Ben's Eagle SS

[Deleted]

My insurance is with Adrian Flux who seem to know about kit cars / modified cars. On my insurance it has the reg number and under type it says. VW Beetle, Eagle SS. Seem to cover everything.

I was thinking of trying to get the V5 changed regarding the type, but I think I might leave it for the moment if its going to cause more problems.

[Peter]

Ben, you have a complete car, that car has a V5c and that V5c has the correct VIN number and reg number for the car, be thankful. not many have that. and I agree, let sleeping dogs lie because the DVLA, although the of the world, (oh yes they are) they are also THICK!
Just get an OEC VIN plate from the club shop, letraset or stamp the V5c info on it and plonk it in the boot, that should save you having to pull up the carpet everytime someone wants to look at the VIN number.

To give you and idea of other worlds, like Spain, I had a chance to buy a 1981 BMW 318 coupe, a classic car if ever there was one, for a snip of 400€ BUT it would cost me at least another 400€ to get it changed into my name and it has the equivalent of SORN on it since 2003 (what we call 'Baja' or down) and as it has been baja for over three years it may be impossible to make it 'Alta' or up' again AND next year ALL cars have to comply to new emission regulations which means fitting a cat + lamda + ECU +carb/injection mods at a cost of at least 2,000€ which will scrap all old cars unless it's over 25 and at a cost of about 450€ it can be re-registered as an Historic car (and get a 'H' plate) but then the insurance goes up from 160€ to 600€ plus.
Think your selves lucky, even just buying a car from the man in the street can cost 200€ just to change the ownership!

[Deleted]

Hi everyone, had 5 mins today to think bout the car. Few questions as per usual.

Firstly sound proofing, is this something i should plan on installing before putting the body back on the chassis? if so what's best type?
im not keen on the expanding foam route that some people have taken on euronova. Seems very.... permanent?
What about the roll on stuff (which i assume is similar to roof insulation) whats the advantage/disadvantage?
Also there different types for under the carpet to the stuff around the cabin?

......Carpet....
Is carpeting my car a job i can attempt do myself? If so, wheres the best place to get cheap car carpet? Do I even need car specific carpet?
The old man used to be a carpet layer back in the day with my grandad, which is probably a good advantage tool wise as we've got a huge box of carpet laying tools.
Does anyone have any advice on how to carpet a car?

Cheers Ben

[Peter]

I used carpet and got a CAR carpet fitter, mobile, to come and do it, he took a little over half an hour to cut the shapes and back two days later with it all edged and fitted it. about £140 and worth it.

After the rats had eaten most of my carpet I re covered in a heavy 'soiund box' felt as it went round the shapes well so less seams.

Vw used a pitch/foam sandwich on the floor and you can buy sheets of the stuff, good for under the carpets. a 1/2" layer of dense foam over the rear bulkhead before carpet or a heavy underlay felt.

original carpets 1996




new felt 2007 and real alloy chequer plate floor, (you can use plasic but it isn't the same)



The stuff to the left of the door opening on the windscreen is the 1/2" felt I was talking about

[Deleted]

Thought I'd show everyone how I fitted my manual choke this weekend.

I used a bus heater cable from Machine7's sale (along with some very cheap wheel spacers).
www.machine7.com/product.php?xProd=2840

Attached it to the left heater lever


Out through the rear fuel hole


Attached to the fan shroud and around to my Nikki carb




Best of all IT WORKS!! :clapping:

[Peter]

K.I.S.S every time, unless you are me of course ;D

[Deleted]

Jon can you confirm if you're getting my pms ;D

[Deleted]

Right, I'm well on my way to getting the body back on the chassis.

Some new studs and bolts - £75
Some brake tweeeeking
A new petrol tank - seems the 1300 one doesnt fit, so trying to finding a used pre-68 one to test fit/use/buy a new one after test fitting.
Some sound proofing
New reverse switch
Chassis to body rubber
....and we're good to go!!

One thing im going to try and do while the body is up is the lights.
I have the rears (some HGV ones will do for now and for £30 cant complain) and the fronts, but no headlight lifting motor.

