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Another Volksrod

38K views 321 replies 25 participants last post by  vialli 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello,

Been lurking on this forum for a while since I started my own project. I'd always wanted to build 2 things (well at least 2), one a custom bike which I completed a while back & also some sort of hotrod. My initial ideas though of a re-bodied Scimitar eventually stopped when I found that I couldn't alter the chassis i.e. get rid of the outriggers without needing the SVA test. So the Beetle route is now where I've ended up.
I'm well into the project & I must admit I'm not the best at keeping good photographic evidence at what I've done or how I got there. I've seen other threads on here where amazing work has been done & brilliant step by step information shown, I can't compete with that I'm afraid.
So this is where I started from, the purchase of a 1974 1300 beetle, already partially stripped & minus numerous bits & pieces plus a blown engine.
 

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#2 ·
I want to do a roof chop & deliberated for ages on the best way to do it. I'm by no means an expert where welding & fabrication is concerned so for me the simplest & less involved route for my first chop was the way to go. The result was to follow what had been done before over in the States called the 'Fernon' chop which I'm sure most have heard/seen his detailed thread.
But before that lots of other stuff needed doing. My basic plan for the Volksrod was:
Roof Chop
Air Ride
Fat rear wheels, skinny front
No wings.
 
#3 ·
When I bought the car the previous owner told me he had some work done on it some years back where the body was taken off for some welding etc. As I was intending to strip the car to its bare bones this was good news to me as surely it would come apart easy. Well it did up to a point, all the bolts holding the body to the chassis came out easily although one was missing but when it came to lift it free the jacking points had been welded to the body. Hence why the pictures below aren't that good it was late at night by the time I'd cut them free.
Off at last.
 

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#5 ·
Body seemed reasonable the only major issues seemed to be some rust in the rear by the rear wheel tubs although a lot of repair patching had already been done. The petrol filler area was crusty as well. Heater channels looked fine but these may have been already replaced.
 

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#7 ·
As I've mentioned I'm fitting air ride. When I took the front beam off I found some patching had been done underneath. I was going to add some gusseting to stiffen the beam towers up but as the welding that had been done wasn't that great I ditched the idea to salvage this one. Anyway chassis stripped & moved outside for a power wash to see what was underneath the dirt.
 

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#8 ·
One of the pans had been replaced although by the time I'd cleaned & then wire brushed the lot they both had similar issues, nothing major just a few holes & some surface rust.
You may have noticed my garage links our house to next door. Unfortunately next doors lounge is the other side of the communal wall, not ideal when your attacking a chassis with an angle grinder.:eek:
 
#9 ·
Chassis stripped, welded where required. I've already jumped on a bit here preparing for some future mods. As I'm chopping the roof & I'm reasonably tall I knew I would have to mount the seats as low as possible. I was uncertain what seats I was going to use at this stage although I didn't want standard Beetle ones. I was going to make use of universal mounts/sliders whatever I ended up with so cross members were welded in at the right spacing to allow for these.
 

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#14 ·
Next step was to spend a lot of money.

I went for Limebug's full air ride kit as I thought this the best option for me. I needed a replacement front beam as I've mentioned mine was shot, so their strengthened version seemed ideal.

I also wanted to upgrade the Gearbox for a 'Freeway Flyer' as I'm intending to fit a bigger engine. I had no idea of the condition of the one I had with the car so it would've needed a thorough check anyway. As I was buying a lot of stuff from Limebug at the time I decided to use them for this as well, luckily they did give me a little discount:)

Well eventually my order of parts arrived albeit not the 2 weeks I was expecting, more like 6 :mad: Whenever I buy something I do look at the lead time quoted & expect whoever promises this to keep to it within reason.
 

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#19 ·
Here's the gearbox back from it's upgrade. The 'Freeway Flyer' upgrade is done on your own Gearbox. So you sent off yours & the same one comes back. Unfortunately as you can see in the pictures a couple of studs are missing. Limebug did send a couple of replacements when I contacted them & assured me this definitely was my original one :confused:
Not impressed with their quality control.
 

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#21 ·
Most of the Limebug kit went together ok. I did have some issues with their lower Airbag bracket though on both sides. In order to get everything to fit I had to open up the holes where shock gets attached for the bolt to slide through. Not sure if I was unlucky or the problem was with the chassis casting or the Limebug bracket.
Anyone else fitted one of these kits with any issues?
 

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#22 ·
Front end together. Only issue here was that the lower through rod is too long to retain the blanking disc in the end of the trailing arm. I did ring Limebug & they said this does occur in some instances. Looks to me that it would always happen. I'll have to sort some other way of sealing this up at some stage, anyone else had to fix this?
 

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#24 ·
So at this stage I'd got the chassis to a point where I was happy with it. All new brake lines fitted. Fuel line replaced, this took a while but seems I was lucky compared to others that had gone through trying to replace theirs. I'd coated the underside with underseal as well.

Next step was to look at the body for the roof chop :D
 
#27 ·
Thanks, it's taken a while though. What I'm showing now is what I've done in the past. I bought the car nearly 2 years ago but didn't at the time decide to post progress on a day to day basis ( I knew It'd be a long & slow journey). Now as I'm getting nearer the finish line I thought I'd be brave & show people what I've done.
 
#33 ·
A & B posts wrapped in masking tape & marked out in half inch increments. At the rear I did some layout lines where I thought I ought to be cutting. Fernon's thread that he did was fairly detailed but it still made me nervous about cutting in the right place.
 

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