Not your traditional Hot Rodder intro...

What's up guys/gals?!

Been lurking for almost a year. I originally registered to have more access to the board cause there's a lot of great info here. The reason I've stalled on posting my project is just cause my project isn't your "traditional hot" and I know that there's mixed feelings about these type of hotrod builds.

A little about me. First off, I'm a 27 year old Graphic Designer. I work for a small toy company here in Houston as an Art Director. I also do some freelance graphic design for some large ad agencies and so illustration for a christian / faith based toy company. I'm in a cover band in which we play 1-2 times a month but we practice regularly once a week to keep up on the 75 + songs we have to retain in our heads. When I have free time away from my fiancé I go out to my garage I'm renting in my apt complex, yup, that's right, and work on my future hotrod.

How the hell do you decide to start one of these projects? I'll tell you. My dad is an old school hotrodder/ mechanic / machine shop maint. dude. He owns a 69 Nova, 71 pickup with a 383 stroker, a 1967 Malibu Chevelle (2 dr), and a 1941 oldsmobile with the original engine. Needless to say, he's where I get my interest in hot rods from and knowledge of cars.

I picked up my interested in VWs from a neighbor and feel in love with their simplicity and the low cost of after market parts available for them. Nough said.

Being nowadays you mainly see tuners on the street racing scene. I used to have a tuner, "American", myself but quickly realize what a waste it was to get parts for it. $3000 later and I still had a car that would only run low 16's, but got 35+ miles to the gallon.

I remember reading in a VW magazine about someone building a V8 VW front engined bug and got me thinking. I did some research on the web and found my new project. A VW tuff hotrod built with Chevy stuff that will blow the doors off of the 150-210 hp tuners and would have some mustangs for lunch as well.

My sleeper project:

1973 VW Super Beetle on a 94 Chevy S-10 chassis that was shortened and I added some Isuzu Amigo leaf springs so they would fit under the body. This project is being done on a budget like many.

Here's my S-10 frame swap. I know this isn't a traditional hotrod in the eyes of some, if not many, but here it is.

73 VW super beetle body on top of a shortened 94 extended cab S10 chassis. This is my first project where I've done any fabrication, on a budget with limited tools so be easy on me.
























Engine and tranny combo will be a 355 SBC backed by a TH350. I don't have the engine built yet cause I'm still working on the body and frame, but here's the bottom end I practically got free.




Here's the specs on the intended build in which I have all new parts for.

355 ci SBC
10.15:1 CR
Vortec Heads #060 upgraded with Z28 style valve springs.
Summit Stage I Vortec Intake (idle-6000 RPM)
750 cfm Edelbrock Carb
Comp Cams Hydraulic Flat Tappet, Advertised Duration 293/300, Lift .450/.453 for that nasty idle. Rated 2,500-6000 RPM
Shorty headers, 1 5/8" to 2.5"
Summit HEI Distributor.
2500 B&M stall.

Nothing super fancy but should make 415-425 hp on pump gas. I'll keep you guys posted once I get the chassis rebuilt and painted and have the engine / tranny in.

 

I've always been a fan of the VW bugs. This makes me want to tinker with one.

I like where your going with this one.

-Sneeky Pete

 

Thanks Pete! They're some good little cars and cheap to restore / fix up.

 

That's a neat build. I've always wanted to build a V8 Bug... I'd go a slightly different route though, and build it as a fenderless altered

 

Thanks SS! The fenderless altered bugs are pretty cool. I wanted mine to be more sleeper like and something I could cruise fairly often.

 

Interesting project but I don't know if it's appropriate for this board.

You estimate for hp strikes me as a bit high. Sounds more like 350-375 with the parts you have planned.

 

Hey TJM73,

I know what you mean which is why I only posted briefly about my build and only in the intro section. I have lots of build pictures. My first post was last week and I'm sure I would have posted sooner, having registered in Jan, if my project was more appropriate for this board.

If you search you'll find similar engine builds with slightly lower compression and similar cams but with less duration that make 400-425 hp. And these are dyno proven builds. Car Craft has a similar build with slightly higher lift cam but with less duration. Guess the only way to truly know is to have the finished build dynoed.

 

Hi V8,
Looks awesome! I thought about doing a similar thing with an MGB (my son is an MG and Triumph fan).

Here is a link that you might find interesting:
http://www.volksrods.com/

I'm not trying to be rude and hijack this thread (I apologize V8), and I don't mean any disrespect to anyone, but why wouldn't it be an appropriate project? I am new to the website and now I am curious to see what the parameters of an acceptable hot-rod is here.

