Floor Pan Swap - haldex to come...

[JW]

Re: Floor Pan Swap - haldex to come...

This is alot of great work!!
However this seems like alot of work....What is the purpose of this?

[P Arkus]

Re: Floor Pan Swap - haldex to come...

FWD to AWD conversion, so that in the future when you slap a huge turbo on it, it actually moves the car rather than spinning the wheels in one spot.

[BaggedGLI]

Re: Floor Pan Swap - haldex to come...

What are you doing for the fuel tank?

[All_Euro]

Re: Floor Pan Swap - haldex to come...

This is alot of great work!!
However this seems like alot of work....What is the purpose of this?

Haha - it sure is... I like to stay busy but definitely don't need any make-work type projects. The primary reason for the floor pan swap is so I can add the haldex system - for traction.

FWD to AWD conversion, so that in the future when you slap a huge turbo on it, it actually moves the car rather than spinning the wheels in one spot.

No doubt - the turbo upgrade will be a modest K04 for now and then likely an EFR 7163 when I build the engine. The other big part of the swap, for me, though is just the nicer ride of fully independent suspension and the feeling of AWD power compared to the pulling that you get with FWD.

What are you doing for the fuel tank?

I don't know of any R32 tanks for a good enough price at the moment so I'll just modify the filler neck by splicing in the top portion from my GLI... I found a thread where someone did the same, saying they got the idea from an APR project but I can't find now - I'll track it down and add the link though. What did you have in mind?

edit: The link to said thread was right where it was supposed to be, somehow glazed over it - scroll down to posts #18 & #30 for the basic idea... http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...light=gas+tank

[All_Euro]

Re: Floor Pan Swap - haldex to come...

DAYS SIXTY - SIXTY TWO

While the carpet was off the floor I though I'd remove the sound proofing - I was kind of avoiding doing more important things at the time but this did seem like the perfect opportunity to do the job. I just tapped the area with a hammer first to loosen the adhesion and it came up nice and clean...




The driver's fender was a pretty easy to match to the new floor pan; all it took was one cut to allow the extra metal to fold over itself and a bit of trimming along the bottom of the wheel well side...




The passenger fender was a lot more work as the curve of the floor pan is more extreme but the same approach worked on this side as well. I have the TT fenders as well but decided to keep the originals to retain the extra suspension mounting point...

[All_Euro]

Re: Floor Pan Swap - haldex to come...

DAY SIXTY THREE

Quick shot of the underside - thankfully I finished nearly all of the priming and sealing before the weather turned nasty, but since it was still cool out I used a torch to preheat the relevant areas first and then followed up with a heat gun afterwards...




I test-fit the gas tank today to see how the filler-necks line up. They are in-line with each other but the TT neck is a couple inches forward of where it needs to be. The fuel-hose I have kinks a bit as it bends around the frame rail to join up with the TT neck, so I'm looking at some other options - should settle on one by tomorrow. I'd really like to clean up/simplify the tank venting while I'm at it...

[All_Euro]

Re: Floor Pan Swap - haldex to come...

DAYS SIXTY FOUR - SIXTY EIGHT

The hardware store type adhesives I've been finding and testing aren't cutting it so I'm just going to seal the filler neck joints with fuel hose and clamps for now. When I find some fuel resistant polyethylene adhesive, that actually works, I'll use it to bond the sections of filler neck together and keep the fuel hose in place as a little added insurance.

I've cut the sections as needed and then just routed out the inside of one piece and the outside of the other to create male and female ends...




Fits nicely so I'll clamp the joints, make sure the tank is clean and tomorrow I can instal it and do any final trimming that's needed...

[Ponto]

Re: Floor Pan Swap - haldex to come...

Every step is impressive. Keep up the good work!

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

[hooddub]

Re: Floor Pan Swap - haldex to come...

I am so excited to see this get finished. Such a cool project

[Thor]

Re: Floor Pan Swap - haldex to come...

[bobkatkat]

Re: Floor Pan Swap - haldex to come...

DAYS SIXTY FOUR - SIXTY EIGHT

The hardware store type adhesives I've been finding and testing aren't cutting it so I'm just going to seal the filler neck joints with fuel hose and clamps for now. When I find some fuel resistant polyethylene adhesive, that actually works, I'll use it to bond the sections of filler neck together and keep the fuel hose in place as a little added insurance.

I've cut the sections as needed and then just routed out the inside of one piece and the outside of the other to create male and female ends...

Polyethylene is a next to impossible to glue. I can weld the pieces for you once you have them cut to fit. Just keep the scraps so they can be used to blend with the welding rods. PM me

[theedge111]

Re: Floor Pan Swap - haldex to come...

Polyethylene is a next to impossible to glue. I can weld the pieces for you once you have them cut to fit. Just keep the scraps so they can be used to blend with the welding rods. PM me

You're an awesome guy Bob!

[All_Euro]

Re: Floor Pan Swap - haldex to come...

DAY SIXTY NINE

I stopped by a body-shop supply store on the way home from work today and picked up some professional strength adhesive that they said would work on polyethylene. It seems to be ok - I'll test the joints, a little more enthusiastically, in the morning and we'll see...




Here's an overall shot of the filler neck from the final test fit. I still have the two tank vent connections to take care of as well - I'm planning to plumb them into their usual locations on either side of the gas cap. They both feed a single vent line on the trunk side of the gas-cap so I can then run that line through a charcoal canister or something when I get one...

[All_Euro]

Re: Floor Pan Swap - haldex to come...

Thanks for the kind words fellas - this is taking forever but the "finish" line is just around the corner at least. I want my car back!

I appreciate the offer Bob - I did keep the scraps as I was thinking of plastic welding the joints once the male/female parts of the connections are sealed. Not that I've ever plastic-welded anything before... a little experience would def come in handy here.

[bobkatkat]

Re: Floor Pan Swap - haldex to come...

Thanks for the kind words fellas - this is taking forever but the "finish" line is just around the corner at least. I want my car back!

I appreciate the offer Bob - I did keep the scraps as I was thinking of plastic welding the joints once the male/female parts of the connections are sealed. Not that I've ever plastic-welded anything before... a little experience would def come in handy here.

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