Rip VWs 27 T Coupe

[Rip VW]

Thought I would start a thread on my 27 T. Last info I posted I was working the brake system and had to replace my pedal assembly of which I have on order with Ron Pope, (RPM). I should be getting it by the weekend or early next week.

In the mean time I am fitting the firewall and getting ready to install the brake pedal and steering column. I was trying to size up my S10 steering column and after realizing there was a ton of work just to make the column workable I am going to go with a generic keyless GM "Smoothie" Column. They are not that expensive on Flea Bay and it will make installation a lot simpler. The S-10 column had a plate type of firewall mount on the end of the tube so that would have to be removed and the upper mount would not lend itself easily to make the mounts work and not be ugly as sin.

So I scored me a seat today purely by chance. Yesterday the wife was driving up to the store and about 3 blocks away she spotted a car seat setting in a driveway with a free sign on it. When she got home she told me about the seat. She didn't know what type other than a bench seat so I figured I would at least check it out tomorrow (Today). I wasn't worried about rain as it has been dry here and is expected to stay dry for a few more days. So I jumped in the car this morning and drove up to the place with the seat and brought my tape measure with me. I noted it was a 2nd or 3rd row seat out of a Chrysler minivan. It measured out to be a good candidate width wise and was in pretty darn good shape. Bout then the owner came out and asked if I was interested in it and if I was he would load it up for me and send me on my way. I told him I'll take it but I had to go get my pickup and would be back in a few minutes.. Anyway I scored the seat for free and he even loaded it for me... This kind of seat I had been on the lookout for so I now I have a nice bench seat ready to make fit in the car..
A famous quote "I love it when a plan comes together"

 

[Spanky]

Those Mopar minivan seats find a home in lots of T-buckets. Way to go! Hot-rodding at its finest . . .

 

[TheYeti]

Mine is 3rd row out of a mini van. It's 5" too wide so I'm going to section the seat frame to shorten it.

I thought I had grabbed the nicest looking one there (getting hard to find these bench seats.. most are buckets these days) but after I had brought it home from the junkyard and it warmed up.. it started to reek and felt sticky. Oh well. The seat frame is still a great starting point. It's build very heavy.

 

[fletcherson]

Mine is 3rd row out of a mini van. It's 5" too wide so I'm going to section the seat frame to shorten it.

I thought I had grabbed the nicest looking one there (getting hard to find these bench seats.. most are buckets these days) but after I had brought it home from the junkyard and it warmed up.. it started to reek and felt sticky. Oh well. The seat frame is still a great starting point. It's build very heavy.

The first row behind the driver seat is shorter because it allows room to get to the rear seats. Depending on the year. They are just about right for a standard bucket. Not difficult to narrow or whatever if you can weld.

 

[Rip VW]

You may have a point about being the 2nd row seat. It had an armrest on the right side and that was sticking out to far. I removed the armrest and related hardware and separated the back from the bottom cushion. I set the cushion in the T on top of 2 4X4's and then set the backrest in position and it is going to fit nicely. This seat is 43" wide at the widest part of the upholstery bottom of seat. The measured width of the cabin is right at 43" at about 16 inches up. The fit looks good and the only thing I have to do is shrink the plastic covers over the mechanicals. I haven't set in it yet but I hope the height works from where I am now which is 3 1/2" for the 4X4 and about an inch or seat mount. I took the aluminum risers off the seat as they would not set the seat level but tilted the seat back to much. I am curious what the average seat height in a T is? I seem to remember a 4 inch riser under the original 27 seat frame but I am guessing the seat itself was around 8" thick with no weight in it. So now I need to position the seat where I am comfortable and that will dictate brake pedal position and steering column location and then what is left is to find somewhere to put the loud pedal.. all this and so on and so Sometimes I really wonder what I got myself into.........

 

[Rip VW]

Ok and nice progress day here at the shop. My new brake pedal assembly arrived this morning. Nice looking pedal. I have wrestled the seat into the T and did some rough adjusting and the fit is excellent and setting on the 4X4s and so I had to get in and try it out. Ahhhh I am going to need to move the seat forward as when I set in the seat my feet were 8 inches from the firewall. Well at least a tall person will fit so I will make sure I have a second set of mounting holes for the seat just in case I ever need to accommodate a taller person. I took a friends advice and checked sight line and I think I am at maximum seat height as my sight line is smack dab in the center of the windshield. I like it and I feel great about scoring this seat. I like how the headrests are just barely visible in the rear window.. So now back to the brake pedal and steering column...