I found this under the "About Us" tab:

..."The Jalopy Journal was formed just a few years later to spread the gospel of traditional Hot Rods and Kustoms to hoodlums worldwide… We wanted to be the voice of the working man, a tool in the toolbox of the guy that does it himself, and a place where citizen journalists could show the “big-time” media a thing or two. We haven’t done it all yet, but we aim to in time…"

Since "Hot Rod" was sometimes a term used in the 1950s to describe any car that did not fit into the mainstream, V8 is keeping with the spirit of the early hot-rodders by building his Beetle. In order for it to be unacceptable it would have to fit into the mainstream mold. Is there a such thing as a mainstream hot-rod? Maybe it's just a matter of semantics, but it seems like a contradiction of terms to me.

Hot-rodding is an ever evolving and growing phenomenon that can be extended to many different makes and models. The usage of a "k" for "kustom" rather than a "C", is said to have originated from car builder George Barris. George Barris not only customized VWs, but also designed and manufactured VW kits.

Ed Roth's influence on car culture is indisputable and can be seen in VW rat rods. He cited Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, the inventor of the Volkswagen Beetle, as his greatest influence. The Big Daddy stamp of approval went to the Volkswagen Beetle, designed by his hero, Dr. Porsche. Roth loved the humble Volkswagen because it was built from the inside out. All the other cars are built from the outside in. They get the designers to design the body, and then they’ve got to squeeze the shock absorbers and the engine in.

If a VW hot rod is okay with the likes of Barris and Roth, I don't know why it wouldn't be okay here. Please help me to understand why V8's project might not be appropriate for this website.

 

Good job V8
Thanks for sharing your project. Pretty impressive project for the first fabricating effort. I have no idea if the car will handle worth a shit but I'd bet it'll be quick and maybe even fast if it stays right side up.
Good luck, I'd like to see the finished car. The damage deposit might be gone for the garage...but its a lot cleaner than mine
Billet

 

Looks like a great start...and it's traditional enough for me .

 

Thanks Billet! I'm learning as I go. Yeah, it'll probably handle like ass, but I'm really only interested in straight line speed.

I'll post as I go. I'm currently working on finishing the metal and body work on the widened steel fenders. I'll post a group of pics once I've got the chassis and drive train all in.

The garage really isn't too bad. What you see on the floor is slag chips and dust from doing body work. Nothing a good sweep and power washing wont take car of. I hope.

 

Thanks! If nothing else, it's in the spirit of of traditional hotrodding and isn't a four banger, anymore.

 

That in itself doesn't make it right, cool or even a hotrod.....

V-8,
Neat little project and although probably not viewed by most as a 'tradtional' hot rod, there were v-8 powered VW's run in the 60's..... most would have been run as Altereds though as foreign bodies were not allowed in the Gasser classes until the Anglia was accepted.

Build it & drive it..... just make sure it's pointed straight before launching & hold on..

Welcome to the HAMB

CC

 

Hey ProEnfo,

Thanks for the welcome and for sharing the info! I've seen some of the v8 powered vw altered photos around here on the hamb. Very interesting.

Will do and I'll be sure to watch the ricers fade in my rear view mirror whilst holding on for dear life.

 

Just wanted to post an update!

I'm just about finished with the body work. I'd say 90%. Since last post I've finish widening the fenders, shaved the bumper holes, and shaved the moon vents around back. Now it's time to rebuild the chassis, build the motor / trans, get the drive train in, and build the firewall and floor.
























Here's a rendering I did of what I'd like my bug to look like. Or might just go one color blue metallic. Too much time to think about it until I get paint, too much to do.

 

interesting you doing a good job..............

 

I think it rocks! I always wanted a VW, like you said fairly cheap and easy. I like the idea of the S-10 frame, there are so many affordable suspension parts. Keep us updated. And, if you did that rendering, you are freaking awesome. I wish I had those skills. I have always wanted to see my boat in a shade of candy red with a laced roof. Good looking project.

 

Thanks! It's my first real hotrod project where I'm trying to do absolutely everything (fabrication, painting, bodywork, mechanical, etc.).

Thanks man! That's what really drew me to this project. Fairly inexpensive and will get up and go when it's finished. VW beetles are still fairly easy to come by, plenty of after market parts, and same for s-10 stuff (chassis related).

I did do the rendering, I'm a graphic designer by trade so it's easier for me to visualize what I want to achieve. It's just making it happen that's harder for me.

 

Nice work man. IMHO small car+big V8=Hot Rod

 

V8 Super Beetle, Hello. Don't get discouraged. Ignore the bad remarks.The build looks great. I can't wait to see it finished. Keep posting. We can learn something from your work.
Good Luck.

Lucky667

 

Welcome from Ohio
Amazing, that hot rodding is about rebelling, and creativity, big motors, ect..
and you catching flack for hot rodding a bug, not my personal style, but super cool project!!

 

Thanks everyone! I'll keep the updates coming.

 

Updates...I've been a busy bee...

