Going junk diving
 

I have a 70 non super beetle.

The area I live in has enough junkyards to keep me picking and pulling until rapture.

What kinda goodies should I look for?

Karman Ghia front beam, for the disc brake setup.

type 3 rear drums, i think would work on your beetle


got any rust on your bug? or if you wanted to shave your door handles, snag a filler piece from a door

Nah there is really not a lot of rust.

The plan that I have is first I am going to work out the bugs (no pun intended) in my car, and then after that install a wasserboxer.
After that, I would like to SERIOUSLY work on the suspension.

Eventually, turbo, restoration, really nice interior, cage and call it a poor mans porsche.

I was debating getting a disk brake kit all together.
Why the ghia front beam?

ghia's are disc cheap effective way to convert

Depending on how far you want to go with mods, if they have any 944/951's there, grab brakes, m/c, trailing arms, sway bars, etc.

Alright.

Does it matter if its a 944 turbo?
Does a regular beetle handle well enough to autocross, I am not shooting for wins just for fun :cool:

Now where do you want to start..................?
Clive

Depends how far you are willing to go with mods. Ghia is the easiest conversion and more than good enough for street driving. They will start brake fade fairly easy in autocrossing though. 944 brakes are bigger, but require much more modification. 944T are just even bigger and require larger rims to fit them under.

So, as previous stated, you might want to describe your driving goals and we can help guide you to the best parts to look for.

Autocross.
I think that the 944 brakes will work, I dont need monsters.

How much of a pain in the neck is it to install them?

Here's is a good place to start reading on 944 conversions. ;)

http://www.vdubengineering.com/techn...onversions.htm

Well...
I can go junk yard diving, and I am saving up for a Scat motor (the 2332cc, it puts down about 140hp or so, which in a regular beetle is enough)

I was thinking about that engine, along with shocks, brakes, any stabilization bars that might help, along with new wheels, roll cage and running some really sticky R compound tires.

Im sure that is not a complete list, I just would like to be able to autocross for fun occasionally and do decently.

Don't get hooked up on the glamour of having a big engine in the first instance since you will get more productivity per $/£ on suspension and brakes. I have suggested a couple of very good reads on your other thread. principally, for AutoX an IRS rear is highly desireable but that will mean a new gearbox as well. If you do go IRS then 944 rear undercarriage (brakes and suspension) is a straightish bolt on with full adjustability, 23.5mm TBs and big disc brakes. Fit 4 pot calipers to the rear and a method of adjusting the front/rear brake bias. The 944 kit will increase the track to an advantage that big offset tyres may rectify under standard arches. Make the shell as stiff as possible because you will not get the best out of any comp car unless you have full control. Fit polyurethane bushes all round at least but where you can rose/heim joints will be useful. 944 brakes to the front are also useful. Fit the best dampers you can and pay particular attention to suspension settings - invest in some set up gear like a ADA caster/camber gauge and at least a Trackrite pad for toe.
Don't overtyre the car as your motor will spend too much power getting the tyres to turn and change direction. It might be worth sticking to road tyres initially so that you can experience the subtlties of the handling. In any case with a ceiling of <150bhp You won't need anything bigger than 180mm section width for best times.
Lastly and most importantly - LOSE WEIGHT! This will have the most effect on lap times. This is generally a free exercise as long as you don't go substituting titanium this and that. A friend of mine became obsessive about weight in his road rally car to the point where he took all the bolts out of the vehicle and cut them to the precise correct length. The bucket of bolt ends weighed in at around 10kgs! With a standard engine he used to embarrass those with high buck budgets,glitz and glamour parts, so it did work.

Clive

Yeah- just my only worry is that my SCCA class is really not friendly to beetles.
I can't lose anymore weight then the stock weight.

Now that's commitment...the obsessive kind.

It may have been obsessive but since the guy couldn't afford the go-faster parts of his piers he had to level the playing field somehow. The car competed in the Lada Challenge (the rounds that he could afford) and some of the other lightening that was carried out:

A thin 1/4" foam layer substituted for a rear seat on road rallies - it often passed scutineering.
Fiat 124 steel wings that were 1/2 the weight of the identical Lada wings that he then acid dipped at the local door strippers.
Guts cut out of the doors and the outer skin substituted with 1.0mm aluminium. Those doors were frighteningly flimsy.
All side and rear 'glass' was 4mm polycarbonate.
The sumpguard was 1/4" polycarbonate bonded to 1/2" ply - lighter than aluminium and very effective!
The holesaw was also given free range.

