London Outlaw

Nice score, Blake. Looking forward to following the progress.

Yes.  Keep us posted.  Most of us here enjoy following a build, either a do it yourself, or one by a professional builder.

 

Congrats Paul! Sounds like its going to be a sweet looking outlaw! Can't wait to see the finished car. 

 

And...

 

Welcome to the Madness! 

Thanks Chaps.

 

Here are a few teasers. Genuine Fuchs will be detailed, not like they are.

 

 

 

 

Also lots of little things I'll post when I do them. Like 9mm Tile insulation foam and 6mm Marine ply floor instead of 15mm ply to save weight, and Porsche Lightweight door pulls.

 

I'm looking forward to the madness!

........enjoy the build & like the E Brake!

I like some of the details too, particularly the shifter.

Good starting point and a great plan!  Look forward to the build.

I Diggit!   

Blake:  I did the same to a set of Fuchs - bought some black-anodized spoked wheels and a few years later stripped and polished them to pristine beauty.  I should-a bought Polished ones in the first place......What a helluva lot of work!

 

That car is gonna be the bomb.  Enjoy the ride!

 

Gordon

The Speedstah Guy from around Boston

Welcome to the SOC , Paul! It looks like you already have the "madness".

That is an expensive shifter and it looks it.  If it shifts anywhere close to as good as it looks you'll be very happy.

I was just in Boston, Drove around the 6 states near you as far north as China lake and west as Hoosick Fall.. Odd places I know!

 

I'm lucky. These Genuine 14 Fuchs were fully polished some time ago and were recently painted gloss black over the polish. I bet the keyed and etch primed the wheel but it should be less work than a stock wheel. I'll detail the caps too.

 

Tip for people polishing fuchs. Oven cleaner (the nasty type) rips the anodising right off. Then sand and polish.

Yes it is. The vintage speed one works great but looks best is a traditional build. Gene Berg ones are great but better in a Drag Bug, for me anyway. This looks like Engineering precision that is timeless, so fine for a 57 look car.

 

Although as I mentioned I am using Gmund style touches on the body and later '69 wheels so this build is anything but looking for originality. Love these kits because I don't feel bad about making it mine!

 

I love the holes in the handbrake. But why stop there? I've shortened mine also and a short(er) handbrake looks much better than that ridiculously long original... 

 

http://i79.photobucket.com/alb...bouwspeedster032.jpg

 

http://i79.photobucket.com/alb.../bouw03012008017.jpg

Noted, It does look better. What is involved (aside from cutting/butting handle) different spring? shorter release rod?

 

I want to do that now.

Every part remains the same; you don't need any other parts.

 

You'll just have to shorten the release rod as much as you shorten the handbrake handle.

Thanks, I read your build while I was daydreaming of owning one. First class job.

That is going to be a real 'Outlaw'! I love the plans you have with your car! 

 

I made my car also 'something different':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2X3FPzMEps

 

I see you are Britain based: where do you live? I visit Britain regularly (Goodwood, etc.)

 

The pic of the lightened handbrake is from the Callook Lounge thread 

http://cal-look.no/lounge/index.php/topic,5293.0.html for anyone interested in spending a lot of time drilling holes, and is compliments of Bruce Tweddle.

 

I did mention the Callook.no weight saving thread, great read. Bruce's handbrake was when I went from thinking this is mad to this is amazing. Clipped the image and kept it to follow when I have a project to use it on. Now it's going to be a hybrid of short and Swiss cheese. 

 

As for Black Betty's question I live in West London, England. Your car is pretty tough. I'd like to end up with a street version of that vintage race theme.

I'd seen the lightened one before, Paul, but I have to admit the idea of it being shortened too...

 

I'm going to have to show that to Bruce (he lives not too far from me). I wonder what he'll think of it? He's gone as far as making the threaded rod inside out of aluminum.

I'm surprised there hasn't been more of an effort by builders to get rid of the floor-mount e-brakes  Why not get rid of the floor-mount e-brake and move it under the dash?  That would be look more "original" and less VW-like.  Has anyone come up with a relatively easy to do that? 

 

Bruce.

 

Henry has done that on a few cars.  No idea of what the cost is.

 

It does look quite original.

I'll assume it's a money the thing, on Beetle based speedsters it's all there.

Guessing I would say $250+ to convert to under the dash.

As a person who's done the conversion, it's not hard. It's just kind of fiddly with the bell crank and the brackets you need to fabricate.

"Why not get rid of the floor-mount e-brake and move it under the dash? "

 

Because having it up under the dash makes it harder to start a corner drift by blipping the e-brake.  On the tunnel, it's right there, beneath the shift knob.  You don't even have to look for it - just reach down and it's there.....a quick little handbrake blip at the right point in a turn when the power's coming back on and you can get the rear to throw out to the extent of the sidewalls instantly and under control, and then hold it there with the throttle foot.

 

OK, so back in the 1970's, Porsche moved the brake handle all over the place for a while - remember that useless one between the driver's seat and the door sill?  That was a short one, too.  Finally, they listened to their drivers and moved it to the center console/tunnel, just like most of us.

 

 

This technique, BTW, is especially useful for you Canadians who are into Ice Racing.  Which used to be big around here, till we got all the "Ice Fishermen".....What are they catching?  Have you EVER seen an "Ice Fish"?  all these guys do is clutter up the race track......

 

 

 

Ah, yes, drifting using the hand brake.

 

Back when I was a young 'un, I used to love doing that in my Bugeye Sprite! 

 

Of course, having four bald tires helped a little.

 

I'll have to see how it works with my new IM6...

Yeah, it was especially effective on Silver Lake, here, when we were racing FWD Austin Minis.  Mini 850's were our "winter cars" for my senior year in high school.  Four of us would line them up in the parking lot of the HS (only taking two parking spots - we put one behind the other to fit in one spot) and do a LeMans start out of the snowy parking lot as we left to head to work.  Weekends, we had a cool little cone-course set up on the lake.  Decent ice, 4"-6" of snow on top and front studded snows (which looked suspiciously like dome-head sheet metal screws into the tread) on our Minis and we were set. 

 

Since you won't be catching me blipping the hand brake to start a drift I would love to see an under dash ebrake conversion for our cars.

Lots of good memories from high school, Gordon. 

 

It was a good time all around.

TRP,

 

Can you give us an idea how you made the conversion and what you used?

 

 

I have in my latest car a dash mounted E-Brake and I like it.  I do think that between the seats is the best area but I do not like the lever controls... they just look to VW unless of course you go with the heater knob. 

If you want to do it to have the car look 'more authentic' then don't bother: a real 356 (Speedster) doesn't have that 'hump' between the seats from rear to front (is that called 'the tunnel'?) anyway. 

 

Yes, you did, Paul, I only provided the link (and here it is again above, for those who weren't curious enough the first time) for people to find it easily. Let me know how it works and feels being shortened; I saw my friend Bruce over the weekend (we started taking apart my Berg 5 Saturday night) and he thought it might take too much effort to use. He's now made the whole handle out of aluminum, but hasn't drilled any holes in it yet.

Small progress while I wait for my driveway to complete. Reworked a vintage scooter mudguard crest in the shadow of a early Gmund 356. Lots of filing sanding and polishing but I like it. It's shorter than the Gmund type or even the PreA so fits with the outlaw theme.

New steering wheel sourced. Little work to make it fit but I'm liking it.

The hood ornament is really nice and so is the wheel. Bob are you looking at this... Would look good on your outlaw.