Below are a few pictures from my last update, but you can see the rest of the pictures on my website at:

http://www.v8beetleresource.com/vwbodywork7.html

Next I wanted to repair the doors for the bug. The bottoms of the doors are rusted out pretty badly, and I don't have the money to get a good set of doors for the car. So instead I'm planning a little Frankenstein surgery to fix them. Here I have the drivers side door all stripped down to just the door itself.

I don't have any extra convertible doors, but I do have a few 1968-1969 hard top doors, and two of them are in GREAT shape. As you can see the inside panel of the doors are different, but the outside of the doors are the same except for the top of the door. Being that the bottoms are the only thing rusted out of my convertible doors I'll be able to repair them.

So next I very carefully laid out the lines where I wanted to cut both doors. I had to be sure I wasn't going to cut too much out and make the doors shorter, and it would also be a pain in the butt if I didn't cut enough out and made them longer and I had to keep trimming them. I highlighted my lines in red to make it easier to see what I was doing.

Next I carefully marked out the outside of the doors, again I highlighted my line in red. I wanted to espeacially be carefull on the outside of the door, as I didn't want to have to fill in any gaps from cutting out too much metal.

And here is the inside of the doors after I cut them apart.

All the carefull measuring and cutting really paid of, the two halfs fit together almost perfectly. I just had to trim a bit here and there to get a perfect fit!

Then I put a couple clamps on it so I could stand the door up and get a good look at both sides of it. I think so far it has turned out real nice, of course the cutting was the easy part..... Now I just have to be sure I don't work the crap out of it welding it back together....

I was going to clean the paint off of the joint and go ahead and weld it up, but I noticed a couple places inside the door where there was a bit of surface rust, that I could only see and get to with the door cut up. So I'll be taking the door to work and cleaning those spots up with the glass bead blaster. Then I'll spray some epoxy primer on the insides....... Then it will be onto welding them back together again. I'll be sure to make small tacks in various spots to help control the warpage. Then I'll mix up some homemade epoxy filler and smooth everything out before epoxy priming the door........ etc.............

Thanks for looking!

Zach B

V8 Beetle Site:
v8beetleresource.com

Hovercraft Site:
zbcreations.com

Thanks for bringing it back, Darren!

-David

You can see the traction bar update at:  http://www.v8beetleresource.com/chassis20.html

And the Pictures of the wider body are at:  http://www.v8beetleresource.com/vwbodywork6.html

You can also see the rest of the project at: www.v8beetleresource.com

Below are a few of the pictures from the updates above.

Here are all the pieces for the tube part of the homemade traction bar. The tubing is 3/4" id x 1"od, the heim joints have 3/4" threads and 3/4" bore, and the nuts are from www.boltsdepot.com  One end has left and threads and the other has right hand threads, that way when you twist the tube the traction bar gets longer or shorter for adjustment.

Here I have the tubes all welded up and and ready to be installed. I don't have jam nuts on them yet though, the regular sized nuts left very little room for adjustment so I need to get some 3/4"-16 jam nuts. The nut that is welded onto the middle of the tube is a stainless nut, I used a stainless nut there so when the paint gets scratched off of it from adjusting the homemade traction bars they won't rust.

Here I have the front traction bar bracked mounted on the spring hanger. There is a 9/16"x3/4" bushing on the outsides of the leaf spring hanger that the bracket rotates on, and a 3/4" bolt above the leaf spring with a 3/4"x1" spacer on it that will push down on the leaf spring as the axle rotates.

Next cut a couple more 3/4"x1" spacers to keep the heim joint centered in the front bracket and mounted the bar to the bracket.

When I welded the rear mounts onto the leaf spring plates I welded wide enough apart that the heim joints just needed a washer on either side of them. The DIY traction bars are now done, well except for the jam nuts to lock the tubes into position, I'll throw them on when I take everything back apart to primer and undercoat.

I can really see how these will work well, just turning these traction bars by hand I can lift the front end of the car up about an inch. I can see how they help to keep the springs from wrapping up, and lift the front end on acceleration and transfer weight to the rear. I'll probably adjust them so they just bearly make contact with the spring to start with.

Our Convertible beetle body WAS widened 8", when I did that it was just a number that sounded good to me at the time......... LOL I left plunty of extra bracing inside to widen it more if I wanted so I have been thinking about it for a while. Finally I decided to widen the car 11" over the rear axle, and 9" at the dashboard. I really like the wide look the car has to it, and I also dropped the body about another 3/4"

There are a few reasons I went wider, and also why I went 11" in the back and 9" in the front. First of all I wear size 14 quadruple wide shoes, so I'll need all the foot room I can get....... LOL Also I'm not a small guy so some more elbow room will be nice too.

