Photos of sub frame under door on CMC needed

Forget the photos.   I looked through the General Posted topics and found a few pictures of the area of concern. Also, see in my assembly manual, one poorly drawn picture which shows this weird looking sheet metal piece, under the doors.  And, the manual shows some need for self-tapping bolts towards the front and some under the rear section, so that agrees with what I am seeing on my CMC body to floor pan arrangement. 

 

That flat metal piece, going front to rear seems to be cut at an angle, in some photos I found, not mine.  Mine is straight and I can figure out I will need to cut off the access sheet metal, not needed or not bolted to the floor pan.  Now, need to start bolting the body/sub frame, to the floor pan. Then, figure out how to cut off the access metal, not needed. 

 

One of the bolt holes in the sub frame is 1/4 inch off center, on the rear, where the sub frame bolts to the VW rear stock mounting threaded hole. I see no easy way to drill that as I am not taking the body off the floor pan, as too much trouble and time.  I see they only used ONE of the rear VW frame threaded holes and not both , like on the Beetle ?  I am going to attach that 1/4 inch steel piece, part of the sub frame on the body with a heavy piece of angle iron, and use two grade eight 5/16 bolts and nuts to attach that separate piece of metal,  to the sub frame, as there is room to get in my 90 degree head 3/8 inch drill and drill bits. 

 

I already cleaned and re-tapped the stock rear most mounting holes, so I know that is good.  So, going to attach that heavy piece from the sub frame to the existing threaded hole, closest to the shock tower. That should be more than enough to secure the rear passenger side of the sub frame. 

 

This is so time consuming.  Need to cut off that access sheet metal, under the doors and not lifting up the body again, as it took me hours to get it lined up on the floor pan, with some prying and swearing and sweat and creative engineering feats, all my alignment punches and prayer.   Are we having fun , yet ? 

 

Recall, someone was going to use this speedster for sports car racing and/or perhaps only drag racing and had modified some of the front bulkhead, shown in my posted pictures of the floor pan.  They did a fair job of cutting and welding, for their use of two hydraulic master cylinders, but, that also created a more difficult fitting on the body to the floor pan.  They had cut the fiberglass body for the roll bar and I removed said roll bar.  That did leave me good access to place the 10mm stock bolt in the driver's side rear, from sub frame to rear VW chassis.  One day, have to re-fiberglass in all those roll bar holes. 

 

I found some Black Utility Mat, at Lowe's which will hold up to heat and water and oil I am going to place on the firewall.  It looks really close to the original Porsche firewall insulation, and was just wide enough to cover all the firewall and I will have to cut off some of it, where it touches the rear engine sheet metal.  Being creative to get a finished look. 

 

I read many have been looking for some nice appearing door pulls.  Me, going with aluminum panels on the doors, then painted, then using 1974 and up arm rest from a Beetle, which bolt on and also act as door pulls.  Or, I see many chromed pulls at the marine places, used in different areas on yachts.  Cabinet pulls are usually not hinged and would stick out from the door, not look that great.  There are some that are chrome plated, but I like arm rest/ door pull idea. 

I uses an angle grinder to remove excess steel on mine - near 2" in places.  This allowed smooth transition from frame to floor.  Covered now ith fiberglass and then DynaMat.

 

Many use the $35 a pair EMPI 15-2080 hinged aluminum door billet door pulls.  I'm using ones from a late '60 MGB (not spring loaded).

 

Yes, looks like one to two inches need to be cut off that metal plate. I have carbon-fiber cut off blades which go on my 7.5 inch circular saw and think that might be faster and allow for a cleaner cut. Probably need to remove the blade guard and bottom support on the saw, to get in closer to the door fiberglass areas.

I saw the EMPI ones, in my catalog, but wanted arm rest with the door pulls, all one part, from VW Bugs. I am having the door panels power coated gloss black and the VW arm rest/door pulls are black vinyl, so it should give me the look I am going for. Carpet will be minimum. I thought about the look on the doors of the Spyders, open areas and painted doors with usually black paint on the insides of the doors. But, would have to build some wall to keep stored stuff from sliding back and forth, towards the door opening mechanism, on the inside of the door. Those open large areas, we have on the speedsters would make for good storage spots, if panels and some fiberglass work was done.

The aluminum door panel will be held on to the doors with about 15-20 self-tapping sheet metal screws, then the arm rest will attach to the alum. panel, not directly to the fiberglass on the door. I think this will keep the fiberglass from breaking, where otherwise the EMPI set up , even using small machine screws would possibly cause cracked fiberglass , given enough time. The door close so easily and are so light, I might be going for industrial strength door panels and arm rest.

George,

 

If you will post some pics of the area you are referring, I will get pics of the same area on my car.  Mine is a Fiberfab body on a 70 pan.  I have not yet installed carpet, so I can easily get pictures for you.

