4g 71 super beetle

[crash89]

I wanted to wait until i was a a ways into this project before i started this journal. Ive had this idea for a few years now but lacked the skill, knowledge and tooling to go through with it. A front engine, rwd 5 speed bug! This would require a total custom built chassis, a ton of time and parts. So far i probably have a little over 20 hours total into this and almost a year of having it in my garage. So as you can see its taken quite some time.

Goal for now

Parts acquired
*Material for frame
*6 bolt mock up block and evo 8 intake manifold
*World class t5 5 speed matched to a Bill Hincher adaptor bell housing
* front upper A arms, ball joints, lower control arms and latteral bars
* ford 8.8 rear end w/ like new carbon lsd
* wheels and radials for the rear

Set up plans are going to be similar to my spyders. Stock 6 bolt, some sort of 272 cams unsure yet, i still have my 1000s, hx or hy35. Shooting for 500 rwhp and right around 2000#


Started by getting rid of all un needed things.

Clearing out unwanted sheet metal to make room for the front engine and new chassis.

Laying out new new material for the frame rails.

Tack together and some temporary cross members.

Then put into place to get ready for body mounts. Im using factory body mounting locations. For giggles place engine and trans into place.

Current situation now is frame back out and weded on body mounts.

Next few plans from here are the rear crossmember with upper driveshaft loop. Then onto the rear frame rails and starting on the four link.

After that itll be onto the front where ill begin with the engine mounts and trans mount to finally secure the engine in place while i start on the front suspension. Ill need to fogure out what spindles ill be going with first. Im thinking a 3rd gen camaro front spindle amd brake set up. We'll see. For now thats what i got!

 

[crash89]

Got some going on the rear crossmember and upper driveshaft loop.

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[crash89]

Small update but an update nonetheless. I got the rear cross member in place amd got the 8.8 into place. Its a rough guestimate to its final location for now but it served its purpose to get my rear rails fabbed up. Ran out of argon so i havent gotten any further.

As it sits, it looks like the rear end is going to have to come in about 7" per sideto get the wheel fitment like i want it.



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[mitsubishikid]

Nice progress man, and good luck with the build, it's always cool to see 4g63t swapped cars on here.
back in her time [the 70s] my mother went through 4!!!! VW beetles, she told me owning one is like an addiction for some people these are cool cars.

 

[familyMAN]

Very cool build!

 

[crash89]

Thanks guys. Its quite a slow process having little time to get out and tinker so it seems to me that im not really getting a lot done. But cant finish if im not at least taking small chunks away!'

 

[crash89]

Another small update. Frame is all squared and finish welded. And for not having a jig and only being out 1/16" im extremely happy! Inner frame rails fabbed and in place, engine and trans mocked for mounts. I started with some cardboard for templates and had some scrap steel laying around for those. Ill post those when im finished. For now heres these!!

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[crash89]

heres some update! Got the fromt motor mounts built and welded in, as well as the lower crossmember. This will be the lower mounting location for my lower control arms. I mocked up the front ride height. Got me a set of s10 spindles. My upper and lower control arms as well as lateral bars have to go back to be exchanged for different sizes. Still undecided how i want to go with the steering but was thinking of just pulling out one of my racks of either one of my donors. Or going with a 1.8l manual rack. Anyway pics!

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[crash89]

This front suspension is going to be the death of me. There is a lot more to it than i originally expected. Upon getting my first rendition kind of mocked up and some more research i found the geometry was all out of whack and the car would have handled awfully. So some parts went back to the store to swap for different ones to accomodate. Then again round two still needed some changes. I had to cut my 90$ lower arms down 6 1/2". Once the upper and lowers were where i wanted them the lateral bars have been giving me hell too. Myfirst two attempts have failed. I have to make some new brackets and try something else next time. For now heres where im at. [URL=http://s805.photobucket.com/user/oscarson66/media/IMG_2295_zpstkww7f1q.jpg.html] [/URL]

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[RipperXX]

I like what I see, well other than the saw horses. Have you already planned out how you're going to run the intercooler setup?

