Just purchased the last set of low (155mm) bumper guards for overriders from Sierra Madre Collection.
Contacted Bob at Grey Eagle and he's going to make 2 overrider bars (low-one piece) for the front and rear of White Cloud.
My brother's going to weld the pieces in to make the guards fit my (smaller than Porsche) bumpers.
front like this:
rear like this:
Yep, I'm crazy!
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ohhhh! Those are peerrty.
WHOA!? And overriders!? You are my kind of crazy.
Ted
yup
You have beehives? And faux Rudge too?
beehives later, never Rudges...
NOrmally they go through the bumper... where are you going to weld them?
IaM-Ray posted:NOrmally they go through the bumper... where are you going to weld them?
That's where "CRAZY" comes in.
Ray, I'm not sure what you mean.
The bumper guards have a stud that goes through the bumper, then a nut holds them on the bumper.
The top of the guards have a stud as well that goes through the overrider bar and the brace which is nutted onto the guard (the lower end of the braces bolt to the bumper mounts under the front valance).
I'm not going to weld the guards to anything but my brother and I are going to modify the lower cut-outs on the aluminum guards which are for Porsche steel bumpers which are larger in profile than VW, Beck and Intermeccanica fiberglass bumpers. To make them fit, the guards must have material welded to them and then be ground and fitted to the bumpers.
Yep, I'm crazy!
Now get it ...love overriders I especially like the exhaust via the overiders too 
our '58 cabriolet had those but I've got the Vintage Speed exhaust so that's not in the cards for this car
Those guards are almost impossible to find, they're 190mm high (called high guards).
I like the low overriders better and the '56 and early '57's had the lower bars, always one piece in the rear, that's the look I'm after.
Will,
When I first glimpsed at your picture of the bumper guards, (early, no coffee yet) I thought first is that two pars of weird socks, or pieces of bacon ready to fry. I thought, "Yep, you ARE crazy".
Car look GREAT with the new socks on the bumpers.
Very interesting I did not realize the full bar was used in the back I have the split bars on my IM... with the tail pipes . I do have a low bar in the front as we placed marchall lights on that bar like Dale Bates. Very Nice... Ray
Will those look great, I can attest that Bob does great work.
Funny how what others would say is crazy is considered normal on this forum. 
Joe Fortino posted:Will those look great, I can attest that Bob does great work.
Joe,
Are those wheels Coddington's? Were they purchased from a guy on 'thesamba'? 5 of them, with lugs and studs?
Ted
Ted they are Coddington wheels and had them made for me, well Carey Hines did with the correct offset. Fell in love with Rudge wheels despite the $$$. They are pretty lightweight as well. 
My absolute favorite wheels for Speedsters!
mmmm good, socks and bacon, who needs eggs?
...and just to clarify: the white example car is not White Cloud, she's still sitting in the shop still, should be on the road next week, then we get started on the guards, then Bob gets started on the bars, which reminds me...it's almost beer-thirty!
Show offs!
Love the over-riders!
All three are beautiful...
Re: The wheels. I thought they looked familiar! I was looking at a near identical set before i bought my Techno's. I was torn between the two.
The wheels look great on your car. The overriders and towel bars will really set it off.
Ted
Thanks Ted, I thought about techno's as well but with the chrome bits Rudges won out. Will looking forward to seeing White Cloud get moving, seems like quite an experience thus far. How is the engine coming along.
-Joe
Joe, thanks for asking, the engines pretty much done, pretty much...
I was going to put the electric fuel pump in today along with tying up a couple loose ends (cold air to engine duct, gonna be sweet!) but had a large order for our fishing glue come in so again, best laid plans diverted.
It was worth it though, the order was from Pitman Creek Wholesale, our largest state-side distributor, they just picked up Cabelas for us, we're stoked!
Here's a link to our glue on the Cabelas site: http://www.cabelas.com/browse....=mend-it&CQ_st=b
I got the aluminum firewall in yesterday, had it rhino-lined (looks just like the stuff Porsche used to put in the engine compartments) along with the new/old voltage regulator.
I'm still trying to find the right rubber seal for the forward engine tin to firewall connection.
