Aircooled VW South Africa

fourier wrote:The current project has taken ONLY 22 years.

You give me hope fourier

Hi

In November 2001 I started my journey with a KCC 550 Spyder KIT and after 15 years I can say I'm 99.9% complete. May this serve as inspiration for all you guys busy with your projects.





Regards
Lean

That looks really, really very nice!

Spydervan wrote:Hi

In November 2001 I started my journey with a KCC 550 Spyder KIT and after 15 years I can say I'm 99.9% complete. May this serve as inspiration for all you guys busy with your projects.





Regards
Lean

Spydervan I will have to make a plan to visit you soon. It gives me hope to know that someone else spent years on such a project but eventually had something to show for it.

Stunnning

I vote for MORE PICTURES!!!

Very nice.

OK, so this is my effort to keep the Porsche enthusiast interested in the forum. I admit it is not much, but I see I haven't posted anything for more than a year. The reason is that I haven't done much in a year either.

The gearbox on the original 550 was mounted on a cross-member passing over the end of the gearbox. A rubber bush fits around the neck where the selector shaft enters the gearbox, and that is secured to the cross-member with a complicated bracket. All the reproductions I have seen have cross-members running under the gearbox, using the standard mounting of the beetle gearbox, but I want to stick to the original, if not in detail then at least in spirit. The reason I say that is because the selector lever of the Porsche gearbox enters the box near the bottom, while the selector of beetle box sits very high.

Here are pictures of the original..





.. as well as my attempt.



I am going to cast a rubber ring around the neck between the washer and the body that will fit into a bracket. Bugger advised me that it should not be too soft, otherwise it will allow for movement that will break the gearbox.

I will post more pics when the bracket is finished, then it will be easier to see where I'm going with this.

I have seen a video or two of people casting polyurethane resin to make up new suspension mountings... that should be something fairly similar to what you are planning on doing?

Tony Z wrote:I have seen a video or two of people casting polyurethane resin to make up new suspension mountings... that should be something fairly similar to what you are planning on doing?

Yes Tony. I haven't tried it before so I will first do a bit of experimenting.

When you get it right, maybe you can open a new "how to" topic

How to cast polyurethane resin (I don't think it is worth a new topic Tony). I’ve edited this post to include more lessons I’ve learned.
The first thing I realized is that this is a messy business, do not try it on your wife's kitchen table. Once you mixed the two ingredients it turns into a thin liquid, that pours easily but spills easily too.

The stuff I used comes in one big container and one small one. You start by adding 2/3 of the volume you need from the larger container. The larger one contains sticky stuff that doesn't want to flow and once you get it going, it doesn't want to stop. The end result was that I poured out more that needed. Then you add 1/3 from the second container. This contains black, watery stuff that pours easily. According to the instructions you have to stir it for 3 minutes. I was worried that I would not be able to get it out of the container so I used a shallow, wide container for mixing. It was a mistake; I had a hard time preventing the mixture from spilling. For the second attempt I used a large tin.
The company I bought the stuff from sells a "release-agent" that you apply to the surface before pouring mixture into your mold. I tried grease, Vaseline and paper to prevent the polyurethane from sticking to the mold.
The paper became soaked and didn’t help much when I tried to extract the end product from the mold. The grease worked well but I think it may react chemically with the polyurethane so I think the Vaseline is the ideal "release-agent". Of cause you are welcome to buy the real thing from the suppliers. In the end I realized that polyurethane doesn’t stick well to either bare or painted metal (which is just as well because I spilled a lot).
I spend a while preparing the surface etc. but still slipped up. I used clay (the type you will buy in a toy store) to form a platform for the backing plate, making sure there were no cracks that the rubber could seep into. However, I assumed in my ignorance that I didn’t need to seal the joint between the backing plate and the metal ring that was simply lying on top of it. Seal ALL joints and cracks. The mixture runs like water and will leak out through the smallest crack. Curing takes about 3 hours. By then the polyurethane will be hard enough to handle but soft enough to get out of a mold etc. However, don’t think that because this is rubber you will simply squeeze your creation out of a rigid mold. I had to butcher my first attempt out with a knife. You must be able to split the mold in order to get it out.
It takes 24 hours for the polyurethane to completely settle and be ready for use. I experimented a couple of times before I was confident enough to tackle the real thing, but in the end I think it went well.

Interesting, where can one get this and is it possible to get different shore values?

AlanH wrote:Interesting, where can one get this and is it possible to get different shore values?

I got it from AMT in Isando, they sell this as well as fibre glass etc. They are a reseller, I'm sure there are many other. Try www.smooth-on.com. And yes, you get it in many forms.

I've edited my previous post to include more lessons learned

Yes you need to provide holding place for it to hold on, I normally use under cuts with the grinder, or if you have space, tap or weld bolt heads onto your job for it to hold on,

Cir clip groves work well for round stuff.

Herman