Archie's Volksrod

[Archie]

Leaving the welding for a bit. A lot of the welding is just finishing stuff now, so can be done with the body off the pan.

Starting to figure out the steering. Normally these are on a box bolted to the beam. With the head extender on the box hits the bonnet and causes it not to close. Some people notch the bonnet to suit but I don’t like that. There are a few rack conversions done, but I don’t like being able to see the big rubber boots you get on them hanging out.

Empi do a buggy rack which fits nicely behind the bonnet. I wouldn’t fit it to a normal beetle as they aren’t that heavy duty, but with the skinny wheels up front and lots cut out the body it might be ok.

I made a bracket for it to sit in which can be welded to the beam extender out of some scrap bits we had. Next job is to work out the track rods. I have the old ones that can hopefully be cut down and retapped to suit.

[Manky Monkey]

That's a tidy little unit.

[Archie]

Had a look today at lunch to figure it out and think it’s figured out. I’ve chopped the long track rod in half to get 2 equal lengths which fit into the spindles. I can then use the U brackets which come with the rack and weld on the threaded part from a track rod end. Then I can cut the threaded end from the short track rod and weld onto the two ends I have made. If that makes sense.

[Archie]

After spending a lunch trying to unsieze the old track rods I caved and bought a set off the shelf at work. The new rods came with ends so it made it easier to work out both ends. By this I mean one end needs to be left hand thread so the tracking could be adjusted. So one brain ache saved.

First thing was to cut the thread off one of the ends and then weld it onto the u bracket so it could bolt up to the rack. Fairly straight forward.

Beetles run a long rod and a short rod due to the box being offset, so I’ve had to shorten the long rod and will need to lengthen the short rod. Again got the sizing pretty much spot on, but I need to slug the tubes before welding up. But one side pretty much done






<a target='_blank' href='https://imgbb.com/'>dont gif up[/url]

[Manky Monkey]

Is there a maximum vertical angle for track rod arms? Presumably you have to allow for suspension travel, but if everything's lowered I guess you need less movement.

[Archie]

Photo makes the angle look more extreme than it is.

Currently with no shocks on the whole front is sagging - once fitted the front will be higher and arms should sit level. Not sure in max angle but the ends are ball jointed and aren’t at full lean

[Archie]

Done, cut, slugged welded. Need to weld the rack mount on tomorrow but should have joined up point the same way wheels tomorrow.

[Manky Monkey]

You're on a roll now! Be done in no time

[Archie]

Nah, we are at the stage it needs money. Ordered up the uj’s and some DD to do the steering. Also bought some seats, but it looks like I need to mount the seats first to work out where the column needs to sit before I can sort the steering. I can use the original beetle column minus all the bushes and mount it with a bronze buggy bush clamp thing in the original place.






<a target='_blank' href='https://imgbb.com/'>ar pictures[/url]

[stinkey]

Seats with HOLES 😁👍😎

[merv]

Stinkey likes his holes 

[Archie]

Need to get some seat runners, but it actually might just work


<a target='_blank' href='https://imgbb.com/'>upload pic[/url]


Punched a hole in the firewall so the column could drop through and put the seat kinda in place. It needs tipping back when fitting it up, but yeah starting to feel kinda right

[Manky Monkey]

I like that. Where did the seats come from?

[Archie]

I think they’re copies of an old race seat.

They came about from - Mike Pye who writes for custom car got FH Ellis next door to make some for his vw oval. They made some spare which Mark (he was at my wedding with Chris and Nicole) fitted the spares to his Buick, but then sold them to another guy on the farm. He asked if I wanted them before he turned them into patio chairs .

Pic from mikes car -

[Manky Monkey]

That's handy!