TheSamba.com :: View topic

Tue Apr 16, 2013 8:34 pm

This will be the very slow progress of the build of my car.
Here are some details so far and plans for the future.

The car as it is today;
1968 Beetle
Ball Joint
Swing Axle
15x5.5 Chrome Mangels
205/50-15
Custom 4 piston front disc
CB Drop spindles
CB Rear disc
Adjustable spring plates
1835 recycled from my highschool Beetle
044 Heads
Engle 110
Dual Kadrons

The next steps are to get the beam going, then the hydraulic portion of the brakes.

Future plans
Custom beam with 4 adjusters to split the left and right to allow corner weight adjustment, built in -2.5 camber.
2" narrow
Quick ratio steering
Koni shocks

Constant engaged Z-Bar
Constant engaged camber compensator
Koni shocks

Trans built to not yet determined specs

98 Prelude seats
Formuling France steering wheel
914 and VDO gauges

Early trunk and decklid
Shaved bumpers

Dropped spindles

Dropped Spindles, Adj spring plates one outer notch down

Sun Apr 21, 2013 6:41 am

Plasti dipped wheels to see how black wheels would look with out committing to the change

Sun Apr 21, 2013 9:23 am

How's plastidip hold up?

Sun Apr 21, 2013 11:59 am

The hubcaps knocked off the coating on the wheels. Otherwise it looks somewhat durable, I don't plan running caps so that is not a problem for me. Check out www.dipyourcar.com he has a lot of info and YouTube videos on it.

Sun Apr 21, 2013 7:12 pm

Did you do anything additional to the front end when you lowered the rear end? The front of the car appears lower in the second photos vs the photos when you just have drop spindles.

Sun Apr 21, 2013 7:36 pm

HeidiHo wrote: Did you do anything additional to the front end when you lowered the rear end? The front of the car appears lower in the second photos vs the photos when you just have drop spindles.

The very first picture was dropped spindles only. The subsequent 3 all have a ratchet strap compressing the suspension to simulate more drop for a poser shot. Really for my personal benefit than anything else, so the amount of compression between the first and second post could vary. The lighting is also different which in person seems to have a big impact in how it looks.

I'm building a very non-traditional beam which will be narrowed more on the upper tube than the lower to build in more camber, 4 adjusters to split the left and right side of the suspension. I hope to run as much as or maybe just a little more drop than what these pictures show. I've done most of the math to determine the difference between the top and bottom, but I want to sit on it for a day or two and come back to check my numbers to make help ensure I didn't make a miscalculation.

Mon Apr 22, 2013 12:39 am

Curious to see how the beam turns out!

Mon Apr 22, 2013 5:32 am

Zach Thomas wrote: Curious to see how the beam turns out!

I plan on a write up within this thread. I have a lot going on this week so it could be this weekend or next week before I can build my jig.

If you have a good imagination, this is kinda how it would look.
The | / and \ represent the shock tower the = represents the adjusters and the _ is the beam tubes itself.

|___________________|
_________==_________
/_________==_________\

Thu May 02, 2013 8:55 am

Im interested to see how this turns out!!

Thu May 02, 2013 8:59 am

Fowl3r wrote: Im interested to see how this turns out!!

Thanks. I am buying the material to build my jig today. I will try to document the whole thing, if nothing less have a few pictures to show what all was done. I don't have a helper and often get so focused on doing the work i forget to stop and take pictures along the way.

I don't want to spoil the write up but I can say I should be able to dial in as much as -6" camber should I want to.

Thu May 02, 2013 2:12 pm

I thought for some crazy reason (maybe your thread title) that your list was a re-doing of the lyrics to "My Way"

"The car, as it is today;
1968 Beetle
Ball Joint, Swing Axle .

I dubbed it Myyyyy Waaay!"

I bet Sinatra never owned a bug!

Whoah...I need a cup of coffee!

Fri May 03, 2013 8:30 pm

Some more poser shots pulled the Plasti-Dip off the hoops of the wheel, I'm digging it. My rear shocks showed up today, I hope to get them on this weekend. I also bought my material to build the beam, with any luck ill start on that one night next week.

