Aircooled VW South Africa

A little over a year ago my friend got me a gift that can only be described as awesome. A road worthy Porsche 718 Replica. I love it. My wife though, cannot stand it. AT ALL. As soon as I take off the covers to get something done, she blows up like a puffer fish. Anyway, long story short - Here is what I managed to do.

Before


I ripped out the dashboard, mainly to fix some electricl issues, and replace the steering wheel with something less, uhm, ugly. It is still a work in progress, should hopefully finish is soon. The wood is now replaced with brushed alluminium - was harder than I thought, but fun. I didn't budget on the speedo cable, wich is stiffer that I thought. It may present itself to be a problem.

Almost Done



It also looks a bit stupid inside the car, I think it is because it comes down quite low, but not sure though. Interstingly (or not) I have used aircraft ally to make the dashboard, and had absolutely no help - hence the rivits and scew lines

There was a little bit of elbow grease involved too!

Before



After



All this is is just a bit of paint on the gear lever, handbrake, and steering column. Luckily it was surface rust on the pan, so I took that off - and went over with a tin of rubberizing paint.

OH Yes, there was violence.



This WAS the little hub/part thing that keeps the gear knob attached to the lever. Unfortunately it had to go too.

I hope you enjoyed this, and I will try to keep updates as, and when I can. This little bit took me almost 4 months, mainly because I have to get things done when I am alone.

Thats sweet.

Looks nice!

I always thought 'RSK' referred to a specific kit car manufacturer, like KCC Cobra (Kit Car Centre), but I couldn't be more wrong

The Porsche 718 is a racing car built by Porsche between 1957 and 1962.

The 718 was a development of the successful Porsche 550A with improvements being made to the body work and suspension. The car is a RennSport build with a wheelbase shorter (German 'Kurz') than typical of predecessors of the era and this led to the car being referred to as the RSK. It had a mid-engined layout and used the 142 horsepower (106 kW) 1.5-litre Type 547/3 quad-cam engine introduced in the 550A. The car made its racing debut at the 1957 24 Hours of Le Mans driven by Umberto Maglioli and Edgar Barth. The car failed to finish the race due to an accident.

In 1958, the car finished first in class and third overall at Le Mans guided by Jean Behra and Hans Herrmann. Jean Behra also brought one of the cars home second at the Targa Florio. In 1959, the car, driven by Edgar Barth and Wolfgang Seidel, claimed overall victory at the Targa Florio. A 718 also won the European Hill Climb Championship in both 1958 and 1959.

In 1961 Masten Gregory and Bob Holbert piloted a 718/4 RS Spyder to a class win at Le Mans.

Why was I not born small so I could fit into these cars.
Thanks for the post Pine.

There is surprisingly a lot of space and leg room in these cars, there are however two different sizes.
Only thing is that they are quite low on the ground.

I see you are in Jhb we should form a support group. I also have a spyder that I seldom get to work on, but this year it it is full speed ahead.
Check out my build thread "Argento Volpe" in projects.

Terry Phillips wrote:Why was I not born small so I could fit into these cars.
Thanks for the post Pine.

I am almost 2 meters tall, sure the seats squeeze me on the hips, but other than that is quite spacious. Yes, I do look over the widscreen, and Yes, getting in and out is a bitch, but that is about it. really comfy once you are inside.

64 Notchback wrote:I see you are in Jhb we should form a support group. I also have a spyder that I seldom get to work on, but this year it it is full speed ahead.
Check out my build thread "Argento Volpe" in projects.

That is a brilliant idea - we should! I must be honest when it comes to the mechanical side I myself am still a noob, but found an excellent online resource. It would also be nice to see how some things on the body actually fit and get together

Terry Phillips wrote:Thats sweet.

thanks

Pine wrote:Looks nice!

I always thought 'RSK' referred to a specific kit car manufacturer, like KCC Cobra (Kit Car Centre), but I couldn't be more wrong

The Porsche 718 is a racing car built by Porsche between 1957 and 1962.

The 718 was a development of the successful Porsche 550A with improvements being made to the body work and suspension. The car is a RennSport build with a wheelbase shorter (German 'Kurz') than typical of predecessors of the era and this led to the car being referred to as the RSK. It had a mid-engined layout and used the 142 horsepower (106 kW) 1.5-litre Type 547/3 quad-cam engine introduced in the 550A. The car made its racing debut at the 1957 24 Hours of Le Mans driven by Umberto Maglioli and Edgar Barth. The car failed to finish the race due to an accident.

In 1958, the car finished first in class and third overall at Le Mans guided by Jean Behra and Hans Herrmann. Jean Behra also brought one of the cars home second at the Targa Florio. In 1959, the car, driven by Edgar Barth and Wolfgang Seidel, claimed overall victory at the Targa Florio. A 718 also won the European Hill Climb Championship in both 1958 and 1959.

In 1961 Masten Gregory and Bob Holbert piloted a 718/4 RS Spyder to a class win at Le Mans.

I love the history on these things, pretty bummed the decided to name the new cayman after the 718 - it does not exactly have the "racing pedigree" the original does. I found a place in spartan that actually does make these kits. Not sure about the quality though - http://www.universal-products.co.za/rep ... 0Cars.html

Not much as changed, however I managed to get the dasboard top modified to fit before the rain hit. I am a bit bummed, mainly because of where the speedo is now located. It seems, and hopepfully this is not so, that the speedometer cable will me more of an issue than I previously thought.

The challenge now lies in the fact that I need to fashion a dome out of some of the left over aluminium I have. The problem? I do not have tools to roll the steel. A friend did offer to do this, and I did accept, but never heard from him again, so we will wait and see. The gap beneath the steering column must also be closed.

FUN FACT - this entire dashboard cost me R 32,00 - because it is made by things I had lying around




I have also managed to drill the holes for the seatbelts, cut the piece of flatbar for it to be attached to, and generally muck about.

A quick experiment regarding the vinyl also showed a good result - it seems that the current brand (unsure of the name) of rattlecan spraypaint I am using works well on vinyl - and it is much cheaper than the actual paint, and even cheaper than reupholstering.

Nice going there.
If I were you instead of making the done out of aluminum why not make it out of fiberglass.
I think it will look much neater and also look like it was part of the car

64 Notchback wrote:Nice going there.
If I were you instead of making the done out of aluminum why not make it out of fiberglass.
I think it will look much neater and also look like it was part of the car

That is actually a very good idea, thank you!
Tried working with FG oncem, and it came out real bad, but I have learnt from that, so I'll give it a shot - no off to see how the mold would look like
- sorry I haven't contacted you yet, but will in due time.

You can take a piece of cardboard or bendable sheet of plastic and form the dome lay the FG over the that, build it up to the thickness you require and then shape it into the rest of the area around the dome.
Are you intending to respray the car at some point?.

Or you could fab the dome on its own and then fit it to the area you need it without making it part of the dash so that if you want to change it again later you just remove the dome and fill the holes that fastened it to the dash