Thought I had best start a thread on here about the rebuild of my LWB mk1 Rat. I've had it 7 years now, and time has come for it to get some proper attention... These first few posts will be copied from another forum, so bear with me.

So, the time has come for my buggy to get some attention.

It's a FibreFab RAT long wheel base body on a 1959 VW Beetle pan. Currently looking something like this...






Now the plan is to swap the body on to a later pan, and in the process change from RHD to LHD, and from UK registration to Dutch. So, in comes the donor...



Which is a 1974 Semiautomatic beetle thats been off the road as a stalled project since 2007. They key thing is semi-auto, means IRS instead of swing axle rear end, and ball-joint rather than link-pin front suspension.

Plan is to do the minimum to get it legal and on the road, so as well as swapping the body to the new chassis, I will need to do things like fit seat belts (and fab the mounts to fit them...). Once it is legal and I have more time it will get a few more bits done, like a body lift, disc brakes all around, upgraded suspension and a bigger engine.

Realistically I have have a few weeks whilst another car is away having some work done by someone else, once that comes back the buggy has to be out of the garage again.

Let the fun begin!

So, first job: get the body off the pan. Pull the bolts out, and use the winch in the roof of the garage to support the front end, engine hoist to support the rear.



and up we go...



then a couple of bits of 2x2, chop up a cheap removal dolly, and we have a frame to out the body on and push it out the way.



Now I am glad I don't want the body, some of the welding is, well, interesting.

So, with the body off and out the way, first job was to get the chassis on stands and strip the suspension off, checking the brakes over on the way. Bit of work needed to the front brakes, its had new cylinders, shoes etc fitted but the cylinders have been left with neither pipe nor blanking plug fitted to the inlet, so they have since corroded rather nicely.

One stripped chassis...



Given the state of the welding on the body I thought I would have a look at what has been done to the chassis. Hmm, lots of seam sealer...





And hiding underneath? some rather crap tack welds, nice and porous with little penetration... joy!



So, current jo is now to strip all the sealant off the joint between the pan halves and the spine of the chassis, on both left and right pans, on top and underneath... What a fun job... Then I can reweld it all, reseal it, and get the thing painted ready for the rebuild to start. 

So, where was I... Oh yes, crap welds. In the end the welding was so bad, and the amount of sealant gobbed everywhere meant that I couldn't get the joint clean. So pulled the pans off completely and welded new ones in.



And when I say pulled the pans off, it was so bad I could pull half of them off with bare hands, didn't even need to use a hammer.

So a couple of days later, lots of welding and grinding, and we have a chassis with two new pan halves.

At this stage a nice big box arrived with my body lift kit I have always struggled with clearance between the front wings and the large tyres I want to run, so I thought a 3" lift would help. Nice bolt on kit, at least that was the idea. Offered up on the new pans and, hmmm...



So that went back in the box, and was returned to the supplier for them to investigate.

Next job, strip the body off the old chassis, and the chassis down to a bare pan for storage.





and glad I did, the old pan has got rather crunchy in places.

This was the end of april, and a short brake was taken whilst I travelled over to the UK to run a 100 mile ultramarathon along the Thames.

I got back in the garage this weekend just gone, and turned my attention to adding some strength back into the cheap and nasty floorpans. So, a couple of metres of 30x30x3mm box section, some slicing, bending and welding:





and you end up with a nice reinforcing beam to go on the underside of the pan (chassis has been flipped over here)



Tonight I shall get the other side done I hope.

I also managed to get the supplier to finally agree to refund me on the lift kit, apparently they are all just as bad and the suggestion to cut it up and reweld it to fit was not what I had in mind. So, time to make my own I think.

Hurry up, IBW is only a few weeks away
Dave

As much as I would love to have it done that quickly, can't see it happening! Got to finish the chassis / body lift. rebuild all the brakes and suspension, refit everything, rewire, new seats, sort out some form of seatbelts as its never had any in my ownership, modify the roll hoop, etc etc... Oh and there is talk of a repaint as well just to add to the list Plus I have to get it through the inspection with the RDW (Dutch equivalent of VOSA / DVLA) for the change from beetle to buggy...

Excellent another RAT 

Be keeping and eye on this

Excellent another RAT 

Be keeping and eye on this

Have another one for good measure.





The black one belongs to my father, he built it in the late 70s I think, possibly early 80s, certainly before '82, and it's never left his possession and never will. Hence me buying my own

Not a lot to report for this evenings garage session, got the other reinforcing bar made, just need to drill the holes through it tomorrow.



Other than that, spent a fair chunk of money on brake and suspension parts (all stock for the moment) which will hopefully arrive in the morning.

Good work, some weeks not much changes othrs the bug moves on in big steps , when you look back after a few months it is surprising how many things you have ticked off the to do list ,.👍

Yeah, I have a list of jobs on a whiteboard , it's nice to tick things off no matter how small.

I hope to get the steel for the body lift this week, depending on work it might have to wait until Saturday morning.

So, slow progress is being made.

Second reinforcing beam was finished up and drilled out:

Whilst I've been at work, Raemond (my OH) has been busy cleaning up parts for me, Brake backing plates and stub axles were cleaned up and given a lick of paint