Oval body off pan

The past few weeks haven't seen much progress with the oval, most of this time has been spent waiting for parts, but a little more about that later. We have also been pretty busy trying to get the ezine out before christmas, this is nearing completion and should be out any time soon. Keep a look out for an announcement in your inbox.

Back to the latest... After going to take a look at the IRS pan I was offered and deciding that it wasn't really much better condition than the oval pan I already had, the decision was made to rebuild the original pan. At $2k i expected the IRS pan to be pretty much concourse, which it wasn't, and whilst the whole thing was supposedly rebuilt, it would have still required stripping back to a bare pan to paint it - just not really a cost effective excercise.

So i decided that I would convert the Oval pan to IRS and fit a dropped and narrowed King & Linkpin beam - retaining the original suspension should i decide to restore it in the distant future. I also made the decision that I would retain drum brakes and renew everything, this was partially cost related, but also related to the useage that the oval will see - there's no repeated braking, so drums should be fine.

After phoning around to see who had the parts in stock, so that I could get them sooner, I placed an order with Classicveedub, who had everything on the shelf. But after waiting nearly three weeks just to receive the payment details, even prompting him with repeated phone calls and emails, and still getting no response, I cancelled my order and placed it locally with Interparts (ex intervolks). This is the last time i deal with Classicveedub, He is simply too slack for my liking, and I DON'T reccommend him. Now this may seem like I am simply having a bit of a whinge, and I'm sure that some will be offended that I have named and shamed, but if it saves someone else the grief, then it's worthwhile.

So, after losing two weeks, the schedule is now even tighter. I already have the pan halves, and the rest of the stuff should be arriving early next week. The body is now off of the pan, and I have stripped the suspension off ready for the IRS and narrowed beam. The pan halves have been cut off and the new ones offered up for fit. The fit wasn't too bad, the rear section needs dressing in about 5mm, but that is it. The front floor section where the pedals are needs to be drilled for the pedal cluster, and i will transfer the captive nuts from the old pan, just to be correct. The pans also came with the correct style seat rails and battery holder, which was another bonus, as some don't.

I sourced a set of IRS arms, spring plates and torsion bars from a contact I made at the Volksfest show the other weekend, these need a little cleanup, as they appear to be covered in underseal. These will be fitted with the 6 volt backing plates to allow the 5 stud drums to be fitted. Evidently this all fits onto the IRS stub axle, although i will need to turn a spacer to sit under the axle nut as the splined shaft is slightly longer to accommodate the wider drums normally fitted to later cars. The braking system will also be upgraded to use a dual circuit master cylinder, and all hard and flexibles lines will be renewed too.

The next job, before I weld the pan halves on is to get the Porsche 915 gearbox fitted, this will be easier with the pan stripped as i need to turn it over a few times. It will also require the body to be lifted back in position as well, as I need to check the clearance between the engine and the rear valence. The 915 box effectively pushes the engine back about 25mm, which means that the clearance at the rear will become either very tight, or will clash. At this stage i am considering cutting the rear valence and fitting it with Dzus, fastners, this is probably a very good idea, both for ease of maintenance, and ease of engine fitting, plus it will allow me to cut the valence for clearance.

I also paid a visit to the local race equipment shop to checkout race suit packages and fire suppression systems, whilst I was there i picked up a remote battery cutout and some bonnet pins, as well as a sticker set. (Shutoff location stickers are a mandatory requirement).

The oval is booked in to have a cage made in the new year, but with this supposedly going to take a month I'm now getting worried that it simply isn't enough time. So at the moment I am on the lookout for a second hand cage. Fingers Crossed.

For more images, check my gallery at http://www.vdubber.com/photo/gallery/all/T-34

There's also a vid of us lifting off the pan - http://www.vdubber.com/video/gallery/body-off