Thanks Marc. I can't wait to get this back on the road and go driving. Crossing the center line shouldn't be an issue with 255/40/17 tires stuffed in.



If I haven't already pissed-off the stock-nazis in the VW community, my fender mods should send them to the hospital. At least my mods will all be functional. . . I'm keepin' a tight lid on this until they are finished. . .

This is really looking great Nate! Ive got to get up there and visit again soon...
chris

For you, Nate:

Ego stroke, ego stroke, ego stroke

Not that you seek it, but you deserve it. Wish we were neighbors

I had an hour or so between jobs today and decided to tackle the passenger outside mirror. The side mirrors on my '67 while functional look like such an afterthought and I always hated them. So off they went and I decided to use a period Porsche mirror instead. I wanted something that looked "right" on a Squareback but also wanted something that was fold-able for high speed runs. IMHO the Porsche 914 flag mirror looks PERFECT on a Squareback.

So I made a quick template out of cardboard, transferred it to 20 gauge metal cut and bent,. . . BAM!! The new base:



Then I had to mark out where the anchor nuts would be recessed into the door and then drilled them out with a step drill. Then it could lay nicely on the metal.





After that the base got welded in place and the new mirror attached for a test fit. PERFECT (well in my mind anyway )

So late yesterday, I pushed in my derelict '69 Square that I've been keeping around for parts and other stuff, so I could finally do some of that "other stuff".

So I threw it on the lift and with the help of air tools and other implements of destruction, 5 minutes was about all it took to separate the rear suspension sub-frame from the car.



My goal for this weekend was to turn a 3" round block of Teflon into solid rear suspension sub-frame mount bushings (that's a mouth full). After taking careful measurements off my '67 Square, I determined that the body of the bushings would need to be 1.5" tall.

Just to refresh those who may have missed this back a couple years ago, when I installed the Porsche 923 (915 series) 5-speed trans, it was discovered that in order to NOT have to cut a pocket into the back seat area (and the seat), I would need to lower the suspension. Thus lowering the engine/trans in the process. Well it worked fantastic and the center of gravity was lowered in the process adding to the handling of the car. The spacers that I had previously made were more of a "run what you brung" type of deal made with stuff I had at the shop at the time. They work fine and were perfectly safe, but I want something race worthy since I'm gonna be taking this thing to future tack events and and have to pass tech inspections from lots of different sanctioning bodies.

Anyway,. . . I needed access to the profiles of the cars body and to the sub-frame since they kind of lock in place to ensure that they lock tight in the future. So with these exposed, I went to work.



I began by cutting 5 two inch pieces of Teflon. This would give be the 1.5" I needed for the spacer and an additional 1/2" that will fit into the sub-frame. It's easier to leave them a bit long and then make them precise on the lathe. Teflon is really easy to work with. If there are any REAL machinists in the house, please avert your eyes from the horror that follows. :wink: This stuff ain't goin' on an aircraft, but it WILL fly!! 8)

Chucked-up and finished the last aft mount.



The completed set:



Comparing the old and the new:



Fitted to the sub-frame:

What are your plans for that rear sub frame once you are done.

I might want that for a project.....

I'm actually going to be using parts of it for another project this summer. Sorry.

As the fender widening continues in earnest, some other stuff has gotten done. I removed the ugly rear calipers and rebuilt them. Since it's a proven fact that red calipers not only make the car faster, but also helps you stop better :roll: , I went with red powder coat. . .




The fronts are in-work as I type. . .

Single piston sliders from what vehicle ??? RRRReeeeDDD !!!!

Jack

They are stock Porsche 944 N/A for the rears and I'm using 911 front struts/rotor/brakes.

While other fab is going on behind the scenes, parts acquisition continues. . .

Mario Velotta @ www.thedubshop.net made me a deal on these 45mm ITBs, 35# PICO injectors and one if his CLT sensors over the weekend that I couldn't refuse. These additions along with the new trigger wheel w/ hall sensor and COP ignition, should help motivate the new 2.3L power plant nicely. The sh*t just got serious!!






Now I either need to modify a pair of manifolds I already have or fab a custom set from scratch. I'm thinking the later. . . 8)

So, Nate; How much did they cost you?

Sometimes my wife sees this stuff. . .

Lets just say that I saved about $100. It's not the cost, it's the value.