 

[crash89]

I like what I see, well other than the saw horses. Have you already planned out how you're going to run the intercooler setup?

Yea the saw horses are kinda sketchy. But after the front suspension is done and i mock up and mark the rear rails and rear end itll be on the ground from then on.

As far as the ic set up, ive thought about it briefly but havent actually tried setting anything up yet. I originally wanted to go with a rear mounted radiator so id have plenty of room up front. But no other place for a fuel cell means ill have to run a honda half rad and a small core ic with some efficient ducting. Thats really all i know at this point. Once its a full roller and i have the body mounted finally then ill be able to get into that. First i have to get the chassis finished!

 

[95REGF150]

This is an awesome project. Can't wait to see the finished product. That frame looks stout!

 

[crash89]

Some things have been going on since November. But its still slow going. Got the chassis out of the body and on the ground. After taking a closer look and talking with a couple chassis guys i found that my front suspension wouldnt work the way i had it. It would generate way too much camber in a few inches of travel as well as most likely bump steer like crazy. So, the lower control arms had to come down to level and the uppers have to come up. [URL=http://s805.photobucket.com/user/oscarson66/media/IMG_2457_zpsa3lgsqab.jpg.html] [/URL]
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As you can see, both arms have quite an angle on them. Getting them near as level to eachother as possible will help get the roll centers right and help with bump steer and camber issues.

I still need to buy new upper arms, ones with less angle at the ball joint, and upper brackets that allow me to mount them higher. Lately i just started working on the back half, got the rails tacked up. Next step is to place the rear end and have my buddy come over to measure for shortening and four link set up! Sorry no pics for those.

 

[crash89]

Well since I Last posted I got the rear end shortened, mocked up some rear four link brackets, and welded my parallel bars. Also got to the parts store and swapped out my upper A arms and got that all within spec! With the weather being all crappy, Ive kind of stepped back a little from the project to gather myself. I started feeling that I wasn't all into it. I wanted to take a break and come back when my motivation was back up so I didn't cut corners or anything. So in the meantime I started building an AR15!

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[crash89]

So in the last year its been slow. But in the last month or so its been picking back up. Ordered a few parts and kind of pondered how i wanted to do some things with the car, still a ways to go but i feel like its finally taking shape.

Got rear shocks mocked up, then moved the chassis back to the body and set it down to aproximate ride height. Then found some extra poly bushings from one of my dsm kits for the panhard bar (we wil see how it works)! Got a fuel cell ordered and made a mount. Its only an 8 gallon cell. I feel like it should get pretty good fuel milage so that shouldnt be so bad.

Got all my brackets welded onto the rear emd housing and sent it back to the fab shop to have him weld up my axle ends and get axles ordered. When i got them in i rest fit them, one of them was a half inch too long and wouldn't fit. I just sent that back this week. While waiting on that im finish welding all of the chassis sode of the rear suspension. Once i getthat axle back i can get the rear end painted up, put together and everything installed and movenonto the front!

 

[crash89]

Christ its almost been a year since i updated this. Based on the photos ill try to update as much as i can to bring it up to speed!

*i started mocking the cage up
*i worked on the front suspension
* parted out my spyder
* found out the 7 bolt from the spyder fits in the bug
* bought some parts!
- mustang II rack and pinion, steering column, pedals, sheet metal amd other stuff i probably cant remember.

 

[crash89]

Lately ive been dabbling with the car. Ive done some sheet metal work such as the floor pans, and firewall. Mounted the rack and pinion and steering wheel. I had to modify the factory oil filter housing to be able to remote mount the filter due to lack of room. And just tonight i tore it all apart! Now i feel im ready to sandblast the frame and finish weld the things that are just mocked up. Then paint! Then onto pulling the windows and rest of the interior out of the body to blast and paint the interior. Still undecided on a color though. Well heres some photos.

 

[ThunderChild]

I'm digging it, looking great so far! I can appreciate all the thought and work into the front suspension, it's such a bear when doing custom projects. Subbed for more updates when they come!

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

Back in the day, my step-dad had a 1971 Shantung Yellow Super Beetle. He let my brother drive it one day, and I wondered what that thing could do...

Nothing. That's what.

Me and my brother being teens horny for speed, we tried to do doughnuts in the school parking lot. It wouldn't even spin the tires. Whenever we took it on the interstate, the car would glide back and forth, it couldn't stay straight to save the world.

I can imagine how much better this car will perform with 500hp instead of somewhere in the 65 range. And I'm glad you are rebuilding the whole suspension and steering because I promise you would have been disappointed otherwise. I'm very interested in what you're doing and I hope the rest goes well. I cant wait to see that thing down on its wheels and wearing some pretty paint.

 

[familyMAN]

Love it! keep updating!

 

[crash89]

Back in the day, my step-dad had a 1971 Shantung Yellow Super Beetle. He let my brother drive it one day, and I wondered what that thing could do...

Nothing. That's what.

Me and my brother being teens horny for speed, we tried to do doughnuts in the school parking lot. It wouldn't even spin the tires. Whenever we took it on the interstate, the car would glide back and forth, it couldn't stay straight to save the world.

I can imagine how much better this car will perform with 500hp instead of somewhere in the 65 range. And I'm glad you are rebuilding the whole suspension and steering because I promise you would have been disappointed otherwise. I'm very interested in what you're doing and I hope the rest goes well. I cant wait to see that thing down on its wheels and wearing some pretty paint.

My old man used to have a beetle when I was maybe 5? I remember pulling into our driveway after a snowfall and he'd whip donuts! That was about the only time it'd do anything fun! As far as the suspension, I hope it performs correctly! Im no engineer, just kind of going by the seat of my pants!

 

[crash89]

Since my last update ive taken the care completely apart... Again. This time hopefully for the last time! I sand blasted the chassis and the body, save for the flat panels of the body to prevent warpage. While the chassis war in prime i ran and mounted the brake and fuel lines. I also took a DA to the body and feathered out some of the thick spots that didnt get blasted. Made a makeshift paint booth in the garage and painted the interior. Plan is to clear coat the exterior tomorrow exactly how it sits. I still have the fenders to blast and clear too.

Painting the chassis is next. After all is dry i can start reassembly for the final time!! I still need a clutch, and engine gasket set to freshen it up. Once the cage is back in i need to make a few more tubes and finish up some sheet metal work.

 

[crash89]

Been working on getting the cage back in while I was waiting for my crank to be polished. Upon tearing the engine down for a new set of gaskets and some maintenance I put a dial indicator on the crank. Bad news. I was getting .012”- .005” over the spec of .002-.007”. Thought I could get by with having the crank polished, turns out the thrust face is too damaged and cannot be machined. Well it could but there arent any oversized thrust bearings. So, I got ahold of Mr Peepers since I saw they had a complete 6 bolt laying around. Unknown miles and this thing is filthy, but so far seems in decent condition. Will be using the timing set and gasket set I got for the previous engine to freshen up this one! Far as I can tell this engine is out of a 90 fwd. plan is now to run this with the 14b for the first season out to work out some bugs then next down season put the holset on!

 

[crash89]

Not a lot of progress but some nonetheless. I got all the gaskets and seals replaced ib the 6 bolt shortblock, the 2g head DOES fit onto the 1g block without milling out the holes but im still going to mill out the oil feed stud hole. -12 bung on the oil pan, some more tubes welded into the cage, i had to contact South Bend directly to get my clutch handled, went with a SSX with a B series disc, should handle 650tq! Im waiting on a clutch fork and pivot ball and the motor and trans can be mated together for good!

 

[crash89]

Not a lot to update but heres what is new.
Worked on the door bars,
Ordered a clutch and got it installed. I went with a SSX with a B series disc. South bend ftw!
Got motor and trans installed in the car for hopefully the last time.
And i rented a heated shop with a good buddy of mine (kp116)