My solution for ugly door panels involves some ABS plastic sheet, some climbing webbing, and a couple hours of my time to get it all correct. 911RS inspired door panels!

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No other work completed...the shop was getting to be a disaster so I spent this afternoon cleaning it up and making sure it's ready for the next project. Whatever the heck that might be.

-Dave

Turned out really nice! Very clean. How was the weight compared to stock door panel?

Jason

I didn't weigh them, but it's significant. The two panels were lighter to hands than one factory panel, and that doesn't even include the armrest or all the clips and rubber bits.

They are going to be coming off for the addition of "pockets", because the Rally Bug has zero storage anywhere. I definitely did use the door pockets, especially on the co-driver side, so I need something that's accessible from the driver's seat for things like wallets, pens, etc. When they come off all see if I can get a scale out for comparison.

-Dave

Doh! Had the door panels off again tonight, and I totally forgot to weigh them. Sorry about that.

Storage in the Rally Bug is a definite problem. There's obviously no back seat, and there is less trunk room than a regular Super Beetle. For the most part, on road trips, I've figured it out...but it's surprising how handy the door panel pockets have become. Even just little things like house keys, wallet, gas receipts, etc. all need a spot. On the co-driver side they've got cell phones, pens, navigator crap I don't really pay attention to. We're gonna need some door pockets.

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Cut some ABS to fit inside the door pockets and keep 'em stiff, as well as some strips to support them on the backside of the door panel. The rivets will hold them in, big flange on the one side, two washers on the other to keep them from pulling through the door panel.

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Three rivets across the top, one in each lower corner (which was fun to install).

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Yup, that will work nicely.

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With the door panels done, I tore out the co-driver seat, drained the rear brake circuit and started working on replacing the hand-brake master cylinder.

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The old cylinder was 5/8 diameter, and is actually a Honda clutch master cylinder. It was easy to obtain and has metric fittings, so I had all the fittings to swap it over to AN fittings. The new master, as you can see, is quite a bit larger. I had to source the 3/4" master from Willwood, and work out the fittings to get the inlet and outlet down to the -3AN sizing that I'm using. Fitting this bigger cylinder under the shifter, above the valve for the Accusump and without hitting the driver's seat is going to be a challenge and a half...

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I had to cut off and grind down the casting corner at the back of the master, taking about 3/8" of material off, but it just fits above the valve for the accusump. Banjo adapters to -3AN look a bit odd with the bends, but I don't have to cut and make new lines, and you'll only ever see it in this photo anyways. Things are TIGHT in here!

I pressurized the system with a motive power bleeder, and bled the rear circuit without issues. I should have remembered to bleed the circuit before mounting the hand brake master, as you can see from the mounting angle it traps air. A quick manual bleed moves the air from the hand brake into the rear line, and a second power bleed empties the system. At this stage of my evening, things started to go sour. The handbrake feels wonderful. It's got a good short stroke, and while it does require more effort than my pre-winter setup, it's not bad. I hit the foot brake, no air, and then a second pump and the pedal started to sink. What?! I pumped a couple more times, and that's when I heard it...the tell tale squirt of brake fluid leaking somewhere. Of course, to find the leak required a couple of more pumps...and that's when I realized...I've emptied half a reservoir of brake fluid INSIDE the Rally Bug.

Funny part about having all your brake lines run inside the cabin. You don't have to worry about rocks cutting them, you don't have to worry about them corroding due to road salt. You do, however, have to worry about leaks! The brake fluid was pooling under the driver's seat, which normally wouldn't be an issue except I had been adjusting the seat belts with the new seat. The 6pt belt extras were lying on the floor, instead of wrapped up and ziptied as they usually are. Sigh. Well, didn't need the last 6" of brake-fluid soaked belt tails anyhow, so I cut em off.

Closer inspection of the leak, however, determined that it was actually a pin-hole, and squirting high pressure brake fluid onto the center tunnel, and was then spraying everywhere like a garden hose. A whole roll of blue towel and a can of brake clean later...and I think the interior is clean :P

Cause? A casting flaw in the 7/16 banjo bolt I bought. The sealing flange, had a nick in it.

-Dave

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Back together and ready to go? Here's hoping!

-Dave

I was under the impression the floorpans in our cars wouldn't allow those sexy pedals to fit!

Your impressions would be correct. You'll need to go back to see how much of the front bulkhead I had to cut out to make these fit. The pedal set I really wanted to use (Tilton's 600-series, master under foot), won't fit without cutting away significant portions of the heater channel on both pan and body.

This old(er) set of Tilton pedals are less rigid than the current generation, but ever-so-slightly narrower, which allowed me to make it work. Keep in mind that I also cut them into two pieces and narrowed the distance between brake and clutch to make it work. The washers underneath are D-shaped, not round, and You install one pair of bolts, and they hold the nuts for the second set of bolts. Have to use Allen heads, they are that close.

Lots of work, but I got 'er in there!

-Dave

What thickness are the ABS door panel?

1.5mm, or 1/16"...can't remember if this stuff is sold in Canada as metric or imperial thickness. But they're so close it probably doesn't matter.

-Dave

Well, ran out of fuel in the bug today. Was out doing some tuning and spent 30sec panicking as it was suddenly going lean and nothing was making sense. After a couple of brain cells kicked in, the problem was obvious. I ALMOST made it to the gas station too...but nope, pushed the car the last 100m. At least it's light!

I'm off for three or four days of scouting roads for my Spring Thaw event at the end of April. It could get a little interesting, the weather when I left my house looked good, but now they're calling for rain (which means snow on the mountain passes). Could be a "fun" drive, as I didn't bring my winter tires. :P Tires are technically legal, but not something I would choose to drive in snowy weather on a mountain pass.

Ah well, could be worse. Car is setup like it should be on a race track, not a road (little snappy in the front end). Brake bias is much better, but I haven't romped on it to be sure. Might want to sort that before I hit the mountains! Today I sent my best friend Connor a brilliant Craigslist find. His response was short, and to the point...and quite fitting here:

"It's like you have short term memory for stupid ideas."

heh heh.

-Dave

I've put a 1000km on the Rally Bug, 800 of which was today. Had to stop for a few items...

Got to the ferry terminal, and realized I didn't have any brake lights. Whoops, guess I forgot to check a rather important item before leaving the shop! A quick run through all the terminals and the lights were back in business.

Next 'feature' I discovered, was after a good hour or two of driving, the car developed an issue where it appeared as though the throttle cable was sticking. Instead of going back to idle, it would rev 500rpm too high. After being unable to find the issue in Hope, I chalked it up to something I'd need to look into and continued on to Kamloops. Coming into my exit in Kamloops I realized I didn't have any engine braking, and may even have some maintenance throttle going into the exit ramp. Uh-oh, this could get interesting. YUP, 1/4 throttle stuck on, can't even kick the pedal back to get neutral. And that's when it dawned on me...

The vibrations while the car was running, caused the throttle-stop bolt to back out. There's two bolts, one for full-throttle, and one for neutral. The neutral one backed out, tipping the pedal forward. A quick stop over to a hobby shop in Kamloops, and I had a 5mm nut to lock it down with. While I was down there, I figured I'd red-loctite the full throttle stop as well.