A few weeks ago, I stopped by Speed Mart (www.speedmart.com) which is a local sprint car shop, to look at their offerings for helmets for the up coming race season. Until now, I had never really needed to own a helmet since most of the time I had friends with me at the auto-X's that I went to that let me share theirs between runs. Having never bought one before, and I'm planning to see much higher speeds than an auto-X event, I figured I would seek professional help to steer me in the correct direction. These guys are great to work with and I walked out today with a new Snell 2010 approved full-face Pyrotect helmet, an extra smoke face shield and a pair of gloves. Everything fits perfect and they didn't try and up-sell me stuff I didn't need. What more could a guy ask, right??



I'd like to also get a pair of driving shoes when I have a few extra $$$. I'll definitely be back. It sure is nice that these guys are local to me.

OMG!!!

Now you'll be dangerous.

I’ve had a distrust of the factory trunk latches since 1983 when the hood of my first car flew-up on the freeway. Since then, I’ve never really trusted them. So knowing that the Squarsche will be seeing track events and some very high speeds, I wanted to be sure that this was NEVER an issue and give myself some peace of mind. So I searched for a truly positive trunk latching system. Hood pins work, but they are rather ugly to me and the pin lanyards bung-up the paint over time. They are also not lockable unless you use a small padlock which just looks stupid if you ask me. In looking for something better, I ran across AeroCatch hood pins which are a modern aircraft style hood pin system. They had a lockable version too so I jumped on these since the trunk is where the fuel tank is and where I can store stuff out of sight. Here’s what the assembly looks like.



I stayed late last night to get these mounted. I first mounted the pins to the hood being careful to leave at least 1” of up or down movement so that final adjustments could be made.



I then marked out the pin holes and used a burr to remove metal so that the pins fit through. After those were in and even, I took some careful measurements and marked out the latch locations on the body.



I used a hole saw to cut the outer contours of the latch assembly and tin snips and a burr to finish it off.



I drilled the 6 holes for the mount bolts and test fit the latch. I ended-up making about a 1/8” adjustment on the pin to get it all perfect and then cut the rubber bumper to the correct size. Perfect fit and this hood is NOT coming up unless I want it to. The factory hood latch and cable will not be going back in the car. This set-up is all that’s needed now.

...and how's that working out for you?

Money down the tubes. . . obviously!

When will you learn?.....there is no cure.

So I'm basically finished with most of the widening process and I thought I would come clean with it and confess my sins. . .

I began going a different route entirely and I plan to make a set like originally planned, but I have planned for later this year. So in the K.I.S.S. vein, I merely kept is simple stupid.

For the front, that was easy. I removed my wheel spacers and the longer studs and threw on the shorter studs and mounted the wheels directly to the hubs. Then with a few vigorous pulls, I was able to massage the lips out about 1/2" from stock and there are currently no rubbing issues. Now, I will need to re-set the rear door gap, but that should be pretty easy.

The rears were another story. I had to overcome this. . .




I decided that I wanted to be more subtle with this set, so I bumped out the fender arches 3". This also forced me to have to extend the engine cooling air duct lip as well. The front bottom edge had to come out 3" or so to ensure and angled to the factory rocker width. The rear bottom edge had to be extended so that the rear edge of the wheel arch would cover the tire.






Once this was done, the rear door gap was HUGE. It went from a sloppy 7/16" at the top to a portly 1.25" at the bottom.



To correct this was pretty simple. Once the fender was installed, I marked a line 3/8" from the fwd edge with a Sharpie and used a cut-off wheel to cut the front edge off the fender.



Then I bent some metal in the shape of the top section so that t fit tightly and welded it in. Then I made a strip for the bottom section and welded it in.



After that I cut the sections down enough that I was almost able to shut the door and used a Sharpie to mark a cut line. Then I placed the front strip on the filler, set the gap to 3/16" and tacked it in place.





The rear seam had issues as well. The gap was too small at the top, normal in the middle and about 3/4" at the bottom.



The rear was easy. I cut a section out of a donor fender that was about 1/2" at the top and about 1" at the bottom. Then I marked a cut line on the fender and cut just the edge off. Then I mounted the donor strip to the car and pushed the fender over the donor. Once it was in place, I tacked it in place.






Here's the results. . .






Now that I have the passenger side done and can use it as a pattern, the drivers side will be much quicker. Unfortunately, the drivers side has a bit of rust repair as well.

