Right, a few maybe stupid questions im afraid! Im starting to piece things together and im confused!
1. Where does the front part of the engine rear frame locate, the two tubes seem to be too wide to locate in the gearbox mounting plate?

2. My top mounting clamps for the front beam havn't been welded into place yet, so I need to work out the angle of the beam any ideas?

3. Im going to use a 1.6 TP engine. What tinware do I ditch / keep and what modifications should be made to it, ie blocking of any holes etc.

4. I havn't got any gear linkeage yet, what do I need?

Thanks in advance fella's!

I'm sure other people will have their opinion too so wait and hear what others say before you go off with my advise alone :P

1. Engine cage; Yes it is too wide, some people taper it in to suit the gearbox mounts but personnally I thought this would weaken it so I dropped down a couple of vertical lengths of tubing off the surround to the engine (if you see where I mean) and then triangled it back to the side of the two gearbox supports

2. Front Castor (the angle you refer to) is very important to a rear wieght bais car.
Porcshe put 6 deg positive (leaning back towards the rear of the car at the top) on the 911, and that was good enough for me, although I have increased it to 9 now :D (For info aircooled VW used 4 deg positive)
Before you cut or weld anything make sure the bottom clamps are where they sould be (mine were 11mm out, meaning it had the potential to go round left handers a lot better than rights :ph43r: ) To measure it stick a tape measure from the centre of your rear wheels to the edge of your bottom clamps, they should be identical. And it is easier to sort that now before you weld the tops in.
If you need to adjust the castor later on there are shims out there.

3. ONLY take off the bare minimum, so really only the bits that would have enclosed it in the Beetle engine bay. VW fitted the rest for a reason and it all works so leave it alone, unless you want cracked headed due to over heating later <_< Any redundant holes left from heaters etc block off effiectly, just because its exposed doesn't mean it won't need the help of that fan....

4. If you are using a Beetle gearbox, you need the linkage, you can buy uprated stuff from most places, but ideally you need to find a scrapper somewhere and take the mounting plates and bearing fixings etc. At the very least you need a gearstick, which you can buy as an uprated aftermarket bit (which I suggest you do, the scat quickshift with lockable reverse is probably the best)

Hope this helps B)

Thanks for taking the time to write such a good reply Tigger! Why on earth did the make the rear frame the wrong size? :(

Eh! Ive just noticed it says ive got an advanced member!
< Over there.

Didn't like the rear fame bit on mine either, altered it a bit, then threw it away and made, in my mind anyway, a decent one. Not knocking UVA yet again, but they had a stunning concept, I think Fugs are so cool, but they lacked in everything else from almost every angle. I ripped out quite a few of my bars and refitted them in the right place, UVA had jigs etc, imagine what they'd have built if they'd been doing them at home at the weekend how we do. :D :D :D

I thought I was missing something, the rear frame isn't even a close fit! :lol:

First thing first UVA didn't design nuffin they just ripped off an Amercian design thet was already out there, and if you need an example of that just pick up a Bugpack catalogue !!! Secondly I guss they left it so you could fit what you wanted out back..... :D