Squishy, dry-sumped 2276 build thread

[Crawdad]

This piece required some metal shrinking to match the curvature of the lower quarter. I made it in two pieces welded together. Fits nice.

[Crawdad]

As with many 70s Bugs that have those stupid vents behind the quarter windows, water had entered and rotted out the space below. Here I have cut that out.

[Crawdad]

I made this curved flange using a bead roller. The dimpled holes are to add some rigidity. I may shoot some sound-deadening foam in through those holes, as this cavity leads directly back to the engine compartment.

[Crawdad]

Here it is tacked in place. At this point I'd say the car is half made in Wolfsburg, half in Richmond, VA.

[Crawdad]

This is just what it looks like. Note to self: if you're going to climb all the way back onto the parcel shelf to do some welding, you might want to secure the car to the lift first.
Further note to self: before welding a panel, check behind it for the presence of solvent-soaked rags.
Working on cars, you regularly get reacquainted with your own stupidity.

[Crawdad]

Or at least I do. The rest of you are geniuses, I'm sure.

[Chip Birks]

Or at least I do. The rest of you are geniuses, I'm sure.

Looks like a lot of fun!

[andy198712]

we all make mistakes!

great project though, at least you know it will be "right" when your done though! and you won't want to drive on days that aren't perfectly dry ever again!!

[Crawdad]

I'll spare everyone more of the rust-repair saga. It's been fully eight years since the body came off the pan. The deeper you go, the more cancer you find. Instead I'll skip to the fun stuff. While waiting on the mythical flywheel I've been busy with the roll cage.

[Crawdad]

I started off using a drill press to notch the joints. WAY too much set-up time for each notch. So I broke down and got a cheap Harbor Freight notcher for about $60, and it was worth every penny.

[Crawdad]

On the joints that are highly visible I've used TIG, but that gets old real fast, especially on upside-down, ass-backwards joints where you're using your elbow to depress the foot switch. So the less-visible stuff is MIG.

[Crawdad]

I'll be using MS3, initially for ignition only (full EFI when I go turbo later), and made this little vacuum plenum for my MAP signal. It will mount to the fan shroud.

[Crawdad]

I put a small orifice on the OUT side of the plenum to damp the signal, and stuffed some open-cell foam in there too.

[Crawdad]

The other end (where I came in with a boring bar on my lathe) is simply plugged.

[Crawdad]

Yesterday I received the third iteration of a Subaru-to-VW flywheel (first steel, then 3D printed plastic, and now steel again). I can't mate it up to my crank to check the clearances because the dowel pattern is wrong. It has 8 holes evenly spaced, whereas the universal 8-SPG pattern used on VW cranks has one dowel offset (marked white in the photo below).