No photos, my phone bit the biscuit about 2hrs after Kamloops. Just the android boot screen over, and over, and over again. Sigh.

-Dave

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Almost 3,000km of "shakedown" later, and I have another list of items to do to the car. Some of these are large items, based on the drive, and others are little things that I've been meaning to take care of for a long time, but you never get around to it. Moving my dash cam, for instance, from the centre of the windshield to an area that the wipers actually clear would be a smart idea. So...tear the car down yet again.

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One of the big issues identified on the drive is that I'm still too rear-brake biased. I was able to work most of it out, but the balance bar is at the point of binding, so I needed to swap out the master sizing. Front brakes got a larger master, and we'll see how that goes.

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Partway through the drive, the tuning on the fuel injection started getting quite challenging, and I suspected an exhaust leak. A few hundred kilometers later, and I knew I had an exhaust leak. Just wish I had stopped to realize it was blowing right onto the rear apron. The paint was already hurting from similar incidents, but I totally demo'd it this time.

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Stopped in Squamish to get a buddy of mine to slice off some 6061 for use as wheel spacers...

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Started modifying the pallet on my rotary table so that I can finish the wheel spacers. Spent the rest of the evening filtering the aluminum chips out of my bourbon with my teeth...but hey, could be worse. I wasn't cutting/drilling with coolant :P

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Hacking away at the list...should be back on the road in another couple of nights for more testing.

-Dave

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I've worked through the critical items on the list, and have just a couple of regular maintenance items left on the list. There is, of course, the usual collection of "would be nice" items we always seem to end up with. Items which can't be completed before the Classic Car Adventures' Hagerty Spring Thaw get moved to the long-term list.

One of the critical items super beetle fans are all familiar with is the front end shimmy. The Rally Bug has a few light ones now and then, but usually related to the fact that I use balancing beads instead of traditional stick on weights. Occasionally the beads will "bunch up" if you hit a pothole, or launch off a line, and you simply lift the throttle and roll back on to smooth it out. So when I left home for the 3000km shakedown, the light occasional shimmy didn't bother me. I was running a second set of wheels/tires that may not have the correct amount of beads in them either. Post shakedown I was expecting to have to do the idler bushing (only original part left, and only part that doesn't get swapped on a schedule). But nope...alignment shop didn't tighten the inner tie-rod locking collar enough. :-| Yikes. By the time I got home it was loose enough I'm concerned the threads could be compromised. Almost new tie-rod in the bin, and one of my new ones off the shelf is now in the car.

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Oddly enough, it seems I have a problem with one of my brand-new Silver Project upper strut mounts. While working the suspension to pull the tie rod assembly out of the car, and check everything over, I found the passenger spring is binding. Further inspection and it seems the whole pillow bearing binds when a load is applied to the upper strut bushing. If you pop the strut out of the lower ball joint, it all spins smoothly. Pop the lower ball joint in (so the strut is under some load) and it binds. The bearing doesn't want to turn with steering movement. I must have pulled it in and out of the car six times, checking, disassembling, reassembling with different washer combinations and so on. Can't find the actual problem, unless it's the pillow bearing. I milled up a little test adapter and tried to bench-load it a little, and I *think* it gets stiffer, so the bearing needs to be swapped out. These came from Poland, and have the markings on the bearing machined off and replaced with "Silver Project", so I'll have to see if I can get them to tell me what they are.

It would seem under full load (with the weight of the car on the bearing, it works correctly. I’ll need to do some short road tests to figure out if the stock bearings are going back in again until I get this solved. On the plus side, the shock boots I made up at the beginning of the winter tell the full story. As the bearing binds, the boot “twists”, and holds the twist…so diagnosis should be easy.

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I definitely should have paid more attention to the exhaust leak. It was expelling hot exhaust gases directly at the rear apron. The photo is what’s left of the fibreglass radiant heat protector…it’s crispy! Unfortunately it has completely trashed the rear apron paint, so I’ll be looking to get that repainted at some point this summer. It was cracked and a little bubbled previously, but now it’s destroyed. The section where it was hitting has some bondo in it, and that’s all cracked and popped off the apron. POR-15 the damaged inside paint (which was completely gone) and two new layers of fibreglass sheet. Replacing the exhaust with one I haven’t beat to a pulp should probably be added to the list!

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I need a way to store the laptop I use for fuel injection, and have it easily accessible. Toss in the fact that I’ve got a co-driver at the next event, and well the front seat isn’t going to work. Hmm…need some aluminium C-Channel. But I have this old pocket door channel…and a milling machine…

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A quick few minutes, and I’ve got a laptop holding box. Added some high impact foam on the inside of the C-Channels, and some felt to the outside for the “OEM” look. It mounts below the passenger seat, you can just see the laptop (in a neoprene sleeve) sticking out.

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Started working on the footplate panel. Ran out of weekend.

Finished off the list, with the exception of the foot plate, and took the Rally Bug out for a shakedown. Rally computer works, steering shimmy is gone, the various electrical upgrades are all functioning and it seems that the fuel injection is working as anticipated, now that the exhaust leak is sorted.

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After this image was taken, I washed and waxed it...and then took the '58 out for a spin. T'was a good day!

-Dave

Awesome picture!

I suppose I should update the Rally Bug thread…

On our Spring Thaw event in April, the Rally Bug was essentially flawless. It’s running quite rich, and I thought I’d have time to play with the tuning before / during the event, but truthfully didn’t. The organizer spends too much time stressing over the actual event, so there just wasn’t time to breathe and play with the tuning. Despite an excessive fuel bill, the car ran flawlessly throughout the event. Hosted 89 cars, 181 people for dinner each night. As the event progressed, I noticed it was harder to start first-thing in the morning, but didn’t think too much about it, as it’s an issue that seems to have crept up since switching to fuel injection.

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Following the Spring Thaw, it was home for a very fast turnaround before loading the car onto the trailer for Colorado. I made some adjustments to the brake bias, changed up the tools and spares package, and headed onto a long road trip south. This would be the real test of the fuel injection system. Could I go from Sea Level to 6,000ft (and 11,000ft on mountain passes) without problems?

After 5 days of driving and being a tourist, I finally arrived at the unloading spot for my trailer. Fired the bug up, with significant difficulty, and took it for a spin. Whoa was it terrible! Since switching over to fuel injection, it’s never run well if cold…but this was something else. I wiped the map, started with a completely fresh map, and started retuning the car from the very beginning. I spent a full day working on the map, and when it was finished the car ran quite well. So well, in fact, that I would argue it was becoming fuel-efficient! Amazing what will happen if you spend some time tuning, instead of trying to do 2min sessions every once and a while :P

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The first two days of the Colorado adventure were flawless. We started in Grand Junction, went over the Grand Mesa and then into Gateway Canyon, where we turned south to Telluride. Highway 141 through Gateway is one of my favourite roads of all time…you might know it from The Grand Tour Jaguar Episode (hint, when they leave the resort stealing all the toiletries, that’s Gateway Canyon Resort). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlPhIy7Te18

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From Telluride we went up and looped through Moab Utah, before heading back into Grand Junction for the night. Day two continued to be flawless, so much so that Ross, Jacob, Erik and I decided we’d take the Fiat and Rally Bug on an off-road adventure. We went over a mountain pass, about sixty miles, on a gravel excursion that definitely wasn’t in the official route book!
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As we hammered away on the gravel, which was quite washboard-y at times, I was worried about flatting the high-performance summer tires, bending a rim, or what-have you. I much prefer gravel on proper tires! We had a rock take out the O2 sensor for the wideband tuning and Fuel-Injection…but not to worry, the rally bug has a second unit installed “just in case”. We switched over to sensor B, and continued our drive. The Fiat dashboard rattled loose, the air filters on both cars were filthy, and both cars noticed a few running issues on the other-side. No worries, a bit of clean pavement should clean them out!

