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Here is some thing a ways back. Just some old ideas. The front coilovers never worked out. Love the body you found.!
Randy

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American 7 5.0 T5
Lotus 15 ish?
914/H6

A man after my own heart.

For street use, the sepia body looks like it has some advantages over the yellow body. For one thing, you could probably cram some headlights into the sepia one. For another, you could have some wheel travel.

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Locost builder and adventurer, and founder (but no longer owner) of Kinetic Vehicles

That makes sense!

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-Andrew
Build Log
Youtube

Hewland MKiV and MKV were popular back then. That would be a sensible period upgrade and really add to the fun. A little less sensible for stop and go on the street though. For rural use it would be fine though.

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
Car9 Roadster information - models, drawings, resources etc.

you can't use a hewland the same way up as a vw trans.

the hewland in its normal config is a vw upside down, the bell housing bolt pattern is not simetrical so to attach it to a vw you would have to invert it.

i don't know if this would alter the gear lever positions given the special hewland end assembly on the trans.

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this story shall the good man teach his son,
and chrispin chrispian shall ne'er go by,
from this day to the end of the world.
but we in it shall be remembered.

I think the Beetle and 911 engines do have symmetrical bell housing bolt patterns. I looked at a spare Beetle case and it seems like the 4 bolts are in a simple square pattern. You could even leave off cylinders and bolt it up as a vertical twin for you trike fans. Maybe there are a bunch of other practical issues?

I think you can run the Hewland "inverted" into normal position and flip the ring gear. Can't say I know for sure, but there should be history on this somewhere. It might leak less oil from the shifter. Having it on the left side of the engine in a 2 seater compared to the right side for a single seater might also be an advantage.

There are issues like input shaft length and more, but perhaps for a long term fun project they are ideal problems. Tracking down history on these things can be fun, but also long term efforts. It makes a really big difference in these moderate power cars to have the correct ratios and they are a lot of fun to shift.

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
Car9 Roadster information - models, drawings, resources etc.

Marcus a hewland uses a vw case.

i have a pdf of it but i can't upload it

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this story shall the good man teach his son,
and chrispin chrispian shall ne'er go by,
from this day to the end of the world.
but we in it shall be remembered.

Sure, I know that, but I'm missing something I guess. I have a spare transmission case and that's what I looked at. It's a "Rhino" case which is a super heavy duty unit from Brazil.

OK, you're right John. I needed a measuring tape and also to drag the case out for a closer look. So you can't bolt it up inverted. One hole is offset a little bit. I don't think the Hewland would car much if it was upside down though. If you are being period correct (1964) it might still be using the VW ring gear.

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
Car9 Roadster information - models, drawings, resources etc.

using the input shaft as a center vertical datum and the trans in the vw config,(the right way up)

the top holes are 3.899 from the center datum and 7.798 center to center.

the bottom holes are 4.120 from the center datum and 8.240 center to center.

vertically, from the same datum but horizontal, the holes are 4.120 to the top hole and 8.450 center to center to the bottom hole.

so the top pair of holes and bottom pair of holes are not equally spaced about the input shaft.

i have measured a vw trans and i have compared this to a hewland, the bolt holes are identical but inverted on the hewland.

however there are some vanagon transmissions that have removable bell housings, i do not know if the bell housing pattern is the same as a type 1 or if the bell housing can be inverted on the transmission.

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this story shall the good man teach his son,
and chrispin chrispian shall ne'er go by,
from this day to the end of the world.
but we in it shall be remembered.

Couple of things.

Chuck Tatum is still alive and living in Stockton.
He might have some insight on the body you got.
For myself I would prefer a copy of the sepia toned body.

I actually have the original molds and rights to Chucks "Crusader" kit street car project from the 70's.
Intending to build a couple, one wild BEC and one tamer street car.

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If I must be a one-man PC free zone, so be it!

Hello Richard, I did see that you have the molds and rights to the for the Crusader street version. Good luck with that.

Unfortunately Chuck recently passed. The person I purchased the body from had recently talked to Chuck. The molds for the Crusader VSR were "borrowed" for a project and then never returned. I will try to learn more.

It might be the wrong thing to do but I had built a frame for Miata parts to bolt into. I saw my body on the floor and saw the Miata project and decided to modify that body for the Miata project. The body is the perfect width. I know, its a crazy thing to do. Here is a pic of the first mock up. The windshield is from a Porsche 356 Speedster.

I have to admit that I'm not feeling well. I'm not sure how much I'm going to be able to get done.

Damn this thing looks great!

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Regards,
Harry

What Harry said. ^

That car will be lovely, and I'm looking forward to seeing how you fit a bonnet that covers the Miata mill.

I'm sorry to hear you're still having health issues.

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Locost builder and adventurer, and founder (but no longer owner) of Kinetic Vehicles

If it were me I would splash a mold from the original body and then restore the original car using that original body.
Then pop a new body for the updated car or cars.

Use one of the new bodies to cut and stretch for the newer chassis.

Sorry to hear about Chuck, surprised I did not get an email from Forgotten Fiberglass.
I really wanted to get a car together in time for him to see it.

Take care of yourself, try to find a young enthusiast to help you.

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If I must be a one-man PC free zone, so be it!

What does the street version look like?

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Bill H
Winnipeg, MB, Canada