This rear fender is not totally done though as I have some rear ducting to fabricate but the fender is basically a done.

Nice and subtle....very cool

You seem to have limitless ingenuity !!!!! Please keep going , very interesting thread as in the past I let 2 squares slip away from me and have always liked them .

Jack

Very creative work. Have you ever seen a similar car or is this all stuff that you're inventing.

Just wow!!
Tom

Thanks for the kind words guys. Some things I've done to my car I've seen before like the rear fender stretching. However not a 3" stretch. The car I saw was about 1-1.5" and he didn't have to re-gap the door and rear edge. Other things like the 5-speed and front suspension and many of the other Porsche mods are of my own twisted mind.

It's just hotrodding of a different kind.

I took two weekends off for family stuff which included last weekend where my eldest daughter and her husband had my 2nd grandson!! It's been crazy around here.

So this weekend, I'm back at it. I had to close-up the door gap on the Front fenders after the stretching/pulling exercises of late.



There are many ways to skin a cat and when it comes to body type work like this, I know very few of them since this is really my first foray into body work. A hotrodder told me about the following method and it sounded intriguing, so I gave it a try.

I measured the thickness of the metal on the edge (the folded edge) used pieces of 3/32" TIG wire welded in to build-up the missing metal. It worked great. I used a couple magnets to keep it even with the base metal and bent it into shape and I tacked it in place. Then went back and finish welded it.




After that, I used a grinder to carefully grind the welds smooth. I did this several times building it up 3/32" at a time. What was nice about this is that you always end-up with a nice finished edge and if you need to add more, you get good penetration between the pieces.



On the back, I welded the rods together. I'll be giving them a good coating of POR-15 to seal between all the cracks in the back.




Once I had enough built-up, I marked a new gap in the edge and used the grinder to smooth out the finished edge.



Then I turned my attention to the fuel filler door. Since my car is a '67, it never had a door there. This fender is a '69 with a '68 door and spring (to spring the door to the closed position). I chose his set-up specifically so that I could use it as the location for my battery ground cut-off switch. To be Race legal, you gotta have a battery cut-off switch on the outside of the car, so the fuel door seemed like the logical place for it.

I began be baking a backing plate for the switch that would fit into. Then I trimmed it to fit behind the stock hole. Then I welded it in place. Perfect!!





Now, I'll have to transfer a finger dimple to the rear edge of the opening like a '68 fender has, and I'll be good to go!! My buddy who is going to be doing the body work said he'd handle that for me, so my work here is done.

the widening of the rear is bad ass!

Nice

I temporarily turned my attention to the bumpers this weekend. I’ve got a pair of fiberglass bumpers from Glass-Action in AZ (http://vwinnovations.com) and I’m to the point of needing them to be mounted in order to do trimming and such for the fenders. I also needed to graft on the air dam (flex dam) I purchased a while back too from Mark (http://914rubber.com).

I began by cutting some 2” muffler tubing in half on about 10” lengths. Then I made some flat brackets with captive nuts with which to mount the brackets to. This way I could fiberglass the metal mount brackets to the fiberglass bumpers w/o requiring any thru-bolts to show.

I tossed the stock bumpers and brackets to the side and chose a thin, light set of early beetle bumper brackets. The front brackets were used on the rear of the Square and only required elongating the mounting holes slightly to fit like a glove.



The rear beetle brackets were used in the front of the Square and required custom holes to be cut in the proper place and the excess cut off the back.

I prepped the bumper bottom and the air dam top with a 3” disc to remove the gel coat. I also removed the mount tabs off the air dam. Then I cut a slice in the center of the air dam to allow it to be splayed out a bit more on each end to fit the fiberglass bumper better. I temporarily put them together with some spring clamps to ensure they would work correctly together.



I test hung the bumper/air dam combo onto the brackets and it fit well. With my car at the current height, the bottom of the air dam is currently 5” off the floor.




This air dam also has a rubber skirt that hangs down an additional 3”. So as it is, the bottom of the air dam will reside about 2” above the floor. Since I have infinitely adjustable suspension via the 911 front and adjustable spring plates rear, I will be able to get it to about 1” for racing purposes pretty easily. Woohoo!!

Now I’m off to consult with my friend, Jim who does fiberglass/carbon fiber for a living, to see how he recommends permanently bonding the brackets and the air dam to the fiberglass bumpers. . . More to come. . .

