Aeromodability of a VW Bug?

[Pendragon]

The looks to be fairly straight. Fenders should be easy to install, at least stock ones.

What have you decided abbot body mods?

Originally Posted by gtkid2002

Friggin criminy. One would think it would be -easy- get get rid of some off road tires and such. Just for reference, this is the bug/baja I'm going to be stripping down and rebuilding from scratch. It's not pretty, but it has a clean title, which makes this car perfect. I have to rebuild the carb before it'll run without me dumping gas down it and run rich for thirty seconds before dying.

[gtkid2002]

Well, the tires are now gone and I have instead a 34-pict 3 carb and intake setup for it. Plus the stock oil bath filter. So go figure. Now I should be able to get it running, but I can't drive it because it has no tires, haha. The body is completely unbolted, and I'm slowly working on taking everything off that is connected to it. From there I'm going to part it out and scrap the shell, and hopefully bring in 200 or so for the project. That'll be enough to buy some more fiberglassing stuff for the floorpans.

Right now they're really rusted out, so I'm gonna just cut a lot off, lay down metal support bars and wire mesh, then lay down some fiberglass over and on top of it, to reduce some weight.

And I've got two carbs I can use on this. The H30/31 and the 34 Pict 3. I'm gonna do some research on which one I should use, but the H30 does have a frozen electric choke, and water damage, So I'm probably going to go with the 34 Pict 3, and rebuild the H30 for the other bug we own.

Pendragon - Yeah it would be pretty easy, except that's not really what I want to do with it. The front and rear clips would need to be replaced, and I don't really want to restore this one. If it wasn't already beat up, that's what I'd be doing.

tjts1 - Hadn't really thought about water injection, although I've done a little bit of reading up on that from a prior car.

I'm thinking though that since my final version will be diesel, and I now have a spare carb to stick in it, I should tune up one of them to run E-85 or alcohol, and try that for a while.


I pulled the fuse panel and some of the front wiring. I'm really hoping that once I pull the engine/trans, the chassis will be light enough to cart around with two or three people. If not, well things will be interesting. The speedo is out, and next up is de-wiring the engine I think, although I might start clearing out the interior.

[Pendragon]

The floor pan depends on the body shell for the overall strength of the vehicle. Have you considered putting a tube roll frame on the pan? Once you settle on a body design you could figure out something to fit under it.

Rather than 'glassing the bad sections of the floor pan you could weld in some new sections which would help in several ways.

[gtkid2002]

Actually, that's kind of what I had in mind for the ease of it if we're talking about the same thing. Although I guess you're right on the floor pans. I welded in some 18 gauge sheet metal on my other bug, and I've still got some left over, so I'll probably just do that on this one. Hopefully I can pull and then re-run the brake and fuel lines as well.

I was going to put a roll cage in the general shape of my design, then lay wire mesh over top, then fiberglass. I'm not sure if I want to do the entire car (excluding doors, I'm still figuring out how to do those) like that, then cut out stuff for like the window and head/tail lights. If I can swing it, I'm also going to try and keep everything on the LED side of things to reduce electrical loads. I'm also going to try and use lots of side markers if I can. I really don't want anyone hitting my car :/

I figure I can scrape the traces off the rear window of the baja shell, and use that for the front window. From there I can try and get some plexi, and use that as the side windows and rear window(s).

I'm actually kind of worried on how the doors will work. I could set up a normal door that uses hinges, but I'm not sure how I would close it besides with latches. And if that was the case, how would I get in? I'll have to dink around with the designs a bit more for now I guess, although I need to figure this one out before I start building the body.

[Pendragon]

You might consider some of the 3M style reflective tape as stylized pinstripes when you get things finished up.

It is too bad that you do not have an old Karmann Ghia shell to work from. The doors and all are pretty low profile. They were pretty sharp looking even in stock form, especially when they were new.

You might take a look at this thread about Chopping a Beetle for some ideas. Keeping a steel body should greatly increase the strength and crash protection of the car as well as its durability over a period of years. That would reduce the frontal area of the body, but the angle of the windshield is still very steep.

Any way you look at it you are facing a great deal of work. There simply will not be much left of the original car once you go through the engine swap.

Have you ever considered fixing this one up to make some money selling it as a pretty much stock vehicle and then getting something that might be more suited for a mileage project?

[gtkid2002]

Any word on if it would be possible to clearcoat over the reflective tape? If that was the case, that would be perfect.

And I know I'm chopping up somebody's dream car, but I couldn't chop up one of my own. If I owned a Karmann ghia, I couldn't hold a chop saw to it in any other interest than restoring it.

Yeah, I know there'll be a ton of work, but I think the bug would be the best platform to try this with. It's so old and there is so much support for everything on it, its perfect to me. There's mounting plates, roll cages, seatbelts, aftermarket lights, and plenty of other things. It's so easy to modify, it's almost open source. That's why I chose the bug.

I know that I'll be sacrificing safety, but that's why I'll be going with a roll cage. I'm going to look into five point harnesses, extra LED lighting, and door support bars.

[Pendragon]

I don't know about clear coating over the tape. I would check with a paint shop or a shop that sells automotive paints. It may be that there is a reflective paint which would allow you to mask things off in a pattern that pleases you.

I see you share my affection for the Karmann Ghias.

If you are approaching this as a fun project, it should be a great success. It is just that the bug platform is difficult to turn into an aerodynamic affair.

I am sure you have seen pictures of the VW XL1 Project, but here is a link to some things about it. They have been doing a lot of thinking about how to make things more efficient, especially the aero part where there are great gains to be achieved. Here are some more images.

Cheers

[Pendragon]

I stumbled across a listing with a pic of a very rare 1950 Tatraplan VW engined streamliner...I had never seen a picture of one let alone seen one first hand...that might be interesting to look at. There is no direct link to it, but it is about the eighth row down the pictures. I saw it while following a link that had been forwarded to me about Paul Newman's "Indy VW". You might enjoy looking at that as well, although it has nothing to do with aero packages.

Cheers

P.S. Here is an article about a Tatraplan that is in better shape.

Also:

Tatra T-600 Tatraplan- 1950 | Cars

Tatra Tatraplan T600 Coupe 1950 for sale - PreWarCar

[Frank Lee]

That thing RULES! And I've never even heard of 'em.

[Arragonis]

The original Beetle was a copy of a Tatra - allegedly.