Project Punch - 73 VW Beetle

43) Get wired!

2010-01-20T20:44:00.004-05:00

This mess of wires is what I pulled from the donor Legacy. I know it's not necessary to get every wire from the Suby, but I wanted to be sure I could trace every wire needed. For example the tach and speedometer wires end up in the dash harness, and go to the speedo cluster.

This is after extracting each wire from the ECU. I unwrapped all the black corrugated piping and electrical tape. What a sticky mess that was!

Here's the Suby firewall grommet that I'm reusing. I fed each wire through it while I was shortening each ECU wire -> sensor or plug. I soldered each wire, and used a glue type shrink wrap to seal it all up.

Here I'm measuring the length of each connection. I wanted to get the lengths roughed in before I solder everything in and reapply all the wire protection.

42) Alternator belt

2009-11-07T22:47:00.003-05:00

With the new alternator bracket in place, I now had a bit of an issue with finding the right belt that would fit. This belt was too tight, and wouldn't fit with the alternator adjusted as low as it could go. The next belt size up was too long and the alternator didn't have enough adjustment to make it tight.

I then decided to get a set of smaller pulleys to see if my smallest belt would fit.

No luck, the smallest belt now is too big for these small pulleys.

I finally found a belt that was the perfect length, and allowed me to tighten it right about midway through the adjustment of the alternator! The only possible problem here is that this belt has skinnier then the OEM belt. I'm guessing that since this is only driving the alternator that it should hold up fine :) *Fingers Crossed*

41) Alternator Bracket

2009-07-12T22:42:00.007-04:00

With the rotated coolant manifold the stock location of the alternator no longer works. Slowly, I built up a bracket that would bolt into the location of the old power steering pump. I mostly used 3/4" square tubing, with a few pieces of spare metal that I had laying around also. (There are some pieces of old bumper brackets and bed frame angle iron in there :)

This is the pivot side of the alternator. I needed to make sure the oil pressure sensor and throttle body preheater hose would fit around the bracket.

This is a mock up of the adjustable side of the alternator. The OEM bracket bolts from the other side, but I'm planning to bolt through in this direction because it is less fabricating and material needed.

This is the front side of the adjuster. You can see here it adjusts like normal, just from the other side. I had to pay a lot of attention to the min and max adjustments of the alternator to be able to get the most travel possible. I ended up having to grind down the intake and alternator a bit to get even more travel.

This is the roughly finished bracket (minus paint of course). I added some gusseting to make a little more rigid.

Finished and alternator mocked up. Next up will be to find a belt that fits!

40) Air filter bracket

2009-04-30T21:23:00.003-04:00

Here's the template and the initial fabricated bracket that will hold the air filter to the firewall.

Here I've ground down the welds, and cut a super lightweight "Racing" hole :)

I'm welding in some studs to the firewall so this can bolt up easy. The attachment to the MAF tube is where it all connects up. I actually can't decide between welding in studs or nuts. Any recommendations?

Here's what it looks like all bolted up. The air filter and MAF will stay solid to the car and with the help of the bubble connection (not showing here) in the middle, the rest of it will move with the motor.

39) Air intake fittings

2009-04-11T22:48:00.002-04:00

Since I ditched the stock air intake and assembled a custom one using aluminum piping, I needed a way to connect all the tubing that goes between the air intake and various parts of the motor.

I decided I would try out some quality Home Depot engineering :) Not sure if these will work or not, but it was easy enough to do and didn't take too much time (Aside from the hours strolling through HD looking for bits and pieces!)

First comes drilling the holes. Have I mentioned how much I love these stepper bits?

Next I stuck a end cap through the hole.

After boring a hole through the end cap, I made a grommet out of a section of rubber hose. I shaped the rubber so it would fit the curve of the intake tube, and left the top flat.

Then I tightly screwed on the barbed fitting.

Here is the forward most section with a couple more fittings.

Here is the rear section test fitted to the IAC (Idle Air Controller)

Another shot of the forward section all plumbed up to the valve covers & crank case breather.

38) Room to bleed (breath?)

2009-04-08T23:36:00.002-04:00

I thought it would be a good idea to add a breather to the top of my coolant manifold so that bleeding the system would be easier. Coolant will be raising up to the manifold via pipes that will be running low in the chassis (More on this later) I will screw in a valve here to open as I add coolant to the system.

This is the tap I used (1/8"-28 NPT)

This is the valve I'm going to put in there.

