1973 V8 Super Beetle Front Engine Conversion - 283 SBC

[V8SuperBeetle]

Originally Posted by volkdent

Lookin good! Should be a serious tire shredder.

Jason

Thanks, Jason. It definitely has no problem lighting the tires up at a 20 mile an hour roll when I stomp it. Lots of fun and kinda scary.

[V8SuperBeetle]

Been painting with MasterSeries rust sealer and sealing seams this week. I've finished the sealing the floor, the firewall, the rear wheel wells, and the radiator metal work in the back (which I forgot to take pictures of). I've applied a coat underneth the backside of the car and working my way to the front.

Used 3M sealer. Stuff reminds me of heavy duty Elmer's glue. Haha...






My wheels came in. I order Jeg's Weld knock-offs instead of Summit's cause Summit didn't offer the offset I needed. I'm sure they the EXACT same thing, just different center caps.

I forget how small 15" wheels are after having the 16, 17, and 18 wheels floating around this whole time. The size I got are...

15"x4" front w/ 1.75" back space
15"x10" back w/ 5.5" back space

Tires will be...

165/80/15 front
275/60/15 back

I'm going to Discount tonight to new get tires. Tires are going to be $300. Can you believe that? $50 each for the front's and $100 each for the backs. The wheels are pretty nice knock offs for the price. They'll make for great street wheels. Gotta bee even more budget minded that the kiddo is on it's way and the wife will be a stay at home Mom.

[volkdent]

I think you've definately strayed from the GL concept! I just can't put Weld wheels and GL in the same sentence(oh, I just did) but it's still going to be a lot of fun to see that thing finished.

Jason

[evilC]

The 275/60x15 are not recommended for rims in excess of 9 1/2J and the preferred rim width is 8J unless of course the european tyre data books differ from the US ones.

Clive

[V8SuperBeetle]

Finished welding the rear firewall, sealed it up, and put down a coat of Master Series. I just need to put down another coat of Master Series to make sure it's all nice and sealed.




Now I just need to button up little things and it'll be ready for body work and paint!

[V8SuperBeetle]

Al....most....there...

I got a couple milestone's accomplished. My time was cut short this Saturday when my Husky decided to dig his way out of the backyard. I drove all over the neighborhood looking for him just to come home to a muddy Husky right across from my house. I don't know where the mud was at. All the dirt around is dry. I guess that's what Huskies do best. Find mud...and escape.

Any who, I finally made up my mind and made an alternator bracket which I think came out really well. I basically took the low mount bracket I bought and cut it up and welded it to the frame. Easier said than done. The alternator does have full range of adjustment, so I'm happy. Now I just have to buy another belt.






I also bought a new more manageable size battery and relocated it to the back. I made an frame try for it. The plan was to bolt it in above the exhaust on the passenger side to help distribute weight, but that didn't happen. I wound up welding the tray in on the driver's side for ease of access.






I'm also having to rewire / reroute everything through the interior of the car. No biggie, but just another thing I have to add to my list of TTD before I can get to body work.

Just a couple more things to do before the next stage.

• Rewire engine
• Finish the hood

I'll post pics of the battery setup soon.

[johnnyvee]

what happens when the engine flexes

[V8SuperBeetle]

Originally Posted by johnnyvee

what happens when the engine flexes

No engine flex. The engine sits on the frame. I feel every small vibration. If it becomes a problem, which I'll find out with a little testing, I'll just spring load the alternator. Problem solved.

[V8SuperBeetle]

Got a few things done this weekend. Really just testing things out and tweaking (checking valve lash, snugged up the headers / collectors and played with the fan in push / pull mode) to make sure everything is is running right before I move onto paint. All seems well except the alternator.

I wired up my alternator and took the car for a test drive. After driving around the neighborhood for about an hour, I parked the car in the garage, turned it off, and attempted to start it back up. Well, it was very slow to turn over and it wouldn't fire back up. I did let the car sit and cool for about 15 minutes and it fired back up. ???

So I'm not sure if the battery was drained some and the alternator isn't wired correctly or if there's another reason the engine wouldn't turn over while at operating temp, which has never been a case. I did have my electric fan running the whole time and it draws some amps.

Could someone look over how I wired my alternator and tell me if it's correct or what to do so it is correct?

I have about a 4 gauge wire going from the battery post on the alternator to the battery post on the starter. I have a 2 gauge ground wire going to the frame. On the #2 post, the plug to the right, I have going to the battery post on the alternator, but I have a switch between it to turn it on and off. I have a 12v indicator light, which has yet to work, hooked up to the number 1 post and is ground to the body.

