OT: Working on my shop car, The wagon Porsche never built. . . Options

[aircooledtechguy]

I've had a long term project going now to turn my '67 Squareback into my shop car. While I love driving my 914, it has limitations as a daily parts hauler. I love old styling with new technology and updates, so my goal is to turn my humble Square into the wagon that Porsche never made. I want it to drive and handle more like a Porsche than a VW wagon and it's got to be a true "Sleeper" (not a real problem; since it's a wagon). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/shades.gif)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/images.thesamba.com-9730-1324689630.1.jpg)
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/images.thesamba.com-9730-1324689631.2.jpg)

This has been a 4-5 phase project.

Phase-1 - Convert it to Porsche 914 2.0L motor. Make it physically adapted to the car and running MS2 w/ Ford EDIS ignition. Get it tuned to be a daily driver. DONE!!

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/images.thesamba.com-9730-1324689631.3.jpg)

Phase-2 - Make the motor look good and freshen it up with new P&Cs. The heads were freshened only about 2K miles before I got it, by me when it was in a clients 914 that he converted to Subie power. I noticed that once I had a few miles on it myself, it was using a bit of oil. So I upgraded to a new set of 96mm P&Cs. So now it's a 2056.




I had my local powder coater do all the tins in black and the plenum and runners in grey for a stock look. I'm running T-4 H/Es with a modified bus header and a Summit Racing Flow Master clone muffler. So I had those ceramic coated in black so they are not attention grabbers from the back. This car is a sleeper (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif)



DONE!!

Phase-3 - Convert the rear suspension to the later style IRS and install a Porsche 923 trans out of a Porsche 912E. The rear suspension is DONE!! While at it, I upgraded it with 914 rear brakes, urethane bushings, adjustable spring plates and a rear sway bar. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/images.thesamba.com-9730-1324689632.4.jpg)

Since the trans is taller than a stock 4-speed and cutting into the car can't happen due to rear seat issues. I gained the 1.5" I needed by spacing the body off the rear suspension with spacers. So here I sit, on the final leg of phase-3. I now need to couple the motor/trans and lift it into it's final place and fab rear engine hanger mounts for the rear bar. It's late and I'm tired. . .

Phase-4 - Front suspension upgrade. Currently in-work

Phase-5 - Paint so it doesn't look so crappy, though it does add to the "sleeper" persona. . .

Stay tuned for more later. . .

[aircooledtechguy]

Made a ton of progress this Saturday. Here are the highlights:

- Finished the main front-end support.
- Welded said support to the frame head.
- Located front mounts on body and cut recesses for them.
- Fabricated and welded front mount supports that box them in and tie them to the front-end.

I started off with the main support. I had that basically made (all the hard stuff anyway), I really needed to make the relief cuts on the fwd corners so it didn’t interfere with the movement of the A-arms. With that finished, I decided that I could no longer put off mounting this piece to the car.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/images.thesamba.com-9730-1367247839.1.jpg)

Everything else depends on this piece, so I really took my time to get it aligned with the center line of the car and to immovable points on the pan; Points that I knew would have to have been very accurate when the pan was made on the jig at the factory. With it all spot-on, double-checked, triple-checked and one more check for good luck, I tacked it into place and then made another check. With it still good, I began laying beads of weld to make it all permanent.

After that was in place, I attached the main support beam and slipped in the A-arms so I could then locate where those would mount. On the under side of the sheet metal, I carefully measured for center line and then measured out from there. The torsion tubes are just less than 26” apart (center to center), so I marked out the centers for those and began marking the rear edge of the relief that would need to be cut in order for them to sit straight and level on the multi-curved surface. I also had to cut a relief so that I could use a 2.5” piece of tube cut in half so that the tops of the torsion bars could pass through the bottom edge of the front apron.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/images.thesamba.com-9730-1367247839.2.jpg)
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/images.thesamba.com-9730-1367247839.3.jpg)

Once all that was done, I needed to make the fwd sheet metal that would box-in the front of the mounts. Rather than begin with sheet metal, it’s a lot easier and quicker to make a template out of cardboard. After some careful measurements, I was able to make this cardboard template in about 15 minutes and it fit pretty well.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/images.thesamba.com-9730-1367247839.4.jpg)
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/images.thesamba.com-9730-1367247839.5.jpg)

The next step was to transfer this to my metal and fabricate a pair. The metal I used was pretty thick; .065” mild steel. I need these mounts to be extra heavy duty and at least as thick as the metal that the mounts themselves are make from. This is how they turned out.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/images.thesamba.com-9730-1367247839.6.jpg)

Once I got them placed exactly where they needed to be, I used the hole puncher and made a series of holes in the mounting flanges. This way I could not only weld the out side but get some rosette welds inside. These cannot come loose!! Then I welded them in place one at a time indexing off my center line mark.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/images.thesamba.com-9730-1367247839.7.jpg)
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/images.thesamba.com-9730-1367247839.8.jpg)

Happily, they are exactly the same distance apart at the front as they are at the main support tube. So far, I believe it should align and track straight since everything is done exactly as planned (whew!!).

I didn’t have time to box-in the inside of the front since I ran out of welding gas.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/images.thesamba.com-9730-1367247839.9.jpg)

No big deal since I was out of time and tired!! I did bolt everything on since it’s not going anywhere at this point. Here’s the first look from underneath.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/images.thesamba.com-9730-1367247839.10.jpg)

All in all a good day. . .