Author Topic: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build  (Read 147339 times)

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Offline OUTKAST

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #30 on: December 12, 2011, 06:00:19 PM »
Awesome build thread and great pics wish I had a enclosed garage to work on my bus .Will be checking back often ,Keep up
the hard work : )

Offline owdlvr

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #31 on: December 12, 2011, 10:53:44 PM »
Thanks for the props guys...has been fun, and frustrating! haha.

-----

Frustrating day with the Porsche Trans, but I'll get it figured it out. I've read the various "how-to's" that are out there, but have found them to be somewhat lacking in details. Surely the Bug5atspeed products would make this quite a bit easier, but it's well outside the budget I have left to complete this. I'll try and detail out my solutions should someone in future be looking for threads on 901 installs.


Factory VW transmission (and, I believe, the Porsche 915) has some flat sections in the lower corners for the motor mount bolts. The 901 Porsche trans? No dice...



I've flipped the transmission upside down in this next shot to show the Beetle transmission mount on the Porsche Transmission...will need to adapt the beetle Urethane mounts to fit to the metal mount.


First up is removing this piece off the bell-housing. I suspect, but have no real idea, that it's for a clutch release spring. Regardless, it's in the way and gets removed. Didn't bother taking a photo of it all cleaned up, but basically you need to remove all the material from the rib to the bolt hole, leaving the lip around the bell housing like the rest of the transmission.


From there, it was onto modifying the Urethane mounts. This stuff flies everywhere with a carbide cutter, and melts and drips when you use a metal cut-off wheel. Sure hurts when it lands on a pant leg!




...and now the scary part. Drilling the case of a Porsche Transmission.



...eventually you end up with this, which isn't perfect. Ironically I can't seem to find a photo of anyone else's 901 install, so I'm not sure if other people run with the mounts stressed like this, or came up with an entirely different solution. I can't, however, leave it like this as I know it will fail prematurely. I'll have to pick up some sheet urethane and start working out a spacer-type solution. Ideally the urethane would run along the metal mount touching for the complete radius...but I don't think I can set it up for this to happen. It's really driving me nuts that I also won't have an "off the shelf" solution if the mounts fail or wear out.

Once I solve the mount shape issue, I'll have to then sort out the bolt-heads inside the bellhousing. The bolt heads interfere with the ring gear, so the common solution is countersunk allen head bolts. I'd like to see if I can come up with something a little stronger, but I'm not quite sure what yet. The current thought is a metal strip inside the bottom of the bellhousing, to which studs will be welded to. Need to talk to a buddy at the rally shop to see what he thinks.

-Dave

-------------

...Exhausted from a tonne of driving today, and no further progress on the 901 install. But I did get to drop in and see the shell, and bought the paint today!!!

Looking good in primer...will likely be in paint by the end of the weekend.







-Dave

--------------------

...it gets better :-)

Lorne and Gerry Frose, from GLI Autowerks, are the guys who did all the body work, primer and have been painting the car. They sent me these on Saturday:





I'll update the 901 install before the day is out.

-Dave

-----------------

Alex at Bugat5speed(us) was kind enough to help me out on the 901 install. He emailed me a solution he had used, which got me thinking about a possible solution for myself. Enter the $30 empi solid mount kit. Because the lower cross member is supposed to be used without mounts on the T1 trans, it gets me a whole lot closet to where i need to be.



I am concerned about the urethane mounts failing, and may still end up with a Bugat5speed aluminum mount setup. At least the way I've done this I should be able to swap out for Alex's mount relatively easily. The final version of my mount required some cutting, bending, welding and then moving the frame horn holes to get everything exactly where I wanted it to be. My input shaft now sits 1/16" higher then the Type-1 transmission, with the mounting flange for the engine in the exact same spot fore/aft.




It's a whole lot easier working on the pan upside down...not sure if/how you would do a Porsche transmission swap with the body on the car. It would suck, I can say that much! With the 901 Trans being 1"(ish) longer then the VW transmission, and my decision not to move the engine back at all, I've had a lot of cutting to do in the torsion bar area. Thankfully I'm using coil-overs...but I'll never be able to go back!


Started on my front mount, which will be done in the factory rally car style. This requires just a short plate, and two regular transmission mounts welded to the frame rails.


Volkswagen was even kind enough to include motorsport mounting brackets in the regular Type-1 transmission cross member. You just have to cut away all the metal bits that aren't for racing ;-)

In order to weld in my new mounts, however, I need to remove the speedometer gear assembly from the nose-cone of my Porsche Trans. Having no factory manual, and not being able to figure out exactly how it's being held in...I started to think about removing the nose cone. Alex's 901 install write up talks about removing the speedometer drive gear inside the nosecone, and I need to do the shift-selector seal anyways...so it seemed like a good idea.

Not so much now.



My first issue is that the nosecone didn't separate from the intermediate plate, first the intermediate plate separated from the trans case. I suspect this means I'm in for a bit of a tear down if I want to ensure that my transmission is leak free, the paper gaskets won't be much good now. No photos tonight, but I've got the nose cone off now and will start dealing with this tomorrow.

-Dave

---------------------

Well, I couldn't find anything about the proper way to yank it all apart...so I just made it up as I went along :-) 

I still remember the first time I ever did a clutch and flywheel job on a car, it was about ten years ago on my Audi quattro. I was so nervous about such a 'big and scary' job, I called in my friend Eddy to give me a hand. (well, actually to do the job while I watched/helped). When it comes to vehicles, the inside of a transmission was my "final frontier". It's the only part of the car that still scares me to touch. I can build and rebuild motors, tear apart anything else, but a transmission? Those always seemed complex and scary. Plus, the factory manuals usually list about 17 different specialty tools you have to have!

Well, I have to say, after laying out the insides of the Porsche transmission in my garage...they're no longer scary. In fact, I'm kind of disappointed I don't have the parts or funds to rebuild the syncros and gear stack on this one...just look at it sitting there, crying out for a full tear down ;-) A full transmission rebuild is in my plans for the next year, just out of plain curiosity!



Getting into the Porsche 901 wasn't so bad. I suspect there is an ideal gear to have selected when one goes to dismantle the transmission. Mine was in an unknown gear with the main shift rod dislodged. Once I pulled the gear cluster out halfway, I was able to move the shift rod around enough to pop the whole unit out of the transmission. I did almost need three hands to do it, but eventually I got it.



My gear stack checked out about as well as I expected. The first gear syncro teeth are in poor shape, which I expected from reading so many threads about the 901. Fifth gear is worn as well, but the others look relatively good. The pinion gear looked quite good so I wasn't going to bother pulling the diff. Instead I figured I'd do a quick check through the input shaft hole. As I was rotating the diff around one of these two pieces came into view...(battery for scale)



That would be the remains of an input shaft seal. Apparently at some point in this transmission's life someone drove an old seal into the transmission instead of removing it properly. It also explains the metal fragments I found on the drain plug!

