|
Post by owdlvr on Nov 7, 2023 23:12:00 GMT -8
Sooo...that update. I was out testing the Rally Computer install and the other updates to make sure the car was good for events next year. Took it to a buddies barn, hung out for a while, and then headed home via a nice twisting road near the lake. Coming up over a crest, on a slight right curve, a truck was going the other way. I'm not sure if this came out of the dually tires, or he hit it on the road, but this rock came spinning and flying across the road. I was cutting to the opposite lane when it suddenly dawned on me he could be towing a trailer with no lights. The moment of hesitation meant I wasn't going to clear the rock. This is what's left of it, after I used the car to split it into pieces... Let me tell you, the sound was unreal. The engine shut off, and I was sure I was going to find a long trail of oil once I stopped. Checked the road, no oil. Under the car, no oil. The suspension mount, however, took the brunt of it. The passenger side control arm mount is heavily damaged and cracked, the frame head is heavily dented and damaged. It's now an insurance claim...whole frame head has to be replaced. Fortunately Hagerty has been excellent so far. Adjuster called me back within 48hrs of the claim, and damage assessor came by my shop today to assess it. Should know before the end of the week what the decisions are.
|
|
|
Post by Volktales on Nov 8, 2023 7:53:48 GMT -8
Holy crap Dave! Given how many km you put on your cars, it is surprising you don't have more adventures like that.. Hope the car is not too bad.
|
|
|
Post by Rob Sannes on Nov 8, 2023 8:46:42 GMT -8
Sorry to hear about that one. I'm glad you made it out safe. Hmm, now I wonder if the repairs will include more exciting upgrades
|
|
|
Post by owdlvr on Nov 8, 2023 18:52:56 GMT -8
I'm hemming and hawing on that, since I'm going to have to strip the body and pull it from the pan.
There are lots of changes I could make to the car to make it more 'streetable'...but then, is that really the Rally Bug? Honestly? At this stage it's likely to just get the unused items removed, holes filled, and maybe a whole new wiring harness.
But then the damage assessor was looking at the Front end of the Blue beetle and asked, "why would you put that front end [the iMohr] in it, since you've got to cut it all out anyways?
Hmmm....
|
|
|
Post by PICTUP on Nov 9, 2023 10:53:00 GMT -8
But then the damage assessor was looking at the Front end of the Blue beetle and asked, "why would you put that front end [the iMohr] in it, since you've got to cut it all out anyways? Hmmm.... You mean "wouldn't", right? I'd tend to agree. However, refresh my memory, does the iMohr make it "more streetable"? I am against more streetable as it's not really in the spirit of rally. Just my 2¢
|
|
|
Post by owdlvr on Nov 9, 2023 11:32:47 GMT -8
Whoops. Yes, he meant "why wouldn't you".
It would actually make the tarmac setup work much better...but will hurt the gravel setup due to a lack of travel. I think I will end up staying with the front end I have.
-D
|
|
|
Post by CrazyBrit on Nov 10, 2023 19:25:33 GMT -8
Glad you're okay Dave. It sucks when something like that happens.
