Blizzard's rolling rebuild of a 1303 1975

[Blizzard]

I almost forgot I had a thread on GL.net So here are some updates. Nothing shocking but still updates.

1 mei Hannover Germany. This is one off the largest Aircooled only swapmeets in Europe.



The thread title sais it already, it's a roling rebuild. At the anual check they found a few rusted eareas that had to be repleaced. Both the heat channels had to be replaced and the rear floor was also rusted under the battery.















This kind off job should be done with a complete body off resto. But it can be done with the body on the chassis. Instead of the regular rubber or closed cell foam I used weldseam sealer between the new heaterchannel and the new floorplates.

This car is also a test car for different engines we build.



Now the stock 1600 motor out of my 1303 convertible was out I sprayed the engine compartment black and I upgraded the rear trans mount.



The next motor was a 1641 cc. with a dual Solex 34 PCI setup from Riegert.



The stainless firewall was a temporarely solution to hide the green engine compartment. All my friends said it was even more ugly than the green paint.

What I wanted to show in this post is something that has never happend to me before an d I hope will never happen again. When I went to a specialist to fine tune the Riegert carb setup something happend when he was almost done. Suddenly the left carburator was'nt responding to turning the mixture screw. He send me home and told me to see what's wrong. So I drove home (a few miles) and started to remove the intake manifolts and carburators. When I looked inside the carburator I noticed that there was a jet missing.



Threre is only one way a loose jet can go. I expected bent valves and, and. To my suprice the jet was still in the intake port of the cilinder head. It was'nt even damaged.



The problem with this jet in the venturi of the 34 PCI Solex is that if you tighten it to hard the mixturetube brakes off wich is the end of the carburator. I used a little bit of Loc-Tite to solve this problem. My advise, use a little bit of Loc-tite on every nut /bolt and jet that can fall into youre heads.

I know it wo'nt happen to me again.

[Blizzard]

And a few pics off the Bugshow at Spa.











and at the same spot last year.



Find all the changes I've done. There's no prize if you can spot them all.

[beetle1303]

I couldn't resist the temptation, so...
hmmm, lets see...
from the front of the car towards the rear.
1 chrome bumpers
2 moved license plate
3 wheels
4 driver seat
5 chrome door frame
6 rear pop out windows
7 different exhaust (and motor??)
8 rear bumper

i believe i got them all
oh and the chrome bumpers have the rubber trim on them...

cmon what do i win???

[Blizzard]

Haha, You forgot the new brakes and there was no chrome door frame that is the sun reflection. But you get an A for effort. And the prize is.....
A place on the passenger seat next year at the Bugshow on the track. Spa in Belgium is al ong way from Greece but it's a great meeting for GL fans.

[Wally]

Its good to see your pics again Erik!
for more then one reason

How are your plans for a roll cage working out at the moment? I saw some scetches earlier from you that were VERY cool and well thought-out
I think our friends over here would like them too!

[Blizzard]

Well Wally, instead of writing or talking about it. I'm actualy working on the rollcage right now. The plan is that next season I have the rollgage installed, got the brake bias in order with the new front brakes. And this is a secret so shhhhh. I'm working on a 1776 or 1904 or maybe a 2110 type 1. Instead of posting every little thing I work on I plan on showing the build proces once its running in the 1303.

And yes it's a one off a kind rollcage for a bug. It's a OMP cage designed for an Alfa Romeo Sud Sprint wich was an old track day car off mine. When I sold that car I kept the rollcage. It fits with miner adjustments in a superbeetle.
I bought a few rollgage pipes and connectors from OMP to make the whole car more rigit / stiff.

First ruff drawing. Measurements are all wrong. It's just to visualize the idea I had.



And with the right dimensions and alot less scaffolding

[evilC]

Hi Erik,

Good cage, nice car . Do the front braces join near the centreline of the car and connect to the front frame? Also, It might be worth cross bracing the roof bars as at the moment everything forward of the rear hoop can lozenge due to a non-frontal impact.
Why not do away with the short strut from the front leg mounting point up to the suspension leg brace and extend the door cross brace up to the suspension strut top? That will nicely triangulate everything on that elevation drawing. I am always wary of making cage connections into the mid point of the bars as it puts a bending moment into the connected bar whereas all the connections should be at node points to maximise the bar section properties.

Clive