Needless to say, I decided I would empty the case and clean out anything and everything.



Reassembly is fairly straight forward. I followed another thread which said to put the transmission in neutral. It was a relatively easy job getting the gear stack in, and I was pretty sure I checked the main shift rod before moving forward. What I should have done, however, was also check each of the other shift rods to ensure they were still in neutral. Either while sliding the gear stack in, or while putting the nose cone on, I managed to select reverse gear on the transmission. The main shift rod was not in the correct spot though so once it was all buttoned up I had reverse, or a locked up transmission when selecting 'any gear'. I realized I was getting two gears at once, and popped off the side cover/support. From there I could see reverse was selected but the main shift rod wasn't in the right spot. Took a bit of finesse, but I managed to get it shifted back into neutral and sorted without cracking open the transmission again.



At least now I can use continue to modify my pan to fit and then I'll decide whether or not I want to do a full rebuild on the trans. I will probably run it as-is for a bit, so I can see how I like the gear ratios with my engine. If I'm going to do a rebuild I might as well make sure it's got the ideal gearset!

-Dave
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'71 Type 1 - Rally Car Project
'75 Type 1 - Heirloom
'95 F150 - Unfortunate daily driver...

Offline Bruce

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #32 on: December 12, 2011, 11:13:24 PM »
If you haven't already bought the juice, you should use Swepco gear oil.  The P crowd swears by that stuff for the Porsche designed synchros.

Offline 70's Looker

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #33 on: December 15, 2011, 11:36:02 PM »
well done dave, crazy going ons! sadly letting member of another club not only to see the car, but to work on it, even before your own members have seen it, wow! thank goodness the 70's are over! lol
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Offline Geoff

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #34 on: December 16, 2011, 08:47:10 AM »
well done dave, crazy going ons! sadly letting member of another club not only to see the car, but to work on it, even before your own members have seen it, wow! thank goodness the 70's are over! lol

you sure have been kept in the dark............on more than one statement above   8)

Offline 70's Looker

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #35 on: December 16, 2011, 09:19:46 AM »
Reeeeeally? Guess that's why I no longer try lol good work dave still
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Offline Chris W

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #36 on: December 16, 2011, 02:55:23 PM »
Nice work Dave. Thanks for sharing and giving me some motivation to finish my car up.

Offline owdlvr

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #37 on: December 17, 2011, 01:34:14 PM »
Thanks for the props guys.

Tough week, though, I haven't touched the car since Monday. I've been out in the back country working on a car commercial, having worked in TV before it was pretty funny to "bridge the gap" between realistic operations and TV dreaming.

If you haven't already bought the juice, you should use Swepco gear oil.  The P crowd swears by that stuff for the Porsche designed synchros.

I haven't pulled the trigger on gear oil yet. All my Audi / VW boxes run Motul Gear300, but I've definitely read about the early Porsche boxes working well with Swepco. I may just put the Motul in for now, and if it doesn't work well swap to Swepco. I swap my transmission oil 3-6 times a year when racing a car, so if Gear300 works it's going to save me significant $$$.

Back to catching you guys up...

-------

Had a pretty productive night in the garage. Second night in a row that I've gone in at about 5pm, found myself really hungry only to look up and realize it was now midnight!

Started off by grinding away all that POR15 I had laid on the pan (sigh). From there I welded on the mounts for my front transmission mount.





They allow me to use the urethane transmission mounts, or factory beetle transmission mounts, to secure the front end of the transmission to the pan. And with that sorted out I moved onto closing up the gaping holes in my floor pan. Originally I was going to use a CV joint boot as a seal, but that turned out to be too large. I figured a boot from a power-steering rack would be perfect, but turns out I don't have any kicking around anymore. In one of my bins, though, I did find a brand new set of balljoint boots. It's a perfect fit, but will be a PAIN in the butt to deal with at a later date if I use the wire clips. The wire clips will ensure a full seal though. Hmmmmm...



Behind the boot, holding it on to the sheet metal, is a .5" section of 1.25" exhaust tubing. Just enough to hold the boot on. The boot is pretty stiff, so I may only use a wire clip on the pan side and let the shaft slide in and out of the boot.

Tomorrow I will seal up the torsion bar housing, and then tear it all back down to paint it. I have a couple of items to finish on the actual transmission, then I can finally flip the pan over and sort out all the other issues. I still need to move the accelerator cable and clutch tubing coming out of the pan, solve the clutch release arm hitting the frame horn, finish modifying/sealing the speedometer gear and then I can move onto rear suspension.



--------

Feels like I'm picking up momentum again, as I near the completion of the transmission swap.

Trans mounted:


But had to deal with the Clutch cable tube (yellow) and Accelerator tube (blue). I knew from other forum posts that they were going to interfere, but with my trans being further forward then most...it's a bit extreme. From the camera angle it looks like the clutch tube is close, but it's just an illusion, the bowden tube wouldn't fit on it. The accelerator cable, is a definite problem!



Cut the sheet metal around the tubes, lightly bent them into a new position, and welded a new plate on. Simple simple, but yet another job that needed to be done. Oh, and here's a future problem, the bowden tube is 3" too short. I suspect I'll be making a custom bracket to use the shorter tube.



And, finally a lick of paint. Tomorrow I hope to flip the pan over and start working on some topside issues. With the body done at the painters, I'm on a time crunch to get it picked up.



--------------

So the last step on the transmission was to determine how I was going to hold the bellhousing mounts in. Initially I wanted to avoid the countersunk screws, but after considering a few options determined that they really are the way to go. Only problem? My countersink bit was broken on the last job. Small town Squamish doesn't have a whole lot available at ten to six on a saturday...but Home Depot did have these...


...yes, that does say wood and plastic. Aluminum is soft, right? :P

A bit ugly on the first go, but after cleaning up with a stone they worked fine.




And with that, the pan is right side up and ready for me to move on. From here on out most of this post is for archive purposes...should someone be searching for help on their own 901 install.



One of the things I was finding tough to plan was how I was going to do the shift rod. This isn't a well documented part of the swap, I suspect because everyone's transmission is going to end up in slightly different location fore-aft. The transmission I bought came with a modified 911 shift rod which was in a notchback (supposedly), but the bends were way off for a beetle pan. I also really wanted to use the Beetle shift rod as I'd have better (and more affordable) shifter options. So with that in mind I started off on the shifter. I knew I needed to remove the bushing mount temporarily for setup, which means grinding off the pan finish. If I have to grind a bit, might as well grind some more...so I cut a big access hole to make life easier.



There are six spot welds holding in the bushing bracket / shifter mount


From there I propped the beetle shift rod up in place, and then measured how much "drop" I would need at the back of the shift rod. To bend the rod I used a propane torch to heat it until it was red hot, and bent it over a section of exhaust tubing. The shift rod will still crimp, as you can see in the photo, but I just welded tabs over top when I was done. If I had a second factory shift rod, I actually would have started again, putting the bends closer to the middle of the rod. with the bend as far back as I have them the rod was hitting the heater flap cable tubes.



