New member Done Saving another GT2

When I brought this car home on the tow dolly I had to contend with the torsion housing pulling the framehead apart.



These bolts started out with one washer on them and as the frame pulled apart I had to constantly add washers to bring the 2 pieces back together.






I eventually had a 2" ratchet strap tying the lower torsion tube to the shifter coupling opening.




I have completed the framehead. I used 3/32" plate steel, 1" square and 3/4 angle, To locate the torsion tubes I used 4 trailer leafspring locators.






Muffler clamps are part of the battery tray assembly









All measurements show it is dead on accurate and much stronger than the original VW setup. Althouth it was a lot of work I feel it was not much more than installing a complete aftermarket framehead.

I decided to mount my battery in the front of the car to help offset the weight of the Corvair.







Tomorrow It gets cleaned up and a nice coat of paint.

The painting is awesome!! The progress on the car is great, I only wish that I had enough motivation to work on mine everyday. Keep up the good work and keep us informed of the progress. It motivates me everytime I see a new posting from you.

Well I have been rather busy the last couple of days.
The paint on the chassis is dry.



Some of the parts I ordered arrived. A used alternator to replace the generator. Something that has to be changed when reversing a Corvair. It was in bad shape. Needed new brushes, bearings, a reverse cooling fan and a deeper pulley due to the alt no longer being on the tension side.




The old 50lb generator.




I also got a used newer mobel dist. The old one was not the right design for the reversing parts. When reversing you have to keep the distributor going the same direction as stock rotation as it drives the oil pump. New thrust washers and a new drive gear get installed. The used one had way too much play in the shaft so I made a new bushing and rebuilt the dist. Sorry forgot to get a pic of the new one after rebuild.


I decided to get as much as I could get done on the engine. First step take it apart.



Most of it was stripped while still in the car.

As I had originally chosen to flip the transmission crown gear to deal with the engine spinning the wrong way, I now had to remove the transmission. This is the one I flipped.


Instead of re-flipping it I just got another from my parts shelf.


While the trans was out I replaced the rear flex hoses and installed the brake cables.







The trans going back in. It is nice that these transmissions are so light. Hold it with one hand install the fasteners with the other.


This is what a split Corvair case looks like


I took the engine case to our local CASINO car wash {casino as it eats more coins than a slot machine} They have a setting for engine degreaser.

Going back together. Reverse rotation camshaft, and crank installed. New trans adapter plate and Flywheel. As GM went and used 11/32x24 grade 8 bolts to hold the flywheel on and I could not get any locally. I drilled and rethreaded the crank to accept 3/8x24. Grade 9 bolts were used. This is standard practice for race applications.




Reverse rotation distributor drive gear.


Once the clutch and crosshaft kit come in and are installed, the engine goes back on where I will finish the reassembly.

This was a very productive 5 days. My 2100 lb clutch, Heavy duty cross shaft and my shifter came in. I installed the cross shaft for the release bearing, the clutch assy with new bearing. Next the engine, as seen above went in. Then came the reassembly of the engine. I also installed the welding cable positive starter supply wire and a heavier ground from the lower starter bolt to the chassis. Next I was onto my new SCAT shifter. Listed on CIP1 as

C15-80501 - SCAT DRAGFAST DUAL T-SHIFTER ANGLED 46-67 BEETLE / GHIA


These are fantastic short throw units. This is the third car I used one in and have yet to find a nicer shifter. Note the year is 46-67, after that they are straight instead of angled.

I made up and installed the remaining brake lines. Temporarily mounted the master reservoir and bled the brakes. Yesterday and today I triangulated the rear shock towers down to the frame horns and tied the rear of the Corvair subframe to the top and bottom of the "triangle" bars. This provides the extra engine support and eliminates wheel hop on hard acceleration. A coat of paint then went onto the rear frame work. Started to paint the transmission.

Wow, lots of progress. What did you use to make the windows for the tops of the doors? They look good!

After checking my headlights for bounce I decided to break down and invest $144 on an actuator. Not because the go up and down {cycle}. They do not. When up, even if the limit switch was to "open" during a bump, they stay put. The decision was due to the fact that the motor has play and the lights will move about 1/4 inch when pushed down. The torsion spring then moves them back up. The actuator will be wired to the "lock" switch using 2 relays so that when off, the relays draw no power and the lights go down, turning them on will activate the 2 relays reversing the polarity causing them to open. I will post a schematic when they are done.

This last few days was time to concentrate mainly on bodywork.

Cleaned up the rear end wiring.


Made a mold of the left tail light bucket and glassed it into the body. Cut the remaining plexi tail light cover and wired up the tail lights.


I also cut the second exhaust outlet. The Harley mufflers will join to these chrome extensions with silicone hoses.


Laid a bit of the carpeting to see how it would look.


I had a couple of GM side markers and mounted them. I had to cut the lenses off the marker assemblies, heat and mold them to the body contour, then reassemble the lamps. I chose to flush mount them and built retainers that are similar in design to the stock tail light retainers.





While at Princess Auto I found some small almost round driving lights. I thought that they would look good in the front end where the original bumper tubes went. They did not. A second trip out and I had a pair of rectangular units. I filled the bumper holes cut them for the new lights and glassed the lenses in with a .010 gap around them, just enough to allow adjustment.

