Post by zbhover on May 10, 2009 14:44:38 GMT -5
Hello everyone I just thought that I you all an update on our V8 convertible beetle project.
Over the last week I finally made some more progress, I sliced the beetle in half and widened it 8”. I also got the body sitting on the chassis just about where I want it.
Below are a few pictures of the progress, but I also added 24 new picture to my website: www.zbcreations.com/index3.html if you would like to take a look at them. All the new pictures are in the body work section.
After I tac welded the doors in place to hold the front and back halves of the body together and got every thing squared up, I welded a few 1” angle and tubing supports inside to hold everything square.
I made the side to side supports extra long and out of 2 pieces and clamped them together in the center. This way after I sliced the body in half I could loosen the clamps and slide the body apart.
Next I drew a center line down the car to help get a straight cut.
The next step was to play doctor and slice the body in half with the good old saws all
At this point the only thing holding the body together was my c-clamps on the supports inside.
Next I loosed up all the clamps and slide the two halves apart 8” and then re-clamped everything. This worked out pretty good, it took very little work to get everything lined and squared back up.
The last couple weeks I was working on finishing up the hovercraft that I had in the other half of my garage. Now I have room for our 2nd beetle a 66 hardtop. No real plans for it yet. We did think about putting it on this chassis since it was in better shape, but decided to stick with the convertible.
Next I lowered the body down onto the chassis and it sat on there almost perfectly, almost like it was meant to be this way……. LOL The bar that was under the front of the rear seats sits right on the front bed mounts and the front of the body sits right on the front cab mounts.
I got the fenders centered nicely over the wheels, although its hard to tell in this picture. I also like the height that it is sitting at. The gap between the tire and fender is close to our just a little less than stock.
I still have the old TH-350 trans. on it yet, once I put the 200r4 on, it will bring the engine about 3" closer to the firewall of the body if I use the stock trans mount location. I might move the engine closer to the firewall than that since we lengthened the wheel base about 3". Then I'll think I'll have room for a radiator up front for sure.
Here is another look at the inside with all my bracing. Once I double check everything to make sure it is still square I'll weld a few diagonal braces in.
Also you can see that I have the cross piece where the back seat was sitting right on the front bed mount of the chassis. I put a piece of .75" thick wood in there to simulate a body mount. The front of the car is sitting on the front cab mount pads.
Finally like I said I'm probably going to move the trans. mount back a little. I'm planning on just making a new tranny cross member, mainly because I don't like the hump in it on the passenger side, I don't want to have to have a hump in the floor....
Well that’s about it for now,
Talk to you all later
Over the last week I finally made some more progress, I sliced the beetle in half and widened it 8”. I also got the body sitting on the chassis just about where I want it.
Below are a few pictures of the progress, but I also added 24 new picture to my website: www.zbcreations.com/index3.html if you would like to take a look at them. All the new pictures are in the body work section.
After I tac welded the doors in place to hold the front and back halves of the body together and got every thing squared up, I welded a few 1” angle and tubing supports inside to hold everything square.
I made the side to side supports extra long and out of 2 pieces and clamped them together in the center. This way after I sliced the body in half I could loosen the clamps and slide the body apart.
Next I drew a center line down the car to help get a straight cut.
The next step was to play doctor and slice the body in half with the good old saws all
At this point the only thing holding the body together was my c-clamps on the supports inside.
Next I loosed up all the clamps and slide the two halves apart 8” and then re-clamped everything. This worked out pretty good, it took very little work to get everything lined and squared back up.
The last couple weeks I was working on finishing up the hovercraft that I had in the other half of my garage. Now I have room for our 2nd beetle a 66 hardtop. No real plans for it yet. We did think about putting it on this chassis since it was in better shape, but decided to stick with the convertible.
Next I lowered the body down onto the chassis and it sat on there almost perfectly, almost like it was meant to be this way……. LOL The bar that was under the front of the rear seats sits right on the front bed mounts and the front of the body sits right on the front cab mounts.
I got the fenders centered nicely over the wheels, although its hard to tell in this picture. I also like the height that it is sitting at. The gap between the tire and fender is close to our just a little less than stock.
I still have the old TH-350 trans. on it yet, once I put the 200r4 on, it will bring the engine about 3" closer to the firewall of the body if I use the stock trans mount location. I might move the engine closer to the firewall than that since we lengthened the wheel base about 3". Then I'll think I'll have room for a radiator up front for sure.
Here is another look at the inside with all my bracing. Once I double check everything to make sure it is still square I'll weld a few diagonal braces in.
Also you can see that I have the cross piece where the back seat was sitting right on the front bed mount of the chassis. I put a piece of .75" thick wood in there to simulate a body mount. The front of the car is sitting on the front cab mount pads.
Finally like I said I'm probably going to move the trans. mount back a little. I'm planning on just making a new tranny cross member, mainly because I don't like the hump in it on the passenger side, I don't want to have to have a hump in the floor....
Well that’s about it for now,
Talk to you all later