With the bends correct, I moved onto the length. You'll need to decide if you're going with the Porsche shift coupling, or the beetle shift coupling. I actually think the Porsche one is a better unit, but with my transmission pushed as far forward as I have it, I'd need to cut out the VIN to be able to put the one I have in. Thus, I went beetle. A quick weld on the end, and I was done...ish. I could get 2/3rd no problem, and while I could get into 4/5 it was binding against something. Turns out it was the tubes for the heater flaps under the rear seat. Well, I'm not planning on using those...so out came the tubes, which in itself was a royal pain the ***.



following the tube removal, I still couldn't get 1st or reverse. Something was hitting the shifter...and when I finally found it, well lets just say incredible. How did I by chance just happen to leave this little tab? My cut and sheet metal work went through half the welds holding it in. Ever try and use a die grinder inside a tunnel? Not fun!



Thankfully I can now hit all the gears...though it did seem to require a bit too much muscle for my taste, using the stock beetle shifter. Tomorrow I'll work out what else is binding in my setup.

...porsche trans, not a 'quick' project!

-Dave

--------------



Ugh, what a frustrating day. It started off well enough, modified the clutch release fork to fit the car...and got that dialed, but from there, it all went downhill. I knew there was something binding up in the shifting, and figured it would be a relatively straight forward process for eliminating the issues. The weird part was I could get 1st, 3rd and 5th no problem, but reverse, 2nd and 4th were binding something fierce. I tried a stock VW shifter, my 'proto' short shifter and then made up a handle that I could attach right to the end of the transmission to use my hand. At one point, I was soooooo close...



But 20 minutes later, this was my garage:



yup, tore the transmission down a second time...and confirmed the problem:



We didn't actually measure how bad it was out, but after the first big pull to straighten it we measured it at 80 thou out. No wonder it was binding. Guess this gearbox was dropped at some point!  Anyways, with that fixed and the transmission back together I spent the evening resetting the shift linkage, re-welding the bushing support in and confirming that it was all dialed. I'm was actually about 1/4" short with my shift rod, but that was easy enough to deal with since I was welding a bunch of the stuff in. Got it all done around 8pm, just in time for a late dinner. Just one last job, the shift rod bushing below the shifter.

Oh crap. Complete brainfart.

That bushing is replaceable with the stock setup, you simply pull out the shift rod, slide the bushing in and replace the shift rod. However, once you put a Z bend in the shift rod for a Porsche trans...no dice. That left me with a major dilemma. Leave the bushing missing, and deal with a rattling shifter...or yank it all out and start over. Can you guess what I did?



Of course, putting the bushing in meant the assembly didn't move around enough to actually slide it into the tunnel. One more heater control tube sacrificed itself in the name of progress, and I could just get the assembly in through my large access hole. Then it was back to testing, adjusting, testing, adjusting, and finally welding. My transmission tunnel has suffered badly, and I'll need to run either carpet or the rubber mats (kind of my plan anyways)...but I can now say that I have all the gears and a reverse lookout.

An entire day spend on shift linkage!!!

-Dave

---------------

A friend on the German Look forum comments...
Quote from: Bruce.;82410
What a fight with the shift rod!

My plan is to fit two shift rod bushes. The stock one at the front and another (stock) at the rear end of the tunnel, set at the correct height for the gearbox selector rod. Then cut the shift rod in two places (between the bush locations) and fit two universal joints. This would give a more accurate shift without a bent rod flapping about inside the tunnel.

A bit late for that suggestion but if the current set up doesn't work that might be an option.

I think the front bush setup is worth a try as I agree with Ricola's analysis and so did the rally engineers. However, I'd check the mounts annually (use a pry bar to check the stretch) and expect them to need replacing periodically. The rally car had modest amounts of torque compared to a big Type4 but the drivers did a lot of engine breaking as the brakes were cooked most of time (which stretches the mounts).

Funny you should mention that Bruce. Ideally, I think the dual-universal joint system is the way to go. When I initially measured the drop I didn't think 3.75" was 'so big', but by the time you bend the rod and put it into the tunnel you realize just how tight it really is. When I was redoing the shift rod for the 3rd time on Sunday I actually pulled a steering shaft and it's joints out of a box to see if they might be useable in this application. Unfortunately too big, so I need to go and find some smaller ones.

For the moment I believe I have a well working shift system, but it's really hard to evaluate that while sitting on a bare pan! I've decided I will go with carpet or rubber floor mats, instead of a bare tunnel, so that leaves me the option of cutting into the tunnel down the road to improve on this. For now I've tack-welded my access hole shut, and will search out another VW shift rod and bushing support for improving it at a later date (if this doesn't work well as is).

I've also been thinking a lot about the front bushing setup for the trans. If this were a typical street car where you build it, and then it's "done"...I'd probably be quite concerned. In fact, I think I'd be redoing the system since failure is likely to occur way down the road at an inopportune time. But, I'm not building a street car. With my race cars I have a system where before and after each event I go over the car from bumper to bumper. It's put up on axle stands and all fluids are flushed, all mounting points checked, major component (engine, tranny, suspension, brake) nuts and bolts are checked. I average one event every 3mo, so I think that is probably a good enough window to discover a problem. With my Audi, after the first season I had a good record of how long things like rod ends and upper suspension mounts lasted. So after the first year I just rotated those parts out on a shorter window...whether they needed it or not. At $20 for two mounts, I think I can afford that here! :-)

The other thing I've been thinking about is the skid plate. I know I need to protect the nosecone / shift rod on the transmission, so there might be an opportunity to build in a 'failsafe' when we do the skid plate. I tossed this plate on just to see the coverage / get an idea. The real one will involve lots of trimming, etc. But for visuals, this will work as a start:



I'm thinking if I design the mounts for the skid plate well enough, I should be able to place this left over urethane piece I have in between the skid plate and the front transmission mount:


If the mounts fail, the nose of the trans would drop and rest on the urethane and skid plate vs. hanging off the shift rod.

I still need to think this through though. In order to be effective the Urethane mount needs to be within 15mm of the transmission...but that means the skid plate needs to be strong enough it won't bend up INTO the trans. So, maybe not a good idea...but a start!

-Dave

--
'71 Type 1 - Rally Car Project
'75 Type 1 - Heirloom
'95 F150 - Unfortunate daily driver...