It too looked terrible as it took away from the clean lines of the front end. So I removed them and glassed in the holes. Next choice was to mount them under the front end, hanging down. Still did not cut it. So my 4th choice was to mount them in the body, below the "bumper" and shining through. Measurements were taken to ensure the look was clean and invisible when viewing the car.
Here is the result. They will get a mesh cover molded to the body. Internally I may duct them so they double as brake coolers.





Now if you go back to the beginning you will know that the PO really messed up my hood and opening. I was able to buy a used hood for an ICE Bradley. Problem was I only had 2 louvers left on the car, the ICE hood has 2 louvers and I needed 5 in total. Due to the placement of my battery I also needed a hood that is 3 louvers wide. I grafted the 2 louvers from my electric hood to the 2 from the ICE hood. As the upper ICE louver is thinner than the lower it allowed me to overlap the 2 parts and end up with 3 louvers at the right height.

Next I had to repair the opening.

After building forms and glassing the body with lots of sanding here is the result.

Fitting the hood went well


Next was to hinge it. I installed some invisible cabinet hinges but due to hinge design and the fact that the hood rear edge was not straight, it was arrow shaped, the hood would not open. Even after grinding away most of what I had done.
Second try went perfect. By riveting some aluminum to the top of the body I was able to cut a perfect rectangle. This also allowed me to mold the hood to the body resulting in the required gap and shape. It also made the hood thicker at the rear edge giving it more strength. I got a pair of 170* full overlap cupboard hinges from the hardware store. They are a 2 piece hinge that clips together very securely and push the panel outward as it opens.
I have used a similar 2 piece hinge on my Manx with no issues of it coming apart.


Still some finishing to do on the underside.

Put a coat of paint on the transmission and installed the HI Torque starter. What a difference in cranking speed.


My gas cap that will get installed just behind the rear hatch glass on top of the body. Fuel tank will be in the back seat.


While out getting parts for the hood I came across a great deal. A new steering wheel reg $110 on for $44. They had 2, one all black and this one. I could not pass this one up.



Well that is it for this week. Back on night shift tonight. The Bradley will have to wait until Friday.

It is doubtful the hinges would be strong enough for the doors. They are bade for kitchen cabinets. A simple suicide door hinge can easily be made for the doors that would be invisible. I made a set for my Beetle.




Here is the basics,

Spark plug wires made and installed. Custom set made with proper ends and NOS wire core ign wire.
Front wheel spacers made and installed, I used a ser of aluminum wheel adapters, minus the studs. Drilled out to 11/16 amd longer mag wheel nuts. This widened my front wheel track by 2 inches.
Headlight actuator installed, Control circuit built and working just like the original.



This wiring results in the lights opening if the headlights sw is on AND the lock sw on. They will close if either sw is turned off. There is zero parasitic draw on the battery when turned off.

By supplying the headlight sw with IGN controlled 12v instead of constant BATT 12v, the headlights will automatically turn on and open when the car is started {if the HL and lock switch are on} and close when the car is turned off.

UPDATE:
A fellow builder asked me the following:My actuator has 5 wires coming out: Red, Black, White, Purple,Yellow. Do I ignore the others and just use the red and black?

Yes, you ignore the remaining 3 wires. Only the red and black are used. They are connected to the relays so that when power is removed from the "lock" wire, the headlights retract into the body.

I managed to get about 10 hours on the car this week. Took a few pics of the previous work and some updates.

The adjustable springplates with shorter torsion bar.


The difference with and without the front wheel spacers.

with:


without:


A better shot of the hood



My headlight linear actuator. For anyone doing this mod, you need one with 4 inches of travel.


My newest update is the dash. remember what I started with...


Well after many hours of filling holes and getting it straight, I tackled the steering column. I raised the column 3/4 inch at the dash and shifted it in 1/2 inch so that it is actually in the dash. Next I worked on the column itself. To my surprise the part that holds the ignition lock cyl was all aluminum,not a plastic cover like many VW columns had. I removed all the paint and polished it to a chrome like finish. I did the same to the steering wheel adapter. The turn and wiper levers I left in a brushed aluminum finish.
I moved my switches to the left of the column. Actuator/Headlights/Driving Lights/Fan/Gas Heater. The wipers are now on the column.

The dash was sprayed with paintable gravel/rocker guard then topped with gloss black.

You make good progress and it looks good. Want to come work on the one I have in the garage? ;D

I do have floors. The po welded in 1/8 steel plate. and a 1" square tube perimeter, I even have carpet.

All in good time. This is going together once. I still have a bit of under dash work to complete.

Got a couple hours in today. Reassembled and sealed the fresh air blower box, installed the blower, and repaired the wiring to the blower. I also molded the 2 speaker enclosures for the front "kick panel" speakers out of fiberglass. I am normally off for 5 days this week but have decided to go in for two night shifts [Thurs/Fri], so I won't be back on it till Saturday. The goal is to complete the under dash and lower the body onto the chassis by Sunday night.

Very nice work. Wishing I was home to do some more work on my
GT II.