TRACTION BAR IS FINISHED AND INSTALLED

Damn Bruce, that's nice.

Thanks Ron....I hope it works ! I think it will but have to test it as soon as I get some exhaust gaskets in. Then I'll try a few stomp n tromp starts. No wheel hop and increased noise would be considered a success......Bruce

Looks great, Bruce! I don't see any rubber "buiscuit" mounts where it bolts to the body; you might find it a little noisier.

Is it mounted to steel or fiberglass?  The latter probably won't hold up for very long.  Beautiful work nonetheless.

Nice work Bruce.

Very nice work, Bruce. What abrasive tool or pad did you use for the engine turning ?

A piece of Art Bruce. I'd think this would help with stopping frame horn  twisting which I'm dealing with from PO.

Beautiful work!  Will you explain your engine turning process?  I see the lines on your fixture for spacing.  What is the tool?  What rpm are you running?  How long do you dwell?  How much down force on the tool?

Sorry for all the questions, but I love this type of stuff.

Although it looks like its connected to the fiber glass heat shield on side (via big rubber grommets)on my CMC there is a 2x2" steel frame piece above that .  That really looks great.  

Sure beats the 1x1" steel tubing and all thread I had envisioned on my to do list for installing a heavier T4 engine.  The 914 T4 used rubber mounts to engine and at ends to chassis.  The later '73 up bar is heavy cast steel - earlier ones were square tubing.  (Bars on top and boot are the 914 shifter rods).

Is this on a CMC Bruce?

Wow, Bruce.....That's coming out GREAT!  It's a lotta work, but the end result is beautiful.

Lots of questions !  That's good I guess !

Al.......there is rubber isolating bushings out at the ends where it's attached to my side frames. They totally isolate the thru-frame bolt from the torsion bar. Also the thru-frame bolt is isolated from the frame as well. Since this "rubber" is a similar hard material as the other motor/tranny mounts, I hope it will be enough to keep the noise out.

David....I used a 7/8" diameter Cratex abrasive disc (medium grit) designed for a Dremel tool. It's all I had at the time and it had a small hole in the center which shows up on my finish. I made the holding fixture for this disc on my lathe and the disc just presses in.  If you google Cratex polishing abrasives you will find one of their products that is in a Stick form. They are 6 inches long and come in different diameters. Each one is about $25.00 but they will last for a long, long time doing this. Most drill presses have a 5/8" chuck so make sure you look at what size your chuck is before/if  you order.

Lane.....It's mounted to the two steel rails which are supported /welded to the shock towers and extend back to support the rear body and bumper. It's a similar to a VW traction bar assembly you can buy as far as how it is attached to the VW body. What you see in my photos in the background around the mountings is that fiberglass barrier to keep the engine heat out of the engine compartment.

James......Look at my response to David above about the Cratex tool source. This abrasive material can be spun up to 25,000 rpm but my drill press was at 600 rpm when I did this. It doesn't take much pressure at all and do not dwell or you might get burn stains. The process goes quite fast once your comfortable doing it. Get a small piece of polished aluminum and practice a bit. Also go to you-tube and look at some how-to's on "engine turning" aluminum.  You already noticed the index lines on my fixture. That's determined by the diameter of the "swirl" and you want to let the CENTER of the swirl not be covered next one and so on. Also be consistent, moving from right to left or left to right (whatever suits you)

I'm picking up the visor/wing hinges today so possibly I'll post some photo's of them tonight before they go to the polisher...............Cheers......Bruce

Bill......Not a CMC....I have a VS......Bruce

Wolfgang......It's the same on my VS.  It's a 2"X2"X1/8" wall thickness square tube on the other side of my heat barrier. I lightly hole sawed thru the fiberglass barrier to allow the bar bushings to sit right on the steel tube. This also allows me to easily remove those barriers without removing the traction bar. I order to do this I positioned the hanger bolts right next to the inside wall of the 2" tube. This way, the "hole-sawed' clearance is at the edge of the heat barrier so it becomes more of a "notch" and allows removal of the heat barrier.....Bruce

Well done, dude!

Does VS have the same Box tube frame as CMC? The reason I ask is that, the extra weight might ad to the butt sag on a CMC. I think I need to brace my frame more before supporting a motor...

Very nice work you do.

What does the bar (and hardware) weigh? You could drill a few more holes in it, and make it even lighter...

PS- I see the rubber bushings now; where (or what) did they come from? I definitely want to hear if they work (or not). Al

Very nice work Bruce.

Bill....I have no idea if a VS is the same as a CMC. My guess is that they may be similar but i really don't know.

Al......It was thoughtless of me to not weigh the bar but i would guess about 5 lbs.

Extra holes ?   Maybe, but I really don't know how much stress may be transferred thru this bar so I did my best guess as to how much to remove with the holes.

The bushings came from racereadyproducts.com  under bushing assemblies. I bought the 1 inch inserts and trimmed them down to be shorter/narrower. I think David Stroud gave me that source info.  I will let you know how it works.....I'm still looking for the 1966 Winternational photo's too , Al.....Bruce

Bruce's bar is a good example of something made to look like somebody cared.

