Starting from scratch, hotrod style

[StinkyFab]

Someone noticed my long term project in the background of Cal's pics, so I figured I'd share here. It's a 1968 Beetle, minus most of the beetle. I bought the car as an empty shell close to a decade ago with the idea of building something fun for the street and racetrack. The plan has been in my head for a long time, but it's just finally getting started.

Here are the basic specs.

• 1968 Beetle, body shell only
• full custom cromoly tube chassis and roll cage
• Custom A-Arm Front suspension with Cantilever mounted Coilovers
• 4-Link Rear suspension with Fox Coilovers.
• Chevy 4.3V6 bored and stroked to 4.7L, roughly 300hp, front mounted.
• 700R4 Transmission
• Ford Explorer 8.8 rear end. Limited slip, disc brakes, etc.
• 17" Ford Police Interceptor wheels & tires

The idea is to build a road race car, with a bug body and some hot rod style. Goal is to be under 1800lbs, which should make for some ridiculous power characteristics.

Here's what I started with.

 

[StinkyFab]

It's been sitting in the corner of my shop for years, and I've pretended to get started a few times now, but pretty much all I got done was removing the pan and chopping off the parts of the body I don't plan to re-use.

 

[StinkyFab]

Here is the planned general stance and wheel placement.

 

[dan1977p]

That's a far cry from the 1600cc motor that came with and it should be a blast to drive!

 

[POSJ]

How much do you want for it when you're done?:shhh:

 

[StinkyFab]

It's taken me 8 years to start the project, who knows how long it'll take to finish. After that I'm hoping to keep it a while.

 

[cal]

subscribed

 

[StinkyFab]

The one part of this project that is the farthest from my normal skill set is the front end. I usually work with solid front axles. I'm quite comfortable with various link suspension setups, but IFS is something I've never really toyed much with, aside from cutting it off.

I'm using some aftermarket Mustang II parts in here, mainly because they are available everywhere and cheap, with lots of support. I'm using 2" drop spindles, disc brakes and a Mustang II steering rack. The rest I'll be building myself. I also want it to be very adjustable, and easily adjustable. To help with the design process I've been building a lot of the parts in solidworks before actually cutting them out. Step 1 was the lower control arms. They will be primarily machined from 7075 Aluminum, and will provide for very easy camber and caster adjustment.

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

i designed an A arm front and semi trailing arm rear in college for a single seat offroad vehicle. we built in a ton of adjustability and servicability using heims and uniballs. we went through great lengths to jig the suspension componants and mounts o the chassis. the physical parts and motion measured exactly (to the best that we could measure) as the CAD models did. it worked as intended. we never adjusted anything.

FWIW... if i did it again, i would just build everything rigid. mainly because now i have the confidence and wouldnt mind the cost savings.



not meant to be discouraging at all! i like the project so far.

 

[StinkyFab]

Sounds like you guys had the same mentality that I do. Put in a target that you think will work, but make it so adjustable that if you totally F up you can un-F it hopefully LOL. I've certainly built a few 4-links with multiple upper link mounts that never got used.

I'm actually looking forward to taking this thing to the track and playing with adjustments to learn how it reacts to different things.

 

[Anak]

:greensmok

Love it.

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

Sounds like you guys had the same mentality that I do. Put in a target that you think will work, but make it so adjustable that if you totally F up you can un-F it hopefully LOL. I've certainly built a few 4-links with multiple upper link mounts that never got used.

I'm actually looking forward to taking this thing to the track and playing with adjustments to learn how it reacts to different things.

haha, exactly. even on a 3 or 4 link, i feel like people (or rather, the ones who actually mess with it) find the adjustment that works "best" for them and never really adjust it again. best being arbitrary, as everything is guaged by the butt dyno... most people dont have access to load cells and accelerometer.

we eventually revised and had all the adjustment done in one part of the system. instead of adjustable uppers and lowers, we did a fixed lower (for strength) and an adjustable upper for camber, and shims within the frame mounts for castor... was much easier to replicate from one side of the vehicle to the other than trying to adjust multiple suspension componants.




i will be following this though... i think the next vehicle i want to do will be a small pavement pounder. curious to see what the 4.3 in a small vehicle does.

 

[StinkyFab]

Well, this isn't really your run of the mill 4.3 Chevy. It's been bored and stroked, big valves, titanium springs, balanced, cam, etc. It's in the neighborhood of 300hp/300ft.lb. It did pretty awesome in the 3500lb rockcrawler it was built for, spinning 37s. Should be a monster in this thing.

My original plan was to have all the adjustment in the lowers, and build a solid upper. Now that I'm a little farther on I think the upper is going to be adjustable as well, but mainly to make it easier to build/fixture. The adjustability will be a side effect, but I don't actually plan to use it.

 

[Lowrange2]

Maybe it's just me but... the pictures no worky anymore.

 

[time2getdirty]

Needs more snail.

 

[StinkyFab]

Needs more snail.

Ick.

 

[the_midwesterner]

This should be good! I 2nd the snail comment.

 

[StinkyFab]

Snails are for diesels and Hondas.

 

[StinkyFab]

I got the outboard control arm ends cut out and welded together then rough machined the aluminum adjusters. I'll come back once the car is getting closer to finished and add the wrench flats, taper the ends and polish them up nice. For now they are just gonna stay raw since they are gonna get tossed around a bit during the build.

 

[StinkyFab]

Little more progress. Getting started on the frame.