37) Cleaning up engine parts

2009-04-02T21:59:00.002-04:00

Took some time to clean up some rusty engine parts. I know I'm missing some stuff in here, which I'll get with another batch some other day :)

Sand blasted!

All painted!

36) Coolant manifold

2009-01-22T19:22:00.005-05:00

The coolant manifold got the same treatment as the intake manifold. You can also see here the outlet (top right) has been cut and re-welded to be shorter and now fits when bolted down in it's new flipped position.

You can also see on the bottom left a fitting for one of the heater connections. I ended up removing the steel tube that was originally bolted to the manifold, and tapped the hole for the NPT fitting.

You can see here how it fits under the intake manifold. The heater hose will go in between the intake runners.

Here's a quick show of how it all looks bolted up : )

35) Intake cleanup

2008-11-18T23:55:00.003-05:00

I took some time and cleaned up the EJ22 intake. I disassembled everything and sandblasted, wire brushed, sanded and painted all the aluminum items. I used new gaskets where I could when re-assembling.

34) Intake planning

2008-05-10T11:41:00.002-04:00

Got some parts for the intake here. I also found a nifty little adapter to go from my mass air flow meter, back to a 3" pipe. This is where I'll put on some sort of a cone filter. I've got an old one laying around here, so I'll first try that. Here you can also see some silicon tubing that I'll use for the connections needed to the intake. The two little plastic bags there have some tube barbed fittings that I'll use to attach the tube to the shinny L bends.

Here's the first mock up. You can see that I didn't need my long straight piece. And I also picked up a 90 degree silicon bend to fit on my throttle body. While I was setting this all up, I kept closing the deck lid to make sure it all fits. So the air filter in the back will need a bracket to bolt it up to the firewall. I'm also thinking about using one of those "bubble" silicon joints instead of the straight joint there. This way when the engine moves it will allow the intake to move separately.

33) Pieces parts

2008-04-26T21:18:00.003-04:00

I've been ordering parts left and right for the engine. I'm replacing as many seals and gaskets that I can find on the engine. I'm leaving the head gasket for now, because I'm not sure the condition of it, and I'm planning on tearing this thing down next winter anyways. I just want to get it back up and running leak free to see how she handles. You can also see the new oil pan there. The original was rotted straight through! Wow, I know!

Hose clamps and various tubing that I found on McMaster Carr. The blue tubing will be used for the heater core which will be placed under the back seat.

Some gas delivery items from Summit. There's an external fuel pump, aluminum 5/16" tubing and some NPT barbed fittings that will screw into bungs that I'm going to weld into my gas tank.

This was a great tip that I found on one of the many Subaru -> VW websites. It's a lower water manifold for a 2.5 RS. It is pointed in a better direction then the OE Legacy one. This way the lower coolant hose will be pointed straight towards the front of the car.

32) Intake and coolant manifold mock up

2008-04-12T17:11:00.004-04:00

After cleaning the engine, I started messing around with intake positions. Putting the intake on the stock way makes the throttle body point directly at the firewall. I don't want to cut the firewall, so I needed to find a better way. Thankfully the Internet has many Subaru -> Beetle projects, and I found that you can flip the intake 180 degrees! Works great, except I see that the stock intake piping is too big and will hit the decklid. My plan here will be to get some 90 degree pipe bends, and a 90 degree silicon elbow to connect to the throttle body. (More pictures to come)

Here is the other side. You can also see the coolant manifold has also been flipped around 180 degrees. This will make for nicer piping location to the front of the car. I didn't want to have to pipe from the rear of the engine and down past the exhaust. My plan is to use aluminum tubing and radiator hose to go from below the right axle, inside to the center channel and out the front of the car from the middle of the beam. Stay tuned for pictures of the whole thing!

31) Clean up on isle EJ

2008-04-09T22:25:00.003-04:00

Corny I know, but anyways... A few shots of current progress. I used some foamy engine bright, and some brushes to clean as much of the dirt and crud away. For future reference, get an engine that is A) Almost new, or B) Not from the North East. This thing was dirty!

Valve covers after a good clean and a little work with a 3M scuff pad.

New water pump! I will be replacing as much as I can without taking apart the long block (for now). I just want to get everything in the car and mocked up enough to start it, and possibly drive it for a bit to work out the bugs. If the rings are worn, or head gaskets need attention, I will have a fun project for next winter!