No one will be able to see it at shows unless he has one of those under-carriage mirrors and have the Speedster rear end lifted in the air.  It will just be under there, doing its' job.  And for that, it got polished and engine turned to look like a piece of metal-worked art.  

Good for you, Bruce, for doing it right.

After reading that last post I realized that I would LOVE to own a metal-working lathe.

No friggin idea where I could put it, but would love to have one for some of the stuff I do.

So many tools, so little space.

Gordon...I had to chuckle at your comment about having a lathe. I really don't know how I got along without one before. I only have a small hobby shop lathe but it works just fine for what stuff I get into. It's a Grizzly.com model G4000 and the current cost is $1125.00 including shipping. It's not really that big and is not a space hog. It's one of the best tools I ever bought. I'm shopping for an upright metal cutting band saw these days and sure wish I would have had one when I was carving out this traction bar.

My wife says I'm a tool nut but believe me...I know some tool nuts and I wouldn't hold a candle to their inventory.  Anyway Gordon...Seriously....get a small lathe....they are just wonderful !!!  Thank you for your complement about one taking pride in one's work........Regards.......Bruce

Where do we mail our templates Bruce?

Bill...Are you serious ?  I don't know if I would even tackle another one of these unless I had at least a 17 inch throat metal cutting band saw !  I hacked mine out with a Milwaukee  Saws-all  for the most part and then a lot of grinding.  Could you actually produce an actual working template out of plywood ?  If so, you should be able to make the real one yourself because the hard part (for me anyway) is producing that template. The rest is a no brainer....just follow the dotted line.........Bruce

Bruce, Bill was just kidding I am sure.  We were all admiring the fine workmanship some on this list are not as talented or have less experience than others at doing that kind of stuff.  Nice work.  Hope you like those Hella buckets.. Ray

Yeah, a lathe would be a great piece to have. The only issue is where to put it- when you live in a townhouse with 3 kids and the garage is all of 19x20', the only place it could really go is on top of the freezer. I could move the wife's car out and then a small milling table, better drill press (I have a small bench top and it's about as accurate as a rock) and even a parts washer would fit. A mig would be nice as well. Of course, I do like being married. Decisions, decisions...

Bruce- If you were interested in pulling as much weight from it as possible, then you certainly could put some smaller holes in it without compromising it's strength; just leave a substantial chunk of material  around every hole, like you did between  the 2 holes on each side you put in it. And next time you engine turn something like this, if you do one row around the welds/outer brackets first and then work into those areas you'll be able to finish the whole surface, but I'll bet you've already figured that out.

Yeah, Bill was yankin' your chain. He even included the winky face...Al

Ah....PAPER TEMPLATES !!  The life saving trick I learned when I was small and still use to this day.

I need a small panel under the dash to hold my heater thermostat and figured I would include it with my Air/Fuel meter, so out came the cardboard, yet again!

Thermostat on the left, HI/LO heat range  in the middle, A/F meter on the right.  Did this because I hate to put anything else in that beautiful dash, so I'll hang it beneath and to the left of the steering column.  NO, I'm not gonna engine turn it!  (That would look too "Firebird" for me...)

aircooled posted:

Bill...Are you serious ?  I don't know if I would even tackle another one of these unless I had at least a 17 inch throat metal cutting band saw !  I hacked mine out with a Milwaukee  Saws-all  for the most part and then a lot of grinding.  Could you actually produce an actual working template out of plywood ?  If so, you should be able to make the real one yourself because the hard part (for me anyway) is producing that template. The rest is a no brainer....just follow the dotted line.........Bruce

Al.....You're right on with the comment about where to start the engine turning. That was one thing i learned with this. The other was this. The polisher took out some deeper scratches which left slight dips in the surface. When I went over those areas the 7/8' Cratex disc it didn't reach the bottoms of the dips, leaving some small areas with no "swirls". I just ordered a 5/8" X 6" stick of Cratex. A smaller diameter and no holding fixture needed (I have a 5/8" drill press chuck) will make it easier to get into those dips and closer to obstacles like the bushing mounts.   You are very observant Al.    By the way...just a thought...Could a lathe be mounted on a wall ??  Chip removal sure  would be easier...just sweep the floor !.....Bruce

Gordon....I agree...templates are wonderful ! I especially like the ones that create a 3 dimensional  article like one recently displayed on here of a heater plenum or something like that......Bruce 

Bill.......You Dog...I was stressing out about how to tell you I don't want to do another Traction bar !..........Bruce

aircooled posted:

Al.....   By the way...just a thought...Could a lathe be mounted on a wall ??  Chip removal sure  would be easier...just sweep the floor !.....Bruce

It would have to be a pretty strong wall!

But seeriioussly folks- I know that a large part of a lathe's accuracy (and repeatability) comes from what it's mounted on. A big lathe comes with a heavy base (and I'm guessing has to be set up correctly) for that reason, and even a small one needs to be on a solid table. You are right, though; it would make clean up so much easier!   Al

Gordon, I can see it wrapped in matching leather  

I would be happy with just paint that matches the dash (even sort-of!)

If I can find a good paint match for 1999 Audi Pearl White that also sticks to plastic I might even paint my radio pod to match...

Look up SEM they make plastic paints that are very good in a lot of colours to match just about anything and paint anything in the interior.