Rabbit race car

[Metal Masher]

A wile back a fellow club member came to me to do work on his VW Rabbit race car. Well i finally got some time to make progress on it.

Lets start with the canvas devoid of all items unimportant.



To begin i had a hoop made up at a local fab shop using drawings i made at work



then i trimmed the tube and test fit it in the car



the bottom of the hoop got a plate for reinforcement.



Unfortunately with the placement of the hoop i had parts of the floor that would not allow me to get a good weld. but instead of just hacking a chunk out of the panel, i decide to cut out all the spot welds. (After hours of wire-brushing off undercoat and seam sealer first, of course!)



with the hoop so close to the B pillar i also needed to trim out a part of the inner skin as well.



then i made a plate to fill a low spot in the floor.



and finally burned it in



With the rear done i turned my attention to the front. after positioning the down bars i realized they would end up half on the rocker and half on the floor so i needed a plate to be the shape of the rocker.

A vice, pipe and a big hammer and i had what i needed



It fit pretty good



Next i test fitted the tube



Happy with the fit i bent up a plate for the floor



after double checking everything i burned them in place



finally i notched the down bar for the hoop and tacked them in place





The gaps are pretty good and the bars seem strait.

Next is more tube.

[RivBlueNoma]

Work looks nice. What kind of racing will your buddy be doing with his Rabbit?

[s.poortruck]

Nice clean welds, look like it will hold up!... what class will you be running?
SCCA? roundy round?... Here is a shot of my old mini-stock before it was ran hard and modified more.... 3/8 circle track.
Sounds like you guys have it dialed in, I have been hopping up watercooled vw's for the past 20 yrs if you guys need any go-fast tips....

[Metal Masher]

Thanks guys. Sorry it's taking to long to update this. I actually had progress on this a while back but haven't had time to post up.

He will be running it SCCA/ road rally etc. from what i understand.

the next step in the cage was to add the dash bar. but before i could i needed to determine how it would tie into the front strut towers.

I began by punching a hole through the cowl trey and placing the tube where i wanted.



then, after some thinking, i came up with some plates to cradle the tube that will get welded to the strut plates.



Now comes the cool thing about being a designer at a plant with a laser. I got a bit creative with the plates



Nice and beefy at 1/4" thick!

Next, after talking to the owner, i cut away the cowl trey and positioned the plates then cut the holes through the firewall



Now i could place the dash bar



Before i weld it up i wanted to get the seats mounted.

Once again i utilized my resources and drafted up a set of seat mounts out of 8 gauge steel with plenty of adjustment



A test to make sure they were a good fit



satisfied i attached them to the seats



then tacked them to the cage



that's it for now. the final welding will come later

[Metal Masher]

Wow how time flies! It's been a while since i last updated this but i did get some progress on this.

When i last left off i was working on the front strut towers. After some final trimming and positioning i TIG'd the plates to the cross tubes.



My welds are not the best but they are getting better.

Then before i burned them to the top plates i added caps to the end of the tubes and smoothed them over.



Then i made them permanent



I TIG'd the whole thing just for the practice.



I repeated the process on the drivers side.



and here it is all together. eventually it will have a tie bar for across the engine bay.



That's it for now.

[Metal Masher]

well i got more progress.

With the front mostly complete i turned my attention to the steering. the original mount was compromised in order to put the cage in so i made a new one to tie into the cross bar.

I started with a template



then i cut it out of some 12 ga plate



Next i threw it into my old sheet metal brake



Then it was cleaned up and holes were added



after the fit was confirmed it was burned in place



After that was done I added the diagonal bar in the main hoop and finished up all the welds



The last bars to make are the door bars.



They are not done yet as i have not decided if i like the position.

That's it for now

[Metal Masher]

Well i got more progress on this.

i finished the fitment of the door bars and fully welded them in. then finished all the welds on the seat mounts.



now the only thing left for the cage is the harness mounts but i need to get the belts from the owner first.

Since i didn't have any more to do on the cage i turned my attention to the fenders. the owner got super wide tires and hand made flairs (strait from Germany) but before i could install them i had to trim the fenders to clear the lower stance and wider rubber.

on the front i used the mark left by the factory flair as a reference.



then made the cut



it worked out real well and even took care of the rust



then i repeated the process in the rear going through the inner fender at the same time





i should be able to pinch it together and weld it up rather easily

finally i riveted one of the flairs in place



That's it for now

[2.slowduo]

Looks pretty sweet.

What are the engine plans? 8v,16v,1.8t,vr ?

[Tgreer]

I love me some vdubin!

[Jeepbri]

Das awesome

[4stAir]

Hey guys this is actually my car...
I haven't driven it in 5 years.
Can't wait to get it done. Thanks again Blake this thing looks awesome.

[Calderwood]

Awesome stuff going on in here. The tower tie ins look really good. I love early wet VWs.

[Metal Masher]

Thanks guys!

Originally Posted by 4stAir

Hey guys this is actually my car...
I haven't driven it in 5 years.
Can't wait to get it done. Thanks again Blake this thing looks awesome.

No problem Keith, i'm having fun working on it.

Here is yesterdays progress

i started with the rear quarters by tacking them shut



then continued tacking until it was solid



then it was cleaned and i threw a little paint on it.



then the flairs were installed



next i finished installing the front flairs



looks pretty good so far



then it was time to fit the dash. I measured 4 times then pulled out the hole saw



good thing i measured it so many times!





It's getting close! hopefully next update it will be done and running again.

[4stAir]

Awesome work Blake...

[EeePee]

Yep, nice.

[4stAir]

Hey Blake I broke my phone....
Got a new one, shoot me a message or something so I can touch base.

[Vinnyvkush]

nice things coming along well

[Vinnyvkush]

what motor set up r u gonna be running ?