Bugat5speedUS project "Volki"

[Wally]

Good thing you cut that section open, as that inner hole under the napoleon hat has weakenend longitudinal stiffness and you want all of that back in a performance car!

[Bug@5speed(US)]

Wally,

Yep, good thing as it was not looking to good. Well my new best friend is my compressor and air chisel along with the cut off wheel and disks..

It would have not been good if I would have found out the hard way.. like if I pressed the brakes and the MC would have fallen off the Nap Hat, or something structurally would have collapsed.

Its the hard way to fixing her up, but enjoyable..

I just have to get this done so I can break out the little lincoln mig welder that I have.. I have had it for about 2 years and has just been collecting dust. But its time will come.

Wally you also bring up a good point about structure, and safety, and not taking short cuts that could bite you later.. Good refresher thought to keep in mind.
VR
ALex

[Bug@5speed(US)]

Hey Gents,

Been a long while. Weather has gotten warmer, so starting to get my motivation back..

Two things have taken its toll on me.. (1) The most important, being my son getting constantly sick.. We have been dealing with pnuemonias, upper resp infections, broncitis, and baby asthma.. It has worn on us, and left me unmotivated.. He is still sick, and looking at taking him to NYC to see other specialists in the area of lungs and allergies.. (2) I can't seem to catch a break with my chasis. I rushed into a buy in PA, because it looked good, but until i removed the undercoat/rubber stuff, I did not realize the extent of the damage that was repaired. I was informed of the repair, but did not realize how bad. So it seems I have two bad chasis. Not sure if I will use this, or kiss my hard earned money good bye.. Kinda getting fustrated with this project, and I have so many goodies.. I just need good chasis, since I want to track it, and safety is paramount..

Here are some pics of my bad luck.. Here in the NE of USA (NJ) its hard to find any thing decent.. and I don't have the time due to son and work to go out west or south, unless I got some trustworthy help.. I am all ears if someone has ideas.. So here is my misfortune.. I put some primer to protect it, but you should be able to see the damage and porocity due poor welding.. (HELP )

I would hate to destroy another bug to fix this one, but again I am open minded for the time being.. Any leads, info or thoughts are welcome..

Passenger Side tunnel


Driver side tunnel


Pan Head


One side of Pan


Inside tunnel: Not sure how that piece of flat stock is being used, but don't like it..



Misaligned lower pan head to napolean head

[Bug@5speed(US)]

Well it has been a while since I posted, so figured I would chime and and give a status..

1) First, the chassis above, now has no panhead, after spending many weeks cutting and thinking how to patch this thing up, finally decided to chop it off and see what other mischief the previous owner did. Well to my luck, it was worst than I expected, very poor job on the chassis, and would have potentially been fatal to the car and myself. Very dangerous. Lesson's Learned. I have found a race shop out in PA, that will weld properly a new pan head, so I will save some labor hours and prep my old chassis and see where that takes me. I tried finding a chassis in decent shape locally but it has been tough, and when I do find them they end up being from Ca, but haven't quite figured out how to ship it...

Here are a few pics of the pan head removed, and shots from inside the tunnel from the old chassis.

[Bug@5speed(US)]

Here as some shots of the orginal chassis with Pan head also removed.

I little surface rust, and some rust where the accelerator cable goes through but overall a "little" better.



http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...S/DSC06901.jpg



Life ain't throwing me a bone..
Alex

[Bug@5speed(US)]

This weekend, is I hope a weekend that I can celebrate about.

Finally got a chance to rent a u-haul trailor, and take the chassis down to Metric autohaus.

All I can say is a great set of guys. We talked for a few, and traded a few stories. Also talked about those bugat5speed conversion parts.

Chassis, is in for a new pan head, floors, prime and paint, and maybe a few other little details.. now I have to wrestle with color..keep it charcoal grey, or go 911 GT3 RS orange or green..

As far as Metric Autohaus here is their webiste: http://www.metricautohaus.com/metric...contactus.html

I spoke with both Heath and Rob, both great guys with a lot of years in the game.

They are located not to far from Baltimore, heading toward Annapolis.

I brought back some business cards, that I would be more than happy to mail to someone to distribute at one of the meetings, let me know.

Here are some pics of their shop and a few of the projects they got going on, plus mine on the lift.


I thought this was way cool



My chassis, in for inspection.


Some Porsche love..