Engine Cage

Well, I had mentioned earlier that I had to cut off the engine cage and cut the tail light wires to get the engine out. So here is what I did to fix that situation. First I had to re-do the cage mounting system so that it was removable, then I had to put in a wiring harness that had a plug to the car wires. This took a bit of time b/c I ran the cage wires inside the tubes and then out at each light, a nightmare to feed the wires, but well worth the result. Then I had to repaint everything so it was all pretty. The previous owner welded on the light brackets but didn't paint the metal (a bit rusty). Here is what it all looked like when I was done.

Paddles

So I told my boss that I was building this baja (he's a sand buggy guy) and he said that his dad has a set of paddles that they weren't using anymore. So, that would be something that I need at the dunes right, so I got them. When I got them, they weren't mounted on the rims so I took them down to Discount Tire and they had 4 guys trying to get these things on. They had to use this air cannon thing, plus a band around the tire, plus the air hose on the stem. 45 mins later I was out of there. But they look awesome! I couldn't resist putting them on s to see what it would look like. It made me realize that I'll need to widen the front a bit to make it look balanced, but I liked it non the less.

Daddy Likes! (Note my little helps on the left)

The engine. . .

So, the engine on this thing is basically all stock, 1600 dual port. The original VW engines don't have any oil filters on them and that simply will not do if I ever pan on taking this thing to the sand dunes. So I did what the VW enthusiasts call the "full flow oil bypass". This involves plugging the oil pump outlet and re-routing it through a external oil filter and back into the engine oil galleys.

I also had purchased a new weber 40 IDF carb. that I will be using for the turbo, but there is no reason can't through it on right now for fun (so I thought). I had to take the engine out to do all these things and when I did I found that one of the two engine/transmission mount bolts was cross threaded and only put in half way. >:( The more I get into this thing the more stuff I find. Here's are the things that I found during this step in the process:

1) Engine mount bolt cross threaded. - required 2 hours of careful blending work to clean up.
2) Drive axel bolts loose.
3) Rear trailing arm pivot bolt loose and about to fall out (bad news on the road)
4) Tail light wires are hard wired (I had to cut them to remove the engine cage)
5) All four spark plugs are different.
6) Fuel pump leaks fuel all over itself.
7) One of the bell housing bolts missing

I can't think of anything else right now, but here are some picks of all the work I did there:

Back Tires of and engine is out (this is were I started to find all this stuff)

New carb (weber 40 IDF)

Engine mount fixed and re-installed

Engine re-installed

Oil pump is coming out

Oil pump outlet is now tapped and plugged and ready to be put back in.

New external oil filter.

New oil pump cover that re-directs the oil to the filter.

All coming together.

Oil pump cap installed

I like it!

 

A video of the buggy running right after it all got put back together. The engine is much more responsive with the new carburetor. 

The Dash

So the dash was something else I had to do some work on. The previous owner installed a rebuilt speedometer and a vdo fuel gauge, but that was it. Non of the dash lights worked, no oil pressure light, etc. Luckily, I had a set of gauges that my Dad had bought way back in the day for his truck and they just happened to have what I needed, well, all except for the techometer. I also got a stereo for the bug from my brother Jimmy who took it out of his UTV. Check out the results of all this.

Oh yea, the other thing that I was dealing with was I guess one of the guys friends thought it would be cool to do some striping with masking tape, which eventually got baked on. (Grrrr...) It doesn't come of easily. . .

Front Bonnet

I had mentioned previously that I set the front clip on the car for a photo shoot when I got it home. That of course means that it was not attached, just like the rear fenders were not attached. These were not attached due to them being cracked and and the mounting holes were torn threw. This obviously posed a problem for me trying to put it back on. So a little fiberglass here, sheet metal work there, and voila!

Notice the rear fender

 I also had the issue of the drivers side, back widow had a broken hinge. This turned out to be more of a problem than I thought b/c if you wanted that hinge, people wanted you to buy the whole widow! The Master of Some would not tolerate this type of exploitation, so I made my own hinge, using the other window hinge as my guide and a bit of sheet metal. Looks great!

Notice the installed fender and rear widow

what all does this thing need?

So, when I drove the car home I realized that it was going to need a lot of work. The kid had put rear disk brakes on it but never got it quite right, so it pulled really hard to the right. In fact, I almost rear ended Shelly and hit the curb at the same time when we came to a quick stop. That is only the beginning of all the funny things that I found in this thing, like you would open the glove box to fill up the gas tank and he welded the engine cage on so you have to cut it off if you want to take the engine out. Loads of fun! Well time to get to work.

Assessment

I knew that I wanted to have something that I could take my family out in, but also be fast and furious when I want it to be. If anyone have ever driven an old VW beetle, fast nor furious are words that would be used to describe them. So I knew that somethin' needed to be done about that. My solution, put a turbo on it. Justin's friend Chris was kind enough to provide me with a turbo from an older Volvo! Integrated waste gate and pressure relief valve on the intake side. That makes for an easy, clean installation.