Day three didn’t start nearly as well as I had hoped. In fact, the rally bug wouldn’t start at all. We swapped coils, we changed fuel maps, we tried starting fluid…nothing. Finally I tossed a tow rope on it, and go the sweep truck to pull me, just to see if we could get it to kick over. In less than 10ft of tow, it fired right up. Hmmmmm….that’s weird. Whatever, it’s running, the organizer is an hour behind, and we have to get to the finish! We hit the road, and I put my foot down to catch up. Along the way we passed a Datsun 1500 which had a battery/engine fire. They were okay, and cars behind us would have the spares they needed, so we pushed on. At the mid-morning stop, the car started on a quick bump-start, but sounded “off”. I was stressed, and it sounded like it was running on three cylinders. Rev it up, and it cleared up, and the computer showed good fuel numbers…so run with it!

At one point we lost the signal from Oxygen Sensor B, but as the fuel map was quite well developed at this point we simply switched the computer to run off the map only, with no adjustments.

An hour and half down the road, we pulled over to help some guys who had made a wrong turn. A waft of smoke passed the car as we did, and I pulled over expecting to find I sucked a valve cover gasket or something and had some oil burning off the exhaust. Instead, I was greeted with shouts from the other car saying “Flames! You’re on FIRE!!” Whoa! Jumped out, ran to the back an instantly knew what happened.

Yes, there were 8” flames coming out of the rear apron/under the fender, and I couldn’t blow them out, but it wasn’t fire extinguisher worthy. “water, get me a water bottle!”. I put the fire out, and assessed the damage. An exhaust gasket had burned out, and we spent an hour and a half ejecting hot exhaust right against the apron. Burned the paint, the the engine seal, the fender welt, and all of the wiring to 02 Sensor B. Oops. We removed the offending parts, zip-tied the engine lid up, and hammered onto the finish! None of this waiting around for a tow :P

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About 35min down the road we started to see an oil-stream on the highway, and turning the corner found our friends in the Fiat on the side of the road. I guess our gravel excursion had loosened the drain plug, and they lost all the oil out onto the highway on day three. Noticed/saved it before any engine damage…and after we all searched through our spare parts, a thermostat was found that fit…and it was refilled with oil to continue to the finish!

Since returning home from the Silver Summit, I’ve been battling the Rally Bug to find the no-start issue when it’s cold. I identified a weak spark, and started to chase down the possibilities. New coil, cap, rotor, plugs, plug wires, pertronix…and I finally hooked up the computer controlled ignition system to see if I couldn’t chase it down. I’ve tried everything! And then, it hit me…Dave, when was the last time you checked the valve adjustment? The car has done roughly 20,000km since the last valve adjustment. Uh, oops. You know, compression is a pretty important part of the whole combustion sequence.

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Yeah, so I’m an idiot. But the car runs WONDERFULLY now. I’ve spent some time tuning it on my sea-level tune, and it’s now at the point where you simply start the car and it idles right away. I’ve leaned it out a little, and between fuel tuning and spark tuning I’ve found more power and better fuel mileage.

Great story, tnx!

Went down to Victoria BC for the VW show in mid-june. Hilariously, the Rally Bug won best late model beetle, even thought I hadn't really cleaned it. I only entered for the parking with group, but I'll take it!

The Rally Bug thanked me by dropping a valve seat on the way home. Sitting at a traffic light idling, and all of a sudden the valve train started making horrific noises. I pulled into the gas station next to the light, popped the 1/2 valve cover and found #2 intake with about 1/4" of play. Presumably I dropped the valve seat, and hadn't yet broken off the valve head...I mean, I would anticipate that a valve head makes a lot more noise! Truck and trailer were 2.5 hours away, so basically 8 hours round trip to get the truck and trailer, come back for the car and get home. Well, the head is garbage right? Readjusted the valve, considered the likely possibility of grenading the motor before getting home, and then decided to go for it! The last thing I did was to select a VERY rich tune, and lock out the tune so it wasn't reading the O2 sensor, just running off the map. It was rich enough to burn the eyes of my buddy behind me as we drove :P

After getting home at 8:30pm, I drained the oil and pulled the motor. Valve seat confirmed, don't know if I did any piston damage. Carnage photos tomorrow night once I pull the motor apart.

The next day...

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Sadly, the piston got the kiss of death from the valve seat. That's my last set of forged German Mahle pistons. I have a new set of pistons and cylinders on the shelf, but they are cast units. Sad Panda. The new heads will be CNC ported and shaped, as my usual head guy who hand did this set isn't available in 2018. Since I will need to spec the combustion chamber size, I installed a new piston and cylinder and measured it all up. The cylinders are a slightly different length than my old ones, and the cylinder heads will be slightly different as well...so I'll have to do all new pushrods and valvetrain geometry on the rebuild.

If your valve train ever makes horrible noises, and you decide "I can limp it 2.5hrs home from Victoria", be sure you're making an educated decision. I knew the moment the seat dropped the head was garbage and the piston was likely done too, and so I figured it was worth the risk. Not sure if you can see the aluminum melted all around the valve seat from combustion gases escaping up the intake. It's in the parts washer tonight...will be clearer when clean.

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Unfortunately my end play (crank movement forward and back) was out of spec. It wasn't a shim problem, the thrust bearing has pounded out the case .005". So tonight I tore the whole motor down to a bare case so it can head to the machine shop. That's a two and half hour job with cleaning 50% of the components, and measuring everything before disassembly so I know what's in spec and what needs to be replaced. It'll get new main bearings, new cam bearings and maybe new lifters...but everything else is in spec. I'm super, super tempted to switch to an aluminum case (vs magnesium)...but the $900usd is NOT in the budget. My engine building friend says they run hotter as well, so we'll repair the magnesium case.

New heads, new intakes, and new pushrods all ordered from CB Performance. Of course I CNC ported and matched everything, so it should be a little quicker out of the box once it's back together :P heh heh. You can't blow up parts and NOT upgrade!?!

-Dave

Well, a quick update. Got it all back together using new bits from CB and had the car running in time for the Great Canadian Volkswagen show. When I first assembled it, it sounded like I had an exhaust leak. Small pop at idle. Swapped out the gaskets, and took it to the show. For the most part, it runs great. But I get a pop like a plugged idle jet *just* when the butterflies are opened ever so slightly. So, if you're coasting off throttle, and add just a hair of throttle, it will pop. But not always. Maddening, but I haven't been able to figure out if it's timing, fuel or a simple exhaust leak. Some of the pops will show a flame out the tailpipes at night, but not all of them. Always fun.

