Swallowtail Race Car

[static1800]

Dad and I picked up a swallowtail race car that was on ebay recently. The car has been in a garage for a number of years, it's a bit rough around the edges but is all there. Body is surprisingly straight and only found one small spot of rust, the floors are absolutely thrashed though as it was a rally car for a while.

The body is seam welded along with a full cage and it has bracing welded on the inner front guard area as in the backside of the strut towers, so it should be nice and stiff.

It has a few little quirks like an extra fuel tank in the spare wheel well and a side exhaust but is a good base to work off.

We want to get it fixed up to run at the Nationals super sprint and then run in some super sprints and hill climbs.

Plan is to tidy it up, paint it and get it ready to race. We are going to run a KR 16v most likely running carbs mostly stock at this point to keep costs and time down but I want to keep building on the car in the future.

Anyway, here are some pics.





Stripping the bay for paint.


All done.


Will try and keep the thread up to date with progress.

[Stiggy_21]

So unbelievebly jealous.. Exactly what I wanna do..
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[Dub Toffee]

Awesome mate, hope you get her ready for the Nats nothing like a deadline to get things moving hey

[Jarred]

Good Work Matt. I'm glad someone that knows thier way round a spanner (and a mk 1) picked this up!

[Peter Jones]

Always fun discovering the quirky bits in these sorts of things.

Looks like there's been some interesting adaptions to the hydraulics.

Mono wiper is also non standard, something funky going on with the bulkhead around the clutch cable too.

I'd love to see more detailed pictures of the previous owners mods.

Do you have any of the cars prior history to share?

Looking forward to see what you come up with.

[velly_16v_cab]

looks liek a great little project

[gldgti]

Hey hey - good fun project by the looks of it. You inspire me!

[static1800]

Always fun discovering the quirky bits in these sorts of things.

Looks like there's been some interesting adaptions to the hydraulics.

Mono wiper is also non standard, something funky going on with the bulkhead around the clutch cable too.

I'd love to see more detailed pictures of the previous owners mods.

Do you have any of the cars prior history to share?

Looking forward to see what you come up with.

It has a hydraulic handbrake and bias adjuster setup. I noticed the hole for the clutch cable, nothing was on the car when we got it but I figured it may have been a quick change setup of some kind.

Apparently the car was originally built in the late 70's for rally, the previous owner got it sometime in the 80's I think and ran it in some club events until the engine blew up and it's been off the road ever since in his garage. I've been promised some old photos of it at amaroo park I will definitely put up.

I'll put some more photos up tomorrow, showing all the interesting bits.

[static1800]

Didn't get the best photo but this is the handbrake setup. Was thinking we might remove the standard handbrake and leave the hydraulic setup.





How is this for a compressor, 1200cc aircooled vw engine running on 2 cylinders! We used it to paint the car and it worked great. It kicks itself back to idle when it comes to pressure and revs back up to refill which only ever takes a few seconds, so it just ticks along.



Prepping.





And all painted, we just need to buff it back now. It's not the best job but it serves its purpose.





Decided to not use the bonnet that was on the car as it is a bit of a mess. It is a swallow tail bonnet too...



Got an inlet manifold on the way from Germany to fit onto these. 40mm Dellorto's



Currently have a mk3 front brake setup being machined to run on the mk1 to go with a mk3 gearbox so we will have 100mm drive shafts etc.

Next step is getting the engine running and then getting all the final parts on to the car.

[hiho]

Awesome progress!

And great to see a veteran car returned to race duty.

[DubSteve]

Great work Matt, this is moving along quick!

[static1800]

[mikinoz]

Looking good.

[static1800]

No pics but an update.

Had a trip to the wreckers on thursday and picked up an alternator from a Suzuki Swift which is 70amp but tiny compared to a vw unit. A distributor from a Saab that has the correct fitment, vacuum advance for the carbs and is setup for electronic ignition. Also found a coil from an Audi 90 and an ignition module from a Volvo to use for the electronic ignition. They all seem to use really similar bosch gear.

With some help we rigged to some pulleys from mk3 engine and we butchered up the bracket that normally holds the ac and power steering to bolt the alternator and have made up a tensioning bracket. It sits really low and tucks up under the water pump just need to find a belt for it.

Sway bars have been fitted with all new bushings, the kmac bars fit a bit weird but should work fine.

Engine finally went in this afternoon, the extractors fit perfectly and clear the sway bar nicely.

Next step is getting the throttle cable and linkages worked along with installing the usrt shifter kit and short shift bar both of which look really well made.

Will try and get some more photos up soon, been kind of busy and we are running out of time

[hiho]

Incredible turnaround! Well done mate