I've read Peter's how-to-stabilise guide (guides either side and air strut) but how do i attach the lifting motor to the bar and what kind of motor do I use?
Am I getting a used headlight lifting motor from evilbay or windscreen wiper unit (of which I have but no idea how to use in this way). Nothing in the past threads cover this.
Cheers Ben

[Deleted]

Oh and a massive thanks to Jon L for
Seats
Steering wheel
front disks and rear irs bits


and a smaller thanks to Joe Havasu on VSI for a brake reservior, top bloke $25 all cleaned up, new grommits and delivered.

[Peter]

The headlights pop up from command from a relay powered by the input to the dip switch from the light switch. there is a scematic on the technical pages of the EOC site.

www.eagleownersclub.org.uk/Technical/HEADLIGHT%20RELAY.jpg

Basicly the power from the dip switch input closes a 5 pole relay with +30 (perm live feed) and tells the motor to run and lift the lights, when the switch hits the stop (screw) it opens and stops in the up position. that switch is now open, the other one is closed ready to get power and the 5 pole relay is open on the +30 side, when you switch the lights off the 5 pole relay closes on the +30 side and passes +30 to the switch and the lights drop, stopping when the micro switch opens.

The wiper motor is a standard old fashion two speed with the chassis earthed and I put the fast on the up and slow down (as it has the advantage of weight).

The motor is fixed to the side of the boot on a plate stood off with spacers (and a beefy plate to take the tourque on the outside of the boot) to allow the arm to move and a short arm goes from the spindle to a link rod which fixed to an arm clamped to the cross bar by a 2" exhaust U clamp. I have taken some photos which I hope you can see what I mean. Motor rotates 180 degrees to lift and continues 180 degrees to drop.



Micro switches on left side of boot


Motor showing arm clamped to bar and link rod going back to opertating arm on motor


Top view showing arm, clamp and link rod, the shiny bit is the operating arm, more of a plate realy, with holes in it.


Shows, motor in position under cross bar and the two leads (+30 and lights on) going to the switches and the two leads returning from the switches to the motor.


Basic set up and diamensions

[Deleted]

Cheers Peter, I'll have a go at doing it this weekend.

[Peter]

Well, best of luck, by the way I would fit a cap on the brake tank that has a float so you can fit a low fluid level warning light. If you can't get one it's not too difficult to make something up in the current cap.
TWO brake light switches? I have only ever seen one on the rear section for whole system and one pipe off of rear to T on frame fork for rear brakes and two out of the front to left and right fronts.

[chrisbailey]

Wouldnt it have been easier to fit the headlight motors from a mass produced car, those switches are asking for trouble, surely the damp would get to them and cause issues, nevermind all of the modifications and adjustments to get them to lift properly.

[Peter]

As far as I know ALL mass produced cars with pop ups are quite large bulky items requiring a large amount of work to provide support and mounting under the nose with individual motors and lifters, often resulting in one up and one down and jamming is quite common too. The standard SS set up whilst based on the Porsche 928 is far removed from the original but in the 13 years I have had my set up I can say that once I had sorted the problems, due mainly to cross bar movement in the fiber glass which has been cured by the plastic bearing plates as described earlier, and the re-working of the relays, I have had no problems at all. The original idea was for a manual switch to raise and lower but it still required a stop switch but I believe this was mounted on the large metal plate that mounts the motor acting on the cam on the motor spindle. Although not my way of thinking but very good looking and by far the best is the Fiat coupe headlights as on Acids Nova, they really look as if they are meant to be there and as the nose angle on the SS is slightly different to the Nova they fit even better but then we come to the when is a SS not an SS?

[Deleted]

There is a very nice looking Avante on ebay at the moment with Fiat Coupe headlights. They look good on this car too. Cold weather & other tasks have prevented me from making progress on my own Fiat Coupe headlight conversion but early indications are that (in my opinion) it works well.

[Peter]

Ben, in case you didn't get my PM on Nova check out these headlights, silly cheap

cgi.ebay.co.uk/FIAT-COUPE-HEADLIGHTS-X2_W0QQitemZ220538442619QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item33591d937b

[Deleted]

Ok so due to the severe lack of internet over my uni easter holidays i havent updated but have got a few steps closer to mating the chasis and body together.....

Firstly a petrol tank!!!
Picked up at Elemental last weekend. All painted and ready to go into place.
Needs an electric sender as the mechanical one wont reach the dashboard, and a new outlet elbow as this was dead. As Im back in coventry now, I'll just pop up to machine 7 as i need to talk to them about the wheels anyway.




the pink is a mixture of the red-oxide paint and some white hammerite i had laying about, it's black now anyway.

