WRX RA powered VW 1303 beetle cabrio with a bit of Porsche
Discussion
I've built a few cars in the past
but this is my long term project that I initially bought about 5 years ago like this:
It was never going to stay standard, the original plan was to buy a solid car and stick a subaru engine in with some uprated brakes and suspension, staying with an uprated VW transmission to keep things simple...
First up, some decent adjustable struts for the front
and some 996 brakes all round
I then started having a poke around and what I thought was solid turned out to be an incredibly rusty car, these things rust from the inside out!
inside the sill!
front end:
So I decided to do the job properly and take the body off the chassis
New heater channels (sills) and cabrio strengthening panels underneath:
rear crossmembers:
front bulkhead:
Inner wings:
I think you get the idea, lots of other repairs too!
As the body was off I thought I may as well go the whole way with it and upgrade it completely to take the power of the scooby lump (starting at about 300bhp). I also decided to go the whole hog with upgrading everything to be futureproof should I upgrade even more. This is all based around a Porsche 911 trans (G50, like the Ultimas use).
As you can see, it wasn't going to just bolt in..
So I started cutting!
There was too much removed from the framehorns for my liking so I started scheming up new stronger ones
which ended up as this:
[pic]http://www.ricola.co.uk/images/cabrio/lower_horn_weld_5.jpg [/pic]
I planned to cut out the sheet floors and build a perimeter frame for new ones which will be substantially stronger
I did not want a roll bar of any kind, I like to keep a stock-ish look
front end of the chassis looking rusty too so that came out!
I also needed to make provision for a hydraulic clutch so went with a fully adjustable pedalbox, I lowered the front section of the floor to keep things tidy
ended up like this:
Made up supports for the 996 turbo sports seats:
and sorted the 911 shifter
engine in to sort out mounts
bought myself a beadroller and made up some new floors
painted!
body needed modifying to squeeze the trans under the back seat
inner body cut away for engine room/access using a vw bus engien access panel that I chopped down
here some may notice the engine has been moved forwards and up in the chassis to give more sump ground clearance and to make sure the big quad cam heads fit under the bodywork
I then found some wheels I couldn't say no to, 19" Porsche carrera sports in Cayman fitment, 8,5J front and 10J rears
they needed the rear wings modifying to fit
by 45mm
front wings were massaged to fit as well as pulling the front suspension in a bit
I also added an air intake for an enclosed cold air feed for the engine
to go with all this, I modified the dash to take Porsche 944 VDO gauges, it will be covered in leather to look OEM
stainless exhaust system made up
Coolant lines made up to run under the chassis
which feed a cosworth Pace radiator and chargecooler up front
That's most of the story so far! I keep my website up to date so if you want to see more details have a look at www.ricola.co.uk
It should end up looking more or less like this:
Comments and ideas welcome! Not finished yet, I plan to do the paintwork this summer when the weather warms up a bit... It's staying the same colour!
Rich
but this is my long term project that I initially bought about 5 years ago like this:
It was never going to stay standard, the original plan was to buy a solid car and stick a subaru engine in with some uprated brakes and suspension, staying with an uprated VW transmission to keep things simple...
First up, some decent adjustable struts for the front
and some 996 brakes all round
I then started having a poke around and what I thought was solid turned out to be an incredibly rusty car, these things rust from the inside out!
inside the sill!
front end:
So I decided to do the job properly and take the body off the chassis
New heater channels (sills) and cabrio strengthening panels underneath:
rear crossmembers:
front bulkhead:
Inner wings:
I think you get the idea, lots of other repairs too!As the body was off I thought I may as well go the whole way with it and upgrade it completely to take the power of the scooby lump (starting at about 300bhp). I also decided to go the whole hog with upgrading everything to be futureproof should I upgrade even more. This is all based around a Porsche 911 trans (G50, like the Ultimas use).
As you can see, it wasn't going to just bolt in..
So I started cutting!
There was too much removed from the framehorns for my liking so I started scheming up new stronger ones
which ended up as this:
[pic]http://www.ricola.co.uk/images/cabrio/lower_horn_weld_5.jpg [/pic]
I planned to cut out the sheet floors and build a perimeter frame for new ones which will be substantially stronger
I did not want a roll bar of any kind, I like to keep a stock-ish look
front end of the chassis looking rusty too so that came out!