Mon May 06, 2013 6:01 am

Not much ground made this weekend, the shocks I've discovered are too long. I am not happy with the idea of using a KP front shock on the rear, I will probably end up making a bracket to drop the shock mount kinda like what Bugzyla offers to lower the car. I'm not overly happy about this but the lesser of two evils in my situation.

I did however make a list for my brake lines pieces which I plan to order from Moore parts later today.

Thu May 23, 2013 7:47 pm

I was able to build my beam narrowing jig this evening.

It's a12x12x1/4 plate with 2.5 x2.5x1/4 angle positioned to cradle the beam. The short pieces are to support the longer pieces. The longer pieces are where the beam will rest in when its time to weld it back together.

Fri May 24, 2013 8:32 am

Here are the adjuster assemblies.

Wed May 29, 2013 6:13 am

While this is a crappy cell phone pic, it's the best I have of the beam. The picture is distorted, but you can kinda see how the top is narrower than the bottom. The whole thing looks skewed in this picture but after countless measurements it is not.

The purpose of this particular beam build was to build in negative camber into the front suspension. With this setup I should yield about -1.5 - -5.5 camber adjustment when combined with the extra offset camber eccentrics.

I didn't get pics along the way as my camera wasn't cooperating. I'll try to post a more direct picture once I'm further along.

If I were to build one of these again I would do it out of DOM and avoid trying to re-use a stock beam and stock parts etc.

If our baby doesn't come before this weekend I'm going to try to get the beam in the car and at least get a poser shot in the driveway.

Wed May 29, 2013 10:39 am

I love seeing fresh ideas going in to builds. My front beam is still stock with no adjusters as I'm still not sure what kind of suspension I'll end up with, but I'm looking in to how much camber these cars really need. I'm so used to McPhearson fronts on cars and the subsequent camber gain in corners, and this is much different.

What are your plans for the camber? More grip? Stanced look? Just curious ...

Wed May 29, 2013 11:10 am

Grip for sure, my plans for this car are fair weather driving and auto x. Open track days if I can talk my wife into it.

I didn't mention this but the beam is also narrowed, 2.5 up top and 1.5 on the bottom, this is how I was able to come about the increased camber. It was a bitch to do and when/if I do another I will use 2" DOM and fabricated shock towers and mounting brackets.

I got about 4* of adjust-ability with the camber eccentrics, so I decided to build the beam such that I'd have -1.5 to -2 with the adjusters are the most positive setting and i can go negative from there. Based on the measurements I took at the time I needed an extra .5 to get where I wanted.

Also notice there are 4 adjusters, the spring pack will be separated side to side to allow corner weighting (ie adjust for my fat ass).

Speaking of fresh ideas, someone told me you can't run a camber compensator and a Z bar in conjunction with one another, that same person also told me a SA bug would never handle. My goal is to dissolve both ideas, however the SA bug never handling bit has been proven by others long before I came along. Once the front end is done and I get a few token poser shots, I'll be working on the rear suspension and then on to the brakes.

Wed May 29, 2013 11:29 am

Awesome. I autocross the Evo and the Beetle is my RallyCross car.

I read up a little on the trailing link suspension and how it works with camber gain, so I'm interested to see how yours turns out.

Asphalt and dirt are much different in terms of setup with slip angles and all, but I think a lot of the data will transfer.

Wed May 29, 2013 11:37 am

TouringBubble wrote: Awesome. I autocross the Evo and the Beetle is my RallyCross car.

I read up a little on the trailing link suspension and how it works with camber gain, so I'm interested to see how yours turns out.

Asphalt and dirt are much different in terms of setup with slip angles and all, but I think a lot of the data will transfer.

The camber gain is a big reason for doing the beam the way I did. I would almost say my car is like the street cousin to yours. Maybe a little watered down. My wife is trying to get me to keep the back seat for the kiddos, which means no roll bar, harness etc. However a back seat would be useless when the driver seat position is where i want it because it touches the back seat so no way anyone could sit back there