Just to finish the description all of this work was carried out in a lock-up garage with no power and a hurricane lamp for lighting. All drilling was carried out with a hand drill (non-electric) and all cutting was by hacksaw or shears.

That wasn't obsession it was dedication. Dick was/is a true clubman, a man to admire.

Clive

ah, weight, now yer talking, free horsepower, also ditch all the pan attachment bolts and plates and stitch weld it all, absolutely THE most unpleasant time consuming job, but if it shows in lap time, and 2kg does in a low power bug, its worth it, gun drilled drive shafts and ceramic BALL wheel bearings are often overlooked, but cheaper than looking for more h.p when your already at the limit, and are not unreliable. for autocross cut the roof panel out and mould a carbon lid, add a lightweight seat and harness with all ally fittings , oh, and bin the steel deck lid, heavy, high up and out the back swinging around.......
evilc, scary what your'e saying about powerless lockup and hand drill, deja vu kicked in, i was always in casualty after sawing and drilling in the dark confines !,
but eventually after 3 years i escaped and upgraded to light and power, my landlord at the posh place ? now lola chairman Martin Birrane, he went white when i asked him to fix the roof ...

I kinda had to ditch the SCCA idea, so thats out of the question now.

I do have more of a budget then your buddy, and I am kind of a purist, this beetle shall not be cut.

I think that all that I would like to do is make it fast enough to have fun in, but not some Porsche killer, and handle as good as I can get it with out spending super serious (1000s) cash on it.

I don't think that I am going to do much of a weight reduction, custom dash maybe- so I can add a tach and not have some big ol'hanging gauge sticking out- but then again if I can find a way to make it tasteful and retain a stockish interior then I am fine.

I am about half way through making it totally streetable again, the first thing that I think I am going to do though is run an electric fuel pump, along with an alternator, 12v conversion and put some seatbelts/ less crappy seats in.

I'll post pictures.

Check out the rotary fuel pumps from cbperformance they are really quiet and mount under your tank and have an internal regulator. I bought one, I have not got a chance to use it because I have not got the engine yet (it was supposed to be done 3 months ago!)

anyways after research i found it was the quietest, did not vibrate your car a bunch, and is cheaper then most elec. fuel pumps

I have had one for a few years now and have been very happy with it.

Sounds good, they don't require any cutting right?
How about the alt/12v conversion stuff?

Don't discount the bog standard Facet electronic pump and Filter King regulator. I have been running this combination for years in various cars and its really reliable. The pump is noisy but only if solidly mounted, on AV mounts its quiet enough so that you can't hear it over the rest of the noise and comfortingly discernable at start up. The Filter King provides an accurate pressure setting that the Italian carbs enjoy and it has a fine large paper filter to take out the last specs of dirt. Also the thick glass bowl version allows you to see the quality of the petrol and whether any water is present.

Clive

Ohh, basically here is the run down of what I have decided to do:

Interior:
New dash (standard gauges+tach, stock style except for a tach gauge sitting by the pillar)
New seats/panels (looking at one of the SCAT elite velour)
Harnesses
Basic sound system, hidden well though.
Seriously re-do the wiring
Roll cage

Exterior:
Painted bumpers
Re-restore the car (since the previous owner did an OK one, but its a bit botch)
Porsche wheels (don't know which ones to roll with- or how to mount them since I have the massive 5 bolt pattern)
Perhaps wider fenders

Engine:
SCAT 2332 kit
Dual 44 IDF's (or EFI)
Quiet dual glass pack exhaust
(more immediately is the 12v, alternator and the fuel pump)

Suspension:
Bilstein shocks
Sway bars if they make them for my car
Lower it about an inch
Transaxle rebuild (don't know what gearing)
Porsche 914 regular disks in front, if I cannot source these a basic disk kit all around.
*I am sure I am leaving crap out, this is just tentative

I would like to paint the beetle white, and use golden colored wheels, with a grey interior.
I don't want the thing to look super flashy, just clean and presentable. The engine I mentioned puts down about 140hp, which is enough for me I reckon, considering that my stock WRX puts down 180 and I have a blast with that thing.
After some serious (some serious pre-fall asleep thought) I realized that the best choice for auto-X would be a Manx, since they are way lighter and I could go more wild on it since I wont need it for a daily while I am in college.
One day I might throw a turbo system on, just for the boosty goodness, along with lower compression heads and stuff.

How's it sound so far?