'73 Beetle chassis swapped w/ a '90 Miata - seemed like a good idea at first

Yesterday was perfect. Everything went to plan beautifully. Even when things didn't go to plan, like how my new engine hoist was too tall to lift it from inside the body, I adjusted and came up with a solution pretty quickly. Or how the hoist was also too tall for the legs to slide under the Miata, I just had to throw some wooden blocks under the tires. 

Here was the order of events:

1. cut the part of the body that I needed off (the window sills, roof, cowl, door sills, trunk lid area, etc.), leaving the rusty crud that I don't need (rear inner fenders, rockers panels, firewall, etc)
2. Lift it up and off of the old chassis, move it to the right (behind my wife's parked car, who thankfully didn't need to go anywhere that day), and set it on the ground. 
3. Move my 4Runner that is parked in the yard over to the driveway entrance, out of the way
4. Roll the old VW chassis to where the 4Runner was parked in the yard (had to use the 4Runner to push it through the soft/muddy ground)
5. Roll the Miata out of the garage, down the little incline, and stop it next to the Type 3 body. I had to ask my wife to sit on it and use the parking brake lever to stop it. She had fun though.
6. Pick the Type 3 body back up and drop it down onto the Miata.
7. Get the Miata+Type 3 Frankenwagon up the little incline and back into the garage. I was going to use a come-along winch but my chain AND my strap was instead being used to lift the body (was originally going to just use one short piece of chain) so I had to think of something else. I could have bumped/pushed it up with my 4Runner but the rear of the Type 3 body was not secured to the chassis in any way and it surely would have damaged it. So the only other thing to do was start up the Miata and drive it up and into the garage. That was fun! 
8. ...
9. Profit!

The body is just resting on top of the Miata at the moment, just so I could get it into the garage and out of the weather (and where I can grind away without pissing off the neighbors). I could have picked it up, with the help of two or three other guys, and carrie it into the garage, but that wouldn't have worked because the garage ceiling is too low! 

Now that it's in the garage, I'll need to lift it as high as it will go so I can do all the things I should have done before dropping it onto the Miata but I didn't have enough daylight. Mainly, clean up all the cuts and remove paint where I'll need to weld. And maybe even figure out a wiper setup while I still have easy access.

The body will need to be moved a few inches forward and a few inches down. There's a pinch point at where the inside of the A pillar intersects with the Miata cowl area. I expected that but it's actually not too bad and I think I can, umm, adjust it with a hammer. 

It looks like the VW hood hinges might work, but that could change as I move the body down. 

I still need to cut the Type 3 "nose" off, as well as the strips of metal that the fenders bolt to. And I'll need to use the front fenders to determine where the body sits on the Miata front to back. The rear fenders will likely need to be rolled/pulled/pushed/stretched/whatever but maybe I'll put one on there for fun to see what happens. 

I've very pleased with the way it is fitting so far!

Result!

I'm guessing the Miata chassis is up on wood planks so the engine hoist would roll under it?

Great progress!  Keep plugging away.

Told ya it was easy!

Looking forward to seeing how you solve all the little stuff that comes up. My advice for what it is worth, is that for anything that you decide you need to think ten steps ahead to see if and how it will bite you down the road.

Pete

Thanks guys!! 

Indy-Guy said:

I'm guessing the Miata chassis is up on wood planks so the engine hoist would roll under it?

Yup, exactly. 

Very cool.  This is going to be a great thing.

In reply to mannydantyla :

Wow big moves! Has to be exciting. 

How did you decide where to add the bracing to keep everything squared up in the VW? I can see it in the pictures. 

Also so what did you use for it 1x1 square tube? 

Already looking awesome. Hey, it runs and drives!

Can you toss a seat in there? Curious to see where it falls in the door opening. I don't think you are going to be as far into the back seat as you seem to think?

I see the rear needing to go down 4"  ( cause 4x4 lumber spacer) and the front at the firewall 6"  

Pete

Thank you for the inspiration. I picked up Tim Terbo from joey48442 last night and snuggled him away in his temporary resting spot wearing new coil overs as well as new wheels and tires.

DAMN ! !  It fit's, it's gonna work, and it already looks great ! Good for you !  Can't wait to see the progress on this build !

I just uploaded the video to youtube (part 1 of 2) - https://youtu.be/-HFMVau-fCI 

It's a fun one.

Somebeach said:

In reply to mannydantyla :

Wow big moves! Has to be exciting. 

How did you decide where to add the bracing to keep everything squared up in the VW? I can see it in the pictures. 

