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worn out beat up snow trac resto

western auto

Active member
i bought this machine a while back for far less than asking price ( thankfully) and brought it home from pennsylvania to az / after cleaning it up , inspecting it ,getting it running and installing a new variator belt, i decided that i had probably not made the best purchase and best course of action was to suck it up cancel my ideas for this winter and plan on next winter, this thing had a badly bent chassis , both front legs were bent down and spread out, engine crossmember bent, body sides buckled and rusy, front end was smashed , top was all broken above rear door. rear body panels cracked , and every fastener rusted beyond removal ( torch time)
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Cidertom

Chionophile
GOLD Site Supporter
It's not the worst that has been seen here,or there. User Puckle here chronicled his rebuild. A user on one of the facebook ST groups had the pict. It now looks like showroom. Welcome and take your time.
glennstarting point.jpg
 

western auto

Active member
few more pics/ pounded 2x2x1/4 into straightened front frame rails , steel sprockets have beat the growsers up pretty bad ..... ill save that project for another day , i am a ways beyond this stage already so i will update the thread here and there..... hopefully i can figure out how to get the pics straight in the meantime
 

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3512b

Junior Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Its All part of the fun
you can always shit can everything and take up Stamp collecting if you want easy or Water colors...
.. "My what a lovely sunset... i just set up my paints have my tea and Whala!

there's always surprises....with these things, at lease you have a nice shop .. in my case ..not so much :(
And my helpers not worth a dam just want to east and Shi...
and there's always help here
 

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western auto

Active member
new reduction starter, built some heater boxes using vw type 4 heater control valves, i will be running a doghouse motor , cut off the old rotten foam filled tires , i will be going full pneumatic
 

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western auto

Active member
first pic showing bent engine crossmember before i straightened it and pounded a 2x2x1/4 sleeve through it , new tires from mn outdoors arrived, picked up parts to rebuild the brakes, mock up of 1-3/4 exhaust routed under transaxle, picked up a race trim intake with a zenith 32ndix and a 356 knecht sport air cleaner, had to build a carb plate with a throttle cross shaft and move tube in shroud up about 1.5" , few pics of my heater boxes mocked up on an empty case
 

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Cidertom

Chionophile
GOLD Site Supporter
If you haven't done it already, those tires need to be warm before you try to mount them. about 80 deg F worked for me.
 

western auto

Active member
after finding rear body panels broken from stress cracks i decided to box in the rear section of chassis to support body mounts , then redesign the rear structure and skin very similar to earlier 2 band models, will be building an inner bolt in door frame structure to tie top into tub better .... door closing action was ripping the aluminum panels on the hard top, also made some new fender trim out of aluminum angle
 

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PradoTDI

Member
Wow, this is quite the project! Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Oh, and is that a RHD Type 34 Ghia I see in the first photo? Way cool!
 

western auto

Active member
yes rhd t34 my friend sold to a guy in california, stripped the top down to original paint with the steam cleaner, needs a bit of repair but i will use the corners for now to align my new rear body skins, hammered the front inner fender fairly straight , more on that later after i do about 4 feet of rust repair on both sides....
 

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western auto

Active member
tig welded a few extra holes up .... i guess the factory missed a few times here and there with the drill, decided to weld up the rear corner trims for a cleaner look
 

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western auto

Active member
my buddy machined me some new sleeves and 4130 20mm pins
 

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western auto

Active member
tony also tuned up my sprockets, he went with a mild press fit. tacked then then beveled on the lathe and made a few passes on each side
 

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Puckle

Well-known member
SUPER Site Supporter
Hi Bj, I see you have opted for 16t as well, what sort of horsepower are you re-building your engine to? - presumably a twin port, what cc? I have a single port 1600 but my gearbox only has 4.375 ring and pinion set so gearing was very low to start with.
 

