havn't had a chance to put the other one in yet...

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/70009.jpg

Went for a cruise on good Friday and found a few small issues, but that's why we cruised! Just more teething issues with a new motor.

Few pics though!

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/70010.jpg

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/70011.jpg

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/70012.jpg

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/70013.jpg

Snowflakes bitches!

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/5/0/7/1/70014.jpg

Was great to cruise with the 3 VERY different cars. The oval is a 200hp monster, quick thing, the 58 is a stocker 1600 lowered a little, just a nice cruiser... And mine... well... you tell me!