71 project beetle ( with turbo )

56oval

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4,903
2 years after selling the oval, having a brief flirt with something modern (ish) with the ST i just couldn't deal with not having something to tinker with, so the ST went up the road and i thought about a project.

Sorting out the Essex v6 in the Landrover reminded me how much i enjoy it and my daughter is constantly on at me "when are we going to get another beetle?

Roll forward to last month, a cheap bug came up across the water, super solid, rhd uk, new channels, mint pans but needed straightening and putting back together, perfect. A deal was done and i set about trying to find someone to lift it from Hastings.

Bottom line was, i couldn't trust anyone to get it back to me all present and correct as it was all in boxes, non driving/steering and at the very bottom of the country.

Last week i went and lifted it, i was lucky enough to borrow a trailer from a mate of mine and set off in the camper, i won't bore you with the details of a 700 mile round trip, it was knackering, but so glad i did it, but NEVER again. When i was a kid i used to fly to Milan and Portugal, buy a split screen van and just drive it home, those were a breeze in comparison. It was truly a hateful drive in the lashing rain and roadworks, stuff doing that for a living. I took the 8 hr Liverpool ferry to cut out a bunch of driving, daytime sailings, cabins were the best 20 quid spent ever (y)

The end result was i got the car home on Saturday evening safe and sound, the wee one was expecting a mini digger that i was collecting for a job, her face when i pulled in with her new bug :grinning:

I don't want to make this a long winded account, so i wont, i purchased it for me and my daughter,something to channel her energy ( or not ) and something to keep me ticking over, i seem to be happiest when i'm tinkering at a project.

So thats it, we'll be doing this one together, there's welding to cut out and redo as i'm not happy with it, no big jobs just small ones in the evenings that will leave the car needing little to no filler as opposed to a bucket load.

Its proper solid, a great cheap base. i have an idea in my head how i would like it, she has hers, we'll meet in the middle somewhere i'm sure, as long as theres no unicorn horn on the thing lol.

So, pictures will tell the story, save me boring you with a write up, the colour is picked,Ford Peppermint Green, wheels is going to be the clincher, it'll make it or completely break it. I want to tread a completely different route to the norm, i quiet fancy the idea of mk2 irish tarmac spec, deep dish minilights, compomotives etc, but its all down to offsets and tyres.

Pics for now .
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Captain Starlet

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8,157
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Land of the spuds
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S2000
I'm looking forward to updates, this will be a fantastic project. Im sure given the bonding experience you will have restoring the car with your daughter it will be impossible to ever part with it.
 

cormac81

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7,939
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Lurgan/ish
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GTI, VRS, Superb
Liking the plans and the colour. I was watching wheeler dealers last night where they had a chevy c10 in a similar colour. Should look really good on a beetle.
 

Nicky

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24,533
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HiluxSurf
No, No,No and just NO!!!

Never been a fan of that whole look. Aussie trim +o(

At least you didn’t dismiss the jacked up Baja style. I eagerly await updates with a lift kit, Maxxis Trepador tyres and some awesome pipe bending for bumpers and rails 😂😂
 

56oval

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56oval
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4,903
At least you didn’t dismiss the jacked up Baja style. I eagerly await updates with a lift kit, Maxxis Trepador tyres and some awesome pipe bending for bumpers and rails 😂😂

Don't mind a Baja,i could churn up Portstewart Strand on a Saturday evening, oh wait no i can't, every wab and his granny has the place gridlocked doing 1/2mph laps in their "performance" cars ^o)
 

big_pete

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17,439
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Ballyclare
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Soulless pos
Those Baja's are so cool. Great to see you with a beetle again Ben and that will be a great thing for you and your daughter. Look forward to the updates :grinning:
 

56oval

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56oval
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4,903
Almost, but way too traditional Cal Look for me and i want to get away from that, i want to keep the trim and do it all black.

Being from Essex, Peppermint Green was BIG back in the 90's, i wasn't a massive fan of the look, but loved the colour.

After working on that 3.0 Essex, it got my mind churning.

Googling pictures of Peppermint greens this Capri came up, and that was pretty much it, Lacey loved the colour so that was a win.

The inspiration (ish) proper Essex.
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Kinda how i have it in my head, we'll see.

bug test.jpg
 

Apis

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Messages
4,073
Location
NW
Drives
various
I remember the peppermint green on the Mk2 RS2000.
Black trim and the net headrests. Looked the part.
 

56oval

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56oval
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4,903
So the project is well under way.

Last night a few friends helped me drop the body down to Matt Donnelly for paint, quiet excited about that. I worked it out, the last time i had a car painted was 1996 :joy:.

I tidied up a few areas but on the whole it didn't really need much, it really is a decent shell.

Whilst Matt has it i will be getting on with the chassis, which again needs very little. i need to weld in some adjusters on the front beam and possible narrow it 2" to take account of the offset drop spindles.

on to the engine, the original idea was to tidy up the tinware, chuck it in and run it, then i got a pair of dcn'f webbers for free so twin carbing it was on the cards.

Thats all gone out the window, i'm now turboing the stock 1300 engine :joy:.

Simple blow thru setup, the brief is simple, spend as little money as possible. I had all the stuff laying in the shed for years, i think i could do the whole conversion for under £300.

Using a Solex 43 DIS from a renault 5 gt turbo, the tiniest turbo youv'e ever seen :joy: , keeping it properly old school and basic,i'm going to modify the stock fuel pump and boost reference it, recurve the stock bosch distributor and cobble it all together. It'll work, Stock 1300 is 40bhp. If i can squeeze a modest 60-70bhp out of it i'd be happy.

I started fabricating ( in the loosest term ) an exhaust this week as you cant really but them off the shelf, plus it was free, an old 4 into 1 header that had already been butchered. Excuse the terrible welding, its solid, it'll do.

So thats it in a nutshell for now.

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56oval

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56oval
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Thats the mockup done, managed to get the engine chucked on the chassis tonight. One thing that will probably need changed is the up pipe to the turbo, i think its going to foul the engine lid, so i'll chop it about and reroute it around the turbo, no real drama. I modified the stock fuel pump as this is only going to see max 8psi boost. I used a valve stem oil seal from the landy, machined out the fuel pump pedestal and epoxied it in with the pushrod holding it square, stuck an airline up there and it holds 20psi no problem, hopefully it should do the trick without pressurising the crankcase. It'd be far simpler to chuck a fuel pump and rising rate reg on it but i just want to mess about with the stock parts. I also put a port into the base of the pump which will be connected to the boost pipe. The idea of always keeping fuel pressure above boost pressure. We'll see how that pans out.

Other than that, its been in the back of my mind that the engine is unknown, iv'e never run it. so i hooked up the ignition and original carb, jumped the starter with a screwdriver and away she went, no endfloat, no smoke or nasty noises, i'll run it up properly tomorrow.

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rupertfinch

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3,296
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Bangor
Love this - but to confirm (from initial pics) - you know the jeweller bloke who’s making the mk2 escort in all kinds of precious metals/stones? If so, epic!
 
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