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Thread: Tool box drone headache rack and lift out tray

  1. #21
    Supporting Member C-Bag's Avatar
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    I hesitated to bring up Dr. Porsche's unique dual trailing arm suspension because I'm under the impression it was one of the few suspensions that didn't change geometry through its travel. I loved the suspension for its ruggedness and it's almost total lack of needed maintenance. It never broke, and I did some stupid stuff in my first car, a '57 Karmann Ghia. It had the 1100cc 36hp which I likened to an old Jeep. It had tiny valves and intake manifold which made it impossible to over rev and hurt that way. I wanted a TR6 so bad as my first car but my dad found the Ghia(bless his heart). It was the parts managers car at the local VW dealership. Mechanically it had all the running gear rebuilt and after several years of trying to blow it up i came to have grudging respect for it. I could not out run anybody on a straight away but there were no American, very few other cars that could hang with me in twisty roads. The old Ghia and the 356 Porsche were both made in the Karmann body works and were in the same parts book at the dealer.

    I had friends who did what we called "round and round" on a local dirt race track. I think it was something like Sportsman class? Dunno, it was all "big iron" American and just not that interesting to me. I saw how they engineered a suspension to basically want to only go around a left turn as that's all that oval was. To me those crazy guys who did those rally's across Africa etc.....now that was some driving, but to each his own.

    You don't mention what I always thought was what made Dr.Porshe's design a cornering machine was the fact it was rear engine. I can't remember who said it but it went something like " the difference between under steer and over steer is which end of the car goes through the fence when you don't make the turn". Once I got used to under steer I just hated fighting to get around a corner with a front engine car. It's one of the reasons I never owned a American car until we bought the Volt earlier this year. There is no denying they go down a straight road like gangbusters, but sooner or later you gotta turn, if not to dodge somebody. And that's when that feeling of being on rails from too much weight ,front engine along with too soft suspension w/body roll and detached feeling of the steering just made me feel like I was not really in control.

    VW's like all of Dr. Porshe's designs were all about hp to weight. You mention the 1200, what we called the 40hp. That and my last VW, my '66 1300 bug, were my favorite engines for just get you down the road and last forever without dropping a valve. I was able to blueprint my 1300 because I was a "free agent" at automotive school and it was the only engine I drove from one rebuild till I went through it again at 120,000mi. Yeah, thats not a misprint. And it didn't blow, it wasn't even using oil, I just got scared. There was no way I'd ever drive a 1500 or 1600 that long without doing a valve job. Anything over 50k you were a ticking time bomb. It was just too hot here and they were being made to run too lean for smog.

    You mention the 1500 dual carb, there was only one year, the '66 Type III. We had one, it was my mom's car and got it new in '66. I think it was rated 60hp but it was the "suitcase" engine w/the axial type cooling fan and heavy as hell and long rear end overhang making very rear end heavy and scary in a turn. So weight to hp wise it sucked compared to a loose old 40hp. And because of the throttle linkage and crappy Solex carbs they were almost impossible to sync and get to run good. I realized much later it was because the throttle shaft hole through the body would get wallowed out because of the huge return springs making them leak vacuum.

    Those old 40's always ran so good right before something would finally let go. We used to have those come through the shop all the time because people thought they wanted a 1600 or 1650 so they would sell them a 1600 and we'd keep the 40hp for banging around as a shop vehicle.

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  2. #22
    Supporting Member Frank S's Avatar
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    It seems we are going further down another road with our mutual interests.It is hard for many to see any correlation of the tweaking of a suspension system on a car with the construction of a lift out tray on a tool box, but in many of my experiences I often associate very dissimilar items to things I may be working on at the time.
    I agree the trailing parallel bar suspension that Dr Ferdinand Porsche developed was very low maintenance and about as close to a trouble free system ever for the time.
    The way I made my tweaks to it though, made it several times more efficient for a short circle track with very short straightaways, by skewing the the whole assembly then twisting the bars in and out as previously mentioned I was able to take advantage of the natural castor changes that happen when the spindle moves up and down to cause a change in the camber. In effect I destroyed the original relative geometry of DR Porsche's design intentions. completely ruining it for use on a paved road.
    Nearing the end of our 2nd season I grew bored with the whole scene. Our car had been protested numerous times although never faulted it became ever more expensive to prove the protests false.
    The very last heat of the last race of the season our little 1200 had 2nd from pole in the 1600 unlimited class. Dave really stood on it through the first 3 laps then just as he was about to lap the 2nd place car in lap 4, he high sided off turn 2. after 3 end overs and 2 barrel rolls he somehow managed to re enter the track in the short back straightaway about the time the other cars were just finishing lap 5.
    18 cars started 10 finished and he crossed in 5th place. No money not even the lead car money for the first 3 laps because of the 5th place flag. I pulled the engine then installed it in my 63 bug to drive for my deros vehicle after I shipped my Dodge pickup back, we sold the race car to the team at Merrell Barracks