 

[Spanky]

OK, RIP. admit it . . . you sat there and made vroom-vroom noises!

(PS - the seat looks great!)

 

[old round fart]

Are coupe doors really that wide or did you stretch them?

 

[Rip VW]

The doors are stock I just had the seat back against the rear wall.. It sure made for a roomy cab that is for sure. Oh and my legs arn't that short, ha ha ha
On another note, Hell yeah I made engine noises.....

 

[Spanky]

Hell yeah I made engine noises.....

We've all done it!

 

[Indycars]

Hell yeah I made engine noises.....

It's what gives you just enough motivation to keep going forward. Just the pretend thought
it is working can do amazing things for the spirit !

 

[Rip VW]

Yeah I moved the seat forward to where I can reach the pedals and suddenly it ain't so roomy. I did a temp mockup of the new brake pedal today and I see I need to move it 2 inches to the right and then the column fits so I will be working on the pedal move the first of next week. Tomorrow I am doing a big road trip to Vancouver WA to pick up some electronic stuff for my Electronics lab here at home so Sunday will be recovery day..
Oh Yeah Varoom Varoom and it does help keep the fire kindled!!!!!!!

 

[Island Girl]

Tomorrow I am doing a big road trip to Vancouver WA to pick up some electronic stuff for my Electronics lab here at home.
Oh Yeah Varoom Varoom and it does help keep the fire kindled!!!!!!!

Now you're speaking my language . . . . a man after my own heart . . . .

 

[Rip VW]

I have gotton a little work done on the coupe. I finally got the brake pedal / Master cylinder assembly mounted. I moved the whole pedal assembly to the right 1" and that should give me enough room for the steering column to fit. Who knows where the throttle will be but one problem at a time.
Speaking of steering column, I am waiting for my free government money to show up so I can order up a new column and all the hardware to mount it. Oh that brings up the steering box.
The car will be using a vega cross steer and I spent about 4 hours digging in the stuff still packed from the move to find the steering box and mounts for it. I have to set back and figure exactally where it will set on the frame and then ensure I can hook the steering shaft up and still clear the engine mounts.
Ahhh a typical way this project goes, if slot A dosen't clear part B item C won't work then you need to redesign part B and then something else is affected.
So just a couple of brake pedal shots in it's new position..

 

[fletcherson]

Nice work!
Free government money??? Come on man! You know NOTHING is FREE from the government, lol. We will all pay dearly for it, those of us who actually self support, that is. No offense intended, just my uncontrolled sarcasm. I too accepted their election infection penance. Funny how it stated that it was not to be claimed as income on our tax returns but we had to list it when we filed.
I understand what you are going through at this stage of your build. I changed the column, brakes, clutch, accelerator, etc too. Basically re designed the entire controls and occupant parts of mine. My advice would be not to weld anything other than tacking it until you have everything as you like... gremlins seem to appear out of no where.

 

[Rip VW]

Oh yeah I know them gremlins well. I was looking at the vega steering box and mount and path for the steering linkage and I could see them hanging around the engine mount. Gonna need to get my gremlin extermator charged and ready.. On the freebe money I missed the first 2 handouts cause I had just sold my old home and cashed the wifes retirement fund and it looked like I was making over a quarter million a year. Damn Taxes anyway.

 

[fletcherson]

Oh yeah I know them gremlins well. I was looking at the vega steering box and mount and path for the steering linkage and I could see them hanging around the engine mount. Gonna need to get my gremlin extermator charged and ready.. On the freebe money I missed the first 2 handouts cause I had just sold my old home and cashed the wifes retirement fund and it looked like I was making over a quarter million a year. Damn Taxes anyway.

I too just sold one of our houses. My accountant said I will have to pay “a little bit”, lol... haven’t mustered the courage to go pick up my returns... it’s just money. I hate it, but you can’t do without it.
I also swapped steering boxes and went with a aftermarket Vega style box and one of RPM’s mounts. I actually shortened a Cadillac tilt/telescoping column to help with entering and exiting via the drivers side door because being a standard shift would make it cumbersome to try to use the passenger side as so many do. My column shaft was much larger than the Vega box input shaft so I had to source a adapter u joint. I also had a strange angle between the box and column. I found a good vendor for the u joints on eBay and made it work using two joints. RPM is a good source for your type and stage of build. He is a hands on guy and will help you out, even make custom parts.