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-Dave

Thanks again for taking the time to write all of this up..!

Looks like some real fun.

Are you -sure- you don’t want to ditch the VST exhaust for a proper header?
It might not look the part, but should make (way) more power and not cause leaks.
Did I not see two stacked gaskets there where it leaked?

Again,
Thanks for showing us how it’s done.
I did that Telluride run summer before last,
Albeit in a camper bus loaded with family..

My issue with a proper header is the look. One of the key parts of this build, for me at least, is the fact that externally it is a pretty good visual replica of the factory rally cars. I mean, obviously I've taken liberties and it's true the exhaust looks nothing like a stock muffler (that they used on the factory cars)...but it [i]is[/] much closer in look than a header system. To be fair to Vintage Speed, they have taken very good care of me with this build, and I abuse the crap out of his products. Before I started feeling guilty about it, they were sending me a new system every 6-8mo because I'd put so many dents in them with rocks. The systems are beautiful, but I think the flanges should probably be thicker for a user like me who removes the exhaust system often. Eventually my flanges end up slightly curved, due to over-torquing, and I start to blow out gaskets. On the particular one that blew above, I had meant to weld that connection up but didn't find the time before leaving for Colorado. It's now welded up on both the #2 and #4 connections, so you remove the muffler and stubs off the rear of the engine in one piece. You are correct in that I'm using two gaskets stacked down below, also a factor of a couple of cut and weld modifications I made to the lower flanges. The current exhaust system on my car is actually made up from least-damaged parts from a few systems I've used over the years. Its either the J-tubes or the muffler that came from a unit I used with heater boxes, and the other are non-heater box units. I had to do a bit of creative welding to join the two together into a non-heater box system. The double gaskets, if I line them up correctly on install, last indefinitely.

When I use the Vintage Speed systems on street beetles, they seem to last forever without any problems. Given that the muffler is the lowest part on the rally bug, it's not surprising that it's less than perfect on gravel roads and rallycross events!

I often think about putting a CSP Super Competition system on the car, but even with all the publicity the car has had...no deals are available. $800 euro is a big price tag on a system I can't be sure will take gravel racing any better than the Vintage Speed systems.

Ironically, I quickly solved the popping issue. I didn't line up the double gaskets correctly when I installed them after the rebuild. Popped in a pair of new ones, and it runs like a champ. Finally have the sea-level tune to a point where I don't have to clean the tailpipes after a short drive. Getting better and better!
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Missed it by -><- that much!
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-Dave

Hmmm...not sure what happened between 2018 and today, probably a fair bit, but we'll toss up some new updates to this thread as of this week.

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I haven't used the Rally Bug at all in the last few years, and I've begun wondering why I'm still keeping it around. On the one hand, I don't ever want to sell it...being my first _real_ build. On the other hand, it's taking up a whole lot of space if I don't use it. With two weeks at home, I figured I should at least pull it out of the house garage and determine what it is that keeps me from using it.

1) The brakes aren't setup correctly - it feels like you're pushing on a brick wall, which means the master cylinder sizing isn't correct. I need to swap smaller masters in.
2) It's far too soft and wallowy in comparison to the German Look and the '58, and lets be honest...I'm going to be using it 90% on the street if I start driving it again, so it needs to become a little more fun for that.
3) It's hot, and loud inside.
4) Lastly, when I was cleaning up the shop from my March madness, I rediscovered the 16" wheels I had planned to put on the car...and that's the real reason I pulled it out of the garage. Lets see if we can't at least solve the first two on the list at the same time?

A set of backup struts were torn down for their spindles. This allows me to keep the Gravel setup for the front, in case I want to switch back for some reason.

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Pulled the pedal assembly out of the car, which on this particular car is not easy. I had to split the clutch pedal off of the brake and gas just to squeeze it all in. Much swearing is involved with removal of the pedal cluster, which probably would have gone twice as fast if I had just called Bob to give me a hand. My arms are *just* long enough to reach both sides of nut and bolt on either sides of the floor through the door opening.

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New rotors were prepped in Porsche and other patterns...
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...and then I basically waited for UPS, Fedex and DHL to deliver more bits.

After getting very creative in the shop (safety third!) in order to assemble them. My new front Maxx Struts were put in the car. I bought these from memory, without paying much attention, because I remember them being threaded like a standard coil-over. Turns out that was the "Maxx Extreme" setup, which doesn't appear to be available anymore. Hmmm. Whelp, toss it in the car anyways, and see where we sit.

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Tell me you built the car ten years ago in one picture...
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Pedals wrestled back in.
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3D printed bearing caps...and then, after realizing the struts allow for a tonne of water and stuff into the trunk, 3D printed ABS strut top covers. What did we do before 3D printing??
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Tires mounted. Because I'm not sure how much I'm actually going to use this car, I put the cheapest set possible on it. The red German Look and the '58 both need new tires this summer, and they'll get proper rubber. If I start using this car more, I'll quickly swap it over to some quality rubber.
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Right. Forgot the "trim the balljoints" step. Sigh. I really should do these things more often so I don't forget.
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That hurt. It only hits the wheel once the car is lowered to the ground, and I totally forgot to check given these are 16" wheels and not 15's.
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Given the brake dust, I'm going to presume that the brakes are bedded-in well! :P
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These wheels are pretty special. They are 16" by 5.5" wide wheels, off of Travis Pastrana's Subaru rally car. They were used for winter rallies, and when the team was selling off wheels, one of the guys grabbed the set for me because he thought they'd work well on the Beetle. Now that I've got them on the car, I'm not sure I'm sold on the Gold. Thought I'd love it, I might actually hate it. Will need to run them for a while to see if they grow on me.

The initial test drive was just "okay". There is still air in the rear brake line, due to the hydraulic hand brake, but I cannot remember for the life of me what the trick to bleeding it out was. A buddy suggested cracking the fitting on the handbrake (high point) work the pedal, and then bleed the rear brakes. That definitely helped, but it's not great (yet). The left-front corner also rubs on the tire. I have to figure out if it's sitting lower on the right front, or if the fender is rubbing. Left-Front always rubbed before the right side, so I suspect I just need to massage the fender a little bit.

Lastly, I'm not happy with the rear setup. I lowered it as far as I could go without changing up the limit strap setup - but it's not low enough. Going to have to play with that as well. Nothing like leaving it all until the last two nights before Volksfest! :P

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-Dave

keep up the work! As long as you have time for it between all those trips you are making ;)

You ever hit one of those moments where you discover you're an idiot?

Back when I swapped out the rear calipers from single piston sliders to dual piston (same as the front) I started to battle a brake-bias issue. Keep in mind that I also swapped out for the dual-master pedal box, moved the brake switches inside above the tunnel, and a few other brake-related modifications. I knew the brake bias was going to be an issue, but should be completely solvable with master cylinder sizing and the balance bar. I was not prepared for the gong-show that transpired.

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Removing the pedal cluster from the car is a bit of a nightmare. Back when I put it in, I was a much tighter budget. I used a cluster I acquired by doing some fab work on a friend's rally car, and had to modify both it and the car to fit. But in order to swap master cylinders, I have to remove the pedals which is basically a two-person job. Over the course of a few weeks I swapped master cylinders two or three times, I added a second bias valve to further lock out the rear, I tried everything. Eventually I just accepted that the brakes were like pushing on a brick wall (masters too big) and that I had 'workable' bias unless it was wet...in which case, heads-up! The back end is coming around unless you're paying attention!

With the German Look well sorted, and the '58 Beetle equally well-sorted, I pretty much stopped driving the Rally Bug due (in part) to the brakes being awful. The fact that it's 220F inside the car, probably factored in too. Well, the German Look is currently in Denver. The '58 Beetle is in Toronto, and I'm all the way on the west-coast of Canada without a running Beetle. It's also been enough years that I really want to start driving the Rally Bug again.

I pulled the pedals, as posted here, ordered another set of master cylinders, and popped it all back in. I absolutely have the right master cylinders this time. Pedal travel is ideal. Bedding in the brakes, though, the rear wheels came back covered in brake dust and the fronts had nothing. Hmmm. Okay, so my previous bias setup which seemed to be 'okay' in the dry is way off with these new masters. Dial in more front bias, max out the extra proportioning valve, and...well...it's barely passable. Definitely still rear biased, but only slightly. Braking the car feels like it's under-braked, which shouldn't be the case at all. I've spent a week away from the car, continuously using that 15% of my brain that does nothing, trying to solve the problem. I played around with the suspension last evening in the shop, and noodled some more on it. Nothing is making sense, why can't I get enough front brakes?! Resigned to swapping back in the single piston sliders on the rear (and playing "whats the right master cylinder" game again) I went to bed. About an hour later, it hit me.

I've never actually labeled my master cylinders (until last week). I've always set cars up with Clutch, Front, Rear, Throttle. If you always do it the same way, it's pretty hard to mess it up. HOWEVER, suppose you then immediately go into two brake switches, and then a couple of curly-brake lines into the tunnel or other areas. Is it possible, somewhere down the line, I connected the wrong line to front, and the wrong line to rear? For the past five years, anytime I've pulled the car into the shop to try and solve the problem, I've simply put the front line back to the same brake switch, and the rear line back to the same brake switch.

I'm an idiot.

Last week's bias adjuster:
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The bias adjuster now:
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I have literally been dialling in maximum rear bias for the better part of five years, because I never checked to confirm the knob was still labeled correctly. Sure enough, spun the knob fully the other way, and the bias-bar bearing is full front. Sigh. On the plus side, the car will probably stand on its nose tonight :D

Going to test your latest modifications? Better put on the best T-shirt you have! The 2023 Classic Car Adventures t-shirt features my German Look Beetle...

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Sadly, the parts I ordered to level out the stance won't arrive until after this weekend's VW show...but we're getting closer to being ready. Brakes are excellent, now they are balancing out correctly. Gotta check for an exhaust leak and an oil leak tomorrow, but otherwise good to go.

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-Dave

On the way down to the Volksfest show, I noticed the tach needle would occasionally jump, like an electrical issue or spike. The Rally Bug has always run pertronix inside a 009 that has a roughly two-year habit of causing this sort of issue. Where pertronix usually dies instantly, in the rally bug it gets 'noisy' for two weeks and then dies. I carry points in the glovebox, but figured I could limp it home or swap them when it died completely. Now, keep in mind that I had a 40min wait at a ferry and then a 55min wait for a highway closure. I had plenty of sitting time to swap out to the points.

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Of course, by this point the famous double exhaust gasket temp-fix had also blown out completely...so orange flames shooting out the tailpipe become a standard 'feature' :P The exhaust leak causes the fuel injection system to go full rich, so the combination of randomized spark, and fuel injection computer completely confused, made for a bit of a rough final leg home. Got home, popped the distributor cap, and...would you believe it? Damned thing is running points. They had simply closed up, a quick adjustment and the ignition is stable again. Whoops!

As for that exhaust leak, the double gasket obviously isn't working...so I needed a new solution. Step one...draw up the part.
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Second step, pull out the CNC Plasma cutter...
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Clean it up a little...and this should be good to go.
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Basically, instead of running a double gasket I'm simply just going to run the steel flange as the gasket...and the little bit of leakage that will occur I'll compensate for. This exhaust system only has to make it to the end of the driving season before my 'next plan' kicks in...so the band-aid fix is just fine. Besides, how else am I going to keep those sweet blue-flame backfires on decel? :P

Finally got the rear ride-height to be where I want it:
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Which creates a whole 'nother world of problems. When I did the coil-over conversion, the suspension was setup to work best at stock ride height and more, for rally. Setting it up this low means there is a disproportional amount of suspension droop available, and not enough travel for bumps. The spring rate, which was technically always a problem before, is also now a much bigger problem. I need something in the 325-400lb per inch rate at the beginning of the stroke, but 600-700 at the end of the stroke. Normally one would just buy a progressive spring, but they don't make them in the short spring height I have available to me. So I started thinking about stacking two springs, and what springs I would want.

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Now, given that the red spring is 8" long, and they make 4" springs, it seems like a simple conclusion. Put a 350lb and a 700lb spring in the 8" space, and call it a day? I bounced the question off of a couple of racing buddies of mine, and then spent the last two evenings going to spring-physics classes with links they send me on the internet. Spring physics get absolutely brain bending.

If you stack two springs in series, you don't get a curve that starts at the lower spring rate and finishes at the higher rate. Instead, you actually get a single linear spring rate that is wildly different than you anticipated. Stack a 4" 350lb spring ontop of a 4" 700lb spring, and together the two will act as though they are a linear 233.3 lb spring. The top springs is multiplied by the bottom spring, and that is divided by the top spring plus the bottom spring, to arrive at your linear number: (TSxBS) / (TS+BS) = Spring Rate. In our case (350x700)/(350+700)=SR -> 245000/1050=SR -> SR=233.33

HOWEVER if one of the two springs reaches coil-bind, then you'll have the non-coil-binding spring acting at is 'normal' rate. So if we could make a 2" tall 350 spring, and a 6" tall 700 spring, at some measure of stroke the 350 spring would coil bind (ie: compress fully) and you'd go from a 233.3 linear spring rate to a 700lb spring rate. Hmmm...

In offroad racing, this is done by something called a crossover ring. This ring threads onto the shock body inside the springs. The spacer that is between the two springs cannot slide past the crossover ring. So as the springs compress, eventually the spacer will hit the crossover ring essentially stopping the top spring from moving any further -> now you have a bottom spring acting on it's own, thus it's now acting at it's labeled rate. So, put the 350 spring on top, with a crossover ring inside, and the 700lb spring on the bottom. The suspension will have a 233.3lb spring-rate until it compresses enough to have the spacer between the two springs touch the cross over ring. At this point it will transition to a 700lb spring rate. Moving the crossover ring up and down changes where the spring-rate change happens. We're getting somewhere now.