Also so what did you use for it 1x1 square tube? 

I just kinda used my best judgment to decide where to place them. I was limited though because I knew that I couldn't put one too low, like on the lower door sill like I wanted, because it would have intersected with the Miata's rockers. And I had to watch out for the seat belt towers as well as the bolt points for the Miata dashboard, the two diagonal pieces came very very close to hitting those points, I was lucky. I used 1x1 gauge, some 1" angle iron 1/8" thick, and some 1" black pipe, just whatever I could find. At first I just tacked two in there for the doors. Then decided I could add another few going across. Then I just went crazy with it and added all the metal I could find in the scrap bin. Then I realized I could lift the body up from this structure, so I went over all the tack welds with full welds. It will be a much bigger pain to remove the braces but oh well.

But when it came time to lift it up the next day, the engine hoist (which I assembled that morning) was too tall to lift it from inside the body so I had to change plans and lift it from the outside, but I figured out a slightly wacky solution in which the long strap wrapped around the brace structure in the middle, went out the back, and then met the chain - which was wrapped around the roof over the door opening. When I started lifting, the chain tightened and squeezed the roof somewhat, and pinched the rain gutters (that's an easy fix I think). So not the best, but I was in a hurry as I was loosing day light and the super bowl was starting lol.

NOHOME said:

Can you toss a seat in there? Curious to see where it falls in the door opening. I don't think you are going to be as far into the back seat as you seem to think?

I see the rear needing to go down 4"  ( cause 4x4 lumber spacer) and the front at the firewall 6"  

 

Pete

Yeah that's a good idea. And, yeah, first I'll want to get it into the right position, and I'll need a front fender on there to get the wheel well opening over the tire correctly. You'll want to see the video I'll upload to youtube tomorrow, at the end I drive it up and back into the garage and I'm just sitting on the floorboards, it's pretty amusing.

That looks great - I'd be tempted to go with a Miata front end ...

Here's part 2 of the chassis swap episode, this is the video showing me dropping the body onto the Miata: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pecjOGjYPQ

You're going to want to watch that one! Especially the end where I have to drive it back into the garage while sitting on the floorboards. 

I'm having a nightmare I junp into my Explorer tomorrow morning and it;s on a 51 Ford truck frame....

You body snatchers look sooo close to normal people

I'm trying to get the stance right before I weld things together

It still needed to shift forward 2" when taking this photo, so maybe I shouldn't be sharing these and giving the wrong idea, but here's what it looks like with the body and fenders lowered all the way down to the Miata height (the pinch seam below the rockers would be the same height, roughly). You can also see how the back fender is not able to sit correctly because the tire is in the way. 

And here it is after getting the body slipped forward the 2" it needed. 

So its too low even with the tiny 23" tires (vw stock tires are 25" outer diameter). Tomorrow I'm going to put on the 24" tires from my wife's yaris (same bolt pattern and offset) to determine the height that the body needs to be. 

I'm still figuring out what I want to do with fender flares, tire size, all that. Gotta make it fit right. I'd rather cut the fenders and go for the baja look than use tires that are awkwardly small. 

if I don't want to do fender flares on the rear, I could stretch the fenders like this: 

Yes, I like that more than the other options so far. 

No such thing as too low.....

Id need a lower angle side view and the tested tire sizes. Im usually pretty good with finding the right "stuffed full of rubber purposely " tire size and stance. If your interested in an arm chair quarterback from the other side of the country....

How is that too low? Put a seat in there and lower the body until you can see over the dash and/or the dashes line up. Remember, the beauty of this swap is that you can stance the car into the weeds, but you still have full Miata suspension travel; that is a good thing.

Go get some MINI wheels ( 48 mm offset) if you want to tuck the rubber under the stock tin. Worked for me.

Pete

Pete beat me to it. Get a higher et offset to get the rim and tire back under the fender. Sorry but that Baja whatever it was is a abomination. Please don't do that.  

Too low to you looks perfect to me, then again every time I move my body swapped car I have to cut the fenders more

NOHOME said:

How is that too low? Put a seat in there and lower the body until you can see over the dash and/or the dashes line up. Remember, the beauty of this swap is that you can stance the car into the weeds, but you still have full Miata suspension travel; that is a good thing.

Go get some MINI wheels ( 48 mm offset) if you want to tuck the rubber under the stock tin. Worked for me.

