Tony's 67

I finally got round to digging Tony's car out from the corner , to get onto finishing the work I started ages ago . I have to finish the ' back half ' roll cage that ties into the frame horn brace , the main hoop to brace bars needing fitting . I also have to make the tie in bars , that go from the rear brace , down to the modified Bugpack gearbox cradle yoke . I have encountered problems with the BugPack gearbox cradle yoke , that are made worse when using the CB Rhino mounts . The end result was that the gearbox sits way too high , making the exhaust header and muffler hitting the rear apron and rear wing . Also making the rear tin a difficult fit .

After a lot of measuring and head scratching , I worked out that the frame horn mounting holes in the Bugpack gearbox cradle yoke , are in the wrong place , about 12mm out in fact . Also the CB Rhino yoke mounts are 3-4mm thicker than VW rubber mounts . This results in a significant raise of the gearbox , and the resulting problems I have mentioned .

Another problem , is that the nosecone CB Rhino mount is thicker than a stock VW mount , pushing the gearbox and engine about 5mm further back , which doesn't sound like a lot , but makes fitting the rear tinware an absolute bitch . It also requires the Bugpack gearbox cradle yoke being spaced back by the 5mm . Otherwise the yoke mounts hang off the side of the gearbox yoke cradle .

I managed to source some sets of the ' Grey ' VW genuine rubbers . I haven't been able to get hold of these for a few years now . You can buy pattern ' Vibrasil ' mounts , but they are nowhere near as firm as the heavy duty genuine mounts . The reason I started using the CB Rhino mounts , was because I couldn't source the genuine mounts any more . It's a real shame about the incorrect dimensions of the CB mounts , as they work really well otherwise .

So now , every time a club car comes in with the previously fitted Bugpack gearbox cradle yoke and CB mounts , I am refitting genuine mounts and modifying the cradle yoke . What a pain in the arse !

Here I have a mock up engine in place , to check how the engine and tinware sits in the engine bay .