 

[Rip VW]

Well the Gremlins came out of the woodwork and attacked!!! I was clamping the steering box to the frame to get some initial measurements. I noted the steering input shaft was blocked by the upper portion of the motor mount. I tried shifting things around to get past the mount but NO Luck. It looks like I am going to have to redesign the motor mounts!

When I initially installed the mounts about 5 years ago I had a clearance problem with the engine and trans and the rear crossmember. I needed to raise the engine 1 inch higher that it was when I installed the mounts so I built a 1 inch spacer between the mount and engine block. This move solved my problem I thought. Well the gist of it is if I had built the mount 1 inch higher I would have solved that problem and todays problem both. So now I need to tear both current motor mounts out and rebuild them 1 inch higher and that should also give me enough clearance for the steering shaft to clear the mounts, plus I won't need the spacers on the engine any more. I am not looking forward to this as I have enough work just finishing the rest of the steering let alone rebuilding the motor mounts so it's move forward and then fall back and a continuation of slot A don't fit on slot B because the previous step was not anticipated to be needed till this point.... ARGGGGHHH. I ordered my replacement mounts from Paul Horton as it was his mount I initially used so re engineering away... I am anticipating ordering my column next week and then once all the parts arrive getting er done. I wonder what is the next setback in this process will be? Stay tuned for the next exciting episode. Oh quick give me a hammer I just spotted a gremlin near my tool box... If I catch the bugger he is going to have a serious headache!!!

 

[fletcherson]

Well the Gremlins came out of the woodwork and attacked!!! I was clamping the steering box to the frame to get some initial measurements. I noted the steering input shaft was blocked by the upper portion of the motor mount. I tried shifting things around to get past the mount but NO Luck. It looks like I am going to have to redesign the motor mounts!

When I initially installed the mounts about 5 years ago I had a clearance problem with the engine and trans and the rear crossmember. I needed to raise the engine 1 inch higher that it was when I installed the mounts so I built a 1 inch spacer between the mount and engine block. This move solved my problem I thought. Well the gist of it is if I had built the mount 1 inch higher I would have solved that problem and todays problem both. So now I need to tear both current motor mounts out and rebuild them 1 inch higher and that should also give me enough clearance for the steering shaft to clear the mounts, plus I won't need the spacers on the engine any more. I am not looking forward to this as I have enough work just finishing the rest of the steering let alone rebuilding the motor mounts so it's move forward and then fall back and a continuation of slot A don't fit on slot B because the previous step was not anticipated to be needed till this point.... ARGGGGHHH. I ordered my replacement mounts from Paul Horton as it was his mount I initially used so re engineering away... I am anticipating ordering my column next week and then once all the parts arrive getting er done. I wonder what is the next setback in this process will be? Stay tuned for the next exciting episode. Oh quick give me a hammer I just spotted a gremlin near my tool box... If I catch the bugger he is going to have a serious headache!!!

I feel your anx. I have had several such issues, as is true with a lot of past projects. I spent a ton of time narrowing and re designing the seat to fit just right to gain every fraction of space between the seat and pedals because I am larger than these things were designed for. I thought all was well, glad that I didn’t send it off to the upholsterer, as I almost did, because I didn’t consider the fact that the body tapers in so when the seat hinges forward, guess what... no more perfect fit. Not a huge setback, but frustrating all the same. Like I said, don’t finish weld anything till everything is worked out... saves on grinding wheels and dollars in the ole cuss jar, lol. I hope you are enjoying the process of building it. That is the only way to do it and retain sanity, imho. Good luck. BTW, keep an eye on the transmission and driveshaft angles when changing motor mount location... more gremlins could be lurking!

 

[Rip VW]

What's interesting is when I started out on this project I had it mapped out how I wanted to do things and what parts I wanted to use. It is amazing at the amount of times a person has to change course because something won't play well with the rest. If I were following a set of plans things would be a bit easier as someone has done the engineering and stuff should work. When your building from scratch so to speak, you get to be Installer, Engineer, Technician, and laborer, and Banker! The problem solving is actually fun but it is causing me extended costs not that I even had a clue what I have into the project but I hate doing things over, but I actually like solving the problems. I will say sometimes these "little set backs" can add up and you feel awash in a sea of problems. I sometimes give myself a break from the project, but I am a stubborn person and refuse to throw in the towel or walk away I shall beat them little Gremlins into submission!!.
Yeah with no problems it gets boring. I need something to challenge me kind of like this Ham radio thing it is something that challenges me and if I don't proceed with the challenge I won't be able to treat it as a challenge overcome. Oh I ramble too much.. Its late here so I am going to quite for the night.