FestiVWa 2.0 Aba Project

[gergorian]

Damn man. Thats some killer work you're doing. I cant wait to see how it turns out!

[wwwdotgov]

Update 12/09/16:
Last weekend my welding friends got a little welding done on the lower core support. But sadly, the welder had a real crappy tip and they had no spares, so we decided it was best to stop.
Trying to find the proper tips on a Saturday night at 5pm was impossible. Home Depot had standard Lincoln tips, but this one required something different.
They are coming back tomorrow so I will cross my fingers that everything goes smooth. We were running the welder on a 110v outlet last weekend. But tomorrow they are bringing over a adapter cord to plug into my dryer outlet so we can run it on 220v. That'll definitely help for welding up 1/4" thick engine mount brackets.

A few random pics:

[wwwdotgov]

Damn man. Thats some killer work you're doing. I cant wait to see how it turns out!

Thanks. I'm really looking forward to getting it done and driving it.

[TominMO]

Very amazing and cool!

[eurotiva]

Just read thru this whole thing. Great work! It's gonna be awesome when it's done.

[Festiver]

Question and anyone with experience feel free to jump in with welding the rubber side of the engine mount how do you get a nice strong weld without Vulcanizing the rubber small tacks spread out is kinda working but I'm worried about the strength I'm doing 1/4" plate to the mount


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[FestYboy]

Cook it out and then press new rubber in, to get a strong weld requires heat, and lots of it.

[wwwdotgov]

Update 12/10/16:

Today we got the lower core support, both fender truss braces, and a little bit of the tranny pocket welded up.....until we ran out of welding gas. We are going to try to finish tomorrow.

Fender Truss Braces:

I cut out the plates tall enough so that they could be welded where 2 layers of steel meet for more strength. I also made sure they were wide enough to overlap the vertical seam. Backing nuts were welded to back side of the plates, then the plates were burned in.











Core support:

It's all 3/16" thick plate and angle. The angle was boxed except the space where the radiator mounts. There's a thinner piece of 1/8" angle welded on the front side for the bumper to mount to. I decided not to make a "bolt-in" core support. I didn't see the need for it. So, it's all welded in for good. There's 3 big backing nuts welded in for a tranny crossmember that's not yet made.

Making plates that were welded, then sandwiched by the tow hooks that bolted on top of them really worked out well. And the crash bar bolts on top of the plates that were welded in front. It all seems strong and safe (because I didn't do the welding ).



















Tranny Pocket Mount:

We ran out of gas but we got a little welded up on the transmission side of the frame rail (not pictured).
I got a little help from Ford on this one. In the fender well, there is a steel reinforcement plate that the factory welded in. Just so happens, my tranny pocket mount lines up perfectly with that plate on the other side. So I drilled 4 holes for some plug welds. Hope to finish up tomorrow.





Welding:
A Big Thanks to "Mike Lane" and his co-worker friend "James" for doing all this major welding for me!!! They work together as welders for a company that builds aluminum boats for the Coast Guard, Etc.. A couple of cool guys that I'm thankful for their help.





Tomorrow, Try to get the engine mounts welded up along with other odds and ends.

[bhazard]

Really glad to see someone actually going outside of the usual here.

All the notching and modifications are the things most people that wanted to fit something bigger than a B engine and G trans never bothered with and then give up.

[eurotiva]

Looking good

[wwwdotgov]

Update 12/11/16:

The rest of the planned welding got done today (engine mounts, transmission mount pocket, frame reinforcement, and lots of seam welding.
And today I bought a little 90amp Harbor Freight flux core welder. I will be using it for smaller brackets like radiator upper mounts or misc brackets. Just lightweight stuff that I trust my own welding on. I think I'll use it to tack up the transmission crossmember when building it. Then I can hand it off to someone with a more powerful welder to finish it up. Once upon a time, I used to have a Millermatic 135 welder, but I sold it before I could put enough weld time to become proficient at it.

Still so many things to do. In the coming weeks I need to:

-Buy and apply seam sealer and prime the welds.
-Buy a buy a propane heater with lots of btu because I have lots of parts that need painted along with the engine bay. The space heater in the garage really weak and winter will be here for awhile.
-Start building a tubular frame for a tranny crossmember. I'm going to use pvc pipe and fittings as templates to get the length and bends right.
-Visit Pick-n-Pull for a few parts including a different vw oil cooler/filter housing that mounts at a angle to help clear the lower radiator hose.
-Decide on what strut/spring combo to go with in the front and get those parts ordered.
-Actually, lots of parts need to be ordered. Priority will be suspension and clutch parts. Transmission is a hydraulic setup. I need to order a manual clutch actuator that came in a few Eurovans.
-Find some 4X100mm wheels and tire. Either 14" or 15".
-and lots lots more that I'm forgetting.

[wwwdotgov]

Very amazing and cool!

Just read thru this whole thing. Great work! It's gonna be awesome when it's done.

Really glad to see someone actually going outside of the usual here.

All the notching and modifications are the things most people that wanted to fit something bigger than a B engine and G trans never bothered with and then give up.

Thanks y'all. The search forum and the members knowledge here is awesome. I've been doing tons of reading. Everybody that's paved the way with Aspire/Kia parts swapping and anything else Festiva related has helped me learn tons!! All the info will benefit me greatly as the build goes on.

[Advancedynamix]

You may have to pull the chassis back straight after all that modification. Welding shrinks and distorts the metal pretty drastically and the relation between your sway bar mounts, control arm mounts and strut mounts is critical for alignment and power delivery characteristics.
If a chassis is seam welded or notched without being restrained in a jig, it'll be off.
A body shop with a frame rack can probably tug it back into spec relatively easily though. We had this problem after welding gussets in our Lemons car. It was over 1/4" off after weld.

[wwwdotgov]

You may have to pull the chassis back straight after all that modification. Welding shrinks and distorts the metal pretty drastically and the relation between your sway bar mounts, control arm mounts and strut mounts is critical for alignment and power delivery characteristics.
If a chassis is seam welded or notched without being restrained in a jig, it'll be off.
A body shop with a frame rack can probably tug it back into spec relatively easily though. We had this problem after welding gussets in our Lemons car. It was over 1/4" off after weld.

I'm hoping it remained fairly straight. I made sure the lower core support got done first. Then the fender truss braces (which maybe helped and acted as a jig in themselves for the later welding). Lastly, the frame rails were worked on. The sway bar and lca's were attached at all times too.

I imagine if it was done in the opposite order, with the frame rails and fenders trusses being welded on first, and without the upper and lower core support being attatched, then things could go wrong in a hurry.

[Festiver]

Cook it out and then press new rubber in, to get a strong weld requires heat, and lots of it.

Where would one buy just the rubber?


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