Over the top?

I’ve been pretty busy the past few weeks, so much so that I haven’t even had a chance to blog about what I’ve managed to get done. I’ve really been getting a push on to get the car ready for the 50th anniversary celebrations that we are having in September, and so have been flat out at every opportunity.

If you’ve been reading the blog regularly, then you would recall that last time I had trial fitted the engine into the car to figure out a few things. One of the things that I needed to get sorted was the fabrication of some new IRS engine mounts. Originally the car was swing-axle, but I have changed the rear sub-frame over to a later IRS type.

With no frame-horns (IRS sub-frames do not have frame-horns) the only option to mount the engine is via the same method used with the later IRS cars, this meant fabricating some engine bar mounts to accept the IRS engine mounts.

I started off by making a pattern in card and using this to make a mock-up that I trial fitted into the car. This first mock up did not fit, mostly as there is a lack of space, so I needed to shrink the initial design a little, and make a new template up.

With the template transferred into metal, it was bent up and a hole cut for a stock VW engine mount. I flanged the edge of the hole for additional strength. After trial fitting this I decided to close in the back of the bracket and TIG welded another plate into the back of the bracket. This gave the bracket a lot more strength, and also will make it easier to fit .

Whilst I had the TIG cranked up I decided to weld up the fan. Stock fans are not designed to run at high revs and can run the possibility of exploding. The generally accepted solution is to weld the fan blades. Whilst the engine I’m building is not going to be a screamer, it cost nothing to weld it up and killed an hour or so.

I also picked up the new exhaust system and trial fitted it. A buddy of mine had bought the same exhaust for his Type 34 and had some fit issues. I decided to take the plunge and buy the same system with the expectation that I would have a little work to do making it fit. The system is an ‘over the top’ style system that has the silencer sitting between the collector and the fan bellows, this improves ground clearance and hides the silencer out of sight.

The exhaust fitted quite well but will need a small modification to the flange on the silencer to get it all to line up correctly

As well as exhausts, I’ve been busy with refitting the front end. I repainted the calipers, cleaned up the hubs, and clearanced them to fit new oil seals. Then I refitted them up with new bearings.

I picked up a Type 3 CB Performance IDF kit. This has stubby manifolds and short air filters so that it fits under the deck lid. These will eventually make way for an EFI system, but as they were ‘spare’ I’ve decided to use them. These are actually for my bus, but as that is a long way off of being finished, I decided to put them to good use.

Other goodies I picked up include a brand new AS41 case This has been pre-machined and clearanced by Stan Pobjoy for the 82 x 90.5 kit that I have, and just needs to be full flowed (go figure), which I will do when the NPT tap set turns up that I’ve ordered. I also invested in an engine stand as well, which I mounted as shown. All I need to source is some stainless steel for the bench top to create my clean area for engine assembly.

Other stuff includes… Rear anti roll bar…

…thermostatically controlled fan…

…a bug alternator for an alternator conversion…

…and probably some other stuff that I’ve missed out too.

Tomorrow I’m out in the garage again and plan to get the engine mounts fitted into the car. Assuming all goes well the engine will come out again and I will move onto something else.

I would like to get the pan rolling again but I’m waiting on some 944 backing plates. The rear spindles are fitted up with new bearings and oil seals, but until the 944 stuff turns up that’s as far as I can go on the back.

I might look at refitting the pedal cluster and master cylinder. I can get as far as fitting the front brake lines up, but without the rear hubs I will not be able to make up the hard lines and fill / bleed the system.

Might also look at partially assembling the crank. The crank, flywheel, fan etc need to go off to the balancers so I need to get it all together, this includes fitting the cam gear and distributor drive to the crank.

Will (eventually) keep you posted of the progress