New speedster project finally begins

Well after ages of reading about other peoples project builds I have began my own this month. For those who are interested in following along please follow the link below.

I Picked up the car in Oct 2008 and it has sat since. The car came mostly complete but as a box of parts. The body had been painted and mounted but it is soon to come off so I can thuroughly go through the pan and driveline.

This is my first experience with air cooled VW's and I am a bit out of my comfort zone. Hopefully with all of your help I will have the beast running by the end of summer.

Cheers.

http://s623.photobucket.com/albums/tt314/dragrabbit/

Nice seats, bigger and more padding than the VS ones.

Erik:

I've got a 22 year old CMC kit that was never started that I'll be bringing home to Beaufort sometime in June. Hope to have the pan refurb'd and mated to the body by the end of this Summer, so we may be building in parallel and following each other's misery.

Welcome to the builder's club!(?) There should be a host of tips and short cuts available, and no end of advice.......

Any chance you could make the Morro Bay or Carlisle events? You'll get an instant education in the good and bad points of Speedstah assembly.

Gordon
The Speedstah Guy from Beaufort, SC

I'm also building an old CMC kit thats never been started .....

I've built over a dozen CMC's and "I ain't" start'n another ...Now a turn key VS is the way for me :( ~Alan

I too have one from 1989 in my garage. I posted to the YAHOO FF/CMC site this morning asking if anyone there had production figures for the Speedsters from FF/CMC. There are a couple posters there who used to work for CMC back in early 90's. I bet 60% are still un-finished based on number of ads I see on ebay. Somewhat surprized as the kit sold for $8k back then (plus their inflated shipping). I used to say that if I had invested in stocks instead of the kit I'd be rich. Ha, I might be ahead with the kit now!

Another project starts for me too. I just picked up a speedster that is partially done. At least we will all have company during this build. Mine has the CMC wheels and body is mounted to the frame. Let the games begin.......

Mine is not yet mounted to the pan, but I do have the CMC wheels which are BEAUTIFUL!! (In deference to those people out there with CMC/FF wheels - the fourth Speedster in Beaufort has them, too......)

Don't know if I'll eventually run a set of Fuchs wheels or not. Might be kinda fun to try something totally different, we'll see.

What I also have is a full set of brand new, 21 year old Goodyears, dry rot and all....

8>(

Nice. When I got the interior done it gave me some momentum to continue the build. Definatley going for a outlaw look with this widebody. I was thinking Kaizer or Bogart three peice wheels with gold anodized center sections. We'll see.

I don't know if this forum format will be easy to post pics. I will look into donating for the added capacity.

As for Morro Bay, well I would like to go as a spectator this year. That area will bring back college memories for sure.

Any thoughts on how reliable a turbo can be on a air cooled? I had a chance to buy a used CB perf turnkey and passed it up. Since then I think that will be the way I go. Hopefully with fuel injection.

Other things on my mind is wether or not to replace the pans since the originals were the ones sectioned. I feel like I could do a better job. Some of my buddies tell me I will be wasting my time since no one will ever see it.

I started mine with thought of making everything perfect - hence still not done. As long as floors are solid move on to next task. Paint floor with Rustoleum/POR 15 and make sure it is sealed well around edges. My approach now is I'd rather get it on the road and drive it.

Your interior (seats and door panels)look great!

I don't know if I would be too excited about putting a turbo in front of a stroker air-cooled unless it was a type 4. That way, at least you would have a bottom end strong enough to handle the torque for a long time. Having said that, the VW Sedan crowd has been runnning turbos on T-1's for a while (see the shop talk forums).

Another way to consider for a turbo package (apart from the obvious Subaru route) might be to get one of Special Edition's transaxles that mate to an Audi 1.8L and turbo THAT. Sure, it's watercooled and has really decent EFI, but those are both pluses in my book.

gn

Wow, awsome job on the CMC seats, IMO, they were the most difficult part of the entire build. Can't wait to see the rest of the build.

You can build/buy a turbo Type 1 so it will last, but it's not cheap, but what is?

If anyone wants the contict info for the guy who did my seats let me know. He has all the patterns made off of my unused CMC interior including foam. My whole interior was pretty reasonable $750 plus -$150 used CMC buckets-Samba and $60 for tracks.

Nest step is to pop the dash pieces off and bring them in. They will be black and a saddle colored E-brake and shift boot will be made as well. Those patterns will be avaialable as well to you all.

I will probably sand down the pans and re-paint as sugguested. Play it by ear from there.

On the engine I figure either way a T1 block will only last 30-40 k miles with a performance rebuild (anything above stock) So why not boost it? I got a new Mexican short block with the car and dont trust that it won't leak on my driveway so I will crack the case a re-seal. While I am in there I will put a mild cam in and port the heads. Turbo and FI may or may not happen. I guess I have more than one shot at making the einge perfect since it pretty easy to drop.

Amazing how you never know when or how your aquianteces could come back to help you. I ran into a engine builder I knew through my old job. He built the engines for Overland Parts who sold the engines to a speedster manufacturing company out of Canada. I don't recall the name of the company off hand but it will come to me ( I think it was automechanica or something)

Greg McNair out of Salinas CA had started building Formula Vee engines in his 20's now he freelances for Volks Cafe in Santa Cruz.

He had some spare time and took myh build. Unfortunatley, we live 2 hours from one another and I can't get down to his shop to document the build.

I took some pictures of the engine tore down. The previous owner was truthfull and told me that it was a newly built 1835. Well infact it was but it was done on the cheap. It had a factory welded crank and stock cam.

When the engine comes back it will be built to the following specs:
-Brasilian single oil relief, weld reinforced case, SCAT sump
-1955cc
-OEM VW 38x32 head massaged and unshrouded
-Some mild cam with straight cut gears
-new weber 44 IDF's
-Bosch dist, petronix and blue coil
-lightened 8 dowel flywheel
-all new sheetmetal, fan, my recycled alt.
-more details to come

http://intermeccanica.com/

Yeah I think they are a new one. ;)

Well it has been a few months since I have made any progress. I got my engine back and it has sat on a dolly for about 6 months.

Yesterday I decide to start cleaning up the pan over the thanksgiving weekend. Well one thing led to another after finding some rust on one of the Napolean hat mounts I decided to pull the body off the pan.

All went well, I used a porta-band and my new welder to fab up a body dolly and a day and a half later I had single handedly put the body up on the dolly and got it into the garage for the winter. The pan will stay out under the canopy while I do all the dirty work. I know I should have hit up a few friends for help because this post would have been pretty despressing if I had dropped the body on myself but with the long weekend and everyone doing their own projects today I thought I would work smarter not harder first.

I will post some pictures later, but incase anyone wants to build their own dolly I can provide some sketches.

Anyone ever cleaned the rust from the inside of the tunnel? I have a quote for sandblasting and powdercoating the whole pan for $450 would you guys go for that or do it yourself?

Cheers

Takes a hugh oven to bake the powdercoat on - not a home do-it-yourself effort. Why not just spay in the tunnel with that waxy oily undercoating stuff they use in inaccessible areas and doors. I'd use POR15 (if you are in rust belt)or Rustoleum semiflat black (if not) -- or even PU bed lining stuff on bottom.

Remember POR15 is not UV protected. You must spray something over it if it will see light.

Given the size of the pan, $450 is a decent price to sand blast and powdercoat.

angela

Bed liner?

Yeah, I just finished my pan with Alan's favorite bedliner stuff from Advance Auto. Looks fine, lasts a long time....

Yeah, I just finished my pan with Alan's favorite bedliner stuff from Advance Auto. Looks fine, lasts a long time....

I've never bothered with spraying anything inside of the tunnel - if it looks that bad in there, I would get another pan. Usually it's just a little surface rust, often not even that (I've seen a few tunnels that looked painted in there, too).

I agree with the $450 to sandblast and powder coat - that's a good price, especially with the stuff involved to powder coat it.

Hides a multitude of sin too ~

Urethane black windshield sealer is also a nice product . to fill in the seams between the cab and pan.

I'm with Alan , bed liner!!

But my preferred coating is Morton Urethane 2 part epoxy bed liner. It sets up like rubber. I even did the underside of the body with it.

I like this stuff..

Ahh yes $450 is a good deal. I think I will be wire wheeling it down and etch priming it after all. The 8"x8" area I did took about 10 minutes (not so bad) I will post pics of the pan progress tomorrow.

Here is the link to the updates:

http://s623.photobucket.com/albums/tt314/dragrabbit/

Otherwise here is the highlights

Morton's is Steve's favorite bed-liner product. Nice rubbery texture and a pretty fair sound deadener to boot. I used a product called Raptor on my Dad's Monte Carlo. Decent product, very easy to use for a beginner.

angela

Getting closer. I have spent the past few weeks getting into the pan. So far I have replaced:

-both pans with shortened new halves
-repaired the frame head ends with custom sheetmetal
-replaced the fuel line in the tunnel
-rust converted inside the tunnel

Next to do is sand the pans and primer. From there paint and begin final assembly.

Have a look at my photo book for new pictures. Cheers!

Beauty! Great job and good luck with the rest!

Looking good !

My CMC is now at the wiring stage.....I bought a new loom with all of the required accessories for our UK test....

Loom is all laid in but I'm running scared of the dash wiring :) Maybe get someone in to help me with that.....

Cheers
Gerry

I ordered a assortment of grommets, brake lines and bushings from Wolfsberg West. What they didnt have was the trasmission mount bolt (prob M15 or so) Does anyone know the thread dia and pitch of that bolt so I can get one locally?

Another question I have is the rear trailing arm angle for a lowered stance? I marked the angle before pulling them but dont know what my baseline ride height was. Can this be changed once the body is mounted?