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  3. #23
    Supporting Member C-Bag's Avatar
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    Well I don't know about others Frank, but 4 bar linkage, trailing arm, wishbone, etc etc are all ways to articulate motion. There are so many different designs it's staggering. And even with the internet it still seems random luck to find what I'm hoping to find.

    I'm just glad you posted the old box because who knows when something like that is going spark a synapse and hopefully I'll have enough brain cells to coallate it into a way to solve a problem that is just bugging me. You just never know where some old idea you saw is going to pop up outta the old gray jelly.

    I enjoyed the jog down memory lanes. I had to abandon the old air cools in '87 when I couldn't get German parts anymore. I miss the simplicity and ruggedness with the sole means of getting me from A to B. No frills. Had '57, and '65 Ghia's. '65 & '66 camper buses. And '62 and '66bugs. The 66 I was only the second owner. If I could get real German parts I'd probably still have it.

  4. #24
    Supporting Member Frank S's Avatar
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    C-bag there is an excellent site devoted to many of the things we discuss on these forums. I am no longer a member of the site though. It used to provide well written articles and complete downloadable books for free to members and subscribers to AISC ASME and ANSI . Since retiring from that field a few years ago I no longer contribute to those organisations, if I wanted any info from this site I would now have to pay to play like anyone else. For all I know they may not even offer the freebie perks anymore, or they may have never offered them I was a member of so many things all paid by the company I was with I never knew I was a member of. The parent org. behind it is McGraw Hill Education.
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  5. #25
    Supporting Member C-Bag's Avatar
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    Thanks for the link Frank. indeed it is pay to play. But it's a tantalizing collection for sure. My worry is about signing up for something that I might not get a chance to use very much. Maybe there's a hard bound copy somewhere.

    I posted this a while back in another forum but when I'm looking for inspiration I go here:

    507 Mechanical Movements

  6. #26
    Supporting Member Frank S's Avatar
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    Yep that's a classic 507 Mechanical Movements: Mechanisms and Devices BY Henry T Brown I checked that one out of the library while in middle school. Haven't thought of it in years actually had to look up the author though, many things I have read or studied have become lost in my muddled brain. Too bad we can't simply do a disk cleanup then defrag our brains like our hard drives.
    Seemingly innocuous threads such as this one and others help though since they serve to bring old memories for the forefront. For a while in Kuwait, 3 of the universities would send both graduate and undergraduate engineer students to the company I was with for 6 months to a year to gain real world experiences prior to completion of their studies. Sooner or later most wound up sitting near my desk asking countless questions about how's and why's of some of my designs. Usually by the end of their stay they either had a fair Idea of the why's or were completely stumped. As to the how's. Well lets just say that in my opinion most of them would never be able to design a 3 legged bar stool that would stand on it's own without help.
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  7. #27
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    C bag & Frank S...
    Since the VW front suspension is basically a 4-bar linkage, I'd say this discussion was right on topic! Plus highly interesting and educational, so thanks for sharing the info. Particularly interesting since I also have a '67 VW Beetle that will be a project at some point.

  8. #28
    Supporting Member C-Bag's Avatar
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    '67 Bug was one of my favs because it was the first year of the 12v. Nice bright headlights, amazing. '66 & '67 had the same seats, lo back. For some stupid reason folks took out those and put the horrible high back seats in them. Along with those were very popular to put another horrible thing, Baja kits. So very few intact '67's exsist here. I have a buddy who just bought a restored one down in LA for I think he said something like over $20k. I've not seen it live yet, but the pics all look perfect. He wanted it because that was his first car in high school. Its hard to believe a car that sold for $2,300 new is worth that much....and one I could find all day long for $800 or $900 with LO miles when in school.

    I wish you good luck with your restoration Kent.



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