I also needed to make provision for a hydraulic clutch so went with a fully adjustable pedalbox, I lowered the front section of the floor to keep things tidy
ended up like this:
Made up supports for the 996 turbo sports seats:
and sorted the 911 shifter
engine in to sort out mounts
bought myself a beadroller and made up some new floors
painted!
body needed modifying to squeeze the trans under the back seat
inner body cut away for engine room/access using a vw bus engien access panel that I chopped down
here some may notice the engine has been moved forwards and up in the chassis to give more sump ground clearance and to make sure the big quad cam heads fit under the bodywork
I then found some wheels I couldn't say no to, 19" Porsche carrera sports in Cayman fitment, 8,5J front and 10J rears
they needed the rear wings modifying to fit
by 45mmfront wings were massaged to fit as well as pulling the front suspension in a bit
I also added an air intake for an enclosed cold air feed for the engine
to go with all this, I modified the dash to take Porsche 944 VDO gauges, it will be covered in leather to look OEM
stainless exhaust system made up
Coolant lines made up to run under the chassis
which feed a cosworth Pace radiator and chargecooler up front
That's most of the story so far! I keep my website up to date so if you want to see more details have a look at www.ricola.co.uk
It should end up looking more or less like this:
Comments and ideas welcome! Not finished yet, I plan to do the paintwork this summer when the weather warms up a bit... It's staying the same colour!
Rich
Edited by ricola on Thursday 14th January 21:43
I've been in contact with rjes for years, before he made it a full time business.
His main thing is a bellhousing for buses so not applicable to bugs unless you convert to a bus trans.
It's not that hard to do a conversion, but to do one neatly is. I've done a few and learned from experience so I am building in all the nice features from the beginning. With all my cars I also like to build them to take standard consumables from heavier and higher performance cars to make maintenance a lot easier. I also prefer to use OEM to aftermarket parts, hence re-engineering the chassis to take the 911 gearbox, it should be good for over 5-600bhp in a car this light and is standard with a standard 911 clutch. It all ends up wiht a car that spends more time on the road than being fixed or having replacement parts made!
His main thing is a bellhousing for buses so not applicable to bugs unless you convert to a bus trans.
It's not that hard to do a conversion, but to do one neatly is. I've done a few and learned from experience so I am building in all the nice features from the beginning. With all my cars I also like to build them to take standard consumables from heavier and higher performance cars to make maintenance a lot easier. I also prefer to use OEM to aftermarket parts, hence re-engineering the chassis to take the 911 gearbox, it should be good for over 5-600bhp in a car this light and is standard with a standard 911 clutch. It all ends up wiht a car that spends more time on the road than being fixed or having replacement parts made!
Right, time to start finishing off the body...
Filter frame now welded into the body
Hooks up to the wing pipe nicely
Inner wing finished off, note angle along bottom edge for strength, I will make a brace off this down to the bumper mount on each side to strengthen the back end
I've half done the other side, it will be the same apart from having the 'filter' area as a removable panel for maintenance.
Filter frame now welded into the body
Hooks up to the wing pipe nicely
Inner wing finished off, note angle along bottom edge for strength, I will make a brace off this down to the bumper mount on each side to strengthen the back end
I've half done the other side, it will be the same apart from having the 'filter' area as a removable panel for maintenance.
Pair of pro-tech dampers for the rear end (15" open, 10" closed), they only have 125lb/inch springs as I still have the 'short' torsion bars which will be stiffer than the original IRS longer bars, together they should be about right for the heavier engine and trans.
I went for the biggest bushes pro-tech had and didn't need any spacers at the top mounting, small ones either side at the lower end.
I held a G50 911 axle in position and luckily it looks like there will be enough clearance to the spring. Normally this wouldn't be an issue but with the trans moved forwards it was something I needed to check...
Paneling part way through, just section by air filter to do now and some general tidying up...
Done some more bits and pieces. Put the engine/trans back in to finalise placement of a lot of ancillaries..
Paneling now done, might add another few fixings depending on how it they are with a foam seal in place
MAF side of the air filter assembly done, MAF bolts on to the side of the housing, reducing elbow connects to original Subaru turbo intake pipe.
Paneling now done, might add another few fixings depending on how it they are with a foam seal in place
MAF side of the air filter assembly done, MAF bolts on to the side of the housing, reducing elbow connects to original Subaru turbo intake pipe.