Offline buggy1

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #38 on: December 17, 2011, 03:40:29 PM »
Dave really diggin the thread.
 What are you making the skid plate out of? Haven't decided what material to use yet as the baja won't see real extreme use but I still want some protection.
That is interesting all of the troubles with the shift rod, I still have a bit of an issue with the old reduction box in the baja as I can't get it set up for 1st gear properly. Hoping to sort the setup once the car is running. It will go into first but only after putting it into reverse,frustrating, hoping to have it sorted out once I get the car running............
Andy
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'58 baja in progress
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Offline Bruce

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #39 on: December 17, 2011, 05:10:20 PM »
Oh, and here's a future problem, the bowden tube is 3" too short. I suspect I'll be making a custom bracket to use the shorter tube.
Check into the bowden tube for a gay-window Bus.  I believe they are longer than a Beetle tube.  Geoff should know.

Offline Geoff

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #40 on: December 17, 2011, 05:18:35 PM »
Bay window uses 72 up t1 bowden tube

Offline owdlvr

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #41 on: December 17, 2011, 09:36:23 PM »
Dave really diggin the thread.
 What are you making the skid plate out of? Haven't decided what material to use yet as the baja won't see real extreme use but I still want some protection.
That is interesting all of the troubles with the shift rod, I still have a bit of an issue with the old reduction box in the baja as I can't get it set up for 1st gear properly. Hoping to sort the setup once the car is running. It will go into first but only after putting it into reverse,frustrating, hoping to have it sorted out once I get the car running............
Andy

Hi Andy,

At the moment I'm not sure what the skid plate will be made out of. On my Audi the front plate was 6061, while the rear plate was 7075. We were re-straightening the front plate pretty often, but Audi's have the engine mounted in front of the front axle...so they nose into everything.

For the bug I intend to drive it over to Rocket Rally and let my friend Gord decide where the plates should go, and what they should be made of. I'll be doing that in late Jan/early Feb I hope. 5mm thick steel was used on factory cars, but I suspect Gord will probably go with 3/8" aluminum...what grade, I don't know.

-Dave

-----------------

After seeing that link...I'm going to have to do the universal joints!  But, I'm waiting. It works now, must get car driveable...then upgrade the shifting later ;-)

-----

After a few days of little to no work accomplished in the garage, it was time to get cracking and get something done! Started by making some pipe...



Then I made some holes...



...made some modern art...



and finally started working on the car ;-)



Having removed the torsion bars from the rear, I bought a rather simple "coil over conversion kit" which I knew I would be modifying for double-shear mounting of the rod-end. What I didn't realize is just how much modifying I'd be doing. For starters, the entire rear suspension was going going to be held on by 4 M10 bolts on each side, in single-shear fashion. I didn't think it was very strong, and the offroad Baja guys confirmed they shear the bolts off. The pipe we turned down on the lathe ended up being welded to the back of the mounting plates. These pipe sections are a tight fit into the torsion tube and should hopefully serve to transmit the load to the torsion tube instead of the mounting bolts.

Once I lined up the plates to the suspension arm, it quickly became clear there were further issues. The plate sits a full 3/4" over from where the mounting surface is supposed to be. I considered cutting the welds and bending the plates, but for now have opted to make aluminum spacers to sandwich in between. The guys at the local rally shop are away for an event, so I had to cut some quick spacers in my garage. Eventually I'll go back and make some nice ones on the mill.

Not pictured in the photo above are the extra plates I made for double-shear mounting of the rod end. But here is one side mocked up for testing:



I'm going to order some grade 8 studs to thread into the torsion bar housing, and then the final step will be to make four spacers for the outside plate on the lathe. The studs will allow me to secure the inner plate with a nut, slide larger spacers over top and secure the outer plate with a second nut. This should, in theory, be stronger then just a long bolt with spacer. And hey, can't overbuild your suspension mounts! After a mockup of both sides to ensure everything fit, I tore it all down and gave it a coat of POR15...which is still drying.



Between the fab work and fitting that was pretty much all I accomplished today, outside of mounting the trailing arms. A good clean of the shop was in order...and then I remounted the shifter, having repainted the tunnel last night. Looking at the spindly little stock shifter, I couldn't help but miss portions of my prototype shifter. After a couple of cuts I think I've managed to keep the best of both worlds, eh?



-Dave

------------

For the coil overs I'm going to start with a pair of the QA1 units, since I can completely change the valving. But I've also been looking at a set of Bilstein units...just not sure about getting them to fit.

Quote
Will those trailing arm spacers clear a wide wheel?

As for the trailing arm plates...truthfully, I'm not sure if they're going to clear...but I suspect they will. I am only running two widths of wheels on this car, 4.5" wide and 5.5" wide...which gives me more clearance then pretty much everyone else here! (on the German-Look forum) My rear brake kit arrives on Tuesday, so I'll finally be able to bolt up the wheels and confirm. Based on how my 6.5" wheels fit on the '69, I'm taking an educated guess that I'll be fine. If not, I'll cut the welds on the spring-plate replacement, bend them, and reweld the tube which mounts the rod end.

Now...you might be asking yourself, 4.5" wheels??? All this work for factory width wheels!?!

Well, I think the project has moved far enough along and is moving fast enough that I can finally let the cat out of the bag...









...


























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...my hood and engine lid were finished today. Gerry and Lorne Frose were able to match the satin-black look I wanted.
















...and a few weeks ago I started on the decals...





:D

My car will be a visual replica on the exterior shell, but interior and everything under the skin will be my own interpretation, setup for the events and driving that I will do. I've been super stoked about the idea since early summer when I decided upon it.

...for those of you that don't know what I'm doing yet...here's the documentation I was able to score off a great guy in Europe. He's been plenty helpful.



What you're looking at is the 1971-1973 "Factory" Rally Cars. When the super beetle was launched, the Austrian importer of Volkswagen (Porsche Austria) was looking for a way to improve the sales of the Beetle. Known as the "Salzburg" cars (town they were built in) they built a number of rally cars, and ran the Austrian Rally series as well as some selected European events. They ran until the gas crisis of '74, when the Austrian government postponed all rallying in the country. Most of the cars went on to be rallyX cars (which pretty much destroys cars in Europe).

-Dave
--
'71 Type 1 - Rally Car Project
'75 Type 1 - Heirloom
'95 F150 - Unfortunate daily driver...

Offline owdlvr

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #42 on: December 18, 2011, 11:05:46 AM »
Grrr. One of those nights in the garage!

The rear disc brake kit arrived. All my rear wheel bearings arrived. The seal kits, etc. etc. Grease up the bearings, drive the inner wheel bearings in and go to the ziplock bag for the snap rings. Aww crap, the snap rings. Yup, those were missing when I tore this car down. Not a common part carried by the parts houses, not that it mattered when I discovered the problem at 9pm. I've got a VW part number, but ETKA doesn't list the sizes.

I have found a few references that the 944 is the same size, and from there I was able to figure out the snap ring size. Crossing my fingers I can order a pair in tomorrow...going to be super chapped if a pair of missing snap rings keep me from picking up the body this weekend.

-Dave

------------


Terrible photo...but I finally found a suitable snap ring and was able to continue moving forward. The first job, though, was to clean up! Moving from job to job and getting stalled on each partway in was causing the garage to get far too cluttered. Not easy, or enjoyable, to work in this...