I also had to replace the two rear cylinders as these had seized and one of them leaked....annoying considering i had just rebuilt/cleaned them.
might have to replace the fronts as i dont trust them now.

I hooked up the front lights, kept the originals for the moment. Goes up and down with a windscreen wiper motor, will add some picks when i get back home. only need to add a bonnet strut to keep it from wobbling, but should be easy compared to the bitch of a job making all the linkage was to connect the motor to the rotating bar.

Finally I picked up a fibreglass kit, and managed to fabricate a rear window cover.
Needs trimming so it's flat and a fair few layers as its a bit thin but should be just the trick!
God fibreglassing is awkward and very sticky!





next job is to finish that and to add a few more mounting points so i can properly fit the tank. Then add some roofing flashing for sound proofing. and i can matt the body and chassis together.

[Deleted]

I read somewhere that the original Eagle SS came with 14' revolutions up front and 15 at the rear. ADM i have 15's all round but have the chance to buy some 14's.
Does it matter that much, apart from my own ocd-ness? My initial feeling was that if i lowered the front anymore I'd be scraping the ground, but does it improve the aethetical stance and handling at all?

[Deleted]

My Charger 1 has 14's up front and 15's in the rear. In real terms it doesn't make that much of a difference. If you have 15's all round and the wheels are in good order then keep them and adjust the look with different profile tyres...a slight nose down stance helps the overall look ;D One thing to watch out for is wheel width. If I remember rightly the rear wheels were 7J x 15.......these are way too big for the front. 6J's max up front otherwise the steering is just too heavy

The most important factor in my opinion is to get the ride height right for road use but also to ensure that body looks right on the chassis...I.e. No huge gaps between the top of the wheel arches and the tyres........some of the Cortina based SS's suffer from this issue.

The rear end can be tinkered with by rotating the rear torsion bars on their splines and my favourite for the front end is the Red9 Design kit which gives you a 2-4 inch adjustment range and coilover shocks. Infact Red9 have developed an adjustable rear set up but its mega-expensive........looks trick though.

Good luck Chris

PS Check out Peter's SS...looks like he's got the stance and the ride-height covered

[Peter]

Fronts are 8x15 moonshine steel modular and rears are 10x15,
Tyres are Cooper GT 205/65-15 front and 255/65-15 rear, I'm pleased to say I researched a lot and got it right first time.

Suspension; Post '69 swing axles (2 1/2" wider than pre '69), Std beam with double sway ways, all set about 1 1/2" lower

TP; front at 1.5 bar, rears at 2.5 bar.

The Eagle SS didn't come with any size wheels as it was based on either Ford Cortina or VW beetle chassis, the wheels from both were totally unsuitable as standard fitting so it was entirely up to the builder as to what went on, in the day Turbo vacs were the thing or Slots. I use steel as they are a lot cheaper, (about £30 each at the time) stronger, easy to sort if bent or kerbed but slightly heavier.

[Deleted]

May 7, 2010 9:04:21 GMT Peter said:

Fronts are 8x15 moonshine steel modular and rears are 10x15,
Tyres are Cooper GT 205/65-15 front and 255/65-15 rear, I'm pleased to say I researched a lot and got it right first time.

Suspension; Post '69 swing axles (2 1/2" wider than pre '69), Std beam with double sway ways, all set about 1 1/2" lower

TP; front at 1.5 bar, rears at 2.5 bar.

The Eagle SS didn't come with any size wheels as it was based on either Ford Cortina or VW beetle chassis, the wheels from both were totally unsuitable as standard fitting so it was entirely up to the builder as to what went on, in the day Turbo vacs were the thing or Slots. I use steel as they are a lot cheaper, (about £30 each at the time) stronger, easy to sort if bent or kerbed but slightly heavier.

8's & 10's Peter...............you must have the upper arm and shoulder development that big Arnie would have been proud of

One of my old buggies had 7's up front and it was murder at lower speed and car park manouvering.

Well Ben ............you have your answer ;D

[Peter]

Well, a bit, at 17 stone and not fat.
Oh, and rack and pinion steering.

[Deleted]

A very busy weekend for me, the misses, the old man and my best mate (plus little sister for a while).