Now, I happen to know a 233.3lb spring rate is going to be much too soft to start with, as the car sinks to the bump stops on 300lb springs. So we need something in the 375-400 range to start. How the heck do I find a combination of springs that will do that? Wouldn't you know it...there are handy spring charts where someone has already done the excel math for you. Simply scour the chart to find a combined rates in the 375 range and...

aww crap. A 600lb and 1000lb spring combo will do it! I suppose I could put the 1000lb spring on-top (presuming I can get one in 4" length) and lock it out with the collar to end up with a 600lb rate? But I honestly don't know. This is the point where you call your friend Ray, of Trial Engineering. Before moving to Canada Ray worked as a suspension engineer for a very prominent World Rally Championship team. Everyone has a Ray, right? ;)

Fortunately for me, Ray enjoys a good noodling session. He also explained to me the problem with using crossover rings, or planning on one spring coil-binding. The transition between combined rate and single rate isn't so much a 'transition' but more of a stair-step. So, in our original example you go from 233.3lb to 700lb rate almost instantaneously. Not a significant issue on a long-travel off road impact (think jumps in Baja) but potentially significant on a road car. You don't want to be setup and halfway through a tight mountain corner, suspension loaded almost to the crossover and then hit a compression. It could cause some handling issues.

Ray needed more info, so the suspension came apart for measurements once again:
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The spring length as measured with the car at rest, along with wheel-to-fender distance. The suspension was reassembled without spring, and I cycled through full droop full compression taking measurements of the wheel-to-fender gap. All these numbers were sent to Ray, who started on some calculations. First off, he figured out the ideal starting spring rate for maximum comfort and compliance, while still holding the car off the ground at the desired ride height. He then used my ideal maximum rate (based on questions he asked about the cars handling in rally) to figure out what the ideal finishing rate would be.

Then he came back with some suggestions on modifying the car. I have way too much droop, and not enough travel. Raising the car 30mm would be ideal, which is hilarious because I just spent two weeks getting it DOWN 30mm! The bump stops are trimmed as much as they can be, and the shock is dangerously close to nearing bottom-out. So, my only other option is to move the lower shock mount. This will reduce the droop, but allow us to trim the bump stop further for more upper travel.

Commercially available springs are compared:
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For now, Ray thinks he has found the best of the worst-case scenarios. One solution is to combine a progressive tender spring with a longer linear spring, planning for the tender spring to reach coil bind. The downside is how the car may handle at the transition. The second option is to simply get a custom spring wound in the desired progressive rate, not sure what that will cost me. The third option is to combine a shock extension with a custom lower spring perch to get me more room for mounting an off-the-shelf progressive spring which is (currently) too long to fit on my shock. OR I take these rear arms off, mount up a spare set of factory arms with mounts, and look at what setups you guys are using on your lowered German Look cars. My current setup uses 2.5" inner diameter springs, but I believe some of you are using shocks with 1 7/8" springs, which allows you to use the factory lower shock mount (just moving the hole lower).

Definitely more research to be done here.

In lowering the car, we've discovered a unit problem due to my custom rear end. It was only ever built to be 1/2" lower than stock, to 2" higher than stock. In it's new lowered position, I have tonnes of droop travel, but run out of travel on compression. New shocks allow me to move 20mm of droop travel into compression travel, which is significantly better (and actually causes us to need to map out the ideal springs again). Yes, we're at the point where there is value in moving 20mm of suspension travel around. Who would have thunk?!

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One of the items I've been meaning to address for a long while is the wear in the oil pump. Shortly after I built the car, Bugpack was purchased by Empi and dissolved. The drysump oilpump that they made, disappeared along with the Bugpack name. This is slightly more than a minor inconvenience, because the body of the pump is all aluminum...which means it does wear. None of the other drysump pumps are interchangeable without me doing new oil line configurations or more. When a stock oil pump wears against the cover, you can polish them up on some glass with sandpaper. With a dry sump pump, which is actually three pumps stacked together, it becomes a little more challenging.

Mine has worn to the point that the scavenge (removing oil from the engine and back up to the tank) occasionally will stop scavenging at idle. This fills the engine with 12L of oil, and then goes to zero oil pressure. Not an issue if you're driving, it scavenges just fine above 1,100rpm. But I haven't been able to leave the car at idle unattended for a long time. Taylor and I are are going to do an event in the car this summer, and having 12L of behind you at 220F in the summer heat is less than comfortable, so swapping over to wetsump while I work on the drysump oil pump seemed like a win-win solution. As it turns out, it would be rather frustrating for a day and then a win-win-WIN solution.

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A good opportunity to snap a photo and note that this motor is running an FK-8 cam. I should probably dig up all the motor specs and put there here in one post.
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The Rally Bug engine bah has always been dry as a bone. So dry, in fact, that the rear sheet metal rusts out and has to be painted every so often. This is not a trait that the German Look or '58 Beetle share. At random intervals, and in a totally mind-bending makes-no-sense manner, they will spray oil all over the engine bay off the crank pulley. Sometimes it's a light bit, sometimes you are mopping up the engine bay at each driving day end wondering how it could possibly be that bad. It's so weird, I drove the German Look beetle for a day and had almost no oil, dad drove it the next day and had to mop up all the oil in the engine bay by lunchtime! It seems to make zero sense. So, imagine my frustration after swapping the Rally Bug to wetsump, and coming home from a test drive to see this:
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Over the next few days I did high-rpm highway run tests, low speed city tests, mixture tests. When the oil comes out isn't consistent in time or quantity. Even weirder, the back of the pulley is almost completely dry. Whereas on the '58 and German Look it will be soaked. Comparatively speaking, it mostly drips/runs out of the Rally Bug, but sprays all around in the '58 and German Look. The drysump pulley is significantly smaller, 5" diameter, vs the stock size that the other engines run. And very quickly I figured it out...On my wet sump engines, instead of hanging an extra sump below the engine (as is typical for VW's), I'm using a 1.5L or 2.0L Accusump. It essentially holds pressurized oil ready to feed the engine if the pickup starves. So while whipping around sustained twisty corners if all the oil ends up in the cylinder head, the accusump keeps sending pressurized oil into the engine until it uses up it's 1.5-2L capacity. Typically an Accusump is set at the idle-oil pressure of an engine, or the minimum pressure you want to see. I've always set mine to 20psi. Enough to keep the bearings alive in a full-starve situation, but should have little bleed down at idle. Turns out, at 20psi I'm probably emptying the Accusump at idle, waiting at a red light. My current theory is the oil level rises high enough to become an issue inside the case, resulting in oil pushing past the crank pulley onto the tin. If the only thing I changed was drysump to wetsump, it can't be blowby or other engine issues. So let's try a sandseal to see if that will work? Rob Frose overnighted a sandseal setup from AVR, and I went to work fitting it to the car. 250km of high-revving, 20min of idling, and any other test I could throw at it...dry as a bone. Guess I need to order some sandseal setups for my other engines :P

My ignition issue I was experiencing on the way to the show and back had gotten worse, so I decided to swap out my CB Blackbox setup to the Magnaspark II that I'm running in the other cars. I got 85% through the swap when I found the damage in the wiring harness I use with the blackbox (user error) and the likely problem. I was already 85&% done, so I decided I would just continue with the swap. The last step is to change out the ignition mapping with the fuel injection, which was going to be a problem. The laptop I have for the car, which runs Windows XP, has had a drive failure. By some sort of miracle, I actually backed up the files and maps I had a few weeks ago. Miracle number two? I actually got the CB software running on my Macbook using Parallels and windows 11. The only problem is the mac won't recognize the cable conveniently ziptied all through the car, and I am going to have to replace it. Swapped the ignition settings, and all my problems are gone. The only issue is the map I was using is right-messed-up due to trying to tune around ignition problems, and forgetting that I have to recalibrate the throttle position sensor at every map change. Who knows what that poor computer has been trying to compensate for. So I loaded in the last known good map from a couple of years ago, and will have to work back towards a more efficient tune. I did some mileage tests on the now current-map, and then decided I would note it somewhere on the car since I seem to be forgetting more about it than I remember. Gave myself a 5 litre window too.