But once cleaned up I got the main components of the rear brakes installed on both sides, and rebuilt one of the axles. I have been avoiding the axle rebuild for as long as I possibly could...I think between trying to get the circlips off, and that grease getting everywhere...it really is my least favorite job in the garage. I swear if new axles came packed with grease I would just order them ;-)



One of the things I didn't like about my double-shear setup was the fact that I would have a single bolt holding both plates on. I've found some grade 8 studs which will allow me to secure the first plate, and then second plate once I lathe up some spacers. While it's all on the same stud, that extra nut makes a big difference.



The new mounting system also gave me some time to think about, and narrow the spacer a little bit on the mounts. I did have 3/4" between the trailing arm and 'spring plate', but now have that down to a 1/2".





New speedo/rally computer sensor ring:


...and I thought I'd try out the Empi short shift kit, just to see if it would shorten the throws a little bit. Since my shifter setup is using the Type-1 shifter and rod, it was an easy retrofit. Definitely shortened the throws, without making the lateral movement vague. Should work out well. I also stuffed two of the stock springs into shifter. They bind a bit when pushing down for reverse or first, but now when I go into first there is enough spring pressure to snap the shifter out into neutral, and thus second is easy without grinding. Well...theoretically. Won't really know until I get to drive it!



On the bad news side of things, I had to cut down the carbon shaft I'm using for the shifter...I've cut this particular piece three or four times...wouldn't you know it, this time it started to delaminate. I was meaning to buy another one, which matched the weave of the shift knob...but I guess I really will have to now!



-Dave

-----------

Quote from: chug_A_bug;82487
Looking Great Dave... So we going to See the Body with the New paint Sitting on that Sexy pan by Sunday ;)
what are you going for the engine  you Staying with the Spec of the Rally car or just going Balls out...lol
Chris.

I actually pulled the 1776 engine out of my 1969 beetle before I sold it. That will be my primary engine, for the next little while since this project ran out of money about...oh...two months ago? :P  I've also got a 1600 I'm building up with every trick I can think of, mainly for our club's "stock motor challenge" drag night, but also just in case my Beetleball record falls. Then I'll have a stock motor to go back and reclaim.

There is a type-4 engine in my storage unit, I picked it up last summer knowing that eventually you guys were going to pull me into a turbo setup ;)

Quote from: vw1303;82488
Loving the rally themed livery.  Going to look sweet.  Are you planning on running a Kafer Brace in the rear to help support the shock towers/ bracing the frame horns at all?

Yup, I've got a Kafer brace, but haven't even mocked up the brackets. I figure that these are 'relatively easy' to install with the body on, and I have far too many other important things to nail down first. In order to keep the stock heat, though, I'm going to be running a 3-bar setup. Definitely risky, especially with rallying. Might switch to a 5 bar setup and sort out a solution for the heat. The car will have a gas heater, but they're so on or off it's not ideal in the fall/spring when you just need a bit of heat to keep the navigator from whining too much.

--------

Today has been a pretty long evening/night/morning in the garage. So many hours, in fact, that I'm really having trouble remembering what it was I accomplished.

There was rebuilding the second axle, installing brake pads, checking clearances, bending brake lines, discovering my clutch cable won't work, hating my bent brake lines and redoing them...anyways, the list goes on.



Test fit one of the rally tires on the chassis. Plenty of clearance for the suspension, lets hope they clear the fenders!



Shortly after dinner time...which reminds me, I forgot to eat dinner. Anyways...I was about to head to Vancouver to borrow a trailer when I called in my buddy Scott to take a look at three of my problem areas. I showed him a couple of issues with the clutch cable, and we discussed the double-plating of the suspension mounts. By the time I got back from the trailer mission, about 2 hours later, Scott had the following ready for me:

Clutch cable adapter and adjuster, in Stainless Steel.


Spacers for my suspension mounts...


And finally, a Bowden Tube extension. Now I can use the factory 911 bowden tube mount, and the factory beetle Bowden Tube. Not 100% this is going to work for me, as the bowden tube does have a fairly significant "s" bend...but if I'm lucky this will keep me from making a custom bracket (which would likely route the tube in a similar S)




So the suspension now has grade 8 studs, set into the chassis with red loctite and an M10 nut. From there I placed the spacer, my second plate and then a second nut, this time with blue loctite. the setup with a stud should be much stronger then just a single bolt with a spacer. If I start tearing these off, I've got much bigger problems!



Pan is dropped on the ground, still needs rear shocks so it's resting on the bump stops. From there I went looking for front suspension parts...I really hope I can find the steering box, because so far I've had no luck at all. I seem to recall the best time to put it in is while the body is off the pan. Found two bad ones, but not the good one.



Well, off for a few hours of shut-eye, then tomorrow it's off to see the paint job!

-Dave

--------------







Long story short, trans hits the body so some massaging is necessary. Decided it was easier to bring it all home vs. Working on it in someone else's shop while they have other work going on.

I'm so stoked on the paint....but so exhausted from the last few days. Car can stay on the trailer tonight!

-Dave

-----------

For the last few days, as friends have been asking how it's going, I reply with "I'm at that stage where nothing fits"...so the body not fitting on the pan was pretty much exactly what should have happened. Turns out I need more clearance for the transmission (somewhat expected) and more clearance on my suspension double-shear plates. Also not sure if I got enough blue into the paint choice. There should be a hint of blue in Polar Silver, but I didn't want too much. Might not have done enough, but it's too late now! Blue tints are incredibly difficult to photograph as well, so in some shots (like the first) it looks perfect...in others, and real life, it's far more white-silver. Not complaining, just keeping record.




The satin hood was apparently quite tough to get "right". They bought some product that was supposed to make the paint satin, but when mixed to spec it was definitely gloss black. It's a custom mix now, so don't scratch it :P


Hard to believe that's the same beat up apron which was on the car when I bought it.




I'm planning a full headliner, so no need to clean/paint the roof area.


...probably should have fixed that radio slot, but was planning on a Carbon Joe Dash...oops!




Problem area.


...should fix the problem :P


QA1 DS402 rear coil over shocks. Wish I had the funds for the double-adjustable (rebound and compression separately), but at some point you just need to admit that you're bleeding way more money then you can realistically afford to. And, while there are a bunch of threads on the GL forums about fitting these...let it be known that it's far more of a B**ch then anyone has made it out to be!


A lot of clearencing of the lower shock mount was needed...


Not sure why I'm going to need spacers here, and others haven't. I wonder if there is a difference between the Type-1 arms that I'm using and the 944 arms that other people seem to be using.


...and I had to offset the lower bolt by quite a bit as well. I'm definitely not happy with the bolt or the amount of material I removed. BUT, it will hold to move the car around and get the pan bolted up to the body. Down the road when I can get it onto a lift I will weld in some support and a better mounting solution.


