Mid Engine Caddy

[Henk]

Only seen one or two of these before, but yeah my caddy's going to get an Audi 80 subframe, double wishbone suspension, longitudinal gearbox mated to a LR 300TDi powered 1Z TDi (which i'll probably need quite a bit of help with. all M- conversions always seem so vague)

Starting with an all new chassis in the bed, as most of the original chassis was rotten through


the subframe mocked in place 


4 link suspension I'd almost finished, which will be no more


the front so far, will probably get molded into one piece. actually i fancy doing a whole removable fibreglass front end too, but that's not important just yet!

Going to be mainly chassis design and building in the next few weeks, the fin stuff with my original engine will be later (.240 nozzles, VNT20, best flowing intake manifold I can find, head porting etc) this is the first time i've ever worked on cars, let alone serious diesel engine mods, so excuse me if i ask for a fair bit of guidance with some things!

[745 turbogreasel]

I rate this thread 'hell yeah!'

[RabbitJockey]

write the thread in welch so we no you are truely in wales

[snakemaster]

YOU have your work cut out there , good luck with your build , you will be going throw the SVA/BIFA test with that build , if i was going to do a build like yours i would never post pics on line , big bro could be watching and V5 have been removed by dvla (8 points build), just my 2$ worth

[Henk]

thank you!
rydw i ddim yn siariad cymraeg! maar myjn moeder is nederlands, und ich bin deutchs lernen auch. :p
Not sure what you mean with removing the V5? Yes it'll be getting IVA tested, and the V5 will be to prove what the 'donor vehicle' as such is

[RabbitJockey]

thank you!
rydw i ddim yn siariad cymraeg! maar myjn moeder is nederlands, und ich bin deutchs lernen auch. :p
Not sure what you mean with removing the V5? Yes it'll be getting IVA tested, and the V5 will be to prove what the 'donor vehicle' as such is

haha.

[Henk]

could do with some advice on setting up independent rear suspension on the caddy anyone ever doe chassis or suspension designing?


looking at something like this, slightly modified since. having to run twin wishbones due to the air bags, would run macpherson ohterwise

[RabbitJockey]

I'm not sure why u can't run bags with macphearson strut? 

[R.O.R-2.0]

I'm not sure why u can't run bags with macphearson strut? 

theres LOTS of VWs running bagged struts...

[Henk]

i can and do on the front, the trouble is i have a pair of regular type ones for the rear.
To buy and import 2 hollow and 2 straight bags cost me £440 ($580 at a guess?) bloody mad, so not going to import another pair in a hurry! priced up, another pair of hollow bags would be $430
while we have plentiful cheap fuel pumps, y'all have damn cheap air ride stuff!
the fronts, custom machined ally mounting plates on cheap nasty coilovers

[RabbitJockey]

I do not want to seem too critical or like I am telling you what to do, but to me, the time saved by buying the bags would be well worth it for how much more simple it would make the job.  How ever you may enjoy the fabrication and simply using what u have.

[745 turbogreasel]

Modifying a Caddy rear for struts  would not be that much less fab.

[Henk]

this is true ^, $430 + import tax is no small amount (on my wages!)
I'm half considering making myself some tubular front wishbones 
Unsure whether i'll be using the audi subframe anyway, seeing as it only has wishbone mounts and one gearbox mount on it...
engine arrives tuesday hopefully, so will see then

[Henk]

so my engine finally turned up, f*cking useless company.
even better, turned up at home, well the end of the track, with no way for me to move it anywhere.


popped to work, borrowed the engine crane, fixed said engine crane then set to work getting this huge sod into the golf. which was a *** of a job, naturally

(golf is standard suspension, got some crazy rake going on from that)

got it mostly in, wasn't going any further so chucked some rope around it and moseyed up to the farm. was a bit easier to get out on the other side...


*** it's huge :p
mocked in

[Henk]

bit more work done since-
machined pump bracket


for pump


got my top wishbones and mocked up


started on an engine subframe


poly front mount


quick photo of the rest as it sits