I'm also planning on putting new wheels and tires on the car when its done, and was going to get wheels with a different offset to fit 8" widened body. With these "mock up" wheels on the car I have really got to liking the stance and track width with the car has now, but the tires would be too wide for the body the way it was. With this new "pie" shaped widening the body will now fit the trackwidth I have now.

I'm also planning on ditching the soft convertible top for a hard convertible top. It will be a composite folding top, and will fold up behind the seat, a lot like the soft top did, but since it will be hard it will take up more room and have to tuck down behind the seat. With the back of the car being a little wider than the front I will have more room for the top to tuck behind the seat. Hey...... It all makes since inside my head.... and Yes I may be a little bit crazy.....

Thanks to everyone who is following my project!

I started working on the homemade traction bars for it, if I had to do it over again, I may have gone with a 4 link rear suspension setup or something, but then again CHEAP is one of the major points of this project......

You can see more pictures from this update and more info on my homemade traction bars on the new page on my website at:
http://www.v8beetleresource.com/chassis19.html

And see the rest of the project at the V8 Beetle Resource:
http://www.v8beetleresource.com

Here are a few pictures from the update:

I started by drawing up what I was wanting to build, here are the brackets for the front leaf spring mounts.

Here is a demensioned drawing for the bracket, feel free to "borrow" my idea. You may need to make some changes though to fit your project. If you do use this info to build a set for yourself, please just post a link to my website to let other people know about it.

Next I cut out and drilled the front brackets. They came out real nice for cutting them out with a 4.5" angle grinder, but a drill press is pretty much required for the holes, luckily I have a nice JET drill press.

Then I cut the brackets out that will get welded to the bottom of the leaf spring plates.

Then I welded them onto the leaf spring plates. I'll probably take these to work later on and thow them in the steel shot blaster to clean them up so I can repaint them.

Then I bolted the leaf spring plates back on, I'll cut the extra U bolts off later btw.....

Here I am eyeballing it with half of the front bracket sitting there. Now I need to get some tubing, heim joints, bolts, etc.....

Thanks to everyone who is following this build!

If you happen to see a spam thread or post/reply...please ignore it...and be assured it will be deleted ASAP!

Thanks,

Jim, Tom, Mike, and Nick

I came up with the screen name, as for the last several years I stumbled across an interest in rear drive cars. Drove a 1966 Corsa for a couple years as a daily driver. Own a '61 Lakewood Corvair wagon as a long term project, and my modern car is a 2008 smart cabrio

I've always liked Ghias, and if I came across a deal on a good one, I figured I might bite. Now it looks like I may have found one...

Dennis

I was able to finished up making a cross member for the 200R4 transmission, got the engine and trans "leveled" (trans down about 3 degrees) welded in the engine mounts, put in the drive shaft, and dropped the body back onto the frame, etc.....

A direct link to the update on my website with several pictures is here:
http://www.v8beetleresource.com/chassis17trans3.html

You can see the rest of the project from the home page of my V8 Beetle Resource website at:
http://www.v8beetleresource.com/

Next I'll be working on making a rear cross member to mount the shocks and sway bar end links too, and then making some traction bars.

Here are a few pictures, there are more at the link above:

Next I wanted to get the transmission cross member made for the 200r4 (2004R) transmission and modified S-10 chassis, until this point the trans has just been sitting on a piece of pipe that was across the rails. To start out I pushed the bug into the garage and hoisted up the tail end of the transmission to where I wanted it to get the engine and transmission angle just right. I then got he engine centered just where I wanted it and tack welded the engine mount adaptors that I made a while back to the s-10 chassis. After I had the tail of the trains just about where I wanted it, I took some measurements so I could start making a cross memeber. I realize that the angle of the chassis might change a little as the car gets to be more complete, so I made the cross memeber with enough room to shim the trans up or down a little bit.

I got into making the cross member and kind of forgot to take a couple pictures along the way. Here is the main part of the cross member after I got it made. I used some 2x4 steel tubing that I had left over from a trailer we built for our hovercrafts. I notched the ends of the tubing to pull it up into the frame to get my trans mount hight correct, and then welding some heavy angle over the notch to strengthen it up. I also got the hold drilled for the transmission mount.

Just eye balling the chassis after getting the engine and transmission mounted to where they are supposed to be, and also haveing the rear suspension finished from my last update.

Next I lifted the tail end of the 200r4 up and pulled the crossmember back out to drill some mounting holes, then I put it back in and drilled matching holes in the chassis. I was tempted just to weld in the cross member, but I figured I'd better bolt it just incase I ever wanted to change transmissions or something.....