 

Pete

I didn't fully understand what you were saying until I put the seat in there and sat down. Yeah, you're right, it needs to go as low as possible, I can figure out the wheels later and can change the suspension to lift it as needed. I was hoping I wouldn't have to mess with the suspension. It has nice shocks and coils, probably lowered an inch or two, but they're not adjustable. The PO didn't know anything about the suspension setup - if it was lowered or not - so I don't know what the base line is... And like an idiot I didn't measure the distance between fender and hub before I took the body apart. 

I'll post some photos with the seat in there soon, but when I sat down, the B pillar wasn't the issue at all. The A pillar will suck, will cause a small blind spot (at least it's thin). But just being so far away from the windshield was weird. Reminded me of when I test drove a FJ Cruiser. They're known for having terrible visibility. A little like a Jeep Patriot. The rear view mirrors might also be an issue.

The body and windshield being as low as possible will help with that. 

And I just realized that the door can not close with the miata's dashboard mounting points in the way, with the way they are now. I think I can get the so that at least three of the five bolts will work. Maybe even all 5 if I hog out the holes in the dashboard. It holds up the steering wheel too so it's a little important.

Here's some shots of the seat in there. This is with the seat all the way back.  And I had to, umm, adjust those diagonal braces so that they would clear the miata when sliding the body forward another 2".

So it needs to be as low as possible on the miata so that I can see out the windshield. Wheel fitment will have to be figured out with raising the suspension. (paco 3" suspension lift? and whatever size wheel fits best? plus fender flares?) And yeah that bit of metal where the Miata's dashboard bolts too will have to get chopped if I want to be able to close the doors. 

With the location figured out and hammered down, literally, I needed to lift it back up so I can clean up all the edges, repair some rust, cut some more things out, etc. 

After staring at it for quite a while, I MacGyver'ed up this marvel of engineering with things found around the garage. Two saw horses, an off-road jack, some ratchet straps, and the engine hoist. 

Sometimes I stagger even myself with my genius.

The off road jack is bolted down to the floor. Finally using this weird wooden floor to my advantage. (I'm surprised no one has asked about it yet, but I don't know why the previous owner of this property had this garage-like structure built with a wooden floor and full basement, but it makes storing car body parts a lot easier.)

It was really nice to have the work surface up at standing height. My back has been killing me lately with all the bending over and reaching down at awkward positions. I started cleaning up the edges last night:

I was only just getting started when the massive scope of the amount of rust repair started to sink it. I'm definitely going to need some POR-15, I don't have the resources (time and skills, mostly) to fix all the rust properly. And now that I'm looking at the above photo, I'm starting to wonder if that was the best choice for a strap attachment. 

The line between half-assed and done-right can sometimes be a fine one but god do I walk it hard.

Couple of thoughts based on what I have gone through.

Skills are not needed up front, its why you are doing this and they will come as required.

Be careful of working with a suspended body. It is a guillotine if it falls and you have anything in the way. I used wood across the car to catch it if needed.

Dont open the can of POR the normal way. Punch two holes in the lid and pour out the holes dispensing only what you need. Use CO2 from your MIG to flood the can and put a bit of aluminum tape over the holes when done and store in the beer fridge or outside if winter. I have stored the stuff for over a year this way. Moisture in the air is what makes it cure.

You keep mentioning raising the car, not sure why you want to do that? Yes it will look like a lowered VW, but only as low as the Miata was, so that should not be an issue. The wheel openings might be another thing if they dont clear. Are they close to clearing where you could fender roll or use 48 mm offset wheels?

I only had about ten thousand moments of panic along the way to where I am now, and I ain't done yet.

Pete

Thanks again Pete for your guidance! 

Yeah I'm definitely going to get some 2x4s under there. 

The reason why I think I may have to raise the suspension is because I think (pretty sure) the wheel arches in the fenders are too low and are hitting the 23" tires. And I want 24" tires. Fender flares will help but will probably not be enough. But I really don't KNOW how well the Miata wheels will fit until I have both front and rear fenders on there, and I can't get the front fender on there properly without cutting off the braces that are in the way, which I don't want to do until I weld it all together. Catch 22. I don't know. I'll simply not worry about it until I have to. But it also seems like I should be doing a little forward thinking about this...

Also, IDK how much +48ET rims will help over the +45ET rims.

Have I said yet that I don't know what I'm doing and I'm just making this up as I go? I mean, it should be obvious. My previous automotive enthusiast niche was in the offroad scene, and before that vintage motorcycles. I've actually never tinkered on an "import" car before. Now I'm taking two imports from different parts of the world (both axis powers) and turning them into one. 

Consider raising the seat position relative to the Miata. Pete has headroom issues with the Molvo that do not exist within the Volkswagen wrapper.