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Lastly, I've been thinking about that upcoming trip with Taylor...and where we're going to put camping and weekend gear. Even just a little extra storage space would be nice. The battery area always seemed like such a waste of space, and I had a spare aluminum cooking sheet...so here we go. Extra luggage capacity! I think once I decide to learn composite constructions, re-doing this in Carbon might be one of my first projects.

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Gawd this car looks awesome. :P

Having finally pulled it out of mothballs, Taylor (my girlfriend) and I took it on the Classic Car Adventures Rush to Gold Bridge. This event is a mixed tarmac and gravel event, which goes to a different destination or challenge each year. This year we went to Bella Coola, a very remote mountain town in British Columbia. To get there, you have to take Hwy 20...a significant stretch of which is still gravel, despite it being the only road in and out. Until 1953 the highway ended 137 km (85 mi) from Bella Coola. The Government considered it impossible to make a road to Bella Coola. Residents fired up a Bulldozer (brought in by barge) and built the rest of the road themselves. 70 years later, and the road is still single lane in sections and descends 43 kilometers with switchbacks and zero guardrails or other safety items. Perfect for a classic car event! :D

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The event was going incredibly well, all the way down to Bella Coola, and up the hill the next morning. We filled up with fuel at the top of the hill, strapped lunch to our manifolds (seriously) and made our way an hour down the road to a park where we should find lunch hot and steaming in the engine bay. For the cars that strapped lunch to the exhaust manifold, it was perfect. For cars that mistakingly strapped it to the intake manifold? Well refrigerated! Fortunately we had a BBQ waiting at the lunch spot to heat up everyone’s lunch :P

About 200km from the fuel stop, however, and the Rally Bug ran into a slight issue.

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While a couple of cars went down the road to find some fuel, I started to think about how I could have possibly ran out of fuel about 200km from our last gas station stop. I remember putting the nozzle in the car, and being stressed about making sure everyone stopped to put their lunch on the manifold properly. I remember taking the nozzle out of the car, and the fact that the gas pump didn’t give me a receipt. But what I couldn’t remember is whether I was sure I actually filled the tank. Did the pump click off right away, and I just assumed it was full? Hmph.

After a road-side rescue, we filled up at the next gas station and went for the last gravel leg, a roughly 300km trip on gravel. We were running behind for dinner, but while driving I came up with a second theory besides just “I don’t know how gas stations work”. The Rally Bug has two wide-band 02 sensors. One works with the fuel-injection computer, the other a gauge on the dash I can read. When we lost the gauge on the way up the hill, I thought nothing of it. Given how long the car has been in mothballs, could be a wiring fault or a sensor failure. After a while, I realized that rocks could have taken out the sensor…wait, what if it took out the sensor for the fuel injection computer too?

But the car was running sooooo well…

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…until it wasn’t.

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Taylor and I got to camp in the middle of nowhere on a forest road. Coffee made by the camp stove, ‘charcuterie’ of snacks, 4 hours of no cellphone or radio while we hoped our friends could find us with fuel. It doesn’t sound that bad, but when we looked at the map before they left, we all agreed it should be “about an hour” before they’d get back with fuel. We did make it out of the woods, and the next morning I confirmed that both 02 sensors had major dents from rock hits. I know back when I was running the car regularly it had shields on the 02 sensors…so where did they go?! Hmph, a mystery for another day.

Limped it home, burning 2x the fuel it should (and probably washing the cylinders down).

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Into the shop for some post-event maintenance!

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-Dave

Tnx for the great write-up!
The gold wheels look awesome btw.

The list of items to tackle is vast, but when you read through it not exactly difficult. Swapping out a new fuel cap, for instance, super easy.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e347654f_c.jpgUntitled by Dave Hord, on Flickr

Made up some replacement metal 02 sensor shields. These are only needed for use on gravel roads, I've never damaged a sensor otherwise, but clearly needed on gravel roads! Material is something I got from DCI Performance in Australia, but can't seem to find it on the website anymore. Need to figure out what it is...as I've used the last of it!

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These next two images, grabbed from my IG stories, pretty much says everything...

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Digging into it, it would seem that I had no less than three sets of power wires run from various spots in the car to where the Rally computer mounts. I expected two, because I used to run a Brantz rally computer, but swapped it out when it stopped functioning correctly. The Helios unit here was supposed to be a temporary mount, which may explain wiring setup number two. But then, there was a permanent set of power wires (complete with wire loom) that really confuses me. Why didn't I pull the temp set out? There were two sets of sensor wires too. One was running to a speedometer cable-run sensor, that was only half hooked up, and the other to the GPS speed sensor. My Brantz is definitely the preferred rally computer, but as it has to go back for repairs I cleaned out all the wiring and set this car up to simply use the Helios unit on the GPS sensor. From a rally perspective, this isn't ideal, as the GPS sensor occasionally takes some time to find a satellite after start up and you lose distance when driving through a tunnel. Since I don't really use the car for TSD or performance rallies anymore, just the Classic Car Adventures tours, it's "close enough".

Cleaned up, and moving to deutsch-style connectors.

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The tail lamps on the car have had issues over the years. The right tail lamp is famous for losing the running lamp, which was simply a matter of epoxying the bulb holder into the metal reflector. But on our last event I would (apparently) lose the left tail lamp at times, and then the right. But never the two at the same time. I've been sitting on a set of LED tail lamps for a few years, having not swapped them over because I prefer the authentic european lamps with the orange turn signal. Alas, the wheels are no longer Salzburg appropriate...so time we lose the tail lamps too. Popped the new ones on...

