V8 1973 VW Beetle Project by V8 Super Beetle

13 minute(s) of a 270 minute read

I haven't got a whole lot done lately cause of life. I did manage to get the wipers on, starting masking the floor for coating, and my bro bought me some carpet for Christmas, which will go in soon.

I also got some pictures and video of the bug outside, finally.

12-7-2010

Here's a comparison of what the car used to look like.  

12-20-2010

Thanks OLNOLAN! It'll be fun toying with them that's for sure.

Time for an update.

I coated the interior flooring and the under chassis with some Master Series. I installed my locking hood pins, my 2" solid aluminum lowering blocks and I finished the install of the one piece windows on both doors.

All that's left, other than small item things, is to wire up the car (lights / signals only cause everything else is done) and install the carpet.

Also, I took the car for a test drive last night cause I was curious as to how it sounds inside without a bunch of parts laying around the car and with all the windows in. All I could hear was the sound of the engine and the rumble of the exhaust. It was pretty sweet.

Some pics of the undercoating. I forgot to take pics of the front and undercarriage.

Here are the 2" blocks from JTR.com. Solid aluminum blocks. Not that extruded hollow crap that could break. It's amazing how much difference a 2" drop made in the rear. The rear is still about 3/4" higher which is perfect, to me.

The hardware is heavy duty too. Notice how tall the nuts are.

Some pics of the rear with the blocks. Made a big difference IMO.

And the one piece windows installed. Doors fully done. The one piece windows are kinda a PITA. I like the look, but I'm not sure I like how they function all that much because they want to pull the rubber inside the door when I roll them down. I hit them with a little WD-40 temporarily, but I'll have to figure something else out so my windows aren't always greasy when I roll them down.

I had some trouble installing them. The guy that sold me my new regulators said I needed 65-67 regulators for the one piece kit. Nope! Well, they wouldn't work cause the glass would hit the regulator on it's way down keeping it from rolling down at all. So I had to reuse the old ones and I modified the window scraper for the one piece windows. Works pretty good now.

The new dual roller regulator I wish would've worked. The window crank mechanism was too long.

Here's the modified window holder / scraper. I basically had to roll the window all the way up, then install the glass. If you install it while the window is rolled down it wont go up cause the regulator pushes the glass up at an angle.

Here's a video.




One piece windows.

The finished doors. I couldn't install the are rests, well, cause the door bars are in the way. Hind sight is 20/20. I'm going to fabricate some pull straps so it'll be easier to close the doors instead of having to grab the window. Oh yeah, can't roll the windows down unless the doors are open either. LOL. They'll pretty much stay down while I'm rolling any ways.

It's not a garage build unless you got a lawnmower in the pics. LOL

Locking hood pins installed.

Here you can see the painted flooring.

Almost there.

2-2-2011

Hey guys! I hope everyone's builds are going well.

Just poppin' in to update everyone. While I'm taking me a breather from the project I've started an O/T project. The only reason this is able to happen is because I'm selling my current gigging amp to fund the project.

I'm build a 50's era Fender Tweed Deluxe guitar tube amplifier from scratch. This is my first amp build and I'm doing it from scratch. I will be hand building my own cabinet and hand selecting each part that goes into this build. This amp will become my primary gigging amp. I play 2-3 a times month in a cover band and I feel this amp will fit the bill.

My tools and budget is fairly limited so I'll be building the cabinet with hand tools and will be borrowing a couple tools here and there from buddies / work to complete this project.

Here is the start of the cabinet. I'm using solid pine for the cab and birch ply for the baffle boards.

Here's how the finished product will look.

I drafted out all the cuts onto the wood and then cut the pieces on the table saw here at work. I'm currently working on hand cutting the dovetail joints. It's going okay. The joints fit together tightly and make a strong joint, but it's not as pretty as dovetail joints done by someone more experienced or by machine tools. That's okay though. It'll be my creation and I'm enjoying the build so far. I've built a few car sub cabs before and I was always best at covering the cab with carpet. So the end results should come out looking nice. I'll definitely be taking my time with this one.

I'm still mauling over certain mods for the layout of the circuitry and getting advice from more experience people. Whatever route I choose to go, it should be a pretty versatile amp for my needs.

3-12-2011

I did finish!   Here's a link to the complete build.

http://music-electronics-forum.com/t23599/


Here are a couple pictures of it finish. I decided to cover it with carbon fiber.

It sounds fantastic, I might ad.  


Here's a video of finished amp. I plan to get a video demo of it in the near future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=I9p3q9CW50Q

5-2-2011

I worked on the wiring this weekend. I routed all the wiring and have all the lights hooked up.

I came to a stopping point here at the dash. I'm using SPST, SPDT, etc. to wiring up the lighting. So things aren't as straight forward as using stock GM equipment and I have a few questions I need to ask the manufacturer before wiring things up wrong.

Here's a picture of the headlights I'm using and the harness installed waiting on the dash to be wired.

6-6-2011

Well, it's getting there. I've been putting in some time lately. I fixed my starter issue and pulled her out for a much needed wash. I also fixed my tranny leak, hopefully. It was leaking around the speedo and the shifter linkage. I still need to add fluid to find out.

I finished the carpet and I'm almost finished wiring the car. I need to wiring up the tach, gauge lights, and install my brakes switch into the brake lines.

Here are some overdue pictures.

A better shot of the head lights with turn signals. The turn signals light up pretty good with the lights on. I took it for a night testing to see how the lighting does.

Carpet installed, dash, gauges, seats bolted in, belts bolted in, and roll cage padding.

Not a whole lot to do. Just minor things. I still need to put a good tune on it and extend the exhaust out the back. Then I'm going to drive the nuts out of it. Haha

9-26-2011

Very cool. I saw the Newman car before. Very nice.

Awesome, Adantesser! Sounds like what we call a volks rod. Basically a bug without fenders with the top chopped. I would love to do a V8 bug in a similar fashion. Very minimal.

Well, I finally took the bug to a car show, now that it's getting cooler. Lots of people were very curious about it and had lots of questions. I think my car was the only car people got on the ground to look under.

My daughter and I with the people's choice award I won.

2-14-2014

Been a long while since I posted. Lot's of things have changed in my life. Still a hotrodder at heart, but the projects have taken a back seat to family, kids, starting a new screen printing business and playing music.

I'm getting an itch for a another V8 project. Something that has a V8 in it already. Possibly an 80's or early 90's camaro, el camino, or malibu. Whatever I can find a great deal on.

I unfortunately had to sell my bug. Had to get some bills paid and my garage is tied up with my screen printing equipment now. The goal is to get the business out of the garage, into a shop, and make it my full time income. Hopefully I'll be squeezing into a project sometime soon. Otherwise I'll just be hanging out and dreaming.