Project, the First

[freebeard]

As I declared in my Introductions post, I've got too much on my plate. Four potential modding projects and one has to go to finance another. I'm not going to get into resale value or sunk costs.

I just want to know which one is cooler.

I'll start with the one in my Profile pic. These pictures were taken on a ceramic tile floor with my first digital camera, a Casio QV-11. In 1995.


You'll note the one picture shows the front wheels on trailing arms. This is the default configuration; volksrodders have indifferent success with leading arms. I think the trick is to not lower the front and rotate the arms 180° in the torsion bars. And then use the lowered spindles off-roaders use to raise their front end to pull the framehead up off the ground. As long as the arms move back as they move up it shouldn't bind. I'm looking to get the wheels as far away from the body as is practical. Off-road racers employ trailing arms that are 3 inches longer and 3 inches wider than stock.

The original race-car motor was conceptually swapped for an electric motor sitting where the stock transaxle was, with a sand rail 2-speed transaxle behind it. With a pneumatic shifter it would look kind of like the quick-change rear end from the 40's.

The side view shows interior detail I didn't model. The floor curves up gradually to the rear until it intersects the roof at the top of the backlight, there would be a teardrop divot for the driver's butt. Then there is a U-shaped brush made of hangar door seal to prevent air ingress and where the backlight glass used to be a massive electric fan--or two fans in a V like the sound-off guys do with their sub-woofers. Alternatively, with a stock motor: a generator delete and a shaft that runs forward in the car to a big, honking (literally!) mechanical fan. Engine cooling air would be exhausted into this airstream.

What next? Let's look at that dicey weight distribution. With the front wheels pushed so far forward it will be 40% front & 60% rear, or worse. With short tires out in the air and tall tires tucked under the body, given the same tread width, the contact patch will be biased to compensate the weight. Tread width and tire pressure selected to help.

As I mentioned in the Introduction post, the open front wheels would have cycle fenders. The AA-Fuel dragster tires would become big 'n little LRR. 15" Moon disks on the wheels, and 18-20" Moon disks on the inner side with 1/2" clearance to the tire. It would have a recess hammered into the middle to reach into the spindle and be sandwiched behind the brake assembly; have appropriate vents and scoops, and the bottom would be relieved for tire flexion. The cycle fender would run from 9 o;clock to 4 o'clock (viewed from the right), since the top part of the tire is moving forward as much as twice as fast as the rest of the car. Black carbon fiber would blend in with the tire and contrast with the aluminum. More of a condom than a cod-piece.

The cantilevered airfoil section front torsion bar housings would probably require an inconspicuous connecting rod or plate. Or the air gap between them could become an inlet for oil coolers.

Around 2000 or so I found the donor car, a 1958 Canadian body (big back window and pockets for semaphore turn signals) on a 1971 standard pan.

It was already the right color and the P.O. had already cut the aprons, so I didn't have to feel guilty. It just felt right, but in 2002 the long downhill slide began. (the personal computer industry was fun before the suits came in. I started on the Apple ][)

So, I solicit your comments. Just keep in mind there's still 3 projects to go. This one looks like a lot of work; but as I've hinted, the progression on the motorhome is Class-A brick==>rat-rod flatbed truck==>3-wheeled rat-rod flatbed truck==>The Template.

[JethroBodine]

IMO, "cool" is not something that can be quantified, is different for every person, and changes all the time. If money is not the driving force, pick the one you like best to keep. Either way, I think you are in for a lot of work on both projects, and just from the little bit I've read in your posts, both will be very cool.

[Sven7]

Personally, I'd drive the RV on a tour of the Rockies and forget about the other projects.

[metromizer]

There is a great thread on the Ultimate Air Cooled Forum with a lot of good pictures, many of which I took and posted, showing my friend Dick Beith's Bonneville Lakester Beetle that he built himself.

It's top has been chopped, rear fenders narrowed 5" each side or so, nose stretched, front wheel base narrowed 12" with fender inside the fender wells... it right up your alley, and pretty wild.

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You'll have to get a log-on and password to see pics, but well worth it!

[freebeard]

JethroBodine -- Agreed. For me money is more a 'gating factor' than a 'driving force'. There're two more coming that are more achievable.

Sven7 -- It would tour the Rockies, in first gear. It weighs 9000 pounds and has a Chrysler 225" slant six. Later models came with a 455 Olds.

metromizer -- I had to step outside my comfort zone to register in this forum. The last time I registered in a forum was 1999. But I think it's cool you get to be friends with Dick Beith:

The Old Speed Shack: Dick Beith 50th anniversary

I thought a Lakester was necessarily open-wheeled; I'd call it a streamliner. My design was intentionally stock profiled. If I was going to take it that far, I would want a Leatherman chop (Walt Leatherman at Volksrodder.com. I won't link because they are actively hostile to lurkers). And replace the heater channels with 1/4" plate so there's no rocker panel below the door. With the Leatherman chop you remove the top and 'quarter' the body and narrow it to fit the roof. It gives a really nice contour and wouldn't have the 'fastback' problem that laid-back windshield must have.


Assuming a 4 1/2" chop and 2 1/2" narrower, I calculate 3.6 sq. ft. less frontal area.

[larrybuck]

My only question about the Volksrod is how can you be street legal w/o fenders since any cop can see it's a VW, and obviously newer than a '34 which is the cutoff year for many states concerning exposed tires?

Nice design!

[freebeard]

It is better to ask forgiveness than permission? I thought the cutoff was <1500 pounds. The pictures are out-dated, it should show Moon hubcaps and LRR tires in similar sizes. I notice YouTube is full of fender-less rat-rods, they would know better than I.

I addressed the front in the text, I know it deserves a picture. Give me an hour or two.

Anybody know where I can get "Keep Oregon Green" mudflaps?

[Frank Lee]

I'd leave the motorhome- looks too nice to hack up.

[freebeard]

larrybuck -- As promise a *crude* representation of the fender detail.


Frank Lee -- I know, right?

It's a rust bucket, that's not German steel. But it stands between me and homelessness, and it wouldn't have much resale value, so why not hang onto it.

As a project, it would make the vRod look easy, but the result would be the world's fastest (probably only) wooden geodesic motorhome. To do that one justice I need to find an old drawing I did of a 4f2r tricycle called the Big Boogie.

I may do one of the others first, a panel van with with a business plan attached, and a Beetle with pontoon rear fenders built like a pair of redwood canoes.

[larrybuck]

The cycle fenders will certainly work.
Back in the mid '80's, I had a pair of those Oregon mudflaps on a '69 F250
I used to have. Back then, I think I bought them at the now gone GI Joe's store.

I tried googling today, and only found that there is a company called Duraflap
in Grants Pass, OR. that makes designs in the stainless steel weights at the bottom
of the flap. They do make custom designs for an extra charge, but you wouldn't
get the nice colors!