Rebuilding my 68 Beetle Hillclimb/Circuit race car

[bat69]

Once that is  compelted for the cage hoop and front legs, I go about marking and notching the front legs to the main hoop. I do this first by marking where the main hoop will go. Then I marked where the front leg will go.  

[bat69]

After I do that I mark the half way point on the main roll bar and mark the point where the centre of the front leg will meet the centre of the main hoop. I draw the lines which will come up in a 'V' as seen in the above picture.

After I mark the position I cut with a fine blade grinder. I generally get is pretty close if I measure and mark it right to start with. Its just a mater of using a gringer to scollop out the join or 'V' to get a neat fit. This process takes getting in and out of the car a little bit, but hay it keeps be occupied.

When you get it right it should look like this.  

[bat69]

Now its just a mtter of doing if for the next side. Once it do that I mark and get the basic position for the front window bar. I then tack the cage together, pull out the floor plates and drop the cage through the floor.

[bat69]

After you drop the cage down, and weld to gether, lift back up, place the floor plates back in place, cut the rear legs together and add the 'B' pillar bar and the cage is done. Here are a couple of photos of the cage done.

All in all it took me a bout 12 hours to assemble the cage + the couple of hours it took to bend it up.

[bat69]

After a few months of not putting any time into my circuit racer due to work, family commitments and the like, I finally had a few hours over the weekend to dedicate to the race car.

I got the the bug blasted and recently picked it up only a couple of days ago. It came back from the blasters better then what I expected, so now it is primed basically ready for paint. There are a few imprefections that need attention, but these I am going to smooth over with filler. After all it is a race car and not a show car.

Im am doing a basic 'dry' fit out before I paint it. So I fitted the seat, wheel gauges and located a few brackets for brake bias etc. My idea with this is to drill, cut and weld all my holes and brackets before painting and make sure everything is neat. I really do not what to have to weld in a new bracket after I have painted the car.

Here are a a few photos

[bat69]

And a couple more

[Eric Ellis (57HotrodVW)]

Looking good, Nathan!

Has your dad been "supervising" the construction of the new car as well? (Tooheys New, FTW!)

[bat69]

After a few months sitting idol due to various reasons, I finally have got busy over the last few weeks and got stuck into the circuit bug. Im now in the final stages of assembly and should, all things going to plan, have it ready to race by the Australian Hillclimb Championships in mid October.

Added a splash of colour:

[bat69]

Been busy adding the interia (or lack there off), alloy blanking plates, steering wheel, pedals, guages etc

[bat69]

Also got a few extra goodies like new shocks, bars , spring plates and beam

[bat69]

Thats it for now. I was waiting on an order of bearings, bushes, tie rods etc to arrive. Now I have them I can finish of the assembly of the front and rear and then in with the motor and box which Im aiming to have completed by the weekend.

Alloy custom tank by M&J Fabrications will be complete next week and once thats done it will be fitted and I will finish the plumbing of the EFI fuel lines and complete and finish the wiring.



 

[jonjon86]

Any updates? I'm keen to get my own circuit beetle made up and this has been a massive help to me. The cage manufacture especially.

[bat69]

Any updates? I'm keen to get my own circuit beetle made up and this has been a massive help to me. The cage manufacture especially.

There has been a fair amount of progress since I posted these last shots. The major change has been changing from webbers to EFI. The car was basically running with the old webbers and standard fan shroud but while it was still 'in progress' I decided to update to Haltech programable EFI (fuel/spark/data logging etc) and porsche fan shroud. This update better suited my needs of a circuit racing as the fan allowed for better cooling and the EFI allowed for data logging etc. The following photos will show the progress.

[bat69]

And a few more

[bat69]

And the final ones for now. I am in the process of wiring up the ECU and with any luck I will have it running in the next week or so. The only thing I have to do with the car after that is fit the doors and bumpers and then go racing. I am glad and a little humble this build thread has helped or motivated you with your own car. I am passionate about rally/circuit/road racing and I am glade that I can share it with the rest of the world.

[John P]

Sweet! Tell us more about the final motor details. What are the class restrictions?

[bat69]

Sweet! Tell us more about the final motor details. What are the class restrictions?

My engine will essentially be the same engine I have run for the last 4 years. Well 1 of those 4 years. The other 3 its been in storage waiting for the new car.

The engine is built by Stan Pobjoy over here in Oz and is 1914cc (or 1915 or 1916 - Depending on who you talk to). It runs a standard VW crank which has been counter weighted and balanced, matched to standard VW rods, also balanced. The case has been machined to 94's and runs Mahl pistons and barrels. Heads are 044 wedgeports (& big beef manifolds) running S/S 42/37 valves and now runs VW 1.25 rockers. Cam is one of Stan's and has around 460 thou lift. This is all run through 45mm throttle bodies controlled by a fuel/ignition Haltec E8 ecu. Gases are controlled by a Air-cooled.net exhaust and homemade stinger with hotdog muffler.

The class I run is called Improved Production, and as the name suggests the class is based on production cars (family cars) with slight improvements allowed within the rules.

The chassis have to pretty much have to stay stock. All un used brackets, hoodlinoing, carpet etc can be removed. No body stiffen is allowed apart from the roll cages which is not allowed to extend outside the drivers/passenger compartment (& a strut brace for strut type cars). No fibre glass guards or plastic windows are allowed although you can add plastic flares to the guards as well as a front and rear spoiler. The rear spoiler is only allowed a max heiht of 125mm and must be fixed.

The engine rules basically allow any engine with the vehicle family (i.e. VW in my case) provided it still runs the same cylinder and configuration (i.e. 4 and flat 4 in the Beetles case). Heads are free, exhaust is free, induction is free and internals of the eng are basically free to. I.e. So you can add bigger cranks and stuff.

My engine is not totally wild, and last time it was on the dyno it produced approx 130rwhp. It may produce a little more HP now it is EFI and has the slightly larger ratio rockers.  

No doubt there is more HP that could be made but with reliability in mind, the engine has been built the way it has by Stan. Plus given the fact the new chassis is over well 100kg (220 pounds) lighter then the old car, I dont think more HP will be needed to be competative in the class.

I hope that answers your question

[bat69]

The engine ECU wiring has now been completed and I have started and had the engine running thanks to a base map provided by Ben Durie from BDA. I also managed to drive the bug for the first time in nearly 3 years. It was only up the driveway and into the shed. But still exciting none the less.

Below is a couple of photos of the ECU mounting and the engine bay complete and wired. I have tried to keep the wiring as as simple and basic as possible.

[martin]

Looks nice!!!!!! Post links to your pics (photobucket, etc.) instead of uploading them here, so we can see more detail. They are fuzzy now.