I'm going to $h1t a brick if this engine actually starts and runs, it's been 10 months since it was built, 11 since we bought the money pit, I mean car...
Don't worry about the firewall to breastplate seal, Will; it will add air intake and help keep the engine compartment cooler. Only the rear around the exhaust needs to be sealed off. Al
...but...when idling in town/city traffic (stinking stop-lights and stop-signs) the hot exhaust air will come up through the gap unless it's sealed.
I have a 4" cool air duct which will supply air to the engine when moving and I suppose it will supply air when stopped as well but I'm really trying to keep the rising heat to a low roar.
I know VW went to great lengths to completely seal the engine off from all possible sources of exhaust heat, but practice has shown that heat coming in from the front of the engine is pretty much a non issue. There are a couple of guys on the Samba that are running around in street bugs (one is an 11 second car) that have removed the front breastplate completely, and our own (iIrc) Alan Merklin makes sure there is a gap between the car and the breastplate for air intake.
This does come with a bit of a caveat- if the gap is sizable, a screen to keep stuff out of the fan intake becomes necessary, the doghouse cooler exhaust ducting will need to be lengthened, and above the transaxle is no longer an acceptable place for mounting an auxilliary oil cooler. Al
mine will be totally sealed with a 4" (screened) cool-air duct run from under the passenger seat area to the intake area of the engine on the new firewall.
when at a stop, the cooling air will be drawn from the cool-air duct and the engine lid grill. at speed, the air will (mostly) come from the cool-air duct.
my remote (Setrab) oil cooler is in the drivers/rear wheelwell, I pulled the VS/Empi cooler out and installed the electric fuel pump/filter where it was.
With only a 4" hole in the firewall and the engine completely sealed at the front breastplate, I would be concerned the engine might not get enough air at higher speeds. The fan will require 1,000-1500 cfm by itself at highway speeds (3,000-3500rpm) and with another 100-3 or 400cfm drawn by the carburetors (depending on throttle position) I don't think a 4" hole (which is just under 12 sq.") is going to be enough.
Not only do you need enough air to feed the engine, you need air flowing through the engine compartment (and out the grille) to remove the heat radiating off of the engine sheetmetal and components, so the air feeding the fan and carbs is at or near ambient temp and not already pre-heated. If you have heat control issues you'll know where to start.
Agree 100% with ALB 4" hose and totally sealed engine bay cooling will be an issue. The sealed engine bays on the stock Beetle design had louvered deck lid vents as well as vents just below the rear window. I seal over the exhaust area and along side of the heads . I leave 1.25" at the bottom of the vertical bulkhead open and screen the fan intake and that combo works well.
To expand on what Alan said (he's so smart!
)- I've read that the louvers below the rear window on a beetle come close to being 30 sq." of air access and the engine lids with the 4 sets of louvers (on the 1972 and newer cars) added close to the same. At highway speeds I think the engine lid louvers are probably more functional as air exit points (the air is turbulant starting just below the louvers in the body at speed) removing radiated engine heat, so if you consider 30 sq." the target number for air intake, the minimum is a 6" hole in the firewall.
ALB posted:With only a 4" hole in the firewall and the engine completely sealed at the front breastplate, I would be concerned the engine might not get enough air at higher speeds. The fan will require 1,000-1500 cfm by itself at highway speeds (3,000-3500rpm) and with another 100-3 or 400cfm drawn by the carburetors (depending on throttle position) I don't think a 4" hole (which is just under 12 sq.") is going to be enough.
Not only do you need enough air to feed the engine, you need air flowing through the engine compartment (and out the grille) to remove the heat radiating off of the engine sheetmetal and components, so the air feeding the fan and carbs is at or near ambient temp and not already pre-heated. If you have heat control issues you'll know where to start.
I completely agree the engine bay needs a lot of air.
Al and I have a gentlemanly disagreement regarding that the design of the car is meant to move air through the engine bay (in... somewhere, and out the rear grill).
The figures quoted above regarding the engine's need for air indicate to me that the idea has to be to supply the engine bay with air so the engine can use it. The engine itself has a voracious appetite for air. It is being drawn into the engine through the air-cleaners, or across the heads and out the bottom for cooling. I'd say Al's figures are conservative: a big Type 1 at speed "eats" 2000-4000 cfm of air.
