1960 Split Window Resto/Rebuild

[warb]

Thanks very much. Cool, at this stage I am going to go into a holding pattern suspension wise until.i speak to Sot. Going out tomorrow to check on progress on the bus with paint. Looking forward to that.

so am i mate, looking forward to that, nice work on all the detail, I could not handle that, haha.

[VRSenator065]

Thanks, will admit, whilst I have enjoyed getting to this point, not sure I would do another one...

Paint/body is coming along nicely, also got all my colour choices done. Have gone a bit non-traditional in the engine bay, going to do it in the body white as I want the Porsche fan in the orange and contrast against the white. Think I have mentioned before nice looking engine bays are a bit of my thing. Also Sue wants the interior white not body colour, I am sure its not to everyones taste, but hopefully will look good. It's not a massive issue if anyone ever wanted to change it anyhow.

Also decided to pull the trigger on ordering one of these very nice radios. We went for the one with full digital, bluetooth etc. I remember the radios with the face like this one growing up, so should add a bit of nostalgia. Takes around 8 weeks to come hence ordering it early.

[VRSenator065]

Also been looking for a second hand roller door with a bit more height for the splitty when it has the roof rack on. Get on market place, find one, think hey isn't thta a splitty in his profile picture.... Sure enough its Dave aka Rusty55 on here Small world!

[VRSenator065]

Nice new loom just arrived, pieces starting to come together.

[Griffin]

nice work, I used one of teh vw looms harnesses in ours and very happy with it though a bugger to pull through the front chassis over the beam area...

[VRSenator065]

a bugger to pull through the front chassis over the beam area...

I was kinda thinking that may be a bit difficult. Any tips or tricks on that (from anyone) feel free to let me know

[VRSenator065]

Went to the engineer last night, and got a tour of the second business he has designing and fabricating custom suspension and chassis parts and equipment. Started off with a long discussion about what exactly my end goal was, what exactly I was wanting etc. There's obviously a difference between designing a suspension system for cutting laps of the Bend, versus what I am after.

So in the end we have settled on a reworked and improved straight axle rear. We want the ability to diel in or tune the ride quality, so we are going to change from the torsion bar set up to a coil-over system. That means changing spring rates is a fairly simple and relatively cheap matter of having a new spring rolled (f we needed to) It also means from the get-go we can have whatever spring rate we think is needed. I also want the ability to easily set the ride height, so let's say we are going away for a week and we know we may be going on some slightly rougher roads, I can put it up on the hoist and set some additional ground clearance. But say we are going to a show or whatever I can dial it low. We are also going to come up with a custom rear anti-roll bar too, again to allow us to dial in the front and rear to make the handling as nice as we can get it.

We are then going for a full bespoke twin wishbone coil over rack and pinion front suspension. Sort of like an Aussie designed and made red9 style but with improvements as we want them. The first issue is to 3D laser scan the front and rear of the bus. They then import that scan into their CAD package and they can do the entire design in CAD looking at all factors like clearance or whatever before cutting any metal. It's a process we use at work and is super effective.

Of course, the million-dollar question is price, I am not into talking too much about that, but I will say is it will be very comparable to a Red9 system landed here in Australia, and wherever possible I like to support local manufacturing so that is a plus for me. Included in the price is also the full engineering approval cost for the front and rear.

I have been around engineering and fabrication my whole working life, I have to say the quality of their work is up there with the best I have seen. Happy days!!

This was an example of a job there were doing

[splitthis]

Well they sure as shit can weld! That’s some tidy work. Sounds interesting, keen to see what you come up with.

[VRSenator065]

Well they sure as shit can weld! That’s some tidy work. Sounds interesting, keen to see what you come up with.

I agree, weld porn Just had a great chat with Andrew Champness, one of the other benefits he pointed out was by going rear coil overs is it means I am free to move the trailing arm pivot point up or down to optimise the angle of it at the lower ride height. Will def post up progress as we go along.

[vanell]

I will be interested to see how you raise and lower a straight axle without negative and positive camber and how you get a sway bar to work with a swing axle

[VRSenator065]

I will be interested to see how you raise and lower a straight axle without negative and positive camber and how you get a sway bar to work with a swing axle

You are always going to get camber change with a straight axle, you sort of can't fight physics. Sway bar the engineer has already done on his wife's beetle, tbh I don't know the details but it didn't seem to faze him. But time will tell.

[Beatts]

And to think I thought a Kombi was one of the simple things in life.

Looking forward to seeing this bus when your done, should be a real head turner.

[VRSenator065]

And to think I thought a Kombi was one of the simple things in life.

I thought that too before I bought mine!! Then you learn there are so many changes with model years, door handles, bumper bars, high or low hinge cargo doors, cargo door handle recesses, rear window size etc. Then for something so simple, the way and order some of the panels were joined are crazy... I think I mentioned before, have really enjoyed mine, but not sure I would do another

[VRSenator065]

Made a bit of a start on the weekend. Andrew Champness has been helping a lot with info, suggestions and of course the VW specific terminology!! Cooper very kindly has loaned me a rear chassis cut he has. So at least I can physically mock it up as well.

Have spent a fair while building up the 3D model. Not sure how familiar people are with parametric modelling, but once I have it all built and constrained properly I can get a really good idea of how it will work and make changes very easily. The CAD assembly is not finished yet but I can articulate and animate it already so starting to come together.

I also have a hobby 3D printing business I run from home (build Ninja), so I am going to 3D print prototype parts that way I can bolt it all together etc before committing to machining in metal.

Have also ordered the axle tubes, axles, bearings etc I need.

Fun job!!

[splitthis]

we’re not in Kansas anymore. Getting serious mate. Will be keeping an eye on this….even if it is all over my head.