Ol'fogasaurus black buggy

[Ol'fogasaurus]

After a quick raking of leaves and mowing the yard before the rains come I got to play in the garage. Yesterday, before going in for the night I cut some (14 ga I think) stock into a width that would fit in a gap on the trailing arm pivot mount. After getting it bent using a sharpie to make the marks and a vice to bend the stock into a fairly flat Zee shape I cut each to about the same length as the bracket for the brake mount.



After finding a bolt and nut that would work I tacked the nut in place then welded the bracket to the frame. I used a wire wheel to remove the paint and bed liner in the area and took a 3" disc to remove some welding splatter from the factory plus a bit of opening up some welding globs again from the factory.

I used a magnet to hold it in place while I tacked in to the pan then welded the hole lower leg so it is solid.



The brass join in place.



A side view.



Looking forward. You can see here that the line to the hole is pretty straight. I can't drill the other two holes as I don't have a 1/2" (I think) drill with a 3/8 shank (for my pneumatic angle drill). I also have to make sure that the hole is 1/2" or close to it.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I got the clutch setup in place. I may have cut one leg of the short piece to the slave cylinder too short but I won't know until there is an engine in place. I marked it several times with different setups but stuck with the first mark. Hmmm!



I wanted some sag to be in there but since it sits so low I was worried just how much I could get by with. Again, this is the idea but maybe too short.

The holes for the brake lines measured out to be a loose 14mm. Since metric drill bits are hard to find still I ended up with a 1/2" then I will open the hole up a bit with a rotary rasp. The lines I got were 6' long, longer than I wanted but being that I have no ides of what will be done after it is gone ... better safe than sorry. Installing the brake likes will be the job for tomorrow.

Lee

[bajaherbie]

Is the clutch the line gonna bounce around? Can you support the hard line/adapter doohickey thing easily?

[Ol'fogasaurus]

A good point Herbie and I have looked into it some and tought about it even more.

The soft line is very stiff and should have some effect on the assembly, The fittings are tight but that may or may not have that much of an effect. I guess the answer is I don't really know. I haven't been able to find a shorter soft line but if I could I certainly would whange that. With the two jam nuts being a good point to put a mount in place that would keep the assembly copasetic and would solve your question I think. I would prefer to have more than one mounting point but be as it may, that would be what one would have to work with.

It also would be possible to make a clamp around the cylinder itself which would be even a better fix if done right. Either way might solve some of the droop problem I am worried about.

The other suggestion I was given a couple of times would be to make some loops in the hard line and not use a soft line. I don't like to put places for trouble to start even if the line is under pressure.

Lee

Edit. There is another option and that is the clear brake lines that some guys use when they have the pedal assembly movable. I have seen it run back all the way to the brakes but watching it jump around when the brakes are applied does not fill me with a lot of confidence!

Again, assuming I sell the buggy and the next owner runs the fuel tank down low, say just over the transaxle would the soft line I have now be a better idea. Too many unknowns to get too excited right now.

This is something that I will put more thought into but for now, it will remain as is unless something better comes along.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I got thrown a curve today by the stepdaughter. Not her fault but everything went awry after that.

Herbie, since you brought up the soft line again I have spent a lot more time looking at it. I don't think I can use the see through soft line as the engine exhaust off the forward too exhaust tubes might be too close. Won't know until an engine is mounted.

Since the fuel tank has to go in the rear, under the body it will sit in the same general area. I have to get the body mounted to see just what will go on there. I am not supplying a tank so I don't know what kind will be there which is another problem.

One thing I think it wrong is that the slave cylinder has been threaded for a bus setup, in this case my 091. I think things would be clearer if I had an engine with clutch installed so I can see what the setting the clutch arm will be in but I am pretty sure that I am going to have to thread the bottom boss of the slave cylinder a bit higher up the shank. I think the threads are SAE and I only have metric so off to the store again.

With the change in directions today I did not locate the holes for the brake lines nor drill them out. Getting the holes located and bending the line is going to be a task that is nerve wracking, at least to me it is.

I think it is getting closer to that time once the line are in. I think I have a plan for the torsion braces... if I do them anyway. Then it is clean up the body lift and paint it, lay the body seal, bolt the body lift in place until the body seal is tacked in place, make a seal for the body to lift and bolt the body on. Install the front beam supports and then ... list it assuming nothing else crazy comes along.

Lee

Lee

[jimmyhoffa]

Questions and comments? Here goes!

If you are considering hard-lining the clutch slave or end up having to do so because of soft line problems, you might check out this Copper-Nickel line I have used and am using now again on my buggy. I you just type in "Copper-Nickel Brake Line" in any search engine, you'll see what I'm on about. Apparently it has impressive fatigue resistance and is really easy to work with. I'd agree with the second point for sure.

Question: The soft line from your clutch slave terminates into a brass straight-through union with an eye for a bolt, which you have used smartly on the IRS inner mount. Where the heck did you find that? I've searched everywhere and all I find is the T-fittings, like you used on your left brake line in the same picture. I certainly have 2-3 applications for those on my car.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I can't talk much right now as I am sitting in a pay lot taking my wife to see her Dr.

The brass pieces are stock VW brake line units for a type 1. The T-shaped unit is normally used in the left side with the Tee having a line going over to the none Tee unit which feeds the brakes on the right side. They can be had at places that carry restoration parts for a VW. The Tee, the last time I inquired was over $35. The "in and out" unit is harder to come by or so I have been told.

