Really OT Kit Kar Build

This is the only picture of me in the car.

Look at that crappy alignment of the running board. All the panels were poorly aligned.

 

I set up to tow to the DMV for inspection.

 

Well I towed the Volkswagen into the DMV today for the first inspection. They basically looked at it said go home and put it all together then bring it back again.

 

That's useful....

 

They want to know that it really is a roadster, and they have no idea what I’m gonna build out of it, so no title for me yet. Meanwhile I’m putting it back together. My granddaughter help me put the front body back on yesterday.


I got rid of the heavy muffler heater box combo tubes and replaced them with simple J tube’s for the exhaust.


I got the rear frame and rear bumper mounted and the rear crossmembers on.

Today I’m working on body alignment and I’m going to try and mount the front fenders and front crossmember.

 

Ya might already know this but in case you don’t: You’ll want to plug the holes in the fan shroud that went to the heater boxes. Otherwise the engine will run hot. Also dump that plastic gas filter and redo your fuel line. Big time fire hazard that has burned up many old bugs.

 

Thanks Truckntran.
Yes both of those items are well known.

I'm not a VW expert, but I built my first VW engine in 1973. Strangely, my VW is a 1973.

 

OK, Fenders are on & it's time to install the lights.

 

I think I'd trade that powerplant for something with a bit more push then a VW beetle engine.

Say for example an 1800 cc flat 4 cylinder from a Honda Goldwing with fuel injection and electronic ignition...... of course, there are many other choices.

Otherwise, it'll be a cool ride when finished.

 

Absolutely nothing wrong with air-cooled VW power... The potential is there to make plenty of reliable power, if you want it.

 

Please remember that I am not trying to “finish” this car. I just need it assembled to get it titled to me before I spend any more real money.

It will all come apart again so I can re-frame the front, and many other minor things.

 

It has been a long time coming. In fact I’ve been talking about getting a TIG welder for at least 10 years. I’m having a celebratory drink here as I check out the instruction manual.

Here is the entire kit.


The panel:

 

Well I got the front end straightened out and the headlights are installed. The gauges are not wired up yet. I just put them in the dash.

Right now I’m working on the fit of the rear fenders. In trying to improve that fit, I discovered that the builder skipped a few steps. I discovered that he also totally mislocated the rear steel subframe attachment to the floor pan.

This Twisted subframe was causing a visible twisting of the rear body: it was making the left fender high and the right rocker panel bulge enough that the door won’t stay closed.

None of this is really obvious in the photographs but it was in person.

Now that I have corrected the sub frame attachments I have to patch some excess holes in my floor.

 

I bought a cart, and a fancy new patriotic welding helmet with auto darkening, and some more small welding gear, and I made some test welds on the scraps of the metal I will actually be welding.

Everything came out very strong, although I wasn’t able to make it pretty on the first go around. When I tried to chisel those welds apart and separate the layers of metal I had welded together it was damn near impossible.

I had a little more heat than I needed but I have plenty of penetration, and so I am sure I’m going to be able to weld up the light gauge Volkswagen stuff no problem.

Of course this is my first time with the new welder so I stuck my tungsten in the puddle more than once, and ended up re-grinding.

I need to practice a little more and get the heat settings recorded for each situation that I am going to have to weld, because I already pretty much have everything worked out in my head.

I am trying to set everything up so I can do all the welding from the top of the chassis and not have to flip it over or crawl underneath to weld overhead.

This is the scrap from the edge of the Volkswagen pan, where the jack plugs into a socket under the running board. All that has been cut off now. Anyhow I welded up a bit of the bare edge and a lap joint and then started bridging the gap and it all filled up nicely with 1/16 inch filler rod until I got to that big gap. I needed to switch up a little bit or start doing stitch passes.


There’s a Hi-Rez close-up of my weld, so you can see where I dipped the tungsten and made an ugly pit.

I was working outdoors and I had the argon turned up pretty high, even though I had welding curtains. I ended up with some smut. I wire brushed all of these welds so you could see what the metal looks like a little more.

Here I made a hem in a thin metal strap And welded the edges together. I stuck my tungsten in the puddle a couple times here and made a mess. Also I didn’t need filler rod for this. The heat was too low. I didn’t have enough gas.

Here’s the other end of that same strap. I made a hem in it and tried to weld the edges together. It was going OK until I got over the hole and then the bottom fell out! Too hot. Too slow.

I turned the amperage down a little bit And did the other end. The hem had a little open eye this time, so I started with a dab of filler rod, but did the rest just with fusion. Here the heat is pretty good, but I have the pulse setting too slow.


I stuck a chisel between those layers and whomped it on the anvil with a 4 pound hammer. The parent metal sliced apart, But the welds were unaffected. The steel in the weld is twice as strong as the steel in that strap.

