DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Been abit busy recently with nappy changes and late night feeds for the twins, but been managing afew hours a week in the garage...

Got the rubberised undercoat on, its messy stuff but covers well and hides the welds





Then topcoat...




The local tyre shop had a sale on so I decided to get the wheels finished in what will be the final body colour and tyres mounted, alittle premptive but a good deal is a good deal






RSR style front strut brackets mocked up




Started on the rear seat area. First brace the lower panel and then build the frame work, alot of measuring and re-measuring but got it down to 2mm +/- each side. Paper patterns and trial fitting then finally weld in of the side panels...







Next step is getting the parcel shelf in and seam sealing it all underneath, sort out the removeable panels and then start thinking about the rollcage...

Looking cool - keep the pics coming - so you've gone for a custom rear seat arrangement have you? - any particular reason for that?

Thanks!

The original rear seat section was rusted through and in hindsight with what I know now I could have maybe made some patch panels. I managed to get hold of the rear section from a '68 for about $70 but it needed abit of cleaning up. I got hooked on the custom idea after seeing some of the Gary Emory 356's and a rennspeed project. It would be nice to think that there is some weight savings and also if need-be access to the suspension pick up points etc can be done from the topside. At the end of the day hopefully it looks well done and to be honest, cool

Chris

great thread chris
nice welding
very intrigued as to the final look of this one.....

more please

Jp

V cool. Makes me wish I could weld well enough to do a car.

Looks like a great project

Michael

V cool. Makes me wish I could weld well enough to do a car.

Thanks, but believe me its has been and still is alot of trial and error
But so far everything seems to be ok

Parcel shelf in...

I was going to buy a bead roller but preferred the look of circles as opposed to lines/ridges. So after trial fitting the two panels and messing around with a home made stamp with little/no success I decided to cut the holes and back them with some thinner 22 gauge sheet metal using some JB weld (metal epoxy) and spot welds. This will give the desired look and also create the necessary rigidity.







Spot welded in place and then re-made the upright supports between shelf and window.



Need to seam seal underneath over the weekend. Das sport half rollcage is on order, hope to get this installed next week.

Chris

Looking good.

The vents on the roof are interesting as I haven't see them from the inside before. There was talk on another thread about putting some high level brake lights in them I think this could work well now seeing your car.

But hey, it's looking cool and thank you for posting pics as it makes it come alive.

Been abit busy recently with new fatherhood and trying to relocate back to the UK, but here is an update...

Roll bar arrived, great UPS packaging...


Then tried to get it to fit, firstly I had to cut out the previously welded in 'rear seat' panels, and after much frustration decided to reduce the size of the mounting plate instead, which meant having to re-weld the panel! Very frustrating process but the final solution looks and performs great.





Plenty of other more important things to do but couldn't resist getting the drill out on the bonnet hinges...it took 10 times longer than I thought and all for a grand total of 125g weight savings, but looks kinda cool now thats its powder coated. Sladey, I am with you on the door handles!





Another case of adding more work. I have seen some examples of RSR's converted to a single wiper so decided to give it a go, cut out old wiper mounts, reposition, and fill in holes. I still need to sort out the wiper motor, choices are 924/944 maybe mk1 golf? but again, I like the look...





The dash was pretty badly beaten up with various radio modifications so decided to cut out and repanel. The area where the ash tray was will be a double row bank of toggle switches for lights and wiper etc. Still need to mock-up knee pad/panel support bar.



Decided that I needed to draw a line under the welding and body forming work, its as good as I can make it so I put a full body and interior rust coat on. After all this time it is good to see it in all one colour again and I'm actually loving the flat black look!







Some parts back from the powder coaters, now need to press in the new wheel bearings. The new polybronze bushings and monoballs arrived from Elephant Racing...very cool and probably the cleanest they will ever be!



Its finally looking that I am getting somewhere...







Fibreglass fenders, bonnet, decklid and bumpers arrived today, going to check them out this week but now have 10 days and counting to get the wheels on so it can be put in a container and shipped back to the UK...

Excellent thread, looks like things are really coming on. Can't wait to see the next installment. makes me want another project car

I had missed your last few posts on this thread & have only just caught up - superb workmanship & attention to detail !

Good to hear that the car is coming to the UK so we'll get a chance to see it in person at some stage.

loving the work so far really like the single wiper I went down that road when I was into Watercoolec VW's

I have a few tricks to pass on if you have any probs with that set up..

the cars coming here!!!!! tell us more!!

and where you looking to come to ..?

Amazing work! My white Golf (mk2) uses a merc single wiper motor. Smallish unit and an easy plumb... might be worth a look? Can't wait to see this on it's rims