Adding Strength

The car has been a great car but our most recent incident at the Mint 400 we learned that we need to stay on top of the fatigue that the car is seeing. There are going to be many more things that break on the car, the trick is trying to predict what is next and strengthen it before it happens. Until we figure out how to tell the future we are stuck making whatever we repair as strong as possible.

After fitting the new frame horns we measured twice, three times and then started welding.

The frame horns are solid as a rock and with the lapped connections that we made I would trust them to be as strong as a stock VW. However… we are not running on the streets and we have already had a stock VW break, so that won’t help us. We decided to eliminate the cantilever stresses that are built into the frame horn but building cage tubing supports.

We started with two vertical attachment points. these attach at either side of the transmission and bolt directly to the rear transmission mount. With those in place we started fitting a tube that would clear the starter, This tube could be bent in a few ways, but we chose to roll it, this just gave a smooth arc to the attachment point on the car.

With the new tubing bent we had to notch and fit each tube and weld them in, we sleeved the curved tube (passenger side) and simply fit the straight tube (drivers side).

With everything fit the welding began, Everything attaches directly to our cage at the same points that our shocks mount to. Triangulate as best as possible. The completed tubes were painted black and left to dry.

Finally, we were able to get everything installed for final assembly. The transmission and mounting cradle went in. Next up, we just need to throw the engine in and it will be ready for action again.

Special thanks to:
Baja Designs | Rock Barbers | FOX | Painters Grinding | Rugged Radios | Gates | C-FAB