I need to do some test weld from the tin to some heavier metal tomorrow,and see how that’s going to work out.

 

Well I have been trying to get it to rain here by waxing my truck and parking it outdoors and doing the sort of things that would make the gods jealous.

None of that worked and we haven’t had any rain here in the desert for months.

But then I dig my welding table out and pull everything out into the boat yard and buy a new welder and get it all set up . . . and the heavens break loose.

So instead of test welds, I am cleaning up the rain puddles and my wet steel.

 

^That sounds about right.

 

Once I proved I could still weld well enough, I stepped back to do some wiring on the SS.

The original wiring job used a partial custom wiring kit, some Mexican switches, bits of VW like the turn signal switch, and the fuse panel, short terminated odds and ends from 1973, and 100 splices made with crimp-on’s, quick taps, and sloppy 30 year old tape.

This gives you a general overview of the quality. Master switch, fuse panel, and radio wiring.


Rear harness is unsecured, un-loomed, and just drapes haphazardly, over the CV joint and engine.


The instrument panel wiring is slightly less alarming, until you look at the number of quick taps used to make all the ground connections. Then there’s the hokey horn button. Also you’ll notice the electrical tape falling off of the wiper switch which is about ready to short out on the steering column bracket.


If you look closely you will notice that none of the gauges has a bracket, and they are just stuck in the holes in the dash with nothing to secure them there except friction.

So there’s been some major effort to clean this up, and More will be required.

I have got all the wiring from the front bumper back to the cowl in really good shape now. There are no crimp-on connectors or spices. Everything is soldered and everything is double insulated at the connections with heat shrink tubing.

I still have to run a wire for the brake switch, and the fuel gauge. I think I’m going to remove the electric fuel pump and put in a Volkswagen mechanical fuel pump that works.

Actually the one in the car is unhooked but might still be functioning. These cars get air leaks in the fuel lines and then people think the fuel pump is weak, so they put in an electric fuel pump. Then they get gas leaks and burn up the car.

Anyhow just a couple more wires and I will be ready to install the cowl. Because my philosophy is to remove every possible connection from the circuitry, there will be no plugs at the cowl. This will be a very simple loom with few possible failure points, So I’m not going to worry about it being easy to remove and repair. Once I fiberglass the firewall to the cowl, any wire removed will have to be fed through.

 

Repairing the hook for the brake cable which has a lot of wear on it. I’m really bad at this. I could’ve done it better and faster with the acetylene torch. I ended up regrinding the tungsten four times and I still stabbed in the heart at the end..





I snapped one of these on my 66 fastback back in 1980, and I had to drive it without the clutch across town. That was an experience. I repaired that one with acetylene torch, which was all I had at the time.

 

Well I got the brakes all put back together today and bled and leak tested and everything looks good.

I was afraid I was going to have a leak at the master cylinder, because there was brake fluid on the frame there when I bought the car.

But it turns out that was coming from a cracked plastic brake fluid reservoir so I ordered a new one today from J-bugs Volkswagen parts in SoCal.

$11 plus shipping.

Just for fun I was looking on the Napa catalog, at locally available plastic brake reservoirs from modern cars that I might use, but they’re all like $50-$100 and up!

I also bought a complete engine gasket set for $23. You can’t get a head gasket for a Toyota for $23.

 

Now you can see that I have cleaned up the wiring a lot and installed the horn & a ground point. The brakes are wired and wires are in for the gas gage. Still no floorboards in the front, however I do have the brakes working thru a temporary Frankenstein arrangement of struts, angle clips, and bolts.

I removed original Rusty (with a big R) structure that was just starting to flop around If you mashed the brakes.

I now have two 1” tube steel reaction struts back to the chassis with bolts, So braking feels very direct.

This is good news because when I saw the brake fluid I thought the master cylinder would be weak and it feels very strong now.

The reservoir still leaks and I am awaiting my new one from J-bugs which could be in my mailbox right now.
(It was & it fits ok.)

I have been setting up to weld the crossmembers into a girdle to stabilize the middle of the remaining floor pan and running boards together. This will put some 1.75” od tube steel, right under the running boards.

This car has no interior steel framing at the cockpit and so there is nothing between you and anything else but 1/8” fiberglass.

And there won’t be any either, until this car has a title. This is all the welding that I’m going to do until this car has a title.

But without these additions the running-boards are a total joke. And the Volkswagen pan structure alone cannot maintain the critical dimensions between the fender mounting holes.

Anyhow, this amount of welding will prevent the car from being a total jalopy when I have to show it. Until this thing gets some steel superstructure in the cockpit and cowl area, I will I have the doors bolted shut to improve the integrity of the sidewalls. I tested this, and I can get in and out of this car without opening the door or stepping on the runningboard.