It’s been a whole year

Ulu

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Dec 13, 2018
1,843
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The Sunny San Joaquin
This project turned out to not be a trivial matter. There's 130 welds on this thing. I did over half with TIG then ran out of argon. I did the rest with a gas torch, and I did it twice as fast. 3x really. I not good with the TIG yet, but I've welded with gas for 50 years.
cage.jpg
 

Ulu

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Dec 13, 2018
1,843
3,135
164
The Sunny San Joaquin
The VW engine is all re-wired, it has new oil, and I have tightened up the case bolts. There was a minor oil seep and it sealed up then. I have been working steadily on the new wiring, and it is nearly done.

All the lights are mounted and working, and blinkers are tested. Engine turns readily. Battery is strong. Horn loud. Wipers work on “fast” setting only. Brakes are holding hydraulic pressure overnight without seepage. Brake lights are small but have very bright LED “bulbs.”

Every day I have been telling myself that “today will be the day”. “Today I will start the car .” (for just the second time in 18 mos.) I haven’t & it seems that has been going on for a month.

Each day there is another delay. Running out of supplies, weather, dealing with the house, holiday parties, newly discovered flaws which must be addressed, family issues, health issues, bla bla bla…

I still need to wire the high beams, horn button, the starter switch, and instrument power lead. Then I need to make a little panel under the instruments for the new switches.

I did kick the engine over a bit to circulate the new oil. I won’t put gasoline in the car until the wiring is done. Maybe today it will start and run.

I still have no mats, carpet, seats, belts & doors. The body still needs more reinforcement and there are no rear body mounts. Minor things compared to wiring.

The fuel gauge wiring terminations, and panel indicators, now with new terminations.
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Every connection, splice and terminal is soldered, and all are double heat-shrinked.
 
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Ulu

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Dec 13, 2018
1,843
3,135
164
The Sunny San Joaquin
Yippie! Today It started and ran, but I did not drive it. I just poured some gas in the carburetor and ran it a little bit in the garage. It revved up and it idled down ok. Nice!

All the wiring is complete but there are 3 terminals I did not solder yet. Just crimped. Also there is no switch panel and I have four switches just hanging loose under the dash.

I only have one seat in the car and there's no doors yet. But it’s coming together fast now.
 
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Ulu

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Dec 13, 2018
1,843
3,135
164
The Sunny San Joaquin
The seat mounting turned out to be a pita.

There should have been 2 left hand seat rails and 2 rights. There were 4 lefts supplied. They were used anyhow, which threw off the hole pattern on the floor and throwing the driver’s seat in a tilt. The passenger seat had one rail upside down. This caused it to spin, dislocating the bolt holes. In both cases the seats ended up contacting the doors: one leaning out, and one rotating out of position.

I have already done a lot of fussing around to get these seats aligned in the car but I still need to do some bodywork to close the gaps at the edge of the floor pan here.

I fired up the torch and bent some angles to fit the body to the floor pan, and the first one is already mounted.
 
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Ulu

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Dec 13, 2018
1,843
3,135
164
The Sunny San Joaquin
The seats still don’t fit correctly. They have got to move inboard. Both of them hit the doors. Time to light the torch. I will mod another seat rail, and drill more holes in the floor and subframe.

The pan edge is now reinforced with continuous 3/32” thick steel angles at each door area, and the angles & pan both bolt down thru steel sleeves to the crossmembers. This really stiffens the floor in the seat area, and further stiffens the subframe.

The angles reinforce the body sides as well, which is a big deal there. They also give backup to the runningboard mounting, which is currently very poor.
 
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Ulu

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Dec 13, 2018
1,843
3,135
164
The Sunny San Joaquin
I got the seats and doors on today, and then I climbed in and out of that car for the first time in 19 mos.

Holy Frijoles it is tiny, and the doors are so small as to be worse than useless!

I am not kidding. It is literally easier to climb over the door, and I believe this will lead me to "weld" the doors shut with fiberglass and epoxy.

Also, my steering wheel needs to be 30mm closer to the instruments. I'm going to bob the column at some point.
 
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esoxlucius

Balaclava Bot Butcher
MFK Member
Dec 30, 2015
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UK
Finally the SS goes to the DMV!
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Also my wife’s first ride in the car.

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Only my 3rd time behind the wheel.
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It's great that it's finally on the road, it's been a nice ride watching it develop (pardon the pun). I notice your wife's "first ride" in the car is in the passenger seat, and not driving, lol. There are some boundaries that are not to be crossed, lol.

Great job ulu, I bow to your many talents.
 
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