Time attack beetle

[Humble]

All my parts are in so now the only thing standing between me and a finished beetle is... me. Our connection here on the mountain is doing a little better so I try to upload some pictures tomorrow. Made some progress since the last update but not as much as I would have hoped.

I started fabbing the new hanging tranny mount welding it into place in the car. When I welded the tabs in place the left one was 1/4" too high and then I final welded it before double checking. So I had to cut the welds and grind everything smooth and try it again with 4 part harmony. 2nd time around I used a laser level to line everything up to car center, measured about 10 times, then final welded. Now that its fixed I've started on the rest of the mounts, and I'm almost done with the nose cone mount. I had bounced a few ideas off a friend who specializes in fabrication for a living and he suggested a couple of changes to my hanging mount design. I took some of those suggestions to heart and redesigned it with a few ideas I picked off of drag cars.

Started some sheet metal work for the area behind the pedals and fabbed up a radiator frame/housing. Played with the housing a bit in the front of the bug, there's only a little bit of clearance on each side. Also looked at where air is going to go once it's past the radiator and while I think there's plenty of room for the air to sort itself out, it's not smooth flow. Anyone else with a radiator in front have any air flow problems?

[Humble]

Things haven't been going as fast as I'd like this past week or so but for good reasons. I got a new job building and configuring server/network equipment. I've been working long days so by the time I get home it already dark and I'm arleady tired from moving heavy equipment all day. On the plus side, It gives me extra money to spend on the bug and a sense of urgency on the weekends, so it's not all bad.

On to the good stuff... Finished fabrication to the motor/tranny mounts, I really need to work on welding upside down, I just can't seem to get it. Spent all day final mounting the motor and tranny. All in all they were in and out of the car no fewer the 5 times and each time I did it, it got a little bit harder to get them in or out. I can and did jump around on the motor and it ain't goin' nowhere.





Overall i think the combo is 3-4" higher and 2-3" further forward than stock. The subie oil pan is now about an inch lower than the tranny saddle which I'm really happy with but the exhaust sill gives me worries.

[Humble]

A few more pictures...

It's really starting to get tight behind the motor on the drivers side. I can't get a turbo to fit in the stock location so i'll have to mount it higher but I'm worried what that's going to do to my under hood temps since there's no real air flow there.



Forgot to show pics of the front mount so here they are. Once the cage is in I want to tie in a couple of bars to the front tranny mount to stiffen things up more.



Test fit the new deck lid, re-fit the fenders (which need to be trimmed again), and set the rear apron in place to see how things are coming, looking good so far.

[ricola]

Coming on nice and quickly I presume you cut through the torsion housing to move the trans that far forwards or did it fit over the top? Have you tied the front mount in to the chassis and body so you can still seperate the two?

I'd have thought it would be easier to mod your rear mount than relocate a turbo..

Rich

[Humble]

Rich,
I didn't have to cut the torsion bar tube and I really didn't want to. Since I raised everything the nose cone sits right over the torsion bar tube. The front mount is tied only to the body so I can still seperate body and pan. As far as the turbo goes, it's much easier to relocate the turbo than to change the stress bearing design. I wanted as much strength in the brace as I could get with as little tubing possible to keep weight down but I was also hoping the turbo would still fit So the next step is fabbing a new up-pipe where the flange is even with the top of the engine brace.

[Mikey]

My bad for not keeping up. This looks Very interesting.

Originally Posted by Humble

Originally Posted by ricola

Coming on nice and quickly I presume you cut through the torsion housing to move the trans that far forwards or did it fit over the top? Have you tied the front mount in to the chassis and body so you can still seperate the two?

I'd have thought it would be easier to mod your rear mount than relocate a turbo..

Rich

Does that picture answer your question? It looks like he removed some metal. Where the inspection plate cover sits.

I'll post more when I'm not in school.

[Mikey]

Humble, I have a question. I saw where the cross brace you made attaches to the body. Is it welded? That is going to be very difficult to remove the transmission, if it is welded. You could weld your brace to a plate, then weld another plate to the body. 1/4" is probably be as thick as I'd go. Then you can bolt the two plates together. Also you can come in and tie your cage to the rear brace you made, to where it's removeable without removing the whole cage.

I was also wondering about your transmission. The trasmision is going to want to twist. Do you think those two bolts on the top will be enough? It's going to want to sheer them off. Maybe a strap over the tranny and tie the bottom into the frame horns?? You'll be grateful in the end if you make as many parts as you can removable with out an arm and a leg.

If you need a visual of these I can take a picture of what I'm talking about. Or kinda draw one with paint.

It's looking good. I see a lot of good ideas being used. Keep up the good work.

[Humble]

Mikey,
I actually thought of a lot of your questions when I was planning everything out. I thought I had put in a more detailed pic showing the lower part of the mount but it looks like I spaced it. No worries, here's a few pics that show the bottom of the rear brace. For the most part, if it touches the body it's welded. I wasn't comfortable with a bolt in setup so the nose cone mount and the rear brace are welded to the body. The tranny saddle is still removeable and it bolts to the bottom part of the rear brace to tie them to the frame horns. The tabs that stick out actually bolt to the stock motor mount locations on the ej20 and those will take the torsional forces.







Is this kinda what you had in mind? It does take a little shimmying to get the tranny out but not as much as you'd think. Just pull the hanger bolts, free up the nose cone and see-saw the tranny as you pull it out. Doesn't take any longer than stock.