western auto

Active member
well i wasnt quite ready for this update but ill clue you in, after driving my trac with the stock 1600 i would be surprised if it went more than 15mph floored and 4th gear felt like 1st in a normal vw, ...... my transaxle is currently in the hands of a long time sand buggy trans builder and is in a million pieces, it had 12t sprockets , 38t big sprockets and we found a 4.12 r&p with a 2 spider diff........ i decided to keep the stock .89 fourth and gearset but upgrade to a welded 3rd and 4th, 4 pinion billet superdiff, heavy duty sideplates and a 3.88 ring and pinion for its strength (the 4.39 and 4.12 are weak) ,my math calculates 30.5 mph at 5000 rpm , motorwise i had a doghouse 2180cc that i pulled out of a baja singlecab that sat for 35+ years , the previous owner said it was new when he parked it, i did fire it up and it sounded fine a few years ago, i took the motor to dave at d&k import ( he has been doing race/street/ offroad motors for 40 years) we tore the motor down and found a perfect 8 dowel 82mm german spg roller crankshaft, ported heads, stainless valves w titanium retainers etc, i will be cutting the case for 94's and running thick wall 92's with a compression ratio 8.5-1, i was going to run an engle fk65 cam but was delighted to find the mystery motor had a perfect old norris cams 352s- that is a 1000-5000 powerband about .460/.490 lift w 1.4 ratio rockers, for carburation i am using an old race trim intake with a single porsche zenith 32ndix/ yes it has heat risers and a choke, i figure 90-100 hp of reliable power / i am still tossing around the idea of using a vertex mag / all this being said as of yet i have zero experience operating this machine in the snow .......... i have a cabin in swains creek outside duck creek village utah, i will be running at 8500' elev so my hp numbers may drop quite a bit, most of my driving will be trail riding around the area and road travel to the town...... and possibly pulling hondas out of the ditch :LOL:
 

Cidertom

Chionophile
GOLD Site Supporter
15 on snow feels faster than it is. In my experience, the suspension isn't good for much more than 20mph and that on really good snow. The other caution is the brakes on snow tracks suck. If you are upping the hp that much, I would also consider reinforcing the upper support wheel mounting.
 

western auto

Active member
15 on snow feels faster than it is. In my experience, the suspension isn't good for much more than 20mph and that on really good snow. The other caution is the brakes on snow tracks suck. If you are upping the hp that much, I would also consider reinforcing the upper support wheel mounting.
my chassis has been fully sleeved with 2x2x1/4 , i wanted the 4th gear high speed for roading the machine on snow covered graded roads....... maybe i should build a longer swing arm and mount a coil over on my front bogies :unsure:.. i did have thoughts of a 2" lift for more ground clearance but that was just a thought, in fourth i should be around 22 at mph 4000 rpm and 19 mph at 3500 , hopefully my torque monster stroker will hang with that
 
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western auto

Active member
here is the break down for a 3.88 r&p , the 16t/38t factors in an adittional 2.37 final reduction( i divided the mph by this) i went with 15.5" sprocket diameter for these numbers growser height may change that a bit?/ the chart numbers are mph before calculating sprocket reduction
 

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Puckle

Well-known member
SUPER Site Supporter
Yeah, my calcs got 19mph at 4000rpm on 4.375 R&P but I treated 4th as 1:1 as I didn't check the ratio when I rebuilt it.
 

western auto

Active member
a few weeks on and off working on the frone end, bumper straightened, all angle iron pieces heated and bent back to shape, new nuts welded on, converting everything to course thread hardware , front hood latch support straight and rust repaired
 

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western auto

Active member
bent up a new bumper filler, built some new tow hooks, installed a 14ga galvanized 1/4 hole punch plate grille, made some new bumper supports and end caps for the grille
 

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western auto

Active member
thanks pjl, i picked up my powdercoated wheels, i bought tires and high pressure tubes from minnesota outdoors..........Do i need to install rim liners or just baby powder the tubes and put them in??
 

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