Two different kinds of bugs
The past week has been pretty busy, I've had to re-enter a massive amount of info to catch up with my book keeping which was all on the laptop that was stolen, and this still isn't going to be finished in time to submit my BAS. Yes I know I should be entering receipts and reconciling bank balances and not typing a blog, as I have about an hour left in which to submit it, but to tell you the truth, I've simply had enough - it can wait - my brain was hurting.
It's amazing how much data you accumulate / use on a day to day basis, this is probably far in excess of normaility for me as I generate pages and pages of code for both my work and stuff like Vdubber. Some of this stuff I have now recovered / re-entered, but some I have simply decided to do without - a bit like a spring clean. Unfortunately, my accounts did not fall into this category.
I've spent a bit of time over the past week or so updating the site code to fix up some bugs and annoying aspects, and have also paid someone to install some modifications - this is a first for me - as i usually loathe to pay someone for anything that I can easily do myself, but time is precious and so it seemed like the most cost effective way to do it, plus a little investment in the website is a good thing.
The biggest news this week is that the oval is now in it's new home. It arrived yesterday after a weeks journey from Caboolture, just north of Brisbane, down to Adelaide where it's now waiting to be turned into a salt flat racer.
The first jobs on the agenda are to sort out some kind of clear coat to fix the paint from rusting thorugh any more - The Adelaide weather can be a little wet at times, and the nice sub burned and faded paint would soon turn into a furry mess. The patina will be staying!! I also need to sort out a beam adjuster and some moon discs before i will be sending it out to get the roll cage welded in
Next is to assess the state of the floor pan - the battery tray looked to be a little rusty although not too bad, I need to find out what panel work (if any) will be required to make the car safe, this will also determine if I need to split the pan. My original idea was to split the pan, restore the chassis but leave the body the same, but I might have a change of heart and just fix it up as it is. The idea with this car is that it is supposed to be a budget racer, plus I don't relly need yet another another money pit in which to pour cash.
So the initial objective is to get it prepped, whout going overboard.
Pics to follow....
Comments 4
come on mick, these cars are never money pits . in my opinion doing the underside of the car (both chassis and the underside of the shell) would be worth it. you are going to drive this thing on salt being from the mother country you know what it does to cars. plus completely redoing the pan may mean lots of extra $ but you intend to take this thing up to 100mph or there abouts. to the kind of speeds where a beetle body going sideways has more aerodynamic lift that it does weight. plus you have a child now, an extra $1000 on little bits and pieces is nothing if it means you get to see him grow up. you can use that one on your wife too, just watch and prepare for the "it costs nothing to not go racing" retort.
if $1000 in parts and paint means that he gets to race the same car as his dad first did on the salt, even better.
was that an ok sales pitch?
if $1000 in parts and paint means that he gets to race the same car as his dad first did on the salt, even better.
was that an ok sales pitch?
Hear what you're saying there. The car is actually very solid (supposedly - lol) there are some pin holes in the battery area - the PO said that it could probably do with a repair panel in this area, but might not be necessary. This is the main reason for the inspection - to quantify if it needs replacing. All brakes will be overhauled / replaced as necessary, same with suspension bushes / components
It's actually another reason I've gone through the trouble of importing it from interstate - as it's (supposedly) rust free, which hopefully means that I don't have to do a full resto before i can use it.
If I can get away without having to split the pan, I probably will.
Guess i will find out soon enough.
It's actually another reason I've gone through the trouble of importing it from interstate - as it's (supposedly) rust free, which hopefully means that I don't have to do a full resto before i can use it.
If I can get away without having to split the pan, I probably will.
Guess i will find out soon enough.
BTW - it's almost spooky that you should mention the aerodynamics of a bug - there's a little something that keeps popping in the back of my mind - something that my physics teacher once said - that if a bug traveled over 100mph it would flip over due to it's aerodynamics. I was relating this comment to someone only yesterday.
I surmise that there are plenty of VERY fast bug based drag cars that reach in excess of what i am trying to achieve. Fingers crossed my physics teacher didn't know what he was talking about. (which raises a whole different moral / ethical discussion)
I surmise that there are plenty of VERY fast bug based drag cars that reach in excess of what i am trying to achieve. Fingers crossed my physics teacher didn't know what he was talking about. (which raises a whole different moral / ethical discussion)
from reading the how to the hotrod volkwagen engines book it says something along the lines of that the lift created by a beetle traveling forward at 100 mph is comsiderable, but it is when the airflow is traveling across the body (aka it's all gone pearshaped and your going sideways at 100mph+) the lift created is very close to if not more than the weight of the car. aka they can fly.
i had wondered if you could run a large tube basically to join the area of low pressure below the car to the high pressure above it (or is that the other way around) but a) i don't know if the theory is sound, b) it would be a little more complex than a tube plus you could end up dealing with venture type effects etc and c) i'm sure it wouldn't be in the spirit of the 36hp challange (and would bump you into a different class as far as the DLRA are concerned.
i had also wondered about venting the guard tops for this reason but again the three points above.
as far as the physics teacher is concerned well he was probably just re-quoting something that he had miss heard. we all thought that our the two yr11 and 12 physics teachers had a pot plantation in the bush down behind the school as they would wander off down there every lunch and the other teacher was a little hippie-ish. i hindsight i'm not so sure but i know that both did on occasion smoke pot.
i had wondered if you could run a large tube basically to join the area of low pressure below the car to the high pressure above it (or is that the other way around) but a) i don't know if the theory is sound, b) it would be a little more complex than a tube plus you could end up dealing with venture type effects etc and c) i'm sure it wouldn't be in the spirit of the 36hp challange (and would bump you into a different class as far as the DLRA are concerned.
i had also wondered about venting the guard tops for this reason but again the three points above.
as far as the physics teacher is concerned well he was probably just re-quoting something that he had miss heard. we all thought that our the two yr11 and 12 physics teachers had a pot plantation in the bush down behind the school as they would wander off down there every lunch and the other teacher was a little hippie-ish. i hindsight i'm not so sure but i know that both did on occasion smoke pot.