Air flows into the engine compartment through whatever is available, either down the carbs and out the exhaust, or in the fan and out under the car.
The problem is that almost every available space is a low pressure field- behind the car (under the car, in front of the firewall, etc.)-- all of it is a low pressure zone. The "suck" of carbs and fan have to be strong enough to overcome the low pressure in the places the engine compartment is getting it's air. That "suck" is constant (rather, consistently variable, depending on RPM and load), but the pressure zones vary with vehicle attitude, speed, accessories, etc., and they vary wildly (pressure zones decreasing/increasing to the square or cube of vehicle speed, etc.). I like to drive fast- this creates really, really weird pressure zones.
Terry Nuckels reports that his engine runs 5- 10* cooler with a suitcase on the rack than otherwise. I know from lots of high-temp, long distance driving that just popping the engine lid is often the difference between running cool enough or not. I'd contend that the shape of the car had no wind-tunnel or aerodynamic engineering done, and that the deck-lid louvers were put there because any path for air to get in is better than no path for air to get in. I have no idea how strong the low pressure field is above the deck-lid, but I'd imagine that anything that disrupts (weakens) it makes the engine run cooler.
Thinking about it more, Terry's suitcase becomes a spoiler, taking the extreme low pressure field from above the deck-lid, and moving it further back behind the luggage. My popping the deck-lid accomplishes the same thing, to a lesser extent. If I could pop the front end up a couple of inches to create a "scoop" like the "Cal-look" VW guys, I could probably forget thinking about the entire thing. Pity that all solutions are not "racy" enough to look cool. I'm sure my wind-block screen makes the situation an order of magnitude worse.
What I've found in trying a lot of stuff is this: any path for air into the engine bay is better than no path. If I really want to make this work, a "scoop" of some sort is going to be needed. More is better, but little bitty fans and ducts are a waste of time and money.
My current theory would involve a couple of "ram air" 8" ducts running from the bottom side of the car (with scoops as far outboard as possible), up and through the firewall, but it's all a guess since I don't own a wind-tunnel.
But I'm 100%, fully, totally persuaded that the only air that matters is the air that comes into the engine compartment and goes down the carbs or into the cooling fan.
well, I guess we'll just have to wait a week or so and find out how she cools as is.
I always thought that pope-nose shaped (but squattier) scoops placed forward of the engine lid in that shallow rounded depression that's the transition between the rear body fender and the downward curving deck, would suck in a lot of air directly to the carbs....plus be aesthetically pleasing on an 'outlaw'
That's 'air in'....for 'air out' an 8x4" vent directly behind (and hidden) by the license plate might greatly solve the cooling problem.
Speaking of vents Emory did a nice job on this coupe vent... and the other vent might be interesting to do for a front radiator or oil cooler of some type.... come to think of it ... it could work for a fresh air vent system and maybe could be made smaller for whatever is needed. Alan ... what do you think..? Ray 
With some though, 
a number of vents can be incorporated both hidden and on the exterior
You can do what Intermeccanica does for their 911 engined cars, and have a cutout behind the licence plate. You can hinge the plate for access to whatever, if you need to.
The theory that the 550's engine isn't encased in isolating 'tins' because it was never intended to idle in traffic makes sense. That openness promoted 'cooling' because of air flow....Lots of air in, and lots of air out drawing off that engine heat is what I had in mind with my fantasy of 'pope-nosed' shaped scoops and unobtrusive venting behind the license plate. The fact that Stan has considered similar scoops and Henry incorporates such cut outs, is gratifying feedback that maybe my fantasies aren't irrational.....and with a 'flip-down' license plate I'd have easy access to the knuckle bruising nut to rotate the power pulley / crank for occasional valve adjustment!!
BTW, has anyone taken note of the louvered rear venting panels on Rod Emory's black outlaw coupe?. Very 'snarly' (I love that word!) ...Maybe a visually aesthetic solution to "air-in"?
The exhaust in a 550 is somewhat "strung out" behind the engine and not bundled up close, like a beetle or 356. I guess with air coming in (and out) from all around they didn't feel the need?