Firstly a few jobs including fitting the fuel tank, siliconing the chassis/body rubber on (used roofing silicone, black sticky stuff), adding a fuel filter, replacing the steering column which had bent, replacing the steering coupling rubber thingy and drilling holes in the rear battery plate for the battery tray.

And then......one big job....joining the body and chassis together....major effort even with 5 of us to get it down, god knows how 3 of us put it up.




So I have a car again, rather than a rolling chassis. It's amazing how much spaceous the garage seems without the body hanging from the rafters.
Few things to note, i definitely need to cut bigger (ill make it prettier too) hole in the front boot area for the steering box, as it's still a bit close.
The whole body mounting rim is seriously out in some places, the rear corners are totally exposed to the wheel arch, so i'll need to add fibreglass and some more rubber/expanding foam to totally seal it. And finally rather annoyingly (although i did think it would be) the air filter is too tall, so that'll need cutting down.

Few more pics.....







Oh and one more thing....new wheels, at least for the moment (the revolutions have been put on hold while i save up for adapters) .... cost £40, the seller was gutted, pretty much new Pirellis on them.



p.s. something i didnt post a while ago, a new gearstick

[Deleted]

Right first job today was to see how my new wheels sit. With a one inch spacer on the rear (rears being, i think 6 or 7) there is still a huge gap to the edge of the wheel arch (It doesnt look that bad from the pic, but from the rear 3/4 it's really noticable). So I'm on the look out for some 8 or 9 wide modulars to fill that space.



Due to this, rather regretably, my current Revolutions are out of the window, or rather up for sale.
I really wanted to keep them, but it seems they're just too much of an effort and not wide enough at the rear.

One day I may buy some new 15"s Revolution 5 spokes (maybe 6s and 8s). After talking to a rep at the kit car show, they can make their current 5 spokes to vw 4x130 spec even though they dont officially sell them. But for the moment the steelies will do.

My second job was to fit the rear lights. I'm adding all my electronic parts on a build up to wiring everything up!
They need a little tweaking, but i'm happy with how they look, I want to see if a bumper would make them less prominent, so if anyone has one please let me know.

[chrisbailey]

Is that how far your dog house sits above the body work?
If so OMG, my engine lid may be coming off for a while.

[Deleted]

Yep afraid it does, shows how low the car is, the airfilter needs to be cut down by half so i can close the engine lid.

I'm planning on rebuilding a 1600 with one of these horizontal fan shrouds with twin carbs, which may lower the height.

[Deleted]

So at some point i knew I'd have to tackle the windscreen surround and the huge amounts of silicone on it. I had a look on some forums and found that there is no magic silicone remover (the b&q stuff doesnt work on windscreen stuff), just a combination of elbow grease, latex gloves, kitchen scouring pads, wire pads, stanley knife, sandpaper and chisels. Rub, rub, scratch, scrape and rub, repeat.....

This is one hours work, so in a few evenings it should be all done!!!

[Peter]

Steel moonshine modulars look cool but as I use them I am a bit biased.
I don't understand why your engine sticks out so far, I use a centre shroud kit and duel DellOrtos but all under the boot lid line.


Rear lights are OK-ish, but a bit truck and trailer but 'French' them into the bodywork so the lenses are flush with the bodywork would change all that and look kool too

[Deleted]

That's probably because they are truck lights, want to graft in some sunken rounds but for the moment these will do.

[Deleted]

Ben

I've got a twin choke Weber carb with a low profile K&N filter which sits lower than your carb set up. Also I have a stock engine with solex carb and the carb on that sits lower in relation to the fan shroud than yours appears to....are you sure everything is fitted correctly? Fan shroud also looks high in relation to the bodyshell..........was it that high when you got the car originally?

As far as the screen sealant stuff...I found that paint thinners softened it up a bit but it smells bad...is inflammable and you want to make sure you clean it all off before applying a top coat or re-fixing your screen.

Rear lights look okay in my opinion...mount your rear number plate between them on a plinth of some sort and you have a smart continous line across the rear ...visually it'll lower and widen the car and take away the truck-ness of the light units.

If you want to sell you revolutions give me a shout when you're ready...I don't need tyres and have a friendly courier that'll pick up from you. PM me with price and details,

Good progess on the SS........................keep it up ;D

Chris