Hey NQ, I have a '65 convertible with a swingaxle trans. A 1600cc engine fits with no modification. I do remove the exhaust before removing the engine from the car though.
B. > On Jan 1, 2015, at 11:48 PM, "No Quarter" <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hey gang - NQ here. My wife and I have been really busy over the past few > years. When she moved here 4 1/2 years ago from Australia, we had > immigration to take care of, she went back to school to get her nursing > license, and we needed a place to live. She's now a citizen as of December > 12th, she's working as a nurse, and we spent our holidays painting the inside > of our new house in the country where I can collect many VW. Right now we > are up to around 17 or 18 assorted VWs for projects and parts! LOL! > > An upcoming project for us will be a restoration of a 1963 Beetle for her to > drive. It's her dream car and so I've been thinking about how to approach > the restoration. I really don't like how swing-axle transmissions tend to > leak and how you have to gut the entire rear-end for every single little bit > of maintenanace and repair. The ease of the IRS set-up has spoiled me and so > I'd like to convert the beetle to IRS without too much sacrilege. > > I've decided that I want to keep the stock pan and add upgrades to it that > would make it fairly easy to resort back to factory if anyone ever wanted to. > I want to upgrade the front axle to the later brake system and have the > brackets welded on the rear to convert to IRS. I have all the IRS parts I > need from parts dubs I've collected. I had toyed with the idea of mating the > 1963 to a later IRS pan, but I decided against it, because it just makes it > too much a bastard beetle. At least when you're in the bug, it will all > appear vintage and correct. I didn't want to cut and reweld the 2 body > mounts under the rear fenders although I will have to cut, clearance, and > weld up the frame horns for CV clearance. > > Before I do any of this, there remains one big question and that is can you > get blank drums of IRS beetles and have them drilled for wide-5 rims? If so, > does anyone know if there is any appreciable offset that needs to be > countered by having the center of the wide-5 rims relocated closer to the > outside edge of the rim? I'd want to do this before getting them > powder-coated. > > As I'm getting older, I'm appreciating stock more and more. It comes with > age because you sometimes just get tired of dorking with the same old stuff > over and over and by keeping it stock, you stand a good chance of it working > for a good long time. I had entertained the idea of rebuilding a 40hp > engine, but there are so many advantages to a good ol' stock balanced and > blue-printed 1600, that I'd like to make the upgrade for my wife. That means > an IRS transaxle would be needed to take advantage of the extra horsepower > (I'm sure a swing-axle trans could be upgraded to the steeper ring and pinion > with my personal favourite being the 4.12 set, but I don't want swing-axle on > this car.) An area that concerns me is the heater box to firewall clearance > as I remember someone saying it could be quite a trick to get it to fit. If > I'm going to do body work or have it done, it is possible that this part of > the firewall could be clearanced? Does anyone have any experience with > getting a 1600 to fit in a 1963 beetle? > > Thanks for entertaining my questions. I'm just trying to get the game plan > put together for what we are going to do with her car. I think a modest set > of upgrades for better breaking, longevity, and more get up and go will make > this a really nice car for her to drive. > > Lookin' forward to any advice... Thanks! > > NQ > -- > Visit the VintagVW archives at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "VintagVW - Air Cooled Volkswagen Discussion List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vintagvw. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- Visit the VintagVW archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VintagVW - Air Cooled Volkswagen Discussion List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vintagvw. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
