Made the swap this weekend. Traded the 283 for a 350 bored over 30. The engine is a pretty recent rebuild but has collected a little dirt from sitting. I'm debating whether or not to just tear it down, hot tank it and rebuild it or to just clean it up as it and go.

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-bug-355.jpg

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-bug-355-2.jpg

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-bug-355-3.jpg

Non Echo en Mexico.
http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-bug-355-4.jpg

looking good

Thanks! I really haven't done too much to it lately cause it's been really hot, but I'm going to make some time this week and weekend to continue the body work I've started. Here's how she is as of now.

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/vw-sign.jpg


Once I get the body work out of the way I'll tackle the engine, trans and chassis rebuild. :)

Update...

I actually got to put in some hours. Still working away at the body trying to smooth here out. I pretty much got the hood, front clip and passenger fender finished. There's a couple small low spots and high spots but for the most part they're 95% done. Well, as far a body work goes.

I hope you guys don't mind pictures... ;D


I tack welded a 22 gauge metal strip under the turn signal holes and began filing and shaping.

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-b...y-work--15.jpg

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-b...y-work--14.jpg

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-b...y-work--13.jpg

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-b...y-work--12.jpg

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-b...y-work--11.jpg


I got a little help today from my buddy Jesse.

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-b...y-work--10.jpg

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-bug-body-work--9.jpg

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-bug-body-work--8.jpg

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-bug-body-work--7.jpg

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-bug-body-work--6.jpg

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-bug-body-work--5.jpg


The blue paint spots you see is some sort of drafters / engineer marking paint that has worked well for marking spots that need fixing. It's really used to make measurement markings and notes. :)

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-bug-body-work--4.jpg

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-bug-body-work--3.jpg

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-bug-body-work--2.jpg

I ran out of primer before I could finish the hood. ;D

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-bug-body-work--1.jpg


Just a little more to do to the front end and then I can move on to the rear fenders. I'm thinking of shaving the front handle along with the trim holes on the hood. I might shave all the trim holes but I'm debating whether to shave everything or to go with the slightly more modern look by painting the trim flat black. ??? That and I'm undecided about keeping either bumpers or t-bars or to just shave the bumper holes.

Some updates on the bug.http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/more-body-work-1.jpg

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/more-body-work-2.jpg

All the body shaping of the front is pretty much done. Next I'll shave the bumper holes and front hood handle, but the hard part is pretty much done with for the front. Now I'll move onto the rear fenders.

I mocked up the steering. I've got a manual GM steering box and linkage. The steering wheel will be in it's stock location. I've just got to figure out what to use to mate the VW spline to the GM box / linkage.

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/steering-mockup-1.jpg

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/steering-mockup-2.jpg

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/steering-mockup-3.jpg

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/steering-mockup-4.jpg

more more

A little more...:)

This weekend a few buddies came over to help out on the the car, well, it was supposed to be one but four showed and more talking than work was done, but they got to check out the car for the first time. What basically got done was we positioned the body in it's finally spot and we lowered the passenger side 3/4" to level the body out. Friday I went and bought 5 sticks of angle iron to get it all done.

Last night I cut and tack welded in the floor support using angle iron. For just being tack welded at the moment the concept seems very sturdy.

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/v8-b...or-support.jpg

Next I'm going to weld in the body mount rails that bolt up to the heater channels.

Why not just use square tubing? It would be more than twice as strong and if you used a thinner wall not much heavier at all.

Jason

Good point! I decided to use angle iron cause it's simple to work with and you only have to weld two sides instead of four. I got the iron from Lowes and there was plenty of it compared to square tubing.

Matt

2" drop s-10 spindles, 2 quarts of MasterSeries silver and one quart of chassis black on their way so I can finish up, rebuild and paint the chassis.

S10 2" drop spindles came in.

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/spindles.jpg

This weekend I finished welding the floor support in. Well, I didn't get to the welding underneath cause I'm not great at overhead welding. So when I take the frame apart to rebuild it I'm going to flip over the frame and tackle those welds and others.

It's been a little while since I've last welded and I was working with different rods. I had to redo a few welds cause the rods I have are coat with less coating / flux so I wasn't use to them, but quickly got the hang of it. Not the greatest weld, but looks decent.

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/weld.jpg


I made some mounts for the body to bolt to. Still have to weld them in though.

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/body-mounts.jpg

Radiator for the bug in exchange for a little photoshopping. Courtesy of Ray (guy building the pro-touring V8 bug). Thanks Ray! Needs a little cleaning but it's in great condition.

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/radiator-1.jpg

http://www.mikeydesigns.com/bug/radiator-2.jpg


I did some test fitting / mocking up of the radiator and seems like it'll have to go in the back cause the sway bar and steering box is right where I need the radiator to sit. So I'll be building a place for the radiator to mount in the rear. Having the radiator and battery in the back should help distribute a little bit of the weight.

You DO NOT want the radiator in the rear unless you've got a great idea for lot's of ducting. Find another radiator that is the size you need it, my advice comes from others failures with that concept.

Jason

Thanks for the advice! I do have a good idea for ducting the air. Basically it'll pull the air from under the car through the radiator. I've seen a handful of V8 conversion pictures done that way, or similar.