265/50's

Got my tires mounted to my fuch 8" rims and they fit...barely. Will have to do a little bit of trimming to the inner lip of the flared VS body. They look pretty cool. We shall see how they drive.

Joe, I ended up doing the same thing you did to get by BAS mufflers tucked up tight, otherwise there was no way these tires were going to fit in the rear.

Don't you agree it's nice to share technical info? How far did you have to raise your side frame rails? I went up two inches. If you cut it right you can use the cutouts as the risers. Did you buy the sheet metal for the bottom of the engime compartment from Jake ?
Joe

Yup, thats the main reason I have tried to keep up my build website, so everyone can share in my experiences.

The back frame I did move up about 2". I did it with 2 1x2's welded together with part of one of the 1x2 offset a little higher to really make sure I had room for the mufflers. Pictures will really show what I did (which are not up on my build site yet, but should be soon).

I also had to make some additional frame modifications due to a problem with my seats.

Up until now I have tried to make sure and get a sample part for fit, to make sure everything would go together. A good example of this was my rims and wheels. Before I dropped a bunch of money on the wrong size rims, I had the place I was getting the rims from send me one to test fit.

When it came to seats, I shopped around a bit, and then decided to get Cerillo's. The place I got them from only had one seat in the shop and did not want to loan it to me to make sure it would fit, but guaranteed me they would fit in a bug no problem. So I took there word for it and orderd 2 seats, with heat, custom covered in the same red vinyl as my dash and door covers. 3 weeks later the seats show up, and they look awsome and feel great. I get them home and plop them into the tub...and they are too wide, by about 2". AHHHHHGGGGGRRSFFDSFKJL.

After stewing on the problem for a little while I decided I could get them to fit if I cut out a long notch in the 2x4 steel frame that went under the doors. I'm about half way through this modification, and again will post pictures and a full writeup. But for anyone else out there modifying their kit and going outside the "normal", MAKE SURE to get example parts or components to make sure things fit before you drop a bunch of money. In my case the seats were just over $1k each. Well worth the cost in the end for the comfort (and heat), but a little bit of stress when some major mods are needed to make them fit.

Chris, I think IM makes both seats (coupe and Speedster bucket) in two different widths (wide and narrow).

If you're building a pan based car and cutting out what amounts to structural reinforcement to increase your tire clearance I would suggest that you find some way of reinforcing the cutout areas or you may wind up with excessive pan flex and/or stress cracks may form in the pan and body shell. Pan based cars usually flex without being weakened.

Good call on tires! When the flood comes, head for the speedster, it should float! On the other hand, if the rear end ever does break away, you better have he reflexes of a ninja to catch it. Still a good call!

The rear frame has very little structure engineering. It's a very poor design. By stepping it up tends to reduce the the overhanging stress. A stepped up frame is commonly used in custom street rod ,drag cars etc. Chris you'll be fine. Chassis building 101.
Joe

George,

I will be adding some additional support to the frame, probably another 2x4 or 2x2 welded to the outside. Part of the fun will be getting the body turned up on its side so I can get some good weld's. Welding upside down sucks.

Pictures should explain it all.

Oh, the supports I'm adding are for the parts I had to modify to get the seats to fit. The rear parts I modified really dont do much except support the bumpers which don't do much except help with the look.

If your are having problems welding upsidedown turn current down for stick and use a smaller diameter electrode. If it is wire feed- turn the current down one and the wire speed down. Don't weaver the pass in it creates way to much heat in one spot . Run multiple stingers passes. Add access weld to grind down smooth for a clean look. Good luck.
Joe

Thanks for the welding tips Joe.

Here are a couple photos of the frame mods I made to fit my seats in, as well as a pic of the seats.

Chris; Won't that mod block the "heat" from the boxes?

BD

I got no heat...Type 4 with no heater boxes. This is truely a fair weather car for me. But I do have heat in the seats!

question.. I just installed a set of EMPI wheels adapters to fit my 16x7 and 16x8 Fuchs. Like you said I had to trim out the top back fender well but they fit. My question is... Did you buy different bolts in place of the stock VW lug nuts? I have no room to tighten the stock lug nuts in the adapters....