|
|
|
Post by owdlvr on Nov 11, 2023 11:23:17 GMT -8
I don't have a settlement yet, but I did get permission to start tearing it down for the repairs... Since the body has to come off the pan, I've decided to pull some funds from the Family Heirloom project and repaint the Rally Bug. After three years of winter rallies, and a further 7 years of running, it has a couple of spots that could use it. The paint was acceptable at the time, due to budget, but could be much better. So the plan is for a non-colour change "tape and spray". Being the guy I am, though, I'm going to remove absolutely everything necessary to get a good outside repaint. The front hood on the car was an accident-repaired hood. Turns out I have a factory original front hood that is perfect (just yellow) thanks to a friend Darren, so the original Rally Bug hood will become artwork in the shop. Interestingly, it turns out I have _two_ spare hoods, three if my other spare still exits at my buddy Rob's house. So I think that gives me a chance to spray full silver body, and a set of black hoods as well. I very carefully asked my buddy Bob, who's a 'stock is right' kind of guy, what he thought about the turn signals on the front fender. To my surprise he replied we have to fill them and go mexi-bumper...which confirms my gut reaction about the choice. As soon as the gold wheels went on the car, it gave me permission in my head to stray from the "Salzburg Replica". Just gotta be sure I can go back that way if I choose. Looking a little deeper at the wiring, I've got some challenges ahead. The original harness I built for the car is quite robust...but definitely not built to be modified. I damaged the front rally light harness trying to get it out of the car, apparently I build part of it after putting it through a body grommet. The way I did the Techflex wiring cover I can't actually splice into the harness for modification or repairs without damaging it, and possibly daming the internals. So, my idea of potentially modifying sections of it are pretty much out the window. If I simply leave the wiring harness and tear out anything I've added over the years, I think it will be fine. There's nothing that isn't working correctly on the original harness, although there are some circuits no longer being used. It does also have those original-style fuses which isn't great. I'll need to build a secondary harness for post-build editions, which is probably the fastest/cleanest way to do things. But it does have some negatives. I want to change the switches on the dash, and I need to dig out the gas heater wiring harness, which was (apparently) laid into the car first...under the main harness. I fear disturbing anything in the rats nest is a recipe for disaster. Rewiring the entire car, though, is going to be a huge undertaking. I know what I want to do. But do I have the time (and money) to do it? Looking ahead, I'm considering at the seat mounts I built 15 years ago (for the white '69)...and they simply have to go. If this was a fully-caged car, it would be easy. A couple of bars from the sill to the tunnel, and the job is done. It's only got a rear hoop, and I want to keep the ability to separate body from pan (especially now) so I need to come up with another solution. I talked it over last night with some race car fabricating buddies of mine, and I think we've got an idea sorted out. I'm also thinking it's a good time to upgrade/change out the pedal box. The one I'm using isn't ideal, I've had to hack out the napolean hat on the tunnel, and on the front firewall to make it fit. I will have some sheet metal repairs to do on the body, but I'm thinking a different setup might be in order. I messaged Kevin Hale about the one he's using in the Ghia racecar he's building (Ghia Raketenhase on Facebook) and he replied in less than 10min with a video and tape measure showing me all the measurements. His OBP unit won't fit in my car (14.25" throttle pedal height) but they make one that is merely 12" to the top of the pedal. Will be measuring once I'm done typing this to see if it's an early Christmas present for me! www.obpltd.com/product-page/pro-race-v2-floor-mounted-****pit-fit-3-pedal-system/OBP-1 by Dave Hord, on Flickr OBP-2 by Dave Hord, on Flickr
|
|
|
Post by owdlvr on Nov 12, 2023 11:04:35 GMT -8
Wasting no time... It's slightly before this point that things took a bit of a turn for the worse... I couldn't afford to rebuild the 901 gearbox when I built the Rally Bug, figured that if it was "bad" I would rebuild it down the road. It's always been rough/notchy getting it into 1st or reverse (common problem) but I didn't think it was was that bad. The Hargett Shifter had developed some play, Mark was going to send me some parts, but it never seemed to happen...lightly clipping reverse would happen occasionally while looking for 2nd. I knew it wasn't great for the internals, but it was not that common. Here's the rub. If this is 300,000km and 12 years on this fluid, it's kinda not the worst. But I think this is only 150,000km on this fluid change. Regardless, it's well overdue for a rebuild. I've got the tools and the knowledge. The "middle of the road kit that replaces the wear items in the transmission from shifting use as well as the bearings that usually exhibit wear from age." is $1500 USD, or $2k Canadian. Ouch. But this really is the time to do it with the box out of the car. There is a part of me that is heavily considering just popping a 4spd Beetle box into the car "for now". Of course, we probably know that would end up permanent. At least I have a lot of time to consider this one Call it a hunch...but I think the drivers side axle might be just a hair too long? No marks on the axle end though...
