I had to pick up some slightly shorter bolts for my airbags as the ones I had were bottoming in the holes. Getting them in was a little bit of a paint with the suspension assembled. But I got there in the end with a chain over the shock tower and jacked up the rear suspension to compress it a little. Then I used a screwdriver through the frame to guide the bad into place while a pumped a little air into them with an air gun. Once I had one bolt in the second one was easy.
While the body was off I had to finish the fuel tank frame off.
Here is the rear tank frame that I had in the car previously. It raised the tank up off the rear shelf a little with the two feet and the back edge was bolted through the firewall. I'm basically going to build the new frame the same as this but out of 25mm box steel instead of angle.
New frame made up. But then I ran into some fitment issues. On the old frame I trimmed the inside edge of the angle so the frame was only as wide as the tank. On this one I couldn't do that with the box so it ended up being wider. And doesn't quite fit in between the wheel wells.
I trimmed the outside edge off the box to suit. The gap between the wheel wells is tapered towards the back so they are cut on an angle to match.
Once I got the frame where I wanted it I marked out where I had to cut the floor to match. (unfortunately I ended up cutting slightly too much)
The body was back on the car by this point so I could check clearances etc. The frame is a nice tight fit and takes a few taps with a soft hammer to get it into place. Here it is with the fuel tank sitting in place.
And you can see here I have JUST enough clearance to bleed the hydraulic clutch.
Before welding it into the car I had to add some nuts to the inside of the frame to hold the tank down. I also opted to add a few along the back edge of the frame that faces the firewall. I can use these to mount rubber or engine sealing tins etc.
This picture shows the little plates I made with nut on them. I cut sections out of the frame and welded these in for the mounting nuts. For the ones along the back edge I used angle that did both the tank nuts and rear firewall nuts.
Body is back off the car now so I can weld the frame out. I guess this is what it is like to have one of those lowered bugs?
I have been taking little projects out to work with me that I can do when I have some spare time. One of them is this.
I bought some 4mm shock cord and tied it into a sort of cargo style net. It was measured up to fit in the roof of the car. I'm planning to use this to store light stuff like pillows and towels etc. And the roof of the bug has enough room with no headliner that it shouldn't be in the way of my view out the rear window at all. These cars are pretty small so I am always looking at ways to use the space that is available.
As for the mounts I simply used 6mm nutserts along the top edge of the roof. And used 6mm wire ring terminals with the yellow plastic cut off and the net tied through them. Cheap and simple. I still have yet to try it out and see f there is enough tension in it yet. But I can always pull the cord through more and tie it off tighter.
Last shift I also bought my dash out and put some holes in it for my gauges. I didn't have any hole saws and I'm not sure that the would have cut very nicely through the titanium anyway. So I just ended up cutting around the edge with the cutting wheel in the grinder and cleaning them out with a rotary burr on the die grinder.
Don't throw these offcuts out! This stuff is hard to come by. Maybe I can use it for brackets or something?
Trial fitted all of the gauges. Looking good!
I still need to add a hole in the middle of the dash for the light switches. But need to get some more measurements first and work out where the stereo and warning lights are going.
That's all for now.
Smiley
And you guys say I am fancy 
