This just in, "a_florida_man marries cousins." Some people should not be left alone at night.

NOHOME said:

You have three boxes here. One for the engine, one for the passengers and one for the trunk. Lengthen the engine box as much as needed to house the new engine and firewall. Slide the passenger box back the corresponding amount and absorb the movement of the passenger box into the trunk box.

At this point I would be looking at moving the entire vw greenhouse  box, including A- post ,B post and doors, backwards until the door met the rear fender flare. Maybe even a bit more if need be integrating some of the flare into the VW door.

Make a cut across the car about 2 inches forward of the front trunk opening. Separate the rear quarters from the rest of the body and slide them forward until the arc of the VW roofline falls even with the rear of the car.

This leaves you with a gap up front and an overhang in the rear to clean up. How hard can that be?

 

Pete

 

 

There is a lot of good advice and experience here... but I need more coffee first. Thank you for the fantastic feedback.

a_florida_man said:

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

WOW you are ultra pro level expert.

45.46

so far

Im sure there is a little more yet.

I have paid rent in change before. Because thats all i had. Eaten at soup kitchens too.

You get pretty good at it after a while.

Pete Gossett said:

a_florida_man said:

 

Found this patch in the car.

Houston, we have a mascot!

Puurrfect!!!

That's the rip n dip cat. Someone's kid drove the car. Also, the little baggie looks like achiote seeds. I have some in my cabinet. They're for cooking. The other things, are not for cooking. 

Dusterbd13-michael said:

a_florida_man said:

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

WOW you are ultra pro level expert.

45.46

so far

Im sure there is a little more yet.

I have paid rent in change before. Because thats all i had. Eaten at soup kitchens too.

You get pretty good at it after a while.

What $100 in quarters looks like.

My Google search history now includes various drugs and various seeds because I had to figure out what I was looking at. 

Bent-Valve said:

My Google search history now includes various drugs and various seeds because I had to figure out what I was looking at. 

 

Hint : probably not Achiote seeds.

Think synthetic hallucinogenic.... actually requires expensive lab testing to be specific.

Commonly sold in flea markets, smoke shops, and independent convenience stores at one time, here in Florida, before the laws were improved.

Aluminum pipes, called "bats", good for one hit at a time.

Consistent with the "ripndip" counter culture that the cat patch presently represents. 

As for the cat patch, I get it, it's funny in it's own way, but lets just say, been there, done that.

There is nothing cool or innovative there, unless you are young and don't know any better.

Like my boys.

Who are part of the team.

Soooo... the cat is out.

Made bent, broken, and shattered stuff go away today.

That front camber looks just right

stafford1500 said:

That front camber looks just right

"Stance"

lol

What's up with the Kei-truck? 

In reply to Eurotrash_Ranch :

It's a 1992 u42t Mitsubishi 4wd

yard truck, use it all the time around the house.

street legal in Florida on roads 45 mph or less.

In reply to a_florida_man :

Very nice. They periodically come up for sale  locally and I have thinking of snapping one up. As far as I know they are in no way street legal here in NY, but I live on a little bit of property out in the sticks so...

Holding out for one with a dump bed.

You're going to have one nasty Ghia when you're done!

Obligatory "that'll buff right out" joke here...

So...it occurred to me that the easy button would be to front clip the car. When the need to extend the front of the Miata came around on the piano, I discovered that the entire front structure as easy to remove as a module. By easy I mean drill out 50 or so spot-welds, but the entire assembly just slid into a pocket on either side of the car just in front of the firewall.

If your front comes off in the same way, it might be easier to just fab up a new front or search for a good one from a donor.

Pete

Dont have any photo editing software at hand so just did a cust and past to see what re-arranging the boes might look like. If you were originally sitting about even with the front of the rear fender flare, then you suddelnly gain a lot more door aperture and headroom.

In reply to NOHOME :

I might have to go this route.

I will be front clipping to repair. 

But the question as to length remains.

I'd like to keep the Ghia lines.... and there is a LOT of unused depth to the foot wells of the MB. There is another 4-6" behind the carpet and foam rubber.

I'll just have to hack and see....

I'll probably go back and check out your thread.

Can you suggest others?

More pictures for contemplation and coffee.

If any one can find a straight on picture of the bottom of a Karmann Ghia, please post it... this is as good as I could find.

One small win. Looks like the MC fill can stay put.

It really is the small things.

On the detail front.

I spent a fair bit of time thinking about how to integrate the two cars. What worked best in the rear wheel-well department  was to go with the wheel-tubs that were already attached to the Volvo body. This meant that most of the chassis's wheel-tubs got cut away. With a bit of forward planing you can figure where the two will merge and just weld along that line.

You can see where the Miata wheeltub has been eliminated and the Volvo one ( that is already nicely integrated into the Volvo tub) is centered over the tire. This means I only had to fabricate a piece to fill the gap at the bottom. Because of the curved shapes, this is not a fun place to be building big pieces.

KG with greenhouse moved rearward just made me feel funny.  In a good way.

In reply to AngryCorvair :

I think that once you get over the sheer audacity of the cuts, and accept that there will be some tin welding involved, it would not be that horrible of a job. Easier than a top-chop. I would of course need to think it out 50 steps ahead before starting to cut. The fact that the VW is really just a hollow shell makes it a lot easier to get away with this.

In reply to NOHOME :

Speaking of audacity and the VW being a shell, I have a project goal.

I want to make this a bolt on body, much like the original VW body/pan setup.

That way if I really like the car, I can pull it back apart for better body work access, for major upgrades, and for the day I might find a good deal on a SL32 AMG... or bigger.

So if I seem to be moving slowly, its because I want to evaluate the best combo of cut/vs keep for both cars.

Structural being the 1st and biggest concern, with an eye to a top over a base arrangement.

I guess I built too many model cars in the 70's.

Note, the exception here, "NO glue".

How will it be titled as a Vw or Merz?

I don't see an issue with making the body a bolt-on affair. If you look through my build you will see how I beefed up the sills with roll bar tube and tied it into the front suspension.

In-progress shot below.

Some rectangular tube added for rigidity and attachment to the Miata sill structure.

As a matter of fact, I would encourage you to build the "Kart" part of this project before you move on to the body. Get the chassis rolling and running and the rest is just making the tin suit fit.

Agent98 said:

How will it be titled as a Vw or Merz?

Either VW or assembled from parts.