A few buddies came over and we took the body back off the frame. This time she's sitting on 4 blocks at each corner instead of two, LOL! ;D






At this point I'm welding up tack welds, would've completely welded some parts but they were too close to the headline, I added a couple fish plates to reinforce the shackles I welded in, and I'm welding up the top of the body mounts.













Next, I'll weld some caps onto the front of the frame, and weld in the "bolt-in" 6 point roll bar plates I bought. I'm doing this so I can remove the body (plates welded to frame, the cage will be inside the flooring once built and I'll be able to bolt it all up) later down the road if needed. Should make for installing the engine easier.

Then the frame is coming apart, I'll weld up the bottom of the frame (suck at overhead welding with the stick welder), small parts will be sandblasted, the frame will be power washed, and then I'll paint it and start rebuilding it with new bushings / ball joints.

Once all that's done I can do the fun part. Motor, tranny and install!

My 6 pt. roll bar bolt in conversion kit came in this past week. I mocked them up on the frame, took them to work, and then had them drilled for the bolts.





I then cleaned up the metal where the plates would be welded with a 40 grit disk.










Then welded in the plates.

 

Then I capped the front frame ends with some left over 1/8 metal I had laying around. I still need to go back and grind the welds smooth so it'll look nice once painted.





Next, after I grind the cap welds, I'm going to take the frame apart, sand blast the small parts at work, power wash the frame, adjust the rear ends location some so the shacks wont hit my fenders, and then it gets new paint (MasterSeries), and reassembled with the new bushings, balls joints, lowering spindles and blocks.

Then I can work on getting the engine together and rebuilding the tranny. Still lots to do til I get to that point.

I ordered the rest of the parts I need from Summit to put my 355 sbc together with the money I got back from my tax turn.

Fuel pump, high volume water pump, oil pump, gaskets, thermostat, comp cam timing chain, flex plate, aluminum crank pulley, harmonic balancer, etc.

Basically everything to finish off the engine. The only thing that will be used is the oil pump drive shaft, the fuel pump push rod, the block and internals (pistons, crank, rods). I'm going to freshen up the bottom end with some new bearings and piston rings. So a good clean up and a light hone is in line, soon.

Yesterday I also got a good deal on some used wheels for the V8 bug. They're C5 corvette wheels, 17"x 9.5" up front and 18"x 10.5" in the back. . The 88' vette wheels just didn't have the look I want for my car, but they're fine for mocking stuff up for now until I can buy new tires. Got them for $150 and they're in really great condition. Just the normal small scratches on the edge of rim lip




Also, on Tuesday I finished off the passenger side body mount that bolts to the heater channel. All it was needing was a piece of angle iron to reinforce it. Cut a 3" piece of angle iron, cleaned it with the 40 grit disk as well as the chassis, and welded it in. Strong and ready to go...








I can't wait to get the chassis finished so I can put the engine together!

My parts came in from summit. ;D For Valentines' day my fiancé got me a DVD from box wrench on basic engine rebuilding which is excellent, and a Ron Sessions book on rebuild a TH 350.




I made good progress this weekend. I drilled holes to bolt down my gas tank.






I ground the front frame caps to clean the appearance up.




I widened the side body mount holes some to give me a little room to shift the body some and I starting disassembling my chassis so I can finish the welds underneth and get it all painted and rebuilt.






That's about as far as I could get without a ball joint separator, which I'll need to borrow, to remove the spindles.

I finished disassembling the chassis. What a DIRTY mess. The front of the frame is caked with dried up mud. I've got a lot of cleaning and sandblasting of small parts to do. My plan is to hopefully power wash the frame this weekend and I'll sand blast some parts here at work.









I went to autozone to see if they had a ball joint separator to rent and I didn't realize how many great tools they have to rent. From piston ring compressors, oil pump primers, etc. Lots of tools I'll need and almost bought. I'm glad I didn't buy any tools right away. I will end up buying a good valve spring compressor from summit cause the one autozone has isn't all that great.

More...

OK, so by this weekend I had "Johnny 5" disassembled and the frame and suspension parts were ready for a good wash. I called up a couple friends to see if they could help, but as usual they were busy and I had to figure out a way to do it solo if I wanted to get anything done.

First I had to widen the distance of the center blocks so the frame could slide out which required some thinking. I need to put the good old 2x3 boards under the car again to keep the body suspended. I lifted one corner at a time and slid a couple small cut pieces of wood under the body. This allowed me to slide the lumber under the body and so I could move the stack of center blocks out. Needless to say this was a tedious process, but I got it done safely.

Next, I had to find a way to load a 400-500 lb car frame in the back of my truck solo as well. I ran a board under the back of the frame, put my floor jack under the board and jack it up so the rear could roll. While crouching I had to lift the frame "horns" and slowly pull the frame out. Wasn't too bad, just required some thinking.

