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Post by murphytj on Mar 31, 2010 11:20:11 GMT -5
OK, the Notch is back home and here it is on the fram table before we started lifting it to ride heighth. I mis-spoke in an earlier thread that the ride heighth was going to be 12". Not sure where that cam from but the outside edge of the body will be 9" from the ground right behind the front tire and 10" in front of the rear tire. The frame and other under-body stuff will not be below 6" from the ground. I'm playing that by ear. Soon, I will be ablt to remove the wheels from the frame table and set it in the garage on the levelers. I've already installed some supports in the interior of the body. Once the car is mounted and the frame table is set on the floor, I can cut out the trunk and other parts that are in the way. While cutting out the trunk area, BEWARE, where you cut. If you plan on taking out the front apron,especially.
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Post by notchman on Apr 6, 2010 15:50:43 GMT -5
While cutting out the trunk area, BEWARE, where you cut. If you plan on taking out the front apron,especially. Tom, Can you please explain what you mean? I'm planning on cutting the entire front end off at the firewall and making a flip-up front end using the fenders, hood and apron.
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Post by notchman on Apr 6, 2010 15:54:21 GMT -5
I got the right hand side engine compartment cut out. Looking at the picture you can see that I might be getting a little nervous. However, it is braced well and is solid. Once I get the metal where I want it, I'm going to weld the rear fender to the body. Here you can start to see what the rear tires are going to look like. They look small again. I always go with the philosophy of "go big or go home". But I think that even though these tires don't look too big, they are big enough. They are going to be very streetable.
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Post by V8 Super Beetle on Apr 6, 2010 16:28:04 GMT -5
Looking good. They look pretty meaty to me. ;D
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Post by V8 Super Beetle on Apr 6, 2010 16:51:18 GMT -5
Just had a thought. Once you build the entire car on the table, do you take it apart and reassemble on the ground, or do you make ramps to drive it off...
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Post by Mock1racer on Apr 7, 2010 6:55:26 GMT -5
I think Tom means to make sure you don't cut too much out, Structural forms, braces, reinforcement, etc. I did that to mine and had to go back and re-brace some stuff. Are you going to weld the front clip all together, fenders,hood, apron? There's a guy on Volksrod that used the original hood hinges to do a flip-up hood, I thought that was cool, and am looking to do my car like that. Cool build.
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Post by notchman on Apr 7, 2010 8:52:49 GMT -5
Just had a thought. Once you build the entire car on the table, do you take it apart and reassemble on the ground, or do you make ramps to drive it off... I'm not sure yet since I'm not sure how the body will mount just yet. I have my options for doing it either way. However, I'm imagining that once the frame is built and the suspensions are correct, the car will be disassembled and removed from the frame table. Then it will be reassembled on the ground to complete the rest of the build.
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Post by notchman on Apr 7, 2010 9:16:16 GMT -5
I think Tom means to make sure you don't cut too much out, Structural forms, braces, reinforcement, etc. I did that to mine and had to go back and re-brace some stuff. Are you going to weld the front clip all together, fenders,hood, apron? There's a guy on Volksrod that used the original hood hinges to do a flip-up hood, I thought that was cool, and am looking to do my car like that. Cool build. I was thinking that was what he meant too. Since I am welding the entire front clip together, I didn't think there was much to worry about outside of alignment. Once I get the entire body mounted to the table at ride height, I will take extensive measurements and make a lot of marks on the table. Once I figure out where in space the front clip "will" be, then I can cut it all out and start building the front part of the frame to within the front clip measurements. To make the front clip fit correctly, even the gap between the peices will need to be taken into account when welding them together. At the Frog Follies last year, I saw a car with a flip front clip and all the peices were bolted together all along the seams about every 8" or so. It made the flanges on the underside very neat and presentable. Obviously, the flanges also create very nice supports for the clip. On the notch, the flanges are already there. They just need to be cleaned up. But doing it this way causes other problems like painting, what to put in the gaps, clearance on the underside, etc. This whole process is very consuming and very technical. Trust me, I don't take up my sawzall lightly. Once I measure everything 100 times, I then "sleep on it" trying to look ahead in the project wondering what my next action will affect later on. On this note, I appreciate the comments and questions because they make me think.
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Post by Mock1racer on Apr 7, 2010 9:23:36 GMT -5
I hear ya! I didn't have this forum when I first started my build and it was trial and error for a long time. One of the reasons I re-built my car was because of the help and ideas from members here and how their builds are.
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Post by 70fastback on Apr 7, 2010 12:08:51 GMT -5
Wow looking good! The tires look sweet under there. Do you think you are going to stretch the wheel opening a bit?
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Post by notchman on Apr 7, 2010 13:42:16 GMT -5
Wow looking good! The tires look sweet under there. Do you think you are going to stretch the wheel opening a bit? I'm not going to stretch them any, but the idea to lower the opening to make the tires appear taller did cross my mind. However, I want the outside body to look as close to original as possible. I actually purchased the rear tires based upon the wheel opening. Theres almost two inches to spare so I should be good as far as clearance goes.
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Post by 70fastback on Apr 20, 2010 10:11:24 GMT -5
updates??!!! Your killing me...you going with 2x3?
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Post by notchman on Apr 20, 2010 15:08:49 GMT -5
updates??!!! Your killing me...you going with 2x3? I finally got the rear rims, they were on back order for a month. i can't believe i haven't taken a picture of them yet. I had them mounted, but the tire place could not (and would not) balance the rear tires due to the width. I didn't think about that. My uncle has a buddy that builds pro mods, he'll know someone who can bubble balance them for me. The above pictures show the passenger side engine compartment cut out. It took me several hours to get it out using a plasma cutter, cutting torch, sawzall, snips, prybars and a hammer. Once it was out, I realized that a long sawzall blade would have done the trick. Went to Home Depot, got an 8" metal blade and hacked through the entire drivers side in less than 20 minutes! The best $5 I've ever spent! I've been trying to get the yard work done and etc so the wife will let me work in peace. I'm having a 10x12 yard barn delivered next weekend, so I can get all of the kids junk and the yard working crap out of my man-cave/hotrod fabrication shop/still-will-barely-have-room-to-work garage. I have been doing some figurin'. I think I've figured out a way to build the frame out of 2x3 AND make it so that the body can be removed for final painting AND create a way to drop the rockers another 3" making the car look lower than it really is. It will use the original bolt holes along the heater rail, and special mounting brackets front and rear. Once I've hammered out the details, I'll post my ideas. My goal for next weekend is to get the garage cleared out and get the body mounted to the frame table.
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Post by V8 Super Beetle on Apr 20, 2010 15:20:32 GMT -5
Sounds like a good plan. I would've never thought of that. The tire balancing problem.
That's what I did. An 8" sawzall blade will take car of everything on these vw bodies. They have a bunch of layered steel, but nothing a sawzall can't handle. Cut like butter. I even cut the front and back of the s10 frame down with the sawzall and it's about 3/16" thick. Once it digs in it goes.
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Post by notchman on Apr 20, 2010 15:27:19 GMT -5
My sawzall is my favorite tool... to work on cars with
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