|
|
|
Post by CrazyBrit on Nov 12, 2023 11:22:40 GMT -8
Holy crap Dave. You don't mess around do you? I wish I had this level of motivation with my car.
|
|
|
Post by PICTUP on Nov 19, 2023 13:00:48 GMT -8
The Rally Bug looks so naked without all the decals, I almost didn't recognize it! Are the decals vinyl? Where do you have them made? Some day I'd like a few on the Saab..
|
|
|
Post by owdlvr on Nov 19, 2023 20:32:50 GMT -8
The Rally Bug looks so naked without all the decals, I almost didn't recognize it! Are the decals vinyl? Where do you have them made? Some day I'd like a few on the Saab.. It's crazy eh? I actually made them all myself. Bought a vinyl cutter for the same price I was quoted on just the stripes. The biggest issue is it's just a cutter, so every colour is a different layer added on top. When you're ready, I can either make your decals or talk to a buddy who has a printer/cutter for some car-buddy deals.
|
|
|
Post by owdlvr on Nov 20, 2023 11:17:03 GMT -8
Found a few spots in the body that need to be taken care of...plus I snapped off three fender bolts on the left-front corner. Bob came over and welded in the turn signal holes. Going to go with the Mexi-bumper setup. Still a lot of work to be done here... But it's at about this point that I got a bit of a crazy idea, which is probably going to be a little controversial. I'm pulling a fair bit of budget out of the Family Heirloom project to repaint and rewire the Rally Bug, and with the transmission sitting on the floor I started to think about something. The one thing I really want in the Family Heirloom is a five speed Porsche transmission. It's a no-go due to two reasons: a) budget. I'm just not prepared to buy and rebuild a Porsche trans for the car. b) it requires cutting out the torsion bar splines on the inside to mount it where I want it. Thus negating the "can always go back to stock" ethos. Well, I've decided that it probably doesn't matter. Let's be honest, it's never going back to stock while I'm the owner of it! If I were to pull the 901 gearbox and the rally bug, fuel injected, motor for the '75 Heirloom project, it would be the perfect setup for that car. But what about the Rally Bug? In some ways, I kind of feel like the Salzburg replica has served its purpose. I've had a good 11-12 years of enjoyment of it, it's had all its magazine features, but it's not doing anything more than just being stagnant. Swapping over the Subaru wheels pretty much ended the "replica" part, so can I experiment further?? I was shuffling cars in the storage area of my property, and scrapping some parts cars that have fulfilled their purpose and overstayed their welcome...when it hit me. I have a complete Subaru setup waiting to go in a Beetle. I bought the kit necessary to do either a 2.5 naturally aspirated setup, OR the twin cam WRX setup. As part of the car shuffling, I had the scrapper yank out the engine and transmission of one so I have a 2.5 RS core motor (to go with everything else I pulled from an earlier car). I recently traded my EZ30 six-cylinder to a buddy for his WRX motor...so I've got a turbo option as well. So, yeah, going to go Subaru in the Rally Bug, thus giving me the aircooled engine/trans setup for the Family Heirloom. Settles the budget issues for me, but totally sets me back timewise! Ha.
|
|
|
Post by 1hotvw on Nov 20, 2023 14:15:10 GMT -8
why not think about a Berg 5-speed conversion.a beetle box must be cheaper than rebuilding a 901 box. no cutting of torsion housing, and you get the gears you want
|
|
|
Post by owdlvr on Nov 20, 2023 17:58:39 GMT -8
I’ve got a very good friend who rebuilds T1 and T2 transmissions for a living. He’s the kind of guy who’s opinion I trust. He’s not confident of some of the parts choices on the Berg5 setup. Expressed concerns about longevity, given how many miles a year I drive. Berg5 was my original plan for the Family Heirloom, and given his advice the plan was to simply build a fantastic T1 box. I’m generally happy with the four speed in the German Look Beetle. …but, c’mon. Dogleg first!!
|
|