Ya, the arches were a spark of brilliance by the guy who's doing the body work for me, he said he's always wondered what Golf arches would look like on a Escourt or Datsun, so we did it.

These radios were common in Datsun cars in South Africa at least. This particular one was a factory/dealer fitment in a VW beetle, though I've seen many Datsun cars with the exact same radio. Luckily it doesn't have any VW logos on it, so it might as well pass as a Datsun item.

In our case it does actually stand for Short Wave, though I only know of one station in ZA that broadcasts on SW, their called Talk Radio and I like listening to music...

SW does not necessarily mean the same as here in america.
For example, the standard FM band is called "utra short wave" in German ...

very cool - nice work! I like your flares, they'll look nice when all painted up & blended in.

Where did you find the shortwave radio - were they common back in the day for a car?

I've never seen one in the states for a car that was a stock radio.

The 60-2 trigger wheel is a custom designed one. I'll be using a local built ECU, either Dictator or Perfect Power.

The 60-2 trigger wheel is for GM DIS is it which ECU will you be using?

Bravo!



Very nice

Here's the 60-2 parts disassembled. It's the standard 20V pulley that came on the motor that's been machined, the front ancillary pulley has been completely removed and the rest machined only enough to have flat surfaces where they are needed. The 4AGE pulleys have 2 bolt holes, I suppose for a puller, from the factory so it won't be any weaker than standard.



Here's the whole thing assembled. As you can see very compact and will look good on the motor. 100% fully adjustable to any angle you might need. I'll be placing the sensor in the fanbelt loop if you understand what I'm getting at, so the sensor doesn't need to be removed to replace the fanbelt.



We've already checked, we will be able to do this with any of the many variations of 4AGE pulleys there are.

And some more progress pictures of the body coming together.













12

I love lasers, *zwing*, *pew pew pew*...

Flanges for intake, exhaust manifold and exhaust all in stainless, 60-2 gear in steel.



Of particular interest is this piece. Pulley measures 135mm, this is 145mm. Added hole on opposite side for some balancing and had them just mark tooth 12, 14 and 16(at the bottom of the gear). No more looking for those flipping Opel gears...



10

Ok so between J4F an myself we have finally found something useful to do with Golf's.

VW aficionados look away now...



You cut them up for their fender flares...

I always envisioned the car to have, what the old people called spats, or as we call it, fender flares. J4F had this brilliant idea of ridding the world of a few Golf parts, so I went ahead and bought 4 brand new Golf fenders. (EDIT: Taiwan, if it doesn't work, try another one )



Take one grinder and cut like you'd cut a fillet steak, with abandon... unfortunately we had to damage some Datsun goods in the process, but being Datsun it can only enhance the Golf donor parts...



Naaice!!! Now I'll be able to use those Skyline Compomotives in the front, if they fit over the brake conversion though...





Comparison old vs new.





Of course the rear was rolled out, but it wouldn't look good with the front now professionally done front arches





Looks fat :mrgreen:



Oh and a certain Mr Pomp found me the radio I was looking for, not the exact model, but just as good if not better. Still in perfect condition.

Dankie Pomp!!!




Here's a bit of an update, I'm full up at work, so I'm not getting round to the car's stuff to much, though I have made some progress.

After some fiddly business with paper I managed to make this template bracket to hold the caliper in place. It's a Nissan Almera caliper btw.


Still some space to move it closer


The pads weren't completely over the disk, but I was happy some changes would be made at the cutters.



Took it to the laser cutters who scan it in and draws it up in CAD. Had him bring the caliper slightly inwards and also center it on the other holes and so on. From paper to rough template to final prototype cut from galvanised plate.




As close as it is going to get.


Pads now properly over the disk


For these brackets you have to file the strut away a small amount in two places for them to bolt down. It's very little material you remove, so it's not going to weaken it at all.


Nice and snug fit.



The caliper is much more beefier than the old one and the disk size has gone up from 12x209mm solid to 22x256mm vented. Can't see me running out of brakes with this anytime soon. Also keep in mind that the caliper mounted like I did is still perfectly in it's range of movement, as the mounting faces line up perfectly distance wise with what it did on an actual Almera strut, I measured that before removing them and was amazed to see that it was perfect when I started the first prototype bracket. Also with the Almera disk you only have to machine the hub down on the outside to fit inside the disk, and either the hub where it goes through the disk or the disk itself, otherwise the stud holes are already the right PCD, so no extra holes and crap. These weight substantially less then Caravelle or BMW disks too, I think as much as 2kg, though they are smaller, but seriously, you are only stopping like 800kg...



Then on towards the carcass this lot will eventually be bolted to.

Jackie is doing an outstanding job with paying attention to each and every little detail. He's plugged up all the holes I asked for and more. He keeps apologising for it taking so long, but I'm only to happy, since I'm busy with the brake conversion and the diff and stuff in the background, more on that after the pictures.









This car is finally going to be exactly what I wanted it to be when I first started building it in 2006/7. Unfortunately Jackie has told me that a few people has seen it and more Golfs will be cut up for their fenders int he feature...

Ok otherwise what have I done, I've designed a very nice center cover for the tappet cover which will be cut from stainless, I hope it looks ok, otherwise I'll just revert back to the OE one.