Then I had to get it in the bed of the truck. I lifted the front of the frame into the truck and pull it in just enough to get past the lower front suspension arm mounting points so nothing was dragging. I call the jack again, put it under the front cross member so it could roll, and I lifted the front of the frame and rolled the whole thing forward. Pain in the arse, but I got it done. The drive to the car wash was right down the street so I didn't have to go too far.




So as I was power washing the frame I need to flip the frame over so I could give the underbelly a good wash. As I rolled the frame on it's side while still in my truck bed the frame got away from me and landed on the side of my truck bed. Put a nice soft ball dint in the side, it pounded the corner right above my right rear light taking off a section of paint about the size of a golf ball, and it put many scratches in the paint. All I could do was get pissed for a moment and say oh well.

Here's the frame upside down after all that mess.




So I again had to flip it over with about as much luck as the first try and took the washed frame and parts home. Now it was time to get the frame out and back into the garage, but this time upside down so I can finish up and redo some over head welds that didn't turn out so great. I had to once again figure out how to flip the frame and get it under the car without dragging it. My creeper helped out a lot cause the gas tank mount sat on it nicely lifting the rear up. So the whole thing rolled under the car without hardly any problems.




I know it doesn't seem like I got a whole lot accomplished, but I did manage to get all that done solo. I also, ground away all the bad looking over head welds and began welding. Hopefully this week I can finish welding, get some parts sand blasted and move closer to getting the frame in paint.

 

Hey man welcome from another Houstonian

 

Thanks man! I see there's lots of Texans on this board which is great.

 

I like it! Always build what you like do it with quality and craftsmanship and true Hot Rodders will appreciate it. It may be what they would build,but they should respect the hard work that has gone into it. Good luck
Bob

 

i was on the fence at first but now i'm a fan, keep up the hard work. good job

 

Thanks for all the kind words!

 

Thanks for the compliments guys. I have some catching up to do with my posts. I haven't forgot about you guys and I definitely haven't given up on the project.

Most recent updates...In the process of rebuilding / finishing the chassis.

I pulled the frame out from under the car and swept up the messy floor. I then put down my first coat of MasterSeries silver using a brush. It went on pretty easily with minimal surface prep. I knocked off most of the loose rust with a wire brush. It turned out pretty nice.








Here's a link to the Master Series paint site.
http://www.masterseriesct.com/


Inexpensive and good stuff.


I bought some more new parts. Seems like there's always something else to buy. Parts I got to finish up the motor, tranny, rear diff, and chassis:

Hydraulic lifters, some lube for the lifters, short water pump - aluminum alt. bracket (mounts up top), starter, B&M street shift kit for the th350, adjustable modulator, B&M drain plug for tranny, bushings for tranny, tranny cooler, intermediate tranny band, all new shocks, bearings / seals, rear brake hose, and diff gasket / gear oil. I think that's all...?

I've sand blasted all the a-arms, put on a second coat of master serires on the frame, and I sprayed some glossy black automotive Rust-o-leum in the areas that are hard / impossible to reach with a brush.

One of the sand blasted a-arms











I've got the frame completely painted in the Master Series glossy chassis black as well as the front suspension. Also, I installed all new bushings, and ball joints in the control arms. Next is to put the front suspension together and begin working on the rear suspension.







Got some work done to the bug. Actually, I put in about 10 hrs time, but it really feels like I didn't get a whole lot done. Getting in the coil springs, even with a compressor, was a real pain without the full weight of an engine or the vehicle to help, but I got it done. That took up most my time.

I sand blasted the front leaf spring mounts.




And some misc. parts.




Misc parts painted.




I didn't realize just how bad the cabinet sand blaster at my work was clogged up until our engineer saw just how slow the process was taking. We filtered out the beads, put it back in, and it worked like a champ. I kinda thought it was taking forever and it wasn't really doing a great job of removing all the rust, but what do I know? I don't do this everyday and can't really complain because my work allows me to use some of their equipment. Any who, it works much better.

Here's the steering linkage sandblasted.




Linkage with new tie rods installed and painted.




Leaf mounts painted. You can see in this picture just how much I had to cut out of the heater channels. Quite a bit. Welding rods work great for hanging parts so you can paint them.




Control arms installed with new bushings and ball joints. Coil springs painted and installed. New shocks installed. Lowered 2" spindles. Sway bar painted and installed with new bushings and new sway linkage.




Here's a pic of the wheels Ray lent me so I can compare to see if I'll like my wheels black. These are the same wheels and these are for the rear. 18" x 9.5 Thanks Ray!




I thoroughly cleaned the wheel bearings, thrust washer and castle nut to later find out I had bought new bearings. : Well, the bearings were in really good shape so I'll hang onto them, put new ones in, for future maintenance.




Painted the spindle and dust cover and installed.