 

James

I to am getting ready to pull my seats. I can easily give you a third Fiberfab/CMC picture back.

 

Wolfgang,  and all others.  I have it figured out from your comments and more looking at the assembly manual and some photos on the speedster web site, which did show the area of concern.  Thanks go out to everyone offering the photos. 

 

I am 70 years old. In all my years of watching welders doing work I have never seen them use the angle grinder for cutting, only for grinding, so when Wolfgang smartly suggested that use, I did not grasp what he meant.  My watching others, at welding shops showed they used plasma cutters and/or torch for cutting and I only saw them use the angle grinder for grinding.  The name of the equipment is called " angle grinder", not cutter, so in all these years, never knew it could be used for cutting metal.  What I am saying here is that you are teaching this old dog, new tricks.  My circular saw method had worked for me in the past and I have a small air powered cut off tool. I mostly work on thin sheet metal, in my VW repair work, so the air powered tool gave me the needed results. 

 

Now, went to Home Depot ( hardware store) and looked closely at the angle grinder wheels they have on the peg boards and see all the "cut off" sizes.  I really never looked for these and no one ever told me this "secret" and based on looking at the welding shop, they were not using their angle grinder for other than grinding.

 

So, long story, trying to make this shorter, I bought four cut off disc and also discovered the shield on my expensive angle grinder will rotate where I can use it for cutting metal on the speedster.  Wow, great day to learn something which seems so simple and obvious.  I am amazed in 70 years, I never heard someone suggest using the angle grinder for cutting or saw them doing that, but here are the cut off disc , which I am sure will make the job more easy.  Thanks again to Wolfgang for the education and all for suggested help.  ---George K. ---

Yup, the most used power tools in my shop are my angle grinder (always with a cut-off wheel), my Milwaukee Sawzall and my drill press.  OK, and my 18V cordless drill, too.  You can pretty much destroy anything in mere minutes with those.

Gordon, how is your shoulder doing ? I also have a large drill press and Sawzall which really get a work out, with use. --George K. ---

The shoulder is holding its own for now.  It doesn't bother to ride my bike, and I can do pretty much what I want, but the motion of pulling on a tee shirt, for instance, has the right combination of movements to be just like dislocating it - lots of instantaneous pain and I then have to find a combination of slow movements to get things back in place to stop the pain.  I'm getting better at that.  Usually goes back together in a few seconds.

 

Sounds like a lot, but it's manageable until I get around to getting it fixed.  Too much stuff going on right now.

 

Thanks for asking....

George don't forget to take pictures of your progress

Due to complains about my long post, I have cut back somewhat. But, every few days, I post some update on the speedster with photos, so people can comment about how weird I must be, doing this and that. I agree, I am weird ! I think some photos of the installed 914 gauges were done this week and I did switch from the plastic chrome looking knobs, which came with the speedster kit, for headlight and wiper, went with West Coast Metric 1955 replacement dull white knobs, just like the real Porsche had. I am looking for a good stock 1965 shifter, so I can try to have a few more things on the car, looking more like 1958 Speedster, this is supposed to represent. I am out of the original stock ones. Aftermarkets are too big on diameter and use the knob from the 1968, the big ones, not the cute white small knob, used back in the 1950's and 1960's. I checked with a VW retailer, and he is also out of any good used 1960's original stock shifter assembly.

It's a long work, in progress. Painted the 1971 VW steering column I am using, because that gives me a lower priced NEW turn signal switch and electric relay controlled high beam/ low beam system. Also, locks the steering column, to slow down the thieves. I will have hidden ignition cut off switch, a main battery cut off switch, which gets locked under the hood. The engine compartment locks down . Wheels will have wheel locks. If they want the entire car, as least they cannot steer it or start it up. The isolation battery switch , under the hood completely wipes out the possible hot wiring of the engine. I am rigging up a lock mechanism for the pull cable , which opens the front hood.

Probably finish this project in 2035, after I am dead. Seems like !

George...please keep up the good work and the longish posts. Your grammar and punctuation are good enough. Any persons complaining about the practical experience of actually building a car might be better off polishing a gear shift knob ....or another one.

 

Not often enough I get to hear about a full build, and a full build from someone with your experience in racing. Please keep up the good posts. You have an interesting perspective that many can learn from.

 

I have no experience in building a Speedster but I did buy an older IM in 2010 in Idaho and have had a lot of fun in it. I put a low bucks Soob conversion in it and have just turned over 50,000 miles since I've had the car. I'm a run what you brung type of guy and I like it that way. I make no excuses for the bugs on the front of my car.

 

Here's a pic of me in Amarillo on Route 66 a couple of years ago...  loved the place and need to go back....