I'm having a stainless exhaust manifold flange cut, since that will be built in stainless, as well as a set of stainless flanges to again build the exhaust in 3 pieces from the manifold collector backwards. I've decided to go with 50mm from the manifold to the first straight through box, after which I'm still a bit undecided if I should keep it 50 or maybe go up a size to 57 for the pipe over the diff and the back box. The deciding factor will be if they have 57mm bends and pipe at the stainless shop. Otherwise it'll go up to 63mm, but what I will do is to make a baffle with a conical reducer that can slide in and out of the back box that brings it down to 50mm, that should keep it quiet enough for when just pottering around.

Also having a 60-2 wheel cut, these damn Opel ones are very hard to come by lately, though we have made one with a Hyundai gear the last time we did.

What else, o ja, I though while I'm building the car and everything is out, I'll also fit and measure up everything for a turbo manifold, for just incase... :twisted:

The Alfa diff I've also stripped open, the last news was the sideshaft that broke. That was gladly the only thing wrong. I opened the portion completely and put the spider gears, clutches and cones under a magnifying glass and there's absolutely no cracks, chips or anything to be worried about on them. While I was at it I also fitted the 3.3:1 crown wheel and pinion. Before it was running on a 4.3:1 and 1st was all but useless. My best times, including the 12.3, I did when launching in 2nd, every time something broke was when I launched in 1st. So my guess without using a calculator is that it'll bring 1st up by a bunch and make it a nice top end cruiser. It used to hover around 4500rpm at around 100km/h in 5th, which is way to high.

Anyway I also found another set of spider gears, shafts and cones and only need two more clutches to be able to finish another LSD center portion for the other Alfa diff I have. Standard they only have 2, so I could finish it if I wanted, but I don't need it right now so I'll keep it in pieces until I can find more clutch plates for it. Then all I need to do is have 2 shafts made up for it, I recon using 2 M75 shafts and having them machined will do the job just fine. Once that's done, then I'll have a spare diff albeit with a 4.3:1 ratio, but it can just be stuck in and I'm going again.

Phew...

So I can now continue with the brake conversion here. Will document everything I did so that it's easily repeatable.

Here's a drum hub(left) next to a disk hub(right). There does seem to be a height difference, but not to much, according to the guy's measurements they differ by 5mm, where the drum hub is 47mm and the disk one is 55mm. Also the disk hub diameter is wider on the mating surface with the rim, which means the rotor(no pun intended) might not fit over the hub, but that can be machined down so that it fits.



Went to Jackie to check on some progress and point out some more holes I wanted covered up. Am going for the clean look running wiring under the fenders and so on. Only stuff I want visible inside the engine bay is the throttle cable, plug wires and water pipes, the rest of the stuff will be hidden under the cross member and intake as much as possible.

So leeg soos 'n hoer se hart... Soon that ass will be sexy and shiny!



Here you can see some of the holes cleaned up that will be closed.



Even having the wiper motor's hole closed up, that's going to be moved inside the car now. Also I had to cut some of the stone tray out when I fitted the intercooler, you can see some pieces of box Jackie was using to make templates a he just wanted to box it in.



But after some thought I decided that I really wanted the cut piece replaced and ended up buying a complete stone tray from paint and panel for the princely sum of R114...



He'll just cut out the piece he needs and weld it in. It's cheaper than getting just that piece from the wreckers, they are sometimes insane with their prices.

Some progress on the body, having all the holes in the engine bay closed...



Also had some progress on the brake conversion. Ended up using Nissan Almera disks.



Difference in thickness, old 12mm, new 22mm.



Difference in size, old 208mm, new 258mm. You also get a solid disk for the Almera which is the same size(apparently the 280Z used this as a rear disk), but about 500g lighter...pffft



Only machine work to be done, the hub must be cut down on the OD by about 5mm to fit inside the disk. If you previously had drum hubs this cut might not be needed.







Also the spigot hole of the disk must be cut 2mm larger, so the disk can fit over the spigot. The PCD in the Almera disk is already 114.3mm. The disk on the outside has the added benefit of widening the track by 6mm on both sides, but longer studs will be needed. Will check which size rims will go over this conversion when I made the calliper brackets.



Side by side comparison of the heights.





Now I need to move on to making the brackets for the callipers to bolt to the struts. Will post more pics when doing that.

OK, I have bit of a issue here, took the calipers apart and the sliding pins were stuck. Well they eventually came out, but they have little rubber sleeves on them, and on 3 of the 4 pins they ripped as they came out. Have phoned around and only place so far is Nissan, but they sell only complete rubber kits for the calipers which included piston seal, dust seal, pin dust covers and these rubbers on the pins(if he understood what I said), but it's R785 for the lot as it's for both calipers.

I only need these little rubber bushes as all the rest is in excellent condition. Any ideas where I'd be able to find some? I have already tried Autozone, Midas, West Coast Cutch and Brake and Ferobrake.



The guy at West Coast Clutch and Brake suggested I make my own with some rubber pipes. I'm inclined to try and do that, since I have little rubber vacuum hoses that is about the right size, I'll just grind flats on 3 sides like these have to let air out the bottom of the holes. Will see if nothing turns up I'll try to make, if that fails, I'll buy from Nissan...

9