Project Volkzda, a Frankencar

In reply to NOHOME :

I can't wait for color either. The lizard skin seems like it'll work out well. I picked that because I'm not doing carpet or a headliner.

OMG! Paint! BRG going down!

Doors, hood, trunk, and assorted things are now green. Interior, underbody, and other assorted things are now satin black. Quality level is about where you'd expect from a first time painter with Harbor Freight supplies and a poor excuse for a paint booth, dead even with Maaco. Also, the valve cover had that garbage red paint sand blasted off and I shot it with engine primer, I'm going to paint it with the BRG here soon as well.

In reply to Joe_Mama :

Looks pretty impressive to me. 

Pete

In reply to NOHOME :

It's not really bad but it definitely ain't good, depending on various factors. My driver side door is one of the worst I've painted so far while the driver rear fender is the best I've painted so far. I see lots of wet sanding and buffing in my future.

The rumors about rebuilding old VW doors are true. What a pain in the nether regions. The Brazilian made window scrapers were absolute garbage but I made them work.

Assembly time, baby! Woot!

This is hands down one of the coolest builds I've ever seen! Can't wait to see it come together all pretty.

This may be blasphemous to some, but I'm by no means a Miata fan, and this would be the only way I could really get excited about one!

That is looking awesome! 

Pete

Looking great, man! I'm jealous of your fresh paint. Our two cars are uniquely very similar yet they're going to look so different because mine is trash on the outside and yours is going to be very nice. I'm going for nice on the inside though, ala the headliner which I see you're avoiding. It did take a few weeks and it's not perfect. I thought about doing what you're doing as it's a lot of effort for the end result. 

In reply to mannydantyla :

Yep. Watched a Youtube vid on how to do the headliner and went noooope. I don't care if the edge right below the roof is showing. I could always put up some little beauty panels later anyways.

So close I can taste it! Registration is due in January, time to take it off of non-op. Needs windows, doors, and interior installed and some air/splash shields made.

Wow. 

Hey Paul, what's your suspension looking like? I'm trying to figure out what I want to do. Need to get that 3" lift out of there. And spring rate in the rear is probably too low for the station wagon.  

Your paint is looking amazing!

edit: Xida GS coil-overs, right?

In reply to mannydantyla :

Yes, Xida GS. I wanted the ride height and it's universally accepted that any Xida is good stuff. 949 Racing suggests that you use stock sway bars with these but I have a feeling that all of that metal and glass up high is going to require some fatter ones. We'll see. Poly bushings all around that I put in the Miata are still there, except for the diff, which got Mazdaspeed rubber ones.

The paint is what they call "Good from afar but far from good", which is good enough for me for now. I'll hit it with some rubbing compound on a buffer, wax it, and just let it be.

Joe_Mama said:

 

95% complete. Started her up and everything seems to be working. Better still, the ex oil cooler holes that I had to drill, tap, and plug aren't leaking!

Still to go: some carpeting of some sort, wrap the sun toasted steering wheel, add some more weather strip to the leading edge of the doors, charge and test the AC, do the alignment, order some black license plates, and get a final tune/dyno run.

Basic carpet installed, mostly just to cover up the massive expanse of rough Lizard Skin. Made a wooden trunk floor panel and covered it with the same carpet. Also bought some cheap NB Miata fitted floor mats and added a couple patches of the carpet where my heels rest to reinforce it.

Got a black leather Aully Park branded steering wheel cover kit from Amazon installed as well. Looks pretty good. Cut the steering column bracket welds and welded the column up a bit. With the higher windshield I had to add 1.5" spacers under the seats and I was having to get into the car butt first "Doug Demuro getting into a back seat" style and slide my legs sideways under the steering wheel.

Some wiring had to be changed as well. For some reason I decided not to have the GM ECU control the fuel pump relay and it would set a code for it, so I added that circuit in but kept the hidden switch on the ground side as a security measure. The damn Kenwood stereo I bought keeps the antenna up in all audio modes, not just radio, so I'm going to use my defunct cruise control switch to control the antenna manually.

Got the Jass Performance stainless gauge trim kit and vent rings installed. The tach and speedo needles need to be adjusted back to the proper location now.

As soon as I get my damn tags from the DVM I can get it roadworthy and %99 finished. In the spring I'll charge the AC system, tint the windows (since I forgot to do it before I installed them like an idiot), and adjust/align the suspension again.

In reply to Joe_Mama :

Make a second trunk cover. Print a picture of the original VW engine on it, and install it for shows.

AngryCorvair said:

In reply to Joe_Mama :

Make a second trunk cover. Print a picture of the original VW engine on it, and install it for shows.

Or take out the spare tire and make a drop in thing that has the VW intake/carbs/ducting. Like a full on dummy engine.

It runs! It drives! It... needs some more work. I forgot to clean and re-grease my poly suspension bushings and they're creaking like crazy. The exhaust where it crosses under the trans hits my driveway, I need to flatten it or reroute. Ride height needs to go up a tad too. But most of all, the tiny poly bushings in the swap kit motor mounts transmit too much vibration and noise. I'm going to see if there's a solid rubber suspension bushing I can get in there. Oh BTW, that tiny mirror is almost useless. I have it aimed down and out strictly for blindspotting.

Still alive. Just working out some kinks yet. -Found a couple minor coolant leaks. -Had to raise the ride height another half inch or so. -I added Boom-mat under the hood and in the nooks and crannies of the cowl to try and quiet the engine noise a bit, I think it lowered the sound exactly 1db. -I am using the same depowered steering rack from the Miata and the steering effort is higher than the Miata so the alignment still needs to be played with, probably back off on the caster a bit. -I haven't weighed this car yet but it definitely gained a few pounds over the Miata, the Mintex ceramic brake pads that are on it were so-so for the Miata but they are not good enough for this tubby bastard so I'm going to get Hawks instead I think. -Added a Viofo dual dash cam with GPS that I forgot to order before, it's nice that I can use the screen to display the rear camera view because I now wish I had added a mounting nut for a passenger side mirror because I underestimated just how blind I am to the right rear, now I won't have to crank my neck past 90 degrees to check the blind spot. -Next up; cell phone mount, AC, tint, dyno tune. I'll probably have to block off part of the cowl vents as well, quite the ram-air effect going on, lots of wind noise in the cowl with a whistle above 60-65.

Ag yes!  The joys of the development stage. 

In reply to NOHOME :

Well, as they say, no project is ever really done done.

Hawk ceramic pads, when properly bedded in, are fantastic. Cell phone holder is a cheap one from Amazon that I took the vent mount clip off of and made a simple aluminum bracket that mounts just off the passenger side of the cubby above the radio.

And then I broke out the 7th grade Home Ec skills and stitched up a pleather cover for an elbow rest/riser I made to attach to the center console lid that helps make up for the raised seats and is comfy to boot. It's a piece of aluminum sheet shaped to the console lid with some rivnuts in it. Then I cut up a garden knee pad to become the inner cushion and glued it to the aluminum sheet. The cover is pull over and secured under the sheet with tiny flat head screws. The whole piece is then held to the lid with screws.

Excellent work as always