10 mins later, bracket fits just fine



Lined up to the jig, tack weld and it fits !



Mocked up with the spring plate and brakes.



Next is the gearbox and a full weld of the brackets. Also need to re drill the wheels to see if my brakes will fit under them!

Nice job. Looking good. Soon be on the road 👍

Yea, if I don't decide to change the engine the same time!

Wheel re-drilling template worked a treat!
Bolted up and drilled the 2mm marker holes, used a step drill out to 12mm then finished with a 14mm.



Bang on.  This is bolted up to the the 5mm backing plate with a hubcentric bore size. I'll weld it to the wheels then open the holes out to  15mm and countersink just to make it easier to get on as those wheels are 'kin heavy!  - These are not pushed right on, there is more stud.



... and the best news - the brakes fit behind!

There's loads of room behind those....better fit bigger brakes.

good enough for 180HP Golf, good enough for me

It was all going smoothly until I found out the 002 box is not exactly a drop in fit  and a kit is on 8 weeks delivery and £££ so making my own - as usual...

I see the Baja club is down again..

any secondhand stuff around for the gearbox? But then you will not have the satisfaction of fabrication.

A 180bhp Golf doesn't have fiddle brakes though

Been looking for a used kit, but basically resigned to scratching my head to come up with a solution - I thought I had most of the questions on this one sorted in advance (brakes, handbrake, wheels etc) but hadn't noticed the box issues.

I can either use the existing mounts which means cutting a big hole in the horns to clear the CV's (or bashing them with a BFH) and raising the gear lever box by 10cm. Or do it properly and angle the gearbox down at 10degs  - this puts the shift where it should be, clears the horns, puts the CV's in the right place and gives a bit extra ground clearance. Easy to make solid mounts to do that, BUT again, to do it properly the box has to be on flexi- mounts as apart from anything else when I do the engine swap that will be flexi-mounted too.

You could put a u/j or 2 on the gear selector rod so it works with the van selector 10cm higher. As for the horns the irs ones are significantly lower due to their curvature on the jas I cut the swing ones off at the torsion bar tube and welded on irs ones.

Cutting and clearancing on swing ones weakens them as Hugh found out as the horn ends bent down and lowered his motor towards the floor ( modified before he brought it) so his garage welded reenforcing plates under his horns.

Yep, I looked at all that, but decided that an engine mount would be easier!

This is what the kit looks like http://shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=721300&sid=679e8604cf277dc6e31c79c855d2b649#p721300 I have come up with one solution but not completely happy with it so ordered a couple of bits to see if I can improve on it.

Interesting never seen the front sandwich plate fitted behind the nose cone, guess they macine it down thinner to keep the same overall length.

For the front I have ordered a new stock bug mount as the one on mine was toast, and will make up a 10deg plate to change both the angle and bolt position. Probably.

At first I was not very happy about supporting the rear off the bolt on housing - but then I realise that the whole engine hangs off it so I guess it is plenty strong!



Want to get the VW engine back on to check out the IRS install but will probably not get many miles on it before the MX5 swap - but there is a lot of planning to do for that...

For my Fiat lump I have put crossbar over the top with diagonal bars down to the ends of the frame horns to reduce flex and also used the motor mounts onto another subframe so the gearbox is not supporting averything weight wise.

Got the same thing in mind, to extend the horns and use diagonal and longitudinal braces. VW 1600 is around 113kg, MX5 1.8 about 120kg so not that much difference.

Have you got any pics of your structure?

There are some dodgy photos on my  kango refurb post in  members buggies page 6 or 7 ish the box section engine frame horn extensions are where the rear cage slides into and secures.  My fiat lump is heavier at around 150k and possibly a bit more.