30) How it got there

2008-04-07T21:11:00.003-04:00

I wanted to show the adapter plate, and how this Subaru engine bolts to the Beetle. This show is of the KEP adapter plate bolted to the engine. The studs are installed to slide right into the VW transmission. All the hardware came with the kit: Adapter, flywheel, nuts & bolts.

This is with the KEP flywheel bolted into place. This allows the VW clutch, and the VW starter to mate right up! (Notice the little flywheel lock on the upper right. Makes life a little easier when torquing down the bolts)

I elected to buy a stage 1 clutch / pressure pate from KEP. Here is the clutch matted up to the flywheel. The kit even came with the alignment tool that you can see in the center.

And finally here is the pressure plate bolted up and torqued down. Be sure to tighten slowly and in a star patter here, as you can bend the pressure plate if done incorrectly.

I also wanted to show a picture of the VW transmission all ready for the engine. I got a new bushing and throw out arm. The clutch kit also came with a new throw out bearing you can see here.

29) It fits!

2008-04-02T08:07:00.006-04:00

Here is the Subaru EJ22 all bolted up and the body temporarily back down on the chassis. This thing fits in there without any modifications to the body. (Note: I will need to modify the rear apron a bit for it to fit around the timing belt cover) I bolted the engine in with a Kennedy (KEP) adapter plate.

I can see now that there are a couple of items to address here. First of all the throttle body is pointed right at the firewall. I will rotate the entire intake assembly around 180 degrees. Secondly the coolant manifold is pointed strait towards the back of the car. I will flip that around 180 degrees. This will have to be cut and re-welded to clear the crank case (Pictures to come).

28) Timeout for seats!

2008-03-25T07:42:00.003-04:00

In all this cold weather, I decided to work on the seats. There's nothing like working on the bug in my living room with the TV tuned to Power Block! I went through each seat and tore off the old covers, and worn out padding. I repainted any metal with a coat of rust proof black.

Here is the seat down to bear bones.

The underside after paint, new cushion, and cover.

Finished! The new covers from TMI look great!

Here's the back seat, done in all it's glory!

Another shot of the back seat (upper)

27) Test fitting rear suspension

2008-02-25T22:31:00.004-05:00

I am finally far enough along on the metal work, that I've starting to do some test fitting! This is one of the rear trailing arms bolted up with the adjustable spring plate, and aluminum cover. Everything fit, except the two adjuster bolts on the spring plate. To get the clearance I needed, I shaved the forward most bolt, and welded it right to the spring plate. The adjuster bolt I cleared out the metal area behind to give plenty of area for a wrench to adjust.

Here is the other side with the wheel mounted up. I wanted to see how much wider the new setup would be.

Here is the extra width that I will have to deal with. To make this car look right, I think I will have to get some extra wide fenders. I know Creative Car Craft makes very good quality fenders.

26) Last of the sandblasting (Maybe?)

2008-02-23T16:11:00.004-05:00

OK I'm getting down to the last of the sandblasting on the main body shell! Can I say, I'm excited? It's a dirty job sandblasting, I have to get myself geared up to do it. I don't mind when it's in the blast cabinet, but out on the car, it just gets so dirty. I'll be finding sand for weeks in and around parts of my body I didn't even know existed.

Here is the underside after welding up a lot of seams and painting.

Here is the inside shot of the luggage area. Feels good to get this all under paint.

25) Heater Channel Work

2008-01-28T23:42:00.000-05:00

I've got the body rolled over on its side now, peeling off the bottom cover of the heater channels. Since I replaced the front section which didn't come with the bottom cover, I figured this was a good time to replace the entire length. I wanted to expose (hopefully) the last of the rust, and be done with it once and for all!

Another piece that I wanted to improve was the pipe that the hot air travels through up to the front. The originals were all rusted, and were not air tight. My solution was to buy some galvanized steal tubing from McMaster-Carr, and some 90 degree pipe fittings to plumb the hot air up to the front.

After sandblasting I painted the inside of the channels with Magnet Paint Chassis Saver. (Found at my local paint supply store) I really like how this stuff goes on, and drys to a nice smooth finish. I will be using this paint where ever I want to protect against future rust, rock chips, and general dirty shenanigans : )

Here is everything painted up and finished. To get to this point, I drilled a zillion holes in the covers, sprayed weldable zink primer on the spots to be welded, welded all the holes up, ground down the welds, and painted on the rust paint.