The dummy light has never worked and I'm not quite sure the alternator is charging. Any help would be appreciated.









I now have all the parts I need to finish the car, just about. There's a couple small things I'll have to get off a parts car.

Rebel Wiring Harness




Parts from Bap/Geon.




Here's a project that's been taking some time away from the bug, but one I've enjoyed doing. I've been working on finished up painting the nursery and installing chair railing. I just need to touch up the paint. Still got to put together the crib, hang curtains, and whatnot.

[Eatoniashoprat]

You sure the hot start issue isn't timing related? Too much advance when hot = no/slow turn over

[V8SuperBeetle]

Originally Posted by Eatoniashoprat

You sure the hot start issue isn't timing related? Too much advance when hot = no/slow turn over

I figured it out. It wasn't a timing issue. I wired the alternator wrong and the battery was somewhat drained. Now that it's wired correctly, it has no issues.

[V8SuperBeetle]

Here's another shot of the rear "fire wall". Did some more welding last night, but ran out of wire. Gotta slowly weld it up so it doesn't warp to crap.




On a side note, here's my collection of "Summit Racing's" line of paint and tools to get the job done. Being I'm on a tight budget, I plan to paint the car myself and having heard good things about it, I decided to give it a try. For $400, what can go wrong painting your first car. ;D




I have...

• Sanding blocks
• Rolls of various grit of sand paper, some where in there.
• HVLP gun
• Epoxy primer (galon)
• 2K high build primer (galon)
• Hugger Orange, single stage (galon)
• Black, single stage (galon)
• High Solids clear coat (galon)

The rest is their activators, hardeners, surface wash, and wax / grease remover.

I also have a quart of Master Series chassis coating for the engine bay and for under the deck lid.


Here's a recent article about the paint. If that chick can do it, I can. And yes, the chick in the picture actually painted the car. Read the article. ;D

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/tec...ing_paint.html

[V8SuperBeetle]

Here's another shot of the rear "fire wall". Did some more welding last night, but ran out of wire. Gotta slowly weld it up so it doesn't warp to crap.




On a side note, here's my collection of "Summit Racing's" line of paint and tools to get the job done. Being I'm on a tight budget, I plan to paint the car myself and having heard good things about it, I decided to give it a try. For $400, what can go wrong painting your first car. ;D




I have...

• Sanding blocks
• Rolls of various grit of sand paper, some where in there.
• HVLP gun
• Epoxy primer (galon)
• 2K high build primer (galon)
• Hugger Orange, single stage (galon)
• Black, single stage (galon)
• High Solids clear coat (galon)

The rest is their activators, hardeners, surface wash, and wax / grease remover.

I also have a quart of Master Series chassis coating for the engine bay and for under the deck lid.


Here's a recent article about the paint. If that chick can do it, I can. And yes, the chick in the picture actually painted the car. Read the article. ;D

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/tec...ing_paint.html

[V8SuperBeetle]

Very nice bug. I've seen his bug before, but have never gotten any replies about it. He posts every now and then. Very cool build. I recall when he had a 283 in it, then swapped to the LS1 and later added a turbo.

[V8SuperBeetle]

Still plugging away on the bodywork. The area around the relocated gas tank door, the front passenger side quarter panel where the gas tank door was, and the roof has taken up quite a bit of time. Basically where ever I had to cut out some metal and weld it back in. Next time I weld on the body sheet metal, which wont be anytime soon, I'll be sure to take more precautions to keep distortion to a minimum.

These areas needed the most attention to get straight. The rest is cakewalk. It seems like just when I thought it was straight, they needed another skim coat to fill in a low spot. These sections are pretty much shaped / flat, but need to be skimmed over with some glaze putty to fill in pin holes, feathered a little more, then sanded with 100 and 150-180 grit to get ready for its first coat of primer.




This section here had the most distortion and it had a nice whisky dent next to it which required the bondo to be feather even further. PITA.








I still need to sand down the little bit of untouched filler you see. Other than that, it'll finally be nice and flat.




I can say this area has taken the most time. I still need to work on the area above the gas tank and around the door some more. It's almost there.




The rear clip is ready to go. Now I just need to smooth out the transition of the sheet metal around the "radiator shroud".




This area just needs to be sanded with finer and finer paper, glazed and repeated.




I have definitely missed my mark to get it in paint early this month. It's looking more like the middle to late next month it should be in paint. Body work is taking long then expected and I have to build one of these (the copper tubing which collects the moisture follow by an air filter / trap) to make sure I have no moisture in my lines when I go to put down any paint.




More soon.