Nice work!

Look what showed-up today on the brown truck. . .



I contacted my machinist and asked him to make it light, but not a bomb. . . He was able to remove 6.8# off of it right where it counts. Started out a portly 16.8#. Now she's a trim 10.0#!! Hell, my daughters have more crap hanging from their key chains than this thing weighs!!

Should make for a lively rev'r and allow a lot of the power to actually get to the tires!!

My buddy hooked this brother up and used Plexis to permanently bond the bumper and air dam together. Then he fared the two together for a smooth seamless look. Now it's ready for a scuff, prime and paint. I added the flexible rubber bottom skirt to see how it looks together with the bumper.

Lots of mundane stuff this Saturday.

Fixed and pulled the drivers front fender into place to give it room for the front tires/wheels. Here's a couple before (stock) and pulled so you can see how much can be done with just your hands.

tire clearance begins with under 1/4"; ends with just over 1":



Subtle pulling can just be seen:



It should be noted that by pulling the fenders even by hand like this causes the door gap at the front of the door to get HUGE and filling/re-gapping is required after.

Added the driver mirror mount and filled the OEM mirror holes. Also filled the stock windshield squirter hole. In time, I'll be adding a set of OEM Porsche 911 squirters to the front hood.




Finally got a chance to mate-up the front bumper with the fenders in place to get a good look. For street driving, I probably won't run the rubber skirt. For the track though, it'll definitely be on there.

Awesome !

You're gonna need landing lights on either side of the license plate bracket to finish that puppy off.

As body work continues at my buddies house, I've turned my attention to the new motor. After 3 years of acquiring parts, I finally have the final pieces in hand and none too soon. The final pieces were the custom Web cam, and a custom set of Deves rings. So I mocked-up the bottom-end so I could clearance the H-beam rod caps so they wouldn't hit the cam lobes on pistons #2 & #4. I also had to modify and clearance a type1 pump and the cam bolts so they would all live in harmony as well as port the oil passage on the pressure side of the pump.



I also took this occasion to get my deck height and calculate static CR for this motor. It's a dual purpose mill that will see street driving as well as track duties. I know that it's a compromise on both parts, but it's built more for the track since I always have my trusty 2056cc to fall back on if it's just not practical for street use. I was already having fun with the local H*nda V-tec dorks with the mild 2056cc, so this 2.3L stroker should send all but the turbo'd guys home with their tails between their legs.



Once I get the parts back from the balancer, my son Josh is going to build this motor as I look on. I want him to get the credit/accolades for any wins the car gets in future events. He's stoked about the opportunity to *finally* build a motor after 5+ years of tear-down duty here at the shop. He's been the tear-down-king since he was 8 y/o and it's about time he did the deed. As I always say, families who build motors together, stay together.

Nate,
That is so cool!
Tom

How the heck did I miss this? Best build ever!!!!

Thanks for the kind words guys. It's been a long journey thus far, but the end is getting close enough to see. . .

Awesome stuff Nate. Gonna be the coolest type III on the planet!

My buddy who's doing the body work came by and grabbed both doors and the front left fender to work on and brought back the right rear fender. . . Man, this thing is coming together. Pics later on that; I have bigger fish to fry.

I concentrated on getting the engine parts 100% ready for the balancer and the rear valance.

On the motor side, I only needed to notch the H-beam rods so that a stream of oil would spray on the bottom of the piston crowns. This cools the pistons and cooling can't be a bad thing right?? Bel0w is the un-modified rod:



Below is the modified rod.



I used a three sided hand file to make the groove in just a few strokes. This channels the oil splash off the rod the and forces it to the back side of the piston in order to cool the crown. This 5 minute mod, can cool the pistons by 30F+. Well worth the time.

Now I turned my attention to the rear of the car. A month or more, I removed the factory rear apron; it was bent and generally wasted. I wanted to remove it and replace it with a panel that would breath and allow the natural vacuum of the car to draw not only the engine cooling air out, but also the air under the car. I decided to make a rear diffuser of sorts. I started by tracing out the rear profile onto a template material. Then bolted-up the fiber glass rear bumper, to ensure it would exit just under the bumper.






Then I welded it in place.




The entire area under the rear will be mesh but I'm still waiting on that from the supplier.