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...and promptly had a non-working left running lamp. Keep in mind, it was working moments earlier when I used it to confirm wiring colours for each circuit! Lamp off, electrical meter out, no power to the housing. GRRR. Spun all the ceramic fuses, and it worked. Moments later, it went out. Hmmm. Further inspection determined I have a fault in the fuse box, which is a bit of a fun problem. It's about this time that I started thinking heavily about just tearing the whole car down and rewiring it from scratch. I did my MG Midget last winter, made a whole new harness with deutsch connectors and a modern fusebox, and it's fantastic. No more British electrical issues. This car has had so many patches and additions over the ten years, and I'm not as big a fan of the anderson powerpole connectors as I was when I built it. Also, I know why I went with factory style fuses for the two fuse boxes...but like the wheels, it's time to modernize. I need to pull the windshield wiper assembly if I'm going to fix the pivots, but there is a whole whack of rally-related wiring and connectors in the way. I'm sure when I built the car I thought it was nice and modular and easy to pull out sections...but looking at it now, with 10yrs of wiring diagrams lost to my head. I'm not so sure! The Rally Bug needs to have a 'quick turn around' in the shop this round, as it's the car most ready-to-go for events in 2024. I need to get the '58 in and ready for California Mille, and then I'd like to prep the German Look. After that's done, I can relax a little and consider whether a two week re-wiring job is worth it. So instead, for now, it's going to be clean up where I can...ignore what I have to...and move non-critical items off the list if necessary. I managed to 'fix' the fusebox for the moment, but I'll get a 10A blade fuse ready just in case I have to bypass it :P

It was about this point that it dawned on me. What if, the Brantz rally computer isn't damaged internally...and it was just the flaky wiring on the car? Unboxed it from the repair-return shipment I had prepared, and hooked it up on the bench. Sure enough, darned thing is working perfectly. AND I've just finished modifying the car to use the less desirable Helios! ARRRGGG! Well, I have been considering outfitting all the cars with rally odometers this winter (Taylor really appreciated being able to follow the mileage with the route book)...so I guess I have a Brantz to pop into the German Looker now. Sigh.

Side note...why is it the Rally Bug that is the car that doesn't leak any oil!?!

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-Dave

Thanks! When I first drove the car out and looked at them, I actually hated it. It's taken a few weeks, but they've fully grown on me. Love it now.

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This is how normal people wash their cars...right?

More on the Rally Bug next week...

Dave, I love your rally car! Pretty for of the GL too.

H2OSB

Sooo...that update.

I was out testing the Rally Computer install and the other updates to make sure the car was good for events next year. Took it to a buddies barn, hung out for a while, and then headed home via a nice twisting road near the lake. Coming up over a crest, on a slight right curve, a truck was going the other way. I'm not sure if this came out of the dually tires, or he hit it on the road, but this rock came spinning and flying across the road. I was cutting to the opposite lane when it suddenly dawned on me he could be towing a trailer with no lights. The moment of hesitation meant I wasn't going to clear the rock.

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Let me tell you, the sound was unreal. The engine shut off, and I was sure I was going to find a long trail of oil once I stopped. Checked the road, no oil. Under the car, no oil. The suspension mount, however, took the brunt of it. The passenger side control arm mount is heavily damaged and cracked, the frame head is heavily dented and damaged. It's now an insurance claim...whole frame head has to be replaced. Fortunately Hagerty has been excellent so far. Adjuster called me back within 48hrs of the claim, and damage assessor came by my shop today to assess it. Should know before the end of the week what the decisions are.

yikes, that was probably scary as hell!
I hope the insurance would cover up this kind of damage, it takes a lot of work.
And maybe some wanted upgrades too in the same time?

Insurance is going to cover it. That part I don't have to worry about.

I'm hemming and hawing on the idea of upgrades, since I'm going to have to strip the body and pull it from the pan. There are lots of changes I could make to the car to make it more 'streetable'...but then, is that really the Rally Bug? Honestly? At this stage it's likely to just get the unused items removed, holes filled, and maybe a whole new wiring harness. But then the damage assessor was looking at the front end of the Blue beetle and asked, "why wouldn't you put that front end [the iMohr] in it, since you've got to cut it all out anyways?

Hmmm....

Options, choices, wannahaves and musthaves.....always a struggle. But a Rally Bug is a Rally Bug, not a Street Bug.
So the phrase "Because racecar" might help making choices?

This is excellent advice. I think I also need to keep it a little true to the original ethos of "replica" with modern materials. It seems a little sacrilegious to eliminate the front struts the factory was so successful on.

I don't have a settlement yet, but I did get permission to start tearing it down for the repairs...

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Since the body has to come off the pan, I've decided to pull some funds from the Family Heirloom project and repaint the Rally Bug. After three years of winter rallies, and a further 7 years of running, it has a couple of spots that could use it. The paint was acceptable at the time, due to budget, but could be much better. So the plan is for a non-colour change "tape and spray". Being the guy I am, though, I'm going to remove absolutely everything necessary to get a good outside repaint.

The front hood on the car was an accident-repaired hood. Turns out I have a factory original front hood that is perfect (just yellow) thanks to a friend Darren, so the original Rally Bug hood will become artwork in the shop. Interestingly, it turns out I have _two_ spare hoods, three if my other spare still exits at my buddy Rob's house. So I think that gives me a chance to spray full silver body, and a set of black hoods as well. I very carefully asked my buddy Bob, who's a 'stock is right' kind of guy, what he thought about the turn signals on the front fender. To my surprise he replied we have to fill them and go mexi-bumper...which confirms my gut reaction about the choice. As soon as the gold wheels went on the car, it gave me permission in my head to stray from the "Salzburg Replica". Just gotta be sure I can go back that way if I choose.

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Looking a little deeper at the wiring, I've got some challenges ahead. The original harness I built for the car is quite robust...but definitely not built to be modified. I damaged the front rally light harness trying to get it out of the car, apparently I build part of it after putting it through a body grommet. The way I did the Techflex wiring cover I can't actually splice into the harness for modification or repairs without damaging it, and possibly daming the internals. So, my idea of potentially modifying sections of it are pretty much out the window. If I simply leave the wiring harness and tear out anything I've added over the years, I think it will be fine. There's nothing that isn't working correctly on the original harness, although there are some circuits no longer being used. It does also have those original-style fuses which isn't great. I'll need to build a secondary harness for post-build editions, which is probably the fastest/cleanest way to do things. But it does have some negatives. I want to change the switches on the dash, and I need to dig out the gas heater wiring harness, which was (apparently) laid into the car first...under the main harness. I fear disturbing anything in the rats nest is a recipe for disaster.

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Rewiring the entire car, though, is going to be a huge undertaking. I know what I want to do. But do I have the time (and money) to do it?

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Looking ahead, I'm considering at the seat mounts I built 15 years ago (for the white '69)...and they simply have to go. If this was a fully-caged car, it would be easy. A couple of bars from the sill to the tunnel, and the job is done. It's only got a rear hoop, and I want to keep the ability to separate body from pan (especially now) so I need to come up with another solution. I talked it over last night with some race car fabricating buddies of mine, and I think we've got an idea sorted out.

I'm also thinking it's a good time to upgrade/change out the pedal box. The one I'm using isn't ideal, I've had to hack out the napolean hat on the tunnel, and on the front firewall to make it fit. I will have some sheet metal repairs to do on the body, but I'm thinking a different setup might be in order. I messaged Kevin Hale about the one he's using in the Ghia racecar he's building (Ghia Raketenhase on Facebook) and he replied in less than 10min with a video and tape measure showing me all the measurements. His OBP unit won't fit in my car (14.25" throttle pedal height) but they make one that is merely 12" to the top of the pedal. Will be measuring once I'm done typing this to see if it's an early Christmas present for me!

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