I'm almost ready to start fitting the body! Just gotta go return this trailer, and prep the lower pan gasket.

-Dave

--------------

I actually enjoyed a coffee in the garage the other day, just walking around and looking at the body/paint job.

Didn't get much done on the car yesterday, was working later then normal and then off doing some coaching work. Instead of some garage time I put in an hour on the decals I'll need for the car. Doesn't look like much for an hours worth of work, but by the time you sort out the files, and do the layers it takes a while!  Finally figured out the roof decal, it's the old Raiffeisen Bank logo. Ran out of vinyl before I could do the stripe or the windshield decal. I'm considering paying a shop to do the stripes, just because they're so hard to lay straight on a curved body surface.





-Dave
--
'71 Type 1 - Rally Car Project
'75 Type 1 - Heirloom
'95 F150 - Unfortunate daily driver...

Offline owdlvr

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #43 on: December 18, 2011, 11:06:21 AM »

-------------

...well, after two late evenings at work, I got back to the bug tonight. There is some positive news...the car is no longer resting on top of the sawhorses with the pan below...but instead resting on axle stands, mostly bolted to the pan:



The problem, and one I wouldn't suggest any of you repeat, is this particular body and pan combination are meeting for the first time. First time? Yes, really. And yes, that's after paint! :-) Due to the way the project progressed I haven't actually had an opportunity to have this particular pan and body together in the same room. To make a long story short, they have both been bolted to a different body or pan...and THOSE two were bolted together at one point. So if A and B fit, and B and C fit...then A should fit C? Nope!

Front bolts up no problem, four frame head bolts and the four bolts in the front of the heater channels. Under the rear seat 3 of four bolts are no problem. Passenger side heater channel, no problem. Driver's side heater channel...no dice. Now, I know normally one might need to pull out the die grinder and adjust things an 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch, but in this case my d-side heater channel is almost 1/2" too wide at the rear corner. Hmmmm.

As the night progressed I was able to massage 4 of the 9 heater channel bolts in, with #5 just about ready to go. The die grinder on a bare pan/body isn't exactly quiet so I figured I should stop before the neighbours complain. The last three bolts (moving rearward) are going to be the tough ones. Might be pulling the body off to put some new inserts in.

-Dave

-----------------

hahaha...I think this might be the longest I've gone without an update. Three whole days :P

Friday and Saturday were basically spent prepping items for installation. Painting parts, finding baggies of nuts and bolts...basically boring tasks in the garage which must be completed. But boring tasks lead to quite productive Sundays...so here we go:



Front suspension, steering box, tie-rods and related kit are all in the car. Also finished up the brake lines, brake master and various grommets. If I had the front calipers (which I sold with the '69) the brakes would probably be bled and ready to go. I must say mounting up all the suspension pieces from new is a fun "which goes first" puzzle, the sway-bar to control-arm nuts being the toughest of the bunch. It was all relatively smooth, just had to come up with a good method for compressing brand new urethane bushings!

One thing I'm not too stoked on is the upper strut mounts I've got. The left-side bushing is sitting all the way forward while the right-side sits center-outside. The old factory VW mounts sat perfectly centered, so it's a case of aftermarket replacement units just not being made as well. These ones do have a sealed bearing though...so you win some while you lose some.



I have marked out the car for the gas heater. I've got to cut holes for the intake, exhaust and cabin ducting. The VW Eberspacher installation book includes the templates required, which I've printed out and confirmed to be dimensionally identical to what the book says they should be. As you can see, however, the template doesn't exactly "line up" with holes. Its supposed to be used on a "built car" (dealer install), but that shouldn't change anything that I can think of. There is a *bit* of wiggle room in the brackets, but not much. Haven't cut any holes yet...not until I know I can get it right.



I also managed to get the pedal cluster installed, as well as the heating controls for the standard heater boxes. I've got the shortest VW clutch cable in the car now, and based on the length I think this one might work for me. Will need to setup the clutch fork and adapter tomorrow to see.







...and finally, proving that I'm probably going a bit insane...I went around the car and painted all the bolt heads which weren't acid-dipped and painted before assembly. Can't have rusty items showing through on a perfectly new paint job!



Pretty rad that if I needed to I could bolt on the wheels and roll the car around! Next up is the gas heater cut-outs, steering column, and then the headliner. I'm going to give a one-piece headliner install a shot myself. I figure the Porsche trans internals scared me before I opened it...and it wasn't bad. How terrible could a headliner job really be!?! Worst case, I do a horrible job and waste the cost of a one-piece headliner. Best case I end up with something passable for now :P But at this point I don't have the budget to pay someone to do it. So rather then hold things up for the sake of headliner, I figure it's worth the chance.



-Dave

-----------------


Doesn't look like I got much done tonight...but cutting holes for the gas heater isn't something you rush! The exhaust and heater outlet holes are cut, but I didn't realize I don't have the correct sized hole saw for doing the heater intake hole. Will have to work that out later this week.



Originally I planned on installing the steering column as well, but one look at it's less-then-perfect finish, and I knew I couldn't do it. So stripped it down and it's currently drying. Will be a few days until I can get back to the car unfortunately.

-Dave

-----------

Well, I've been out in the back country working on a car commercial so I haven't been able to touch the car since Monday. Got about an hour in last night, so not much to report.



Steering column is in, and I did pop the wires in properly after the photos. Went in relatively easily once I tore apart two columns to make one smooth working unit. A bit choked that the turn-signal and ignition switch unit looks so worn...but hey, gotta start saving some money somewhere!



I got the top boot on and sitting properly, but can't get the bottom boot to stay "in the groove". I can manage to wrestle it up and get it to stay...but after a couple of turns of the steering wheel it pops off. Come to think of it, I've never seen a car where it isn't popped off!

Tips? Tricks? Secrets?

Next up, I was thinking, would be the headliner. Unfortunately "Ivory" actually means "brown-ish"...so I'm going to have to return this headliner and source out a white one. Will probably delay the project to after the holidays :(



-Dave

------------

and now the Airspeed Forum is caught up. Don't expect super-rapid progress in the next 2.5 weeks, I'm house & dog sitting across town so I can't just walk downstairs and start working :P

-Dave
--
'71 Type 1 - Rally Car Project
'75 Type 1 - Heirloom
'95 F150 - Unfortunate daily driver...

Offline Randy

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #44 on: December 18, 2011, 12:11:33 PM »
Great project, keep up the good work.
A trick I did for installing my headliner was to stretch it out in place in the car, then put a couple of quartz lights inside overnite, keeps it pliable and I could stretch it more to eliminate the remaining wrinkles the next day. I used brush on contact cement (2 coats - applied after getting the headliner in place), a hair dryer and lots of bulldog paper clips to keep it in place while the glue dried. If you have any old magazines see HotVWs Jun 1987, Sept 2007, May 2001, VWTrends Jun 1984, Sept 2004, Aug 2002, Hope this helps.
Randy

Offline silas

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #45 on: December 18, 2011, 03:44:16 PM »
great work dave! keep it up...this car is going to be badass when it's done!!