I normally don't like to coil hard lines allowing them to flex like that. A left over from when I was a mechanic 50 plus years ago. Thanks for the suggestion; I will look into as looping has been suggested to me before and it has also been decried before too.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Jimmy, I did look the copper-nickel lines up on the web as you suggested and it showed that NAPA carries them. I had to get a tap there anyway so I asked the owner of the store (a high school friend on one of my stepson's and he also does counter at times) about it. He went into the back of the store and got a roll of it so I personally got to look and handle it. The weight and cost of a roll of it is about the same as preformed brake lines of that total length would be and being that it is seamless... is a very good feature.

We talked about it for quite a while (a slack period in the store) and he felt that the way of attacking the problem that I used is still probably the best way to go. I have to rethread the shaft of the slave cylinder (lotsa cutting fluid and double nut the shaft) a bit farther down the shaft to allow the slave to sit properly aligned in the spherical rod end and the clutch arm. Then I can remake the short L-shaped piece a bit longer to give me full adjustability.

Thanks for the information as I was not aware of the seamless copper-nickel line. Too bad I didn't know about it before as I think it may have been easier with no joins other than I currently have no idea where the next owner (if there is one) is going to put the turning brakes... if any. Makes a difference doesn't it .

Lee

[bajaherbie]

you just admitted it.... you REALLY don't want to sell it

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Herbie .... your sick!

Actually I am trying to be realistic. If you think about it, this is not something most people would want. Granted it would be cool to drive around for a while but it would get old and you (metaphorical "you") would want to push things until it got broken.





I could keep the black buggy for my cruisin' the dunes (actually it would have more room for my tent and chairs than the blue buggy has) then sell the blue buggy easier than the black one. To be honest, the black buggy has a lot of limitations mostly with the fenders.

Lee





I don't remember who's this buggy is but it is an off-road version of what I am talking about.

L

[bajaherbie]

lower it and make a street rod out of it...

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Remember, this is how it started out. Thanks to the old Shop Talk forums and then Leather inviting me over here to STF, I have learned a lot from you guys.

Lee

Edit: If I did some fiberglass rework of the front area of the Napoléon's hat area then the body lift could be removed. The body mount tunnel would still have the square tube stiffener which I think would be a good idea to leave in.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Ya know ... there are days where is it good to be lucky than good. The day before yesterday and today are two of them.



I thought that I had cut the piece of tube that goes to the slave cylinder too short but after adding some threads to the stud on the slave cylinder it turned out that I had cut it right the first time. Notice that there is some sag now where the other picture showed it tight. I think when everything else is installed there will be some more sag which is great... if it isn't too much anyway. (read being silly)



This show two identical slave cylinders with the one in the back ground having been rethreaded farther up the stud. By moving the upper nut as far as the threads are I can install it in the spherical rod end, slide it down and put the upper end into the clutch arm, sands the butterfly clutch nut. Once the slave cylinder is in place so the butterfly nut can be installed. Once that nut is bottomed out the cylinder can be slid all the way forward then the upper nut on the lower stud can be adjusted back and it's jam nut can be added and tightened up to lock things in place. So simple even I could do it

When the engine w/clutch is installed then the slave cylinder can be adjusted to where it needs to be but it is OK for now. As I said, it turned out that the L-shaped piece of tube was cut right the first time so it fits loose in this, the worse condition (I hope).

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I forgot to mention that the threads are 3/8 X 24. I have three of those slave cylinders and the 3/8 X 24 die I had wouldn't thread on the spare one so I bought a new one thinking it was miss-marked or the stud was metric not US standard. Also watch for the markings showing which side is to be run on first, it does make a difference. One side starts the cut more shallow and the other end cuts to the finish depth in case you haven't done this before.

It turned out that the first of the threads on the spart cylinder had a problem.

I threaded the new die on the stud of the cylinder I had been using and ran it up to the top of the threaded area. I then put the two nuts on, ran them up a bit short of the die then locked them together. I then put the bottom nut in my vice and tightened it up then with a 1" open end wrench I started to run the nut up the shank cutting threads as I went. I later swithed to a 1" box end wrench which was longer and didn't have the open end for the wrench to slide off with.

Previously; I had marked where I thought the threads should end by matching it up to wht mounts plus allowing for the upper jam nut to be installed then stopped cutting threads there. After backing the bolts and tap off I run one of the jam bolts all the way up and holding the clutch arm all the way to the rear I tried to install the slave into the arm and the pivot. I ended up doing this three or four times before I got it correct. It is easier to cut more than remove cut threads.

Things of note: I think the slave and pedal assembly might be LR but I have had them so long I am not positive. By the looks of them and others I have seen from other compnies, if they aren't from the same source they sure look like they should be just with different decals or company logos impressed into the body.

The other thing of note was that during the cutting of the threads I alternately got easy to cut then in places it took a lot of arm work to get the cutting to climb the stud so the temper probably isn't the best you could want.

Don't forget to use cutting fluid to make things a bit easier and to give life to the die.

For what it is worth...

Lee

[Iguana]

Questions and comments? Here goes!

Question: The soft line from your clutch slave terminates into a brass straight-through union with an eye for a bolt, which you have used smartly on the IRS inner mount. Where the heck did you find that? I've searched everywhere and all I find is the T-fittings, like you used on your left brake line in the same picture. I certainly have 2-3 applications for those on my car.

The straight through Joiners are very hard to come by new and most end up using the T-Piece and just putting a Bung in the port they don't want.

The T Piece is readily available and runs around $8

http://www.dansperformanceparts.com/t-p ... es-ea.html

If you don't have a bung then you can use an old brake line fitting and seal the rear or the other thing we do is take the fitting, remove the hard line and just drop a ball bearing it to seal between both.