[gtkid2002]

Ah, to be able to type on something that doesn't have a touch screen.
Anyhow.

Robert- So far I have the bug. Picked it up for 50 bucks and some of my junk, so I got it for a steal. It's been bajaed, so I get to undo that. I'm selling the tires, shell, and some other minor stuff off of it to help fund the body parts. I've got a standard arc stick welder, and a tiny little oxy-mapp welder I can use if I need to. I've done fiberglassing before, and I don't think working with rivets should be too hard. Right now I'm at the planning phase, but I at least have the car. Soon as I get a solid idea, I'm going to start selling things and dumping funds into this. I think the hardest thing for me to get ahold of will be the steel tubing for the roll cage.

As for the engine, right now it is nowhere near FE goodness. I have to dump raw gas down the carb, rev the crap out of it, and feather the clutch to move it. I found some stock wiring I'm pretty sure went to a stock fuel pump for the stock FI engine, so somebody swapped engines in this thing along the line. So I plan on switching back if I can, or just seeing if I can get this one running well enough to use it for a start engine.

Although if you know of a more FE engine that'll bolt straight up to a standard VW Bug transmission (I -really- want the Freeway Flier), let me know so I can look into it.

Elhigh - The freeway flier is the trans I want to end up using. 3500rpm @ 75mph would be better than most cars I drive now (that data is on the mid-america motorworks website I think). I think for the first phase of the project I'm going to just stick with a carb, mostly because it's cheaper to work with, and I kind of already have one installed. The stock engine was supposedly FI, which I love (I did injector cutoffs in the car that's my avatar, that was awesome). I was actually trying to find a small single cylinder diesel engine to use like the single seater VW concept (I forget the name) used, but I remember two things:
A: I live up 600 feet. I have to commute to sea-level, and back up. I don't think that would work for me, unless I want to get hit.

B: I want to retain the haulability of four passengers. I figure for the rear "seating"/cargo area, I would leave the basic lap belts in, but remove majority of the comfort factors back there. No padded seats, more like a hard dense plasticy foam, or just plastic seats. Nothing fancy, more like something you'd find in the back of an old school classroom.

I somehow doubt that a 10hp diesel engine could putt me and three passengers, a full tank of gas, and say a 50 lbs guitar amp up a rather steep grade, at least at 20mph, with all the lights on. So I kinda said forget that.

Botsapper - Is it just me, or does it seem at least slightly impressive that a 36hp engine can hit such high speeds? Interesting link at least.

JoeNavy - Aerocivic has had a huge impression on me. I kept a tab of that open for months, just drooling over that car. That's just about the main driving reason behind this. I want to drive a car that costs pennies to run distances in. Granted he did an engine swap, but 80mpg at 60mph?! I've got no problems driving in the slow lane. And where I'm at, If I had 20 bucks to burn, I could get bored and almost do a 600 mile road trip. I could do it comfortably on 50 bucks (Granted that's if gas goes back down to 3.27 a gallon when I calculated that).

I'm still toying with body designs, but one of the popular threads up was the one about the pillbug car? Seated seven, but dissapeared to england after WWII from what I got. The prototype had a Cd of .117 I think? I'd have to rearead the thread to find out for sure.