Here is the back section, you can see the 90 degree elbow sticking out. I ended up welding up the old hole that the heater channel was sticking out of, and cut a circular hole that the fitting would fit nicely in.

24) Front apron grill

2008-01-21T22:29:00.000-05:00

So after thinking (read: worrying) about air flow the other day, I finally bit the bullet and decided to add some venting to the front apron. This was hard for me because I really wanted ALL of the body work on this car to be stock, and this would change the attitude of the car a little. But I want to be functional above all, and I really don't want to be caught 100's of miles away and have this thing over heat :)

I finally came up with the idea of using a grill just like a super beetle. The problem with the super beetle is the grill up front is very rounded, and it just wouldn't work in this virtually flat apron. Then it hit me, I have a spare hood, and it's got the fresh air vents up top! Sure enough, I cut it out and it fits perfectly! I really like how this is going to look, because it will match the one of the hood!

Here are the first few welds. I'm being super careful here about heat and burn through. I don't want to alter these perfect vents. I couldn't only imagine how hard it would be to fix them.

A few more welds, slowly...

The finished product. I'm in love!

23) Radiator bracing

2008-01-21T22:17:00.000-05:00

Here is the initial planning for the radiator bracing. The round bars that are crossed are just there for bracing the front end temporarily (to keep it straight). I will leave out the sheet metal that is normally behind and below the spare tire. I'm framing the area with square 3/4" tubing. I will triangulate the corners for strength and keep this whole front end square. My plan is to make this area generic enough that I can use many different radiators (if needed) I will (hopefully) just have to make new radiator mounting brackets that will bolt to these cross bars.

Here is my new radiator (its aluminum made by Mishimoto for a Honda Civic) The copper 90' fitting is there representing the shape of coolant hose I'll have to find. You can see here the cross bar in front and the cross bar below that I will build the brackets onto. I plan to close this top section all in with either aluminum or fiberglass. Air flow will come from the entire open floor, plus vents that I will weld into the front apron. Coming next!

Here is the detail of strengthening the corners. I'm integrating the original gas tank support into the bracing.

22) Planning for the trunk

2008-01-21T22:11:00.000-05:00

So the trunk will no doubt be a bit different on this Beetle. First of all since this will be a water cooled car now (I know, the purists are cringing) I will be placing the radiator in the spare tire wheel well. This shot is where I'm thinking about putting the spare tire. I'll make a nice sturdy bracket / brace for it. I'm also on the prowl for a lighter Porsche collapsible spare. This will give me more room to work with. I think I can say that I'm going to give up any trunk space here. Next I'll show you what I'm thinking for my radiator!

21) Further progress on the front end

2008-01-21T21:57:00.000-05:00

This section has been sand blasted and primed with weldable primer. Just about ready to weld in the quarter panel.

The final mock up of the two quarter panels and the front clip. Everything is lining up pretty good. I will attempt to keep everything as straight as I can as I start to tack everything in.

The start of the spot welds! I drilled holes into the quarter panel, and welded each one up. It was important to weld each time in a completely different area so the heat would not build up and warp the panel. The edge were the drip rail and panel come together (In front of the door) will be a tricky area to perfect. I have to bend the outside edge around to the front. I will carefully grind the welds down first.

Here I've tacked on the weather strip holding piece. This metal is a bit thinner then the rest of the car, so I had to go quickly to not burn through. My first side I had drilled holes through the strip, and welded them up, but I found that this was too aggressive. The other side I ended up just welding spots directly beside the strip, and moving in on the strip. This gave a much cleaner weld, and actually burned through much less. After welding, I went through and ground down the top and bottom of each weld.

Here is the right side after grinding the welds down, bending the edge over, and hammer / dollying the crap out of it for a while. Turned out pretty good. Any section that was bulging out a bit, I hit with a flat file. Later when I'm doing paint prep, I may revisit this area and make sure this line is very smooth and straight. Maybe a little bondo (and paint, make it what it aint! :)

20) Rollin' out into the sunlight

2007-12-16T11:54:00.000-05:00

Its not very often that I roll the bug out, but it was a nice day! It's also good to inspect everything in the bright sunlight. You can see that I've cut away the lower left door hinge section, and it's all sand blasted. Next, it's time to weld that section in, and start getting this front end all wrapped up!

19) New kick panel mocked up

2007-12-08T10:33:00.001-05:00

Here's the new kick panel mocked up into place. I set the body down to check the alignment of the kick panel and the floor pan.