While I had the cross member out I also welded a 1/8" support plate on the top and a 1/4" support plate on the bottom. I did this becuase I drilled access holes in the top of the crossmember so I could get to the trans mount bolts and then cut a spot out in the bottom to also be able to get to the center trans mount nut.....

Next I needed to make some braces to tie the cross member into the top side of the frame rails to help keep them from twisting and to make sure everything is plunty strong. I used some more of the 2x4 tubing that I had, and did a little cutting, bending and drilling.

Here I have the cross member braces sitting in place after I got everything drilled. Of course I ran out of bolts so off to the hardware........

Since I didn't have the bolts for the cross member I decided to get my drive shaft adapted to fit the ford explorer 8.8 rear end. The rear end didn't come with the pinion flange adaptor, so I had to order one, but I found a ford 8.8 pinion flange adaptor for 1350 U-joints, which was great because that's what my driveshaft whats, plus I had a 1350 U-Joint already, so no need to order a conversion u-joint like I had to for the s-10 rear end....

Here I have the drive shaft put in place........... Fits perfect, like it was ment to be........ Hard to believe that one half of a drive shaft from a 77 c-20 truck was the perfect length....

Now it looks like a car again....... LOL I dropped the body back on the chassis, and with all the old body and bed mounts cut off, and the rear suspension set up I was able to get the body just about where I want it to end up..... Next I need to work on a rear cross member to mount the shocks and sway bar end links, plus to tie the back end of the chassis back together again..... Then I'll probably be working on making some traction bars, and then, and then and then................

Thanks for following our project!

Can anybody lead me in the right direction to find a place to do this for me?  I've heard Beetlemex mentioned in this forum a few times but are there any alternatives? It would be great to get this done in the San Diego or Chicago area.

Thanks.  Any advice would be welcome.

Below are a few pictures, you can also see these and more new pictures in the chassis section on my website: http://www.v8beetleresource.com

I took a couple days off of work to get some work done on the V8 Beetle project, and unfortunately the parts I ordered for the rear suspension didn't show up until the last day I had off....... Darn slow postal service .... Oh well I've been needing to clean up the back part of the s-10 chassis anyways.

I started off by cutting off the old s-10 rear bump stops, they wouldn't do me any good since I put on shorter leaf springs, I'll add some new bump stops later on. Also to make the chassis a little easier to work on I hoisted the body up over the chassis.

The next things to go would be the old bed and body mounts, they are too high or in the wrong spots to use for body mounts for the beetle, so I hacked them off......

Here I have them all ground off, now I just need to start cleaning the rust off of the frame.

Next I pulled the chassis outside in the driveway to clean up the rest of the frame. I pulled out the rear cross member so I could clean the frame rails easier and also so I can take the cross member to work later on and shot blast it, or make a new cross member. I used a couple C-Clamps to keep the frame rails from spreading, etc.....

To clean up the frame rails I first used a wire wheel in my angle grinder to get all the major stuff off, then I came back with a 36 grit flap wheel in the angle grinder. I'll probably go over it one more time with the flap wheel before sand blasting......

Next I cleaned up the inside of the frame rails with the wire wheel and flap wheel. Of course the inside is much more difficult to get to than the outsides..... The sand blaster will come in handy in these harder to get to spots.....
Oh yeah make sure your wearing eye and face and ear protection..... and long sleaves are a good idea too.....

I eventually pulled the engine and transmission off the chassis so it was a little easier to work on

By this point I'm getting pretty tired of cleaning up rust............. LOL

Through the frame cleaning process I ended up killing my 4.5" harbor freight angle grinder. One of the brush holders cracked and it would loose power and shut off as you ground with it..... I was able to get the grinder to limp along though and finish what I was doing. A couple 3/8" nuts wrapped in duct tape worked for a while to hold the brushes in, then it got worse so I had to add the C-clamp later on...... The grinder isn't quite as nimble as it once was.....LOL

Over probably the last 4 or 5 years I've killed 2 of these 10 buck grinders from harbor freight, and with this project I've been using it a lot I decided to go with a good 10 amp dewalt 4.5" grinder, I've been using one of these at work for almost 8 years without any problems. I also had a coupon for sears and they had them on sale so I picked this up for 75 bucks, and it even came with a case, which is nice. It also has a quick release nut which is WONDERFUL!!! I have a 5" high speed matuba grinder at work with one of these quick release nuts and I don't know how you can live without them after having one........... LOL..... No more searching for that lost wrench.....

That is it for now, but hopefully I'll have an update on some more stuff in a few days.

                                                                       Yancey