I’ve had this dream since I was around 13 years old to build my own car. It’s sort of the idea that as close as you might think you are to your dream car, there’s still something not quite right about it. You know when you say “If I’d built this car, I would have done this or that differently”. Well I’ve finally decided it’s time to build mine. For now it’s code named as The Frankfurt Flyer. The idea is to put myself back in time to 1950-1951. Using what I would have had available at the time, and perhaps with the help of a few insiders at Porsche, I would build this 2 seater race car, inspired by Walter Glocker but with a few twist’s of my own. Here is the idea captured in 1951 when Walter Glockers “VW Homebuilt” racer was ready to rally to another victory. Funny, he called these car’s VW in an effort to avoid the fact that they had hopped up Porsche motors underneath that beautiful alloy skin! This is the inspiration for my Frankfurt Flyer.

I’m starting with a Vintage Volkswagen 40hp motor. This will be the powerplant for my racer. Don’t worry, by the time I’m done with it the motor should be pushing at least a whopping 70hp, maybe more if I supercharge it? Today I tore the engine down and began blasting the engine tin.

Here’s a picture of the engine how I found it, in a barn, in South Dakota… I unbolted it from the later model running gear and had a heck of a time getting it out of the barn! With the help of my Uncle Jim, we finagled our way through one mans junk and brought out another mans treasure (I hope)!

More to come…

July 7th, 2010
After tearing down the top end of the engine yesterday I decided to run down to my Uncles garage and sandblast my engine tin. It turned out pretty nice and is ready for powdercoating or paint. I’m not sure which way to go yet…

Here’s what the engine looks like half-naked!

Update #2 for the day. I reconsidered the engine tin and need to clean up a couple more spots on it. Once that’s done it will go for powdercoating. The engine case is at the shop getting cleaned up and ready for some new hardware. I will be ordering an OKRASA ground cam and crank from Joe Ruiz. He was very helpful over the phone and I think we’re on the right track to a peppy little German hotrod!

In this pic you can see the rod I’m pointing at is sticky. It should be laying down in the hole like the rod on the right. This may or may not have been problematic when the motor was last used but when you reassemble the new hardware you definitely don’t want them this tight! Your crankshaft is the core of your motor and your power. When something goes wrong in here it can translate to several problems out from here and into the top end…

It’s amazing all these parts make up several thousand miles of fun and adventure!

And the case, Generator stand and barrels are going to get polished up!

The heads, intake and carbs will come from Wolfsburg West as seen here.

Update #3
We can pretty much scrap the 40hp engine tear down above. It turned out to be too late of a build date for what I want to do and, the case needs a line bore. So I’ve stripped down a 59 case (36hp) that had low mileage. It’s now at the shop getting prepped for the build up. It will use the components previously described.

Now that the engine is out getting prettied up, I can focus on the running gear. I’ve been slowly chipping away at the specifications of my project. The original style running gear was a VW pan, chopped around 7 inches to shorten the wheel base. The actual pans were removed and replaced with Alloy pans mounted on square steel tubing. Here you can see I’ve used my plasma cutter to remove the pans so all that’s left is the tunnel!
Before

After

Next up the transaxle will be removed and the tunnel will get blasted and prepped for paint!

New update 8-18-10

Well the good (and somewhat comical) news is… While eating Chinese yesterday, I cracked open a fortune cookie and this is what it said:

Life is funny…

I received my 36hp case back from the shop with Case-Saver inserts installed along with new head studs. I’ve been collecting parts as you can see below. I am going to do a final cleaning on the Oil Gallery’s and the case will be ready for the next step of installing cam/crank.

Shown below are the alloy finned Porsche drum brakes to be used at the front.

Rear transaxle/running gear removed for tunnel shortening.