I have been waiting on a piece of steel tubing so I can complete the front sway bar. Now that it’s here, I can start the modification on the front sway bar. I need to remove 4″ of the sway bar for it to fit with the front end of the VW bug. As you can see I have cut the bar at a 45 degree angle to try and keep the torque from twisting it under load. I will then put a variety of plug welds through the tube into the bar itself.
I am now completely finished with the VW bug’s internal coolant tubes. I am now planning the plumbing to the engine itself. There is a lot of plumbing to do so I need to make sure that everything will fit.
I now have a new slide show on the new “MR2 VW Bug pics page 7” page. MR2 VW bug pics page 7
I have to insulate both the main coolant tubes. After I cut and cleaned up the ends I wrapped the tubes with some high heat insulation and then completely wrapped both tubes with foil tape. The foil tape will add a reflective component to try and retain the heat inside of the tubes and out of the passenger compartment.
I now have the hydraulic clutch line in place and I have checked it for leaks. I am trying to finalize the main coolant tubes so that I can apply the heat insulation and install them for the last time.
The VW bug’s clutch is hydraulic and will need a line run from the front to the rear of the chassis. The hard line will attach to a braided stainless flexline connected to the clutch slave cylinder. Since the line will run through the chassis, I will feed it through from the back and attach it with clamps inside the chassis.
I can now cut out the front VW bug strut link with my cut-off wheel. The video stops for some reason during the first cut, but I finally get it all cut out. I have to expand the tubing a bit on the ends so that the MR2 spherical strut mounts will fit. But a little bit more grinding and drilling and it should fit fine.
With my MR2 front strut link template created, I can trace the profile to the steel tubing. The template is made from 1/4″ foam board and the link itself is 1.5″x1.5″ steel tubing. I will now cut the steel tubing a bit longer and slowly grind it down to fit.
Now that I have everything lined up and all my measurements, I need to construct the VW bug’s top strut link from 1.5″x1.5″ steel tubing. I slowly cut a 1×2 board down to the correct length and clamped it to the MR2 strut mounts off setting it a bit so I can place the foam template. The foam template will be 1.5″ wide and will fit the front profile of the link.
Now that I have both of the front MR2 strut mounts finished, I put a small bend in the tabs to align them straight across. I then cut a board to fit across both mounts and clamped them to the tabs. With the foam template in place under the board it appears that everything is lining up OK. I will need to remove the VW bug body once more to continue with the lower support.