Offline owdlvr

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #46 on: December 18, 2011, 07:48:40 PM »
Thanks!  I just wish it would be done NOW so I could drive it! :P  Winter sliding is so much fun, and I fear I'm going to miss most of it.

Since I now have to wait to source a more white headliner...I entered wiring harness hell:





I'm taking the best bits from two '71 harnesses and a '72 harness. Once I've got a good stock harness I'll start pulling it apart to graft in the various extra circuits that I'm going to want. I anticipate progress to be slow over the next few days...

-Dave
--
'71 Type 1 - Rally Car Project
'75 Type 1 - Heirloom
'95 F150 - Unfortunate daily driver...

Offline Bear and his 63

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #47 on: December 19, 2011, 10:22:45 AM »
When my friend Paul and I were installing the headliner on my 63 ragtop I thought, "How hard can it be?" but it turned out to be one of the most difficult things we ended up doing on the car. That being said, we were dealing with a three-piece headliner and not a one piece like yours. It shouldn't be a problem for someone who has faced as many tremendous challenges the way you have. Great job! Can't wait to see it all together.
« Last Edit: December 19, 2011, 10:24:39 AM by Bear and his 63 »

Offline Hansk

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #48 on: December 19, 2011, 08:50:19 PM »
Awesome project!!  Nice work!  Just the making of this article alone would be overwhelming to me.
Its funny , when you first posted this project , I thought of the salzburg cars (though I couldn't remember
what they were called) . I eventually found them on you tube again.  Very cool!
Big fat black fastback

Offline Geoff

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #49 on: December 19, 2011, 09:10:16 PM »

Offline owdlvr

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #50 on: December 19, 2011, 11:38:02 PM »
awwww yeah! Can't wait for extreme oversteer :P

So tonight was back to the wiring harness. The following should not be undertaken by those who can't read a wiring diagram!

First off, the harness that was in the car was badly hacked by a previous owner. Bad crimp connectors and replaced segments of wire everywhere. I knew I had better sections in other harnesses, but to be fair and honest I don't have a good complete harness. One Harness, for example, has the left-side headlight and horn wiring cut off (likely for a good reason, but I don't recall). Another harness is cut on the driver's side (again, probably for a good reason)...and then there are usual frays, splits, etc.

When in doubt, cut it out!

First off is the outer protective sheath...



If you're not careful to ziptie or tape the wires as you pull it apart, you'll quickly end up with a mess of wires that you can't put together and have fit the car. So it's important to tape 'em, especially any spots where wires split off from the main grouping.



...if you're lucky, the donor harness you're planning on using doesn't look like this:



...or like this. I'm beginning to think my car was in a flood at some point. HOW did the inside of the harness, halfway down the heater channel, get wet enough to both still be wet...and growing mold?  Nasty, pass me another pair of gloves.



Despite fears of some horrible moldy death, I forged ahead. The left side headlight wires were replaced with a second set of right-side wires, as they were in the best shape. The horn wires were extended, And a couple of wires were swapped out in the main loop that goes down the A-pillar. It's amazingly slow work that required cutting apart three harness just to make one good one. At one point I was thinking about how a new harness would be so much easier...but then remembered I would be cutting all the sheathing off a brand new one, so it really doesn't matter. I was going to start on the "dash area" of the harness, but after a few minutes I realized that I would need to mount it into the car first to see where all the wires go and what I would be able to clean up. It's such a rats next as it sits, I can't see an easy way to clean it up (out of the car).



I think the harness is now ready to be dropped into the car tomorrow. From there I'll start adding the wires and circuits I need, taping and moving wires into and out of the factory harness as I go. The headlight wires, for instance, will no longer go to the factory fuse box but will need to go a set of relays I'll be installing. Once I've got the whole harness (including my additions) taped up in the car, I'll pull the whole thing out and use expandable wire loom to cover the wires. Now I just need to find a 6-relay holder that will fit in the area I have in mind :P



-Dave
--
'71 Type 1 - Rally Car Project
'75 Type 1 - Heirloom
'95 F150 - Unfortunate daily driver...

Offline Geoff

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #51 on: December 20, 2011, 08:17:36 AM »
This is how a project gets built in time! Work day job all day then work all night on the project, sleep ...who needs it!

Offline owdlvr

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #52 on: December 20, 2011, 10:38:27 AM »
Sleep is for the weak! :-)

Admittedly I only managed a couple of hours in the garage last night...just too tired after last weeks Car commercial. But even an hour a day knocks off items and gets the project moving forward!

-Dave
--
'71 Type 1 - Rally Car Project
'75 Type 1 - Heirloom
'95 F150 - Unfortunate daily driver...

Offline owdlvr

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #53 on: December 21, 2011, 01:19:37 AM »
So if I'm honest, I wasn't really feeling into wiring tonight. The car is across town since I'm dog & house sitting...and, lets be honest, wiring isn't exactly the most exciting option out there! But, I have a rule about spending an hour a day...so over to the shop I went. Arrived before 8...and after I started, ended up wiring until midnight before I noticed the time. After some help from the motorgeek forum I found the relay mounts I'm going to use, and decided that my relays will get mounted to the front face of the fuel tank support, underneath my 'strut bar'. It's the most logical location for 2/3rd of the relays that I'll be putting into the car. These include the fuel pump, headlight and rally light relays. Since there isn't a "clean" spot to put my dash-related relays I'll drop those down there as well.

With that decided I was able start reworking the front half of my harness. First off, I ended up removing the stock headlight wires completely. Since everything will be relayed I only need to run two trigger wires from the fuse panel, and they can be relatively light gauge wire. After those were removed, I started adding wires in. Most of what I ran could have been done with 22ga wire, but I tend to only keep 18ga and larger around the garage. A little overkill, certainly heavier, but I'll survive.

Wiring added:
Lights
- Low beam trigger wire
- High beam trigger wire
- Rally light 1 trigger wire
- Rally light 2 trigger wire
- Rally light 3 trigger wire (future upgrade potential)

Fuel Pump
- Tach Signal wire
- Selection switch wire x2 (fuel pump selector switch pump 1 or 2)

Rally Computer
- Power feed x 2
- selection trigger wire x2 (allowing me to choose between ignition switched power source or direct battery power source)

Dash
- Oil light trigger
- Oil light power
- Gen light trigger
- Gen light power
- Turn Signal indicator trigger
- Turn signal indicator power
(The above allow me to use any gauge combination I desire, and still have working warning lights)

Other
- Spare wires for future additions x2
- 4ga power wire direct from battery
- 4ga power wire from fuse box (ignition switched)



So looking from the bottom up...the first two loops are the turn signals, L&R. The next loop consists of all the new wires I've added, which will end up hidden under the spare tire. The next loop after that is the "Mid harness" which goes to the Voltage Regulator. Above that are the wires that will make up my switch panel. I think I'll end up putting it where the stereo would normally go. And then there is the fusebox and the wires for factory switches.