Rear bumper mounts needed to be extended by 35mm to clear wider wings
Now everything is at ride height and, a quick mock-up of the kamei spoiler to my set ground clearance. I will trim this back to the bottom of the valance/wings and flush mount it, this will make it much more subtle and less 'plasticy' and keep the radiator intake clear. I wouldn't ordinarily fit one but they work so well and do tidy up the front end a bit.
Some more progress:
Decided to make up my own spherical top strut mounts.
Mocked up to check the positioning
All welded up
Suspension arm narrowed 15mm to help pull the big front wheels under stock wings (I'll add some more bracing to the join later on)
Another mock-up of spoiler showing better how the wing intake looks
Spoiler now trimmed to fit and roughly clamped to bottom of body panels. This gives me 120mm of ground clearance which is about level with my lowest chasssis point. I'm happy with this as a final ride height too.
It tucks back much more than it would as standard (which is bolted to the underside of the bumper) and looks much less like it's doing an impression of a snow-plough!
Decided to make up my own spherical top strut mounts.
Mocked up to check the positioning
All welded up
Suspension arm narrowed 15mm to help pull the big front wheels under stock wings (I'll add some more bracing to the join later on)
Another mock-up of spoiler showing better how the wing intake looks
Spoiler now trimmed to fit and roughly clamped to bottom of body panels. This gives me 120mm of ground clearance which is about level with my lowest chasssis point. I'm happy with this as a final ride height too.
It tucks back much more than it would as standard (which is bolted to the underside of the bumper) and looks much less like it's doing an impression of a snow-plough!
Idle air control valve return pipe uses cut down standard pipe.
Header tank is from a Vauxhall Corsa/Tigra as it had the right connections. I didn't like the subaru system as it is based on an external overflow tank. An aftermarket one would have been solid aluminium so levels are not so easy to check. I welded on a couple of brackets to the body to support the standard fitting points on the tank
Fill point is accessable when the decklid is open.
The OBP pedal box had no provision for the throttle cable so this is what I came up with. I also made up the cable from a universal kit using the subaru fittings/adjuster on the engine end. It feeds through the standard tube in the chassis tunnel.
VW polo heater matrix/blower fan will be mounted to access panel and will blow in to the existing ducting behind the dash. I will fabricate an intake for the fan so it draws in air from the scuttle grill.
Header tank is from a Vauxhall Corsa/Tigra as it had the right connections. I didn't like the subaru system as it is based on an external overflow tank. An aftermarket one would have been solid aluminium so levels are not so easy to check. I welded on a couple of brackets to the body to support the standard fitting points on the tank
Fill point is accessable when the decklid is open.
The OBP pedal box had no provision for the throttle cable so this is what I came up with. I also made up the cable from a universal kit using the subaru fittings/adjuster on the engine end. It feeds through the standard tube in the chassis tunnel.
VW polo heater matrix/blower fan will be mounted to access panel and will blow in to the existing ducting behind the dash. I will fabricate an intake for the fan so it draws in air from the scuttle grill.
I thought the body line above the trim didn't look quite right and this is what I found under all the filler! NOS VW 1/4 panels are no longer available so I went down to my local VW breakers, angle grinder in hand!
This is what was left after cutting out all the bodged repairs of the past
Donor section clamped roughly in place, it took a bit of searching to find one this good as it is a common rust area, unfortunately it was balanced on top of another car and was full of suspension parts!
This is what was left after cutting out all the bodged repairs of the past
Donor section clamped roughly in place, it took a bit of searching to find one this good as it is a common rust area, unfortunately it was balanced on top of another car and was full of suspension parts!
Had a good couple of days on the rear 1/4 panel...
All hidden areas were treated with Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80, then painted, weld areas were taken back to fresh metal and Roberlo weld through copper primer used.
Tacked in...
Fully welded...
all welds ground down
couple of coats of Hydrate 80 to protect the fresh metal before I get to paint, it will only need a very small amount of filler at the weld seams..
All hidden areas were treated with Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80, then painted, weld areas were taken back to fresh metal and Roberlo weld through copper primer used.
Tacked in...
Fully welded...
all welds ground down
couple of coats of Hydrate 80 to protect the fresh metal before I get to paint, it will only need a very small amount of filler at the weld seams..
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