58 Beetle

I don't own it, it's my brother Nick's (Big Brother), but I'm storing it for him and I was going to do a little work on it here and there.
I don't plan on doing anything major to it, maybe drive it to work on occasion during the warm seasons.

Anyway, it's got a 1915CC running on Megasquirt/EDIS and a T3 turbo... I think it put down 225WHP.





Yea, the PVC pipe intake will go, I think I have some aluminum tubing floating around still. :lol:

Not likely to do anything with it now, since we are coming into winter and because he took the ECU with him for another project (getting replaced with a new one though).

Anything I do will get posted in this thread though.

nice i got buddy thats a huge vw fan like vws are his life...

I bet having the turbo inside the cabin heats it up a lot better than the factory set up haha.

Really cool, I like how performance came first... It's not something you see from the Euro crowd too often.

if you go disc make sure you get the wide bolt pattern to run those rims.  you do know you can reverse those rims. it makes the fittment perfect and it looks like you are running really deep dished wheels :)

How many colors do you see?


:lol:
There's at least 3 different layers of body filler there too.

Yeah, the paint is really effed up. When I first got it, someone before me had rattle canned it yellow/white.

(pics too large, I don't feel like resizing)

http://miniman82.4t.com/cgi-bin/i/images/bug1.JPG
http://miniman82.4t.com/cgi-bin/i/images/bug2.JPG
http://miniman82.4t.com/cgi-bin/i/images/bug3.JPG
http://miniman82.4t.com/cgi-bin/i/images/bug4.JPG

There weren't even any seats in it, so I got a beat up Recaro from a 300z. Took me all of 2 weeks to start buying stuff for it, which is probably longer than most people wait... Anyway, it's obvious I don't care what it looks like. I could care less, as long as I can put the smackdown on more expensive hardware. Making rich people look silly is why I do this. lol  Oh, you like your Merc AMG huh? How do you like my ratty ass rusty tail lights? :hahanot:
Post Merge

Hey, there's an idea... Faux patina paint job, kind of a pain in the ass, but it would keep the ratbug look and keep it from getting rust holes. :lol:

Nah, the whole hoodride thing ain't for me. Seems like a poor excuse: I can't figure out how to work on engines, so instead I'll intentionally strip the paint off my car and let it rust. How's that workin out? Tards.

If you're gonna go to all the trouble, put some half ass decent paint on it. I'll buy the stuff you need; hell pick the color you want your Silvia to be, we'll kill 2 birds with one stone. lol  Whatever you do has gotta be better than the Earl Sheib places....

It works for some cars/trucks, but the bug would really nice with a good paint job... I was actually thinking a brown would be nice, like a leather suitcase brown.
Maybe that's just me though.

Something to think about, it would have to wait until it's warmer out anyway.

Go for it, maybe it will sell with a shiny new paint job. People are vain, if it looked nice it would have sold right away with a 45hp 1.6L singleport.... dillholes.

Probably would have to make the interior nicer for it to sell, unless its another enthusiast that buys it as a project.

The EDIS module/coil/harness/etc on this is the one you got from me, isn't it.
I pulled the engine wiring to clean it up, started unwrapping the EDIS wiring on the coil pack... and I see Nissan wire in there, gee I wonder where that came from.

This thing has a little S12 in it!

Most of the engine harness ready to be cleaned up, rewrapped, and rerouted.


And the parcel tray hole a little more cleaned up and getting ready for so.e reworking to make it nice and neat.

I love it

Thanks

Color tests


I'm really digging the brown... but I like the burgundy too.
Just some colors I had in the garage.

I say brown or the red.

seishuku on 11:07:11 PM / 02-Nov-12
It works for some cars/trucks, but the bug would really nice with a good paint job... I was actually thinking a brown would be nice, like a leather suitcase brown.
Maybe that's just me though.

Something to think about, it would have to wait until it's warmer out anyway.

I totally dig the old beetles, I'd love to build a Baja beetle some day, just for the hell of it

Out with the eww and in with the new!



Those old push rod tubes are nasty, and super rusty!

did you use the adjustable tubes so you didnt have to pull the heads. they do leak if you did. i have never had a set that didnt leak

They are spring loaded tubes, double o-ring seal with silicone end seals.
I have no doubt they'll eventually leak (it is a vw after all :lol:), but the other bank has had the same tubes in for quite some time now and no leaks yet...

Playing with a little body work on the boot lid (its pretty trashy anyway).


The cheapo primer from the rattle can actually lays down pretty nice with my new spray gun.


Still gotta finish stripping the other half, but so far it looks good.

Body work and paint must be fun on a beetle! Can't wait to start painting myself

I don't have a problem with paint, that's easy... Getting body panels straight, that's another thing. :lol:

seishuku on 05:20:15 PM / 19-Dec-12I don't have a problem with paint, that's easy... Getting body panels straight, that's another thing. :lol:

Ya.... Maybe if I were made of money, could buy the right filler, bought stock in sandpaper, and then had all the proper sanding blocks... Then maybe I would try, but at this point I would just be happy with shinny paint. :lol:

Hahaha i wish he went that route to XD

Getting around to doing some more stuff again, now that the weather is nice.
Modifying the oil filter mount for a temp sender, running new wires for oil temp and pressure gauges.

Trying to find the best place for the gauges though, I made a panel to replace the speaker grill, but the steering wheel makes it awkward to see them... so I was thinking of a panel to cover the old radio (I think) hole:

Post Merge

Nice!

Wired for power and lights


Tied into the beetle's wiring


Just need to run wires to the sending units.

Finally found the tap for the oil temp sender, so I got that drilled and tapped:


For some reason it's really hard to find an M14x1.5 tap, I can find x1.25 and x2.0 all day, but not x1.5.

And because I can, I made a fancy fuel pump bracket:

Some more wiring work, just about there...
Fixed the oil pressure light wire and alternator wire (soldered splices with proper terminal ends), and the new wire for the pressure gauge.


With the alt/fan removed, you can (kinda) see the new wire for the oil temp gauge (purple), all routed through the body with the original harness (a pain I might add!).
Also painted the intake piping, which was rather rusty.


Ran a new 14ga wire for the fuel pump with matching 14ga ground wire, runs up the A pillar and back down the B pillar to meet up with the rest of the MegaSquirt wiring (also a pain!).


And, cleaned up the wiring behind the dash, fixed at least 3 wire splices that were just wires twisted together (now soldered of course).

Made an adapter for the fuel tank, to replace the tiny 1/4" tubing that was being used...


Bent the adapter up:



Not much room... It actually fouls on the chassis a tad (like a 1/16"), but I can't put a tighter bend on the damn thing. :lol:

Fixed up the EDIS wiring:

New wire on the sensor with full foil wrap (noise shielding), new wire on the coil, even put a new connector on the sensor! (had one, figured why not)

Just need to figure out how long I need for the PIP/SAW signals and that should be all done.

PIP/SAW and signal ground extended and shielded.


Got the fuel pump mounted



Engine bay is mostly complete now


How loud is an ACVW with open pipes?

I'm gonna find out!

Here's the new (mostly) complete MS harness:


A few things that aren't going to be connected yet though, mainly because I'm going to use my MS ECU to do testing, so I need to adapt to that and I don't want to make the changes to use the EDIS hardware on my ECU.

And it's alive again!

Any progress? I know it's cold again, perhaps a kerosene heater is what your projects need?

Nothing worth posting really...
I do have a propane heater, I think there's even a little gas left... I just need to get more ambition. :lol: