With everything aligned on the VW bug’s dash-board/steering-column support I can tack it all in place. Once I had a few tack welds holding it all together, I removed everything from the car and finished welding the barckets and all of the nuts on.
After trimming a bit of steel from the Toyota MR2’s steering support brackets, I can now continue to strengthen the assembly. I am creating a few angle members to stiffen the unit from side to side. These small brackets will be welded to the angle iron and bolted to the side supports. I have also drilled out all the bolts that will hold it to the remaining VW bug sheet-metal.
After assembling the dash support, I need to adjust it a bit to support the MR2 steering column. I need to have the 2×2 angle a bit closer to the front of the VW bug’s nose. I will trim up the side brackets to accomplish this. Using paint I am marking the edges of the side brackets so I can trim them up.
I have decided on the plan to mount the MR2’s steering wheel in the VW bug. I will build a support that is attached from one side of the interior sheetmetal to the other. This support will be made of a piece of 2×2 angle iron and two pieces of 10 gauge flat steel. It will take a little while to get everything in the right position.
The VW bug pedal placement continues. I now have a plywood template to hold both the brake and clutch pedels in place. After a ton of measurments the pedals are very close to their final positions. All in all everything is fitting fairly well.
This is getting fairly tough. The placement of the MR2 pedals and their associated master cylinders is critical. I have to take into account where the pedals with be in the foot-box as well as how all the hardware will clear the existing custom framing. Oh yeah, it also has to fit inside the VW bug’s body shell. Wish me luck.
With the seats in their final locations I can now try and fit the pedals and steering column. I am starting to cut away the internal sheetmetal around the firewall to give me room to position everything. It looks like I can fit the new firewall straight up from the original.
With both of the VW bug seat brackets cut, drilled, bolted and welded I can finish the installation of the seats. Everything lined up well and the seats are extremely stable. Now I can start the steering column and foot box.
Now that I have the VW bug’s front seat bracket location, I can go ahead and mount it to the frame. Again I am welding 4 mounting brackets to the main frame so that the bracket can be taken off and on. Once complete both seat brackets can be directly bolted to the frame.
With the rear seat bracket in place, I need to position the front bracket. I am using the same fastening system as for the rear only a bit smaller. I will bolt and weld the brackets together and then weld the assembly to the frame.