On the front of the car, since I'm going to run small Braille 18# battery that will be totally contained between the spare tire and the nose skin of the front apron, jumping it will be impossible. So I added a pair of remote battery terminals for jumping the car if that was ever necessary. I picked these up on eBay cheap. This week, I'm going to be carefully measuring the cables needed and getting them made locally.

Out with the old. . .



The 2056cc comes out to make room for the new 2.3L that will replace it. With a little luck, my son may begin the build-up this Saturday if I can get the parts back from the balancer by Friday. Only the cooling tins and alternator will move over to the new motor. All the injection and exhaust will be new, one-off pieces.

So as body work continues (cough, hack, puke), I took a break from that work that I hate(!) and jumped back on a fab job that I began a couple months ago. I got to the point that I needed to install my mock-up motor so I could finalize the racing exhaust pipe location as well as finish making the custom air box for the ITBs. Believe it or not, this was my first test fit of the mock-up motor with the new mount bar, exhaust and ITBs in the car. . . LIKE A GLOVE!!!

I began by dragging out a pair of relatively hard to find Porsche 2.0L air cleaner assemblies. I made some cut lines and began cutting them both to pieces in order to come-up with basically a square center box with a short, but better breathing wide snout.

The vision. . .



After the cutting was done, the left over pieces went into the recycle bin. . .



I welded the pieces together and ended up with a center air box that fit great.



Then I ordered four 90 degree silicone boots and cut about ¾” off one end so they wouldn’t be too tall and fit under the factory type3 engine cover.



Then I marked out where the 2” pipes would come into the center box and hole sawed the sides of the center box. I used some 2” muffler pipe to make the pipes leading out to each ITB silicone elbow and tacked them in place with the MIG.



I’ll finish weld them tomorrow since it’s been a pretty long day thus far. Eventually it will get powder coated like the engine tins for that "factory skunk-works" look and a fresh K&N element.

Can I be one of your sons?

Hard to find? Does that mean my stash of them could be worth some $$?

--DD

I wouldn't be Krusty if I didn't ask a few annoying questions:

First, you say: "Should make for a lively rev'r and allow a lot of the power to actually get to the tires!!" I understand the quicker revving, but how does lightening the flywheel increase the amount of power getting to the wheels?

Second: Why a K&N on an engine in which you have so much time and money invested? There is far more (like a multiple) filter area, measured in square inches, in the factory type filter than in a K&N. The pores in the filter medium are much smaller, giving you a FAR better chance of removing those pesky little buggers that cause wear to the internals.

Thank you for the opportunity to be myownself! Oh, and thanks for the marvelous thread! Along with Britain's, there's a lot of awesome entertainment value.

The Cap'n

If you lighten a flywheel it takes less HP for the motor to spin it which in turn allows more of it to get to the wheels. The motor doesn't make one single bit more HP at the crank, it's just easier to turn. This same principal applies to any of the rotating parts (crank, rods, pistons, etc.); make them lighter and you allow more of the motors power to turn the wheels. If you've ever done any cycling, the same principal applies when you lighten the rims/tires (kevlar beaded) on your bike; you're able to spin faster and go up hills easier and the effect is pretty dramatic. It simply allows more of your available HP to get to the ground. Of course the trade-off is that you can't coast as well with a lightened flywheel (or bike wheels for that matter) since you don't have as much stored energy in the flywheel so you sacrifice a bit of fuel mileage for the access to that power.

I'll have both filters available when I dyno the motor and I'll decide then what I will run at the track. I may not even run this filter assembly at the track and may just run traditional filter assemblies for that. This is mainly so I don't have to listen to the "snort-snort" of the ITBs as I drive on the roads.

I'm here for your retirement entertainment Cap'n.

Nate if you still have that nose section removed from the airbox hang onto it. I have my own mod/project that it would be useful.

I'm not all that convinced by your explanation of the benefits of the flywheel mods, but I'll think on it for a bit. Next question: Is that intake tube gonna be attached to a cold air source? I suspect you might gain more benefit from that than from chopping the flywheel.

The Cap'n

I agree with Nate. HP at the wheels is always lower than at the crank. Why? the variety of losses along the way from the crank to the wheels. Anything you can do that reduces transmission losses shows up at the wheels. Lighter flywheel? Aluminum pressure plate? Lightened differential? All those will reduce transmission losses.