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Engine Compartment: donor vehicle was rear ended and pushed into a pickup, bumper was pushed in bowing the radiator and causing some coolent leaks on the radiator but the engine was undamaged.




Some side profile shots to give some idea of the dimension of the engine and its placement over what will be the rear tires.

I may yet fab up rear A-arms but im a bit worried its a bit out of my league. I have moderate mechanical experience as previously posted. On the plus side this build is not limited by time and is not constrained to a capped budget. Id like to keep total cost under $6000 but if it takes an extra year and a few thousand more then so be it.
My inital plan is:
Donor vehicle -$950 (purchased)
Mig Welder- $500
Inital steel alloted budget- $500
Front VW suspension refurbished including disc breaks- $450

This will be around $2,500 and my up front budget is $2,700.

I have an old beat up fiberglass body that will be cleaned up and painted black for the inital build and then eventually ill drop another $1650 or $2400 depending on if i go metal flake or solid color. I also have an old rusted front suspension i can bolt on as a place holder for fabrication reasons.

If you include the final body then that leaves a grand for lights and seats and misc bits. I think i may hijack the stereo and CD player out of the donor because it comes with decent sound system.

Once it is built and prooven to work I hope to pick up 2 backup engines. One will be stripped bare, and built up again, possibly with a supercharger.

Since rear mounted transverse setups seem to be somewhat rare compared to the more traditional build Ill share my interesting find link wise.

http://www.offroadfabnet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9493

He is from new zealand i believe. Making a RWD mid transverse engined rail buggy for racing. He has an impressive youtube collection of videos explaining his build and how to make your own carbon fiber parts and what not. An interesting read.

Ive been looking over suspension alternatives and can't help but feel that creating my own double wishbone setup is way outa my league. It may be somewhat more doable due to the fact that i am looking at rear suspension so it may not be impossible. Going forward I will attempt to use the stock strut setup using a strut rated for the lesser overall weight of the buggy. If it looks like i wont be able to shoe horn the strut towers under the wheel wells or otherwise integrate them then ill have to look at alternatives.

I highly recommend taking your time at this point; start by measuring the major components and making scale drawings.

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Midlana book: Build this mid-engine Locost!, http://midlana.com/stuff/book/
Kimini book: Designing mid-engine cars using FWD drivetrains
Both available from https://www.lulu.com/

Yep. Slow moving from here out. My plan is:
1. Photograph and measure all points of front engine, transmission and suspension. Mark up distances of top of strut towers from each other and from a set point on the engine.

2. Remove everything from the front bumper back to the engine including radiator, fan, radiator and bumper supports. Then take more pictures and measurements.

3. Remove engine, tranny, suspension, wheels, struts, wiring harness and any parts i think i can make money off of.

4. Scrap the donor car and clean out the work space. Take the motor and tranny to my mechanic to go over.

5. Build a table to support the vehicle as it comes together.

6. Lay out the engine tranny and suspension parts from the donor car in the exact orientation they were on the donor car on the build table. Also place the front vw beam where it will need to be located.

7. At this point i will stop, take a step back and start trying to get an idea on frame requirements to support the engine and strut towers and have all the right attachment points. Then try and get an idea how im gonna build the area between the rear engine compartment and the front suspension while still being able to attach the fiberglass vw buggy body.

The suspension on the pic in the first post looks brilliantly easy to work out, if your donor FWD front spindles look anything like the spindles in the first pic, a SLA setup just requires two plates, each with 4 holes (two to mount to the hub, one for an upper ball joint/heim/rose joint, and one to mount the shock with), and a bit of figuring to get the rear end geometry sorted out. Given the flexibility this design gives you, and the fact that you don't have (and don't want) rear wheel steering, setting up the suspension should be as easy, if not easier than setting up the front suspension. A-arm design is simplified, due to the fact that they no longer bear the stresses of serving as a lower shock mount, and shock mounting should be LOADS easier than trying to precisely (and strongly/stiffly) locate the top of the strut (you only need to deal with more-or-less vertical loads, as opposed to the vertical and lateral and longitudinal loads a strut mount would be subject to)