With the VW bug dash panel cut and fit, I must now remove all the support pieces and paint everything. I am pouring some of the rust bullet down inside the rear part of the fender wells. There is some rust down in there and I hope to convert it all with this rust converter.
I cut the steel dash-board stiffing plate from 18 ga. steel. This plate will be screwed on with 9 screws, 4 on the top holdin it to the original VW bug sheet-metal and 5 holding it to the new steering column support. This plate should add a lot of strength to the entire assembly.
I am now building a re-enforcement plate for the dash board. This plate will help stiffen up the dash-board/steering-column support. I will first build a template from poster board and then transfer the profile to steel. I will cut the steel and fit it in place.
The VW bug’s hood is now on and it closes OK. Once I drilled out the hinges, I mounted the hood on the car and slowly ground down both the dash support and the hinges themselves until they fit just right. They seem to be plenty strong and for now everything clears fine.
With the dash-board/steering-column support constructed, I need to insure that the VW bug hood will close. I have constructed new hood hinges and also cut a bit of the dash support out for everything to clear. All I need to do now is finish drilling out the mount holes and test fit the hood.
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.