New to forum! Pics of my recently purchased Sebring kit car

[WHYYYTRYYY]

Hey guys, my name's Chuck, and I just signed up for this Samba thing. Seems right up my alley. I'm a mechanic for a limo company, and luckily I have a very cool boss that said I could keep this project at work for a while.
Previously I was into Corvettes and street bikes, but a few weeks ago I stumbled across this beauty and couldn't pass it up. 1980 Sebring kit car, built on a year-yet-to-be-determined VW chassis (I believe 74 or later). Currently sporting a 1500 H5 block engine, not running. According to previous owner, hasn't moved much in last 10 years.
I paid some cash for it, got it flat bedded to my shop, scrubbed it for a few hours to brighten the blue impregnated gel coated fiberglass, and now I own the wildly impractical ride pictured. Plans include stripping the chassis and redoing the whole suspension, putting disc brakes on the front and rear, rebuilding the transaxle and engine (hopefully up to like 120 hp, but after a quick search I'm seeing the H5 block may not be up to this task), gutting the whole car and installing all new electrical, interior, yadda yadda yadda. You get the idea. All new. I can assure you I will be asking you guys many questions to get this chassis and engine sorted out over the next few months. But for now, enjoy these pictures of one man's descent into kit car madness...

[Letterman7]

Nice series 1! You have your hands full, but it looks like a nice starting point. Shoot me a PM - would like to get it on the registry, and check out our forum specific to the cars.

[woodoctr]

Yeah, for a Series 1 that ain't bad. Fiberglass looks fairly straight and decent to work with....you are already plumbed for air which is nice (even though it will probably all need updated/replaced). Up to you but you might consider going Subaru. I've had 5 Sebring/Sterling cars and liked the VW motored ones but loved the v6 and my current rotary. Might want to do some searching around on here for Subaru conversion. Even on these earlier Sebrings the engine bay is decent size for a conversion. These car are a lot of fun to drive when you start going past 150 h.p. I'm currently at 325.
Oh, and I just noticed....looks like you might be on wheel adapters with that 5 lug pattern (not uncommon back in the day). If you are going to be putting more power to that car I'd consider losing those by getting new pattern rotors so you could keep your wheels.

[Wolfgangdieter]

That dash brings back the 70's - CB radio, graphic equalizer, and cassette player. Even incorporated the original VW ash tray! I'd go Subbie and incorporate the Subbie dash and gauges! Why not get it running and stopping and drive it a bit before tearing it apart?
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CMC '57 Porsche Speedster Replica and Dolphin boat tailed full pan VW MOD-T Street Buggy

[didget69]

Is body bolted to the pan? Left side wheels appear to not be centered in wheel wells.

bnc
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I never found the need to impress people with any mechanic certifications, trophies or track wins... unless it was for Mom to post on the refrigerator door.

[WHYYYTRYYY]

[Letterman7]

You aren't horribly far from me, maybe a couple hours. If you run into an issue, just let me know and maybe I'll be able to swing up (over?) one weekend.

[WHYYYTRYYY]

So, some progress finally! Got that diabolical canopy open today, after 4 hours of careful grinding, cutting, and precision hammering. Severely rusted release pins and dead motors are a bad combination. I ended up cutting the bolts holding the bottom bracket for the cylinder, and was quite careful not to damage that one piece body. Anyway, an open canopy is a beautiful thing!

Since a total renovation is planned, I removed as many wires, hoses, cables, and poorly done insulation scraps as possible. Also decided to remove everything but fiberglass from the body. Still have some work to do, but got a decent jump on it today. The heater channels are clean, most of the wiring is removed, removed junk from front compartment, and some of the dash is cleared.
That's about it until next week, so here's some pics of progress for now. Enjoy.

[WHYYYTRYYY]

[Letterman7]

If I still had it, yes. I have another that's been waiting for years for me to get on it. Not VW powered, and not VW based....

What in the world is that radiator under the hood? Aircon condenser? Won't do much good without a hole in the bodywork to get fresh air in and out!

[SBD]

[woodoctr]

Ha, ha....yeah, I've seen that set up before on a Sebring.... I asked the guy how well his air conditioning worked and he said.... big surprise...it never worked right. It should have been placed across an opening on the front then ducted out the bottom. I've also seen them ducted from the front opening with the condensor laying flat and again ducted out the bottom.

[WHYYYTRYYY]

Yes, quite a terrible setup with the air. Also, if you can't already tell from the old water line in the front tub....he never added any sort of drainage!

And a few questions: have any Sebring guys cut out and made functional the multitude of vents in the hood and deck lid? I would love to do so but am scared to death of cutting the body. And any suggestions on what to line the edges of the cutouts with, in the likely event that I go crazy with the sawzall?

[Letterman7]

I've never seen the vents cut out. More looks than function. If you decide to make the aircon functional, you could cutout the 'hood' louvers at the back of the louver. Just make sure you have incoming air somewhere from the front or underneath, and that the condenser is somehow boxed so that the incoming air goes through, rather than around, the condenser. Once it's through, the air can flow out the hood.

The decklid louvers are totally facing the wrong direction to do anything if those were cut. On both of my old Sterlings, the engine cover for those had a raised portion not unlike (but not similar) to the Sebring. On those I cut the back open and put a screen mesh in, just to help move some of the hot air from the engine out. As you've seen, there is no hot/cold air separation for the engine in these cars, so air movement is paramount to a happy engine. The more air you can get flowing around it (and out), the happier it will be in the long run... if you remain aircooled, that is.

[woodoctr]

Yeah, I'd agree with everything said there by Letterman7....Those shark gill type louvers look cool on the car but you've got to be very careful on what you open up and how air flow is manged throughout the car. I've owned a Series 1 like yours before as well as several other Sterlings/Sebrings. On the Series 1 I did not open any of them but I didn't have air on that car either. Really for air flow up front on your car for the a/c it would be better to get your air down low rammed in and managed with ducting. I never liked the idea of hot air being exhausted up and over the front of the car. On that same car I ran a large flexible duct to the VW fan motor and sealed off the top/bottom of the motor just as VW originally did with just some minor venting of the upper rear area through the back of the car. If you do decide to open them up (front or back) I would just try to cut them to leave an edge that press on vinyl trim could cover and screen the inside.

[WHYYYTRYYY]

Well I can't help myself. Was back at the garage again on my day off. Got the whole dash stripped, and 99% of the crap out of the front compartment. Wiper assembly was a definite pain to remove.
And I'm sure most of you kit car guys have dealt with this, but almost every bolt and piece of hardware is rusted to death since this car sat for over a decade. And in classic 70's style, the builder used round head slotted screws for everything, so at least 1 in 3 fasteners needed to be cut or ground off to remove. Fun fun.
Hopefully will have it on the lift Wednesday so I can finally check out the chassis better.
And I picked up the original glass side windows today, and the title. After looking up the chassis number, it seems like I have a '69 1500 engine and a '70 beetle frame.

Pics of progress...

And to keep it interesting, the girlfriend stopped by today...makes the car look a lot better!

[0nebadbug]

Nice car! ...

This place needs a 'thumbs up' button : )
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::: Slowoval ::: LaDawri Sebring ::: '61 Creampuff ::: Dust Storm '66 :::

[woodoctr]

Wow, now that's the way to option out a Sebring! Nice job on the tearddown... putting it all back takes me 3 times as long now....

[SBD]

UH... We need more pics of the girlfriend!
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[EVfun]