Thread: VW rat rods? whats up?

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ratrodvw, I'd like to see a picture of that setup when you get a chance. I am sorry to say I did quite a few foolish things with VWs in my 30s, most of which I won't tell here, but alas I had to sell the gold metalflake Sand Rover with the black top and big/little whitewalls (8.50x15 rear, 5.50x15 front) when my wife kind of disapproved of putting the baby seat wedged into the rear between the aluminum top frame and the naugahyde seat. Looking back it was not a good idea to put my 2 year old daughter in that situation, although we did make one vacation trip to Va Beach with that setup! Amazingly my family lived through my foibles and the kids all grew up OK, but you don't need to do all that risky, foolish stuff, so keep the shiny (primered) side up and be sensible when the kids are involved. I wish my brother would have sold that Porsche coupe to me, I'd still have it! That daughter married a guy who has a restored Corvair convertible with the 140 H.P. engine; it is dark blue with a perfect interior so I guess there are still folks out there with Corvair parts laying around, although the prices have gone up. I don't see why your American-powered rod wouldn't be welcome at a run, but there are a lot of folks who have special ideas about rules; I guess I will run into that too with a fiberglass body. When you get a chance, take a picture of that Corvair engine, it might help blend in the gap in this Forum.

Islo3, that pink car must have one great engine to get 170 H.P.

Best Wishes,
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

don, this same engine, with a bit more CR and taller cam can make over 200hp at the flywheel. but, i wanted a car i could drive all over the place, so i went with a more mild cam and lower compression. the result was an insanely driveable engine that smokes most everything it meets. 170hp + 1700lb car make for quick stuff!

It's a Dick Landy blower...See even the hardcore Hot Rod guys got into VWs...It's in a Kent Fuller V-rod, too...

Originally posted by Hotrodheb
Here is my personal ride!



Rob

Man, the VW rods are pretty badass in my eyes..I may have found a new project. I am searching through the "Too lazy to search" thread right now trying to find information on the front suspension. If you know of a thread that has a lot of how-to information along with what to buy I would be a happy man! I don't know what it is about the vw rods but I fell in love with the look about 5 minutes ago. Too bad its 12am and I have work tomorrow or I'd surf the boards longer. Awesome rides!

Glad to have infected you. Some of your antidote can be found at VWLab.com,......yes ,... a shameless self promotion.

This is kind funny, Iwas just lookin around on the web and found the gang from volkrods hitting this site as well.Great minds...
The open minded responces from you guys here is nice to hear.I love all kinds of cars it normally the owners I have the problems with. I'll be checking things out here, now that I know of at least 2 sites that aren't full of dorks. Take care, Michael

Here is my personal ride!



Rob [/B]

This has got to be the coolest thing I have ever seen.......

couldnt believe the pic of the primered bug pickup coz my cousin just built one. he had a steel tonneau bed cover made and a convertible top on his. way cool. I gotta get a pic of his posted here 4 u.

AnYwAy have you SEEN the latest hod rod magaziNe? It has a pic of a bugs badass fenderless rear eng with 17" (?) wide tires. The caption says it has a 440 hemi overstuffed inside the cab?

In ~1970 there was a pic of a toronado drivetrain in a bug and also in the back of a 911. guess that's what got my latest project started years ago.

For all of you VW fans check this site out, especially anything concerning Dean Lowry.
http://perso.calixo.net/~dubois1/history.html

Originally posted by Don Shillady
Hey, no offense intended here, VWs are nostalgic for me and it might be fun to build a really big engine with the latest available parts, but I wonder if anybody out there has a VW with a Corvair engine? My younger brother had a '60 Porsche coupe with the smaller 110 H.P. Corvair engine and the engine cover would just barely close over it. It had the bad property of suddenly throwing the contents of the glove compartment into the back seat upon acceleration in low gear! Now that was a sleeper and perhaps a precursor to the Porsche flat-six models. Of course the engine rotation is reversed and the "right" way is to buy expensive rear gears, but the easy way was to merely flip the ring gear over and it worked pretty well. Another way is to buy a reverse-camshaft and run the engine backwards but I do not recall if the there were piston pin offsets that had to be changed, so it was easiest to flip the ring gear in the transaxle and let the engine run as it was designed. I guess Corvair engines are scarce today, but If I were building a VW today I would look hard for a Corvair engine. It was an interesting play on words in the movie "The Thomas Crown Affair" (the first one with Steve McQueen) because in that movie there was a dune buggy based on a VW pan with a Corvair engine and no doubt using a "Crown Adapter". What this thread needs is a picture of a VW with a Corvair engine! Maybe someone on this Forum has a picture of the Thomas Crown Dune Buggy (some folks on this Forum have some amazing pictures!)? Still no offense intended, at one time or another I rebuilt or replaced every part on a pre-SuperBug ('60-'66) except to rebuild the magical wunderbox transaxle so I have about 20 years of VW memories. Just reminiscing.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Will this work for you Don? This was a Corvair /Bug I built a while back. It got me started dragracing Corvairs . As a Volksrodder, I'm now building a 302 F@#d nitrous 1950 Split window Bug. I've still got lots of Corvair parts and you're right that they are a powerful engine for a bug.
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Looks like a good diverse group ya have here, decided I'd have a poke around & see what y'all have to offer. But cant see anything w/o bein a member, amkes lurking difficult for someone who likes to see. So, if I'm gonna be a member, may as well post.
I lurk around on the HAMB, occasionaly browse the VRods board, & am active on the Rod&Costom.com board as well as the ShopTalkForums.com board.

I went for the Volksrod thing for the simple reason that most everything else has been overdone. I love the 32 Ford, but if I see another tricked out highboy, I'm gonna barf.
I am building everything by hand, I do all of my own work & am having a blast with it. Most of my parts come from Speedway Motors, but I've taken parts from all kinds of cars. Mazda seats, Nissan steering column, Mustang steering box, Porsche M/C, GM brakes, it's a well rounded mutt, kinda like me!
I get tons of good comments & the reactions are always amusing, car shows are always fun too, thankfuly the ones around here welcome ALL cars, so i haven't run into the problems my fellow rodders in CA have.

The engine I have now isn't anything special, trying to get the body done first, but if you think you cant get the pure surge of power you can get in a V8, you might wanna start lookin around. I cant count how many street legal VW's I have seen at the drags BEAT on V8's all day long. Imagine 250+ HP in a car that weighs in under 2Klbs, the technology is there, & more people are getting more of it.
May not top out at over 180 MPH, but when you get to your top speed in just a few seconds, you get pushed into your seat, HARD.

ANYway,... Need that soap box for parts storage!
It's a growing trend, & the applications are endless. The attraction isn't so much the inexpensive aspect as much as the rarity.
It will be some years before someone pulls into the local drive in with a car JUST like mine, & I kinda like that.

For those interested in how it got where it is, I have a thread in the "picture gallery" section on www.shoptalkforums.com, title is 70 Beetle VolksRod

Been playing with VeeDubs for a couple of decades now, and a Corvair engine is the "old school" way to get a lotta HP but in a pain in the butt way! Put together a full circle crank, H-rods, big valve Street Eliminator heads, big Weber dual carbs, and a T-3 turbo stuffing 13 psi down thier throats, and you've got a 250 hp VW engine without the overwieght factor! Mine sounds like a pissed off small block Chevy, and on a 1200 lb. trike, runs like one too!


Hava blast guys!

I dig this VolksRod deal, never saw one until someone started this thread, and I keep an eye on it for new posts. My question is, has anyone built a VW with a frontend that isn't the original trunklid (hood?)? Like a 30's car grille or something? Those bodies look cool with a straight axle, but I'd like to see one with a Deuce grille or something like that. I seem to remember people putting '40 Ford grilles on them back in the day. I'd like to see what that looks like if anyone's doing it.

Originally posted by DaffysTrike
Been playing with VeeDubs for a couple of decades now, and a Corvair engine is the "old school" way to get a lotta HP but in a pain in the butt way! Put together a full circle crank, H-rods, big valve Street Eliminator heads, big Weber dual carbs, and a T-3 turbo stuffing 13 psi down thier throats, and you've got a 250 hp VW engine without the overwieght factor! Mine sounds like a pissed off small block Chevy, and on a 1200 lb. trike, runs like one too!

VERY NICE! I agree that the Corvair is "old school", but this was in the early '70's and VW technology was in the early years. Corvairs were cheap and plentiful... with turbos!!
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awesome!