Top secret build - Wartburg 2.0

Patrick.....many prayers for Carli....you....the whole fam damly...especially after my bout with blood clots in my lungs this past April....and NO I'm not by any means trying to trivialize your situation....peace be with y'all!!!  

In reply to 759NRNG :

Whatever happens we got this.  Way too much life has been thrown at our inner circle the last 2 weeks and it’s overwhelming at times but we got this.  We have a strong family and great friends.  

Patrick....might there be a prelim blast down DWY42 in the near future....I was there when the astronauts landed on the MOON....1969.....plus my most favorite Anglia(C/GAS) of all time ran there  then....err Don Cook???   

Maybe, 42 or norwalk, but i might go out of the way to a smaller track that harkens back to what 42 used to be just to try and keep it under wraps a bit.  I’m still disassembling and trying to clean/paint large bits and finish the last of the fabrication.  Tomorrow should get me a crossmember under the engine.  Carli and the kids are leaving for 6 days, I need to take advantage of the time alone with my tools.  I have a feeling I’ll be filling the mig gas tank up before Thursday.  

Hope all is going well with Carli.  Sorry I can't make it up this weekend, let me know if she wants more of that tea.

She always does, Tim.   Literally if you buy all of it on the shelf she will drink it

rockers, pushrods, intake, distributor installed.  Valves adjusted.  Humid as balls, taking a break, then can get some temporary valve covers on and cover it up because other than pulling the balancer back on it’s ready to install.  

I put a dot of paint on each rocker as i go so I don’t lose my place.  18436572 and EIIEEIIE are permanently etched into my brain, but the paint helps me remember which one i’m on. 

Wish I could swing by this weekend, prayers for you guys. 

Front bits coming together.  I forgot how not simple it was to spin a v8 with new rings.  It wasn’t bad with the crank turning socket, but I didn’t even have to hold it from turning while putting the balancer bolt in.  I have yet to measure the fans and radiator to see if anything is going to clear anything else.  I should probably do that now.

In reply to Patrick :

awesome progress man

Fans verdict:  too close to measure, will need to test when stuff is together.  

Many things apart, much floor vacuumed.  I was going to cram the chevelle sideways to the wall, but the shelves on that wall house all the Wartburg parts as well as my automotive toolbox and my fittings and electric box.  So i think the engine test stand is going to get shoved outside and tarped for a few days.

so close to blowing everything apart one last time.  Also finally made an engine crossmember, will weld it in morning before i go see family.  

I have 2 days to pull the body, finish weld/grind/shape the chassis and all it’s bracketry, and paint it.  

Patrick said:

She has a decent sized set of stitches and pieces of her are in a lab somewhere 

Hopefully everything is hunky-dory enough for me to make a comment about how "decent set of stitches and pieces are in a lab somewhere" is also an apt description of an encounter I had with a dog when I was a kid.  Alhough it's been so long ago that the lab has definitely died of old age at least.

Note to self to go to airgas tomorrow and fill up the argon bottle so we can cut/tig the driver’s side header collector to clear the body mount.  

Still humid as berkeley

crossmember is ready to attach to car

angry, you may want to take some notes about penetration 

Member is crossed

So hwat, exactly, do we need to do this weekend?  At this point it looks like just an excuse to hang out and grill meat and pretend to work on a car, since it looks like you have it all handled.

I am pulling the body in a few minutes.  I hope to have it be an assembly of clean parts party.  Ideally i’ll have a bare chassis painted top and bottom sitting here with lots of fresh parts and the body hanging here with fresh firewall and floor paint.  Rebuild front end, assemble as much as possible, build a roll bar, hang and adjust body panels, plumbing, etc . I have rolls of nicopp, fittings, and the mastercool flare tool.  Never used it before.  If you get bored of assembling nice clean parts you can do the radiator and struts on the q45. 

this is the first car ive done fabrication on with the intent to pull it all apart, which is the stage it’s in right now.  

Lots of welding and grinding and painting today and tomorrow.  

Does it look a bit more daunting now ?

Break time, got invited to my cousin’s.

of course more life/reality got thrown at me this morning, hopefully that stops happening soon. I was cleaning out the vacuum and the paramedics pulled in across the street.  I dropped everything and sprinted(for a 240+ pound guy this is hard work) across to see what was up.  Volky, one of my favorite people in the world, possibly had a heart attack and they took him to the hospital.  

Last picture before break 

In reply to Patrick :

Wow. Who's garage is that with the clean/cleared floor! 

As for Q45 work... For inspiration I will bring the 1994 Infiniti Q45 w/ manual trans for rides/drives by any attendees. 

Patrick said:

I am pulling the body in a few minutes.  I hope to have it be an assembly of clean parts party.  Ideally i’ll have a bare chassis painted top and bottom sitting here with lots of fresh parts and the body hanging here with fresh firewall and floor paint.  Rebuild front end, assemble as much as possible, build a roll bar, hang and adjust body panels, plumbing, etc . I have rolls of nicopp, fittings, and the mastercool flare tool.  Never used it before.  If you get bored of assembling nice clean parts you can do the radiator and struts on the q45. 

this is the first car ive done fabrication on with the intent to pull it all apart, which is the stage it’s in right now.  

Lots of welding and grinding and painting today and tomorrow.  

Point me in the direction of the lines and mastercool.  I've used them before, and I have a deep-grained desire for brake and fuel lines that look neat and tidy.

Awesome.  Fuel line will be 3/8 aluminum with an flares and whatnot because they came with the car and holley clearance, yo.  All rubber clamped to the frame.  I have the correct flare tool for those too if the mastercool kit doesn’t have it, but I bought the flare damn near anything kit so it may.  I envision the fuel line coming up the inside of the frame until we get near the transmission then transitioning to braided per nhra bellhousing area rules. 

I drew all the cut/clean/box/brace directions on the frame before i left.  When i get home it’s cutoff wheel/saw/welder time.  Currently not getting out of the car because I’m sitting on my cousin’s street and it’s dumping rain. 

Plan this evening is do everything on top, roll frame 90*, do everything on that side, roll it upside down and do the pieces on the bottom side, stand it back up the opposite side and do that, then start painting. 

In reply to Patrick :

Like so many things about you, that chassis looks bigger in pictures.

Rick sez he will be opening up the shop tomorrow morning to meet with the people installing our new Internet feed, I'll try to sneak in and acquire all of my tubing bending tools.

I do have a key to the building, but what I don't have is an alarm code.  I'm okay with this.

I believe i have nice tube bending tools, but the more the merrier.  I don’t know if i have the 3/16 specific one.  

AngryCorvair said:

In reply to Patrick :

Like so many things about you, that chassis looks bigger in pictures.

I’m a grower not a shower, everything is big when it needs to be