Here is the harness being test fit into the car:



My relay mounts will be in on Thursday, and by then I'll have decided on the circuit breaker mounts. Definitely will need to find a "wiring cover" for the 1302 (or make one), as the behind the dash area is going to still look like a complete rats nest. Especially once I add in all my gauges!

-Dave
--
'71 Type 1 - Rally Car Project
'75 Type 1 - Heirloom
'95 F150 - Unfortunate daily driver...

Offline owdlvr

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #54 on: December 22, 2011, 12:12:00 AM »
Alrighty...shop only got some of the bits in I needed, so didn't end up going as far as I hoped tonight.

Relay mounts are in, bolted up using three RivNuts.


Then started organizing the wiring that will go into it. These wires are passing through from the back, and will be marked so that I know where to trim the length. Only three wires on this end actually need to be identified as to their purpose. The rest just go in one big bundle to the same spot so it doesn't really matter at this point. I ran wires for the factory headlights, and then realized I'm out of 12 gauge for the rally lights. Ah well, just add that to the list for tomorrow!



With everything I could do there complete, it was time to move on. I don't want to move onto the rest of the harness until I have the front dialed, as this helps me keep the ever-changing diagram straight in my head. There is a hardcover notebook that is getting all my diagrams and thoughts, but working on harnesses for me requires a flow, and so the front needs to be finished first.

For the moment I've moved onto figuring out what I'm going to do with the dashboard. My original plan was a Carbon Joe dash, and while I had one ordered I haven't heard back regarding it. So I'm working on the back-up plan. My Stewart-Warner gauges seem to be perpetually "coming soon", so I'm really at a loss for what to do. The factory Salzburg cars were just a stock dash with a tach bolted to the top and some TAG-Heuer rally clocks on the glove box door. Audi factory rally cars from the early 80's seem to have a dash made up of whatever was lying around the workshop. Mostly VDO gauges, but not always, and most certainly not all matching each other. I checked the gauges I have...and mismatched pretty much sums it up...





I trimmed the factory speedo hole to fit the Porsche Tach, and if I'm going to run a stock dash pad that's definitely my first choice. Now I just need to decide if I'm going to pair it with the Stewart Warner, go with a VDO set or Autometer Sport-Comp...then, of course, I need to figure out where to put them! At the very least I'll be running a Rally Computer, Tach, Oil Pressure, Oil Temp, and Fuel level. I may add a speedometer, volt meter, and air/fuel gauge. Just gotta figure out what fits, and is readable while I'm driving.



-Dave
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'71 Type 1 - Rally Car Project
'75 Type 1 - Heirloom
'95 F150 - Unfortunate daily driver...

Offline owdlvr

  • Dave Hord
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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #55 on: December 22, 2011, 11:58:09 PM »


More progress...but not as much as I hoped (wiring always seem to be that way). The harness is complete to the regulator & battery, 3/4 complete to the engine bay and just needs to be covered in Techflex. So far I've added 540ft of wire and more circuits then I care to think about at the moment. Should have the correct size Techflex tomorrow, and could hopefully finish this up before Christmas morning. Mind you...each time I think I'm getting close I think of a few more things I need to do :P

Here are some detail shots of how the Techflex looks when I'm done with it:



-Dave

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'71 Type 1 - Rally Car Project
'75 Type 1 - Heirloom
'95 F150 - Unfortunate daily driver...

Offline owdlvr

  • Dave Hord
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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #56 on: December 23, 2011, 11:30:25 PM »
Finally getting near the end of the front half of the harness....Had to do an emergency run to the city for more Techflex, but made it 10min before a supplier closed for the holidays. Eeek, almost got stopped for a week! In case anyone needed further proof that I'm insane...





I also couldn't get heat shrink into a couple of spots. So I'll be using Silicone Fusion tape tomorrow. The harness is ready to go into the car, the last bits to be TechFlexed are the headlight wires, but I'll need to pop the fenders on in order to figure out the length. So with that I moved on to other items. Heat reflective fiberglass tape on the fender (under the gas heater)...



And then this new plate.



A few rubber mounts...



...and we've got a new mount for my fuel pumps and the secondary fuse box.



That's basically as far as I got. The fuse box I ordered in was basically crap, and I refuse to use it. I did a quick trip around the automotive suppliers in town, as well as a stereo shop, and didn't find anything that I thought would be useable. The Audi's have a fuse strip that separates out of the standard fusebox, which I thought might be useable...but then I started looking at the factory VW fusebox again. Hmmmm...flip that sucker upside down, and it could be perfect. The factory cover should pop on.



I need to sleep on it. There are lots of reasons the ceramic-style fuses suck, but I tend to keep the terminals clean so it shouldn't matter. Anytime I've run into a "should I / or shouldn't I" problem, I try to look at it like the factory engineers would have. This is a fairly elegant solution using what is available on hand...exactly as the factory would have (for proof: see transmission mounts).

Still need to take a good nights sleep I'll know whether I like it or not. And I suppose in the long run it's fully upgradeable to an ATO-style box down the road.

-Dave
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'71 Type 1 - Rally Car Project
'75 Type 1 - Heirloom
'95 F150 - Unfortunate daily driver...

Offline owdlvr

  • Dave Hord
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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #57 on: December 26, 2011, 09:49:04 PM »
Haven't done much work on the car in the last couple of days. Something about a big holiday and family dinners and such ;) I did get the front half of the wiring harness back in, and insulated against heat near the gas heater. Kinda like the look of it installed, but this part of the project is taking waaaaaaay too long. I will need to mount a fender to do some measuring before I can finish up the techflex on the front.

 

...relay and fuse panel are in. I still need to figure out how I'm going to label the fuses so I remember what controls each circuit...and not really sure what I was doing when I put the labels up. Somehow I missed the first and last relay labels! Will have to cut another couple off the vinyl machine tomorrow.

 

The fuel pump wires will need to be completed after I get a couple of the Rabbit fuel pump relays, and a second pump. For now I'll move onto the dash portion of the harness and slowly work my way back. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

-Dave

--
'71 Type 1 - Rally Car Project
'75 Type 1 - Heirloom
'95 F150 - Unfortunate daily driver...

Offline number3

  • Rob Frose
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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #58 on: December 27, 2011, 09:23:30 AM »
I think in keeping with the spirit of the build you should label your fuses and relays in german.  Why make it easy on you? :41:

Offline beetlemandan

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Re: Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build
« Reply #59 on: December 27, 2011, 10:32:34 AM »
is that a ford relay i spy? forshame dave!  the more i watch this thread the more i think you're setting a new standard for a quality build! this things awesome!
the customer is always wrong