Mark,

Way back when I started my project I got the CB Performance disk brakes, front and rear, and got the Porsche 5 bolt pattern, so I don't have any spacers or adapters. Also my Fuchs are 15" not 16". Not that that would matter, but I bet you had a much bigger choice of tire sizes on those 16" rims. I bet you are running 245's right?

You will probably need to get longer wheels studs if you have adapters. The other alternative is to go disk brakes, or you could probably find a local machine shop to drill the 5 bolt Porche pattern into your existing disks/drums.

Also from your pictures it looks like you are pretty close on the front fenders in the rear when you turn out. You will probably have to do a little trimming there as well.

I believe they are 245's, to be honest they came off a friends '79 930 and I haven't really even paid much attention to the size. I just picked them up from him last night and stuck the left side on to see if they would fit. My main problem is getting a regular socket or lug wrench into the counterbored hole of the adapter allowing me to tighten the VW lugnuts. I think tomorrow if the locktight doesn't make it impossible I may try finding some alternative bolts in place of the VW lugnuts holding the adapters to the drums.


Thanks,

Mark

Chris, What is the distance from the exhaust header to the back of the car? I am trying to figure out the exit point for the exhaust. Trying to exit dead center. Are you using both BAS mufflers?
Joe

Yup, using both mufflers. The exit point can be made to be in the center, it just might be a little low. I will have to look. You would also need some additional stainless metric size pipe, as the default setup exits left of center.

I'm thinking the distance from the header to the back "apron" is only about 6".

Joe, scratch that. 6" is way wrong. Just measured. More like 2 1/2" from the back of the headers to the rear of the body. Going out the middle might get a little tight. Let me know if you work it out and of course post some pics.

Thanks Chris, Great pictures. Your car is looking great. I have been battling with the stress cracks. I purchased a used flare CMC . I have had to grind out the areas with stress cracks and re-glass them. Also had to repair a few damaged areas. The rocker below the doors were very wavey. Took 2 hours to get them straight. When the body work is done I am going to apply Duratec surfacing polyster primer. This stuff is great. We used it on the hydroplanes we use to race. I wish I had the progress you've had. The exhaust will come out the rear as planned. I 'll have to get creative with the plumbing of the exhaust. A friend dropped off two 4" dodge viper exhaust tips. I might be able to make them fit.

Chris,
I noticed your third brake light in one of your pictures. Which make and model car did it come from? I tried a Toyota pick up light ....it didn't look right.
Joe

I got one from JC Whitney, then did some modifications with the dremel to make if fit to the body. It's basically ABS plastic so you can grind it down to fit. And if you screw it up it's on $14 for another one.

Chris, I need some help once again. I noticed the seats you put inside your Flare and the frame modification that you performed. I am finding out the max width with no frame mod is at 19 inches
How wide are your seats at the base? For the seat modification, how much did you have to take out of one side of your frame? Did you add further reinforcement to the body frame ? My CMC body frame side structure is 2

Joe,

I have the body off the pan right now so I can't get you exact measurements, but I basically had to cut out about 2" from the 2x4 side frame. Making it into an enclosed L instead of a square. I have not yet re-enforced the frame but will probably do so with a 2x2 on the outside.

Do you have your seats yet? Do you want to get the exact same seats as I have? The width of the seat the I had to widen things for was 21".

I am looking at the Procar seats. I have looked at the Corbeau Classic seats which require only 19 inches for installation. They don't appear to be to comfortable. Since my chassis has a 2x 2 frame no body frame reinforcement would be required. Who is the manufacturer of your seats?
Thanks,
Joe

I was going to go the Courbeu route as well, but when I sat in one at a local shop, they were not that comfortable either, so I "upgraded" to Cerullo's

www.cerullo.com/sport_xr.html

Got them finished in matching vinyl to my dash.