Lowering Buggy and fixing camber

[Buzzfagan]

So I really want to drop the front and rear of this buggy down. It is a swingaxle/link-king pin. It is going to be a street car pretty much most of the time.

I also need to get rid of the camber in the back. I already plan on getting rid of the cool overs and searching for the best replacement. Any suggestions?

To drop the front should I get dropped spindles, weld in front end adjusters or both?

What about for the rear. I do have adjustable spring plates but I am not sure how low that will get it.

When you adjust the torsion bars are you affecting the ride quality and the height? How does that work? How much lower can I get it adjusting the torsion bars and if I do that will it affect the ride?

After it is dropped what shocks should I get for the front and back?

Where should I start and what should I purchase?

[Lo Cash John]

For the front:

Go with dropped spindles AND adjusters in the beam. The spindles will widen the front track about 5/8" per side so if you're going to buy a beam with adjusters, you may want a 2" narrowed beam to help offset that.

Also for the front you'll want to reduce the torsion leaves in the beam. This will greatly improve ride quality. There's lots of info on that in this forum.

For shocks, go with simple oil filled shocks.


For the rear:

Adjustable spring plates are perfect and simple to use. Lots of info on the various forums here at The Samba.

You have a swingaxle car so be aware that camber angle (leaning in/out of wheels) is a function of ride height. If the car is lowered, the top of the wheels will lean in and if the car is raised, the top of the wheels will lean out. If rear suspension is set to stock height, the wheels will be straight up and down (0* camber).

If you wish to lower the buggy in the rear but NOT have much camber, you'll have to raise the transmission/engine in relation to the chassis. Many sellers offer raised transmission mounts for this purpose.

For shocks, you can go with simple oil shocks, however if you're going to build a big engine, do some racing or aggressive driving you may want a better shock.
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[weasel_ugs]

Might want to wait until the car is complete, all the extra stuff you add will add weight and bring the car down some.
If you adjust it now you might have to adjust it again once it has all the weight added.

[andk5591]

Dont you have another thread going? Your car looks familiar
_________________
D-Dubya Manx clone - 63 Short pan,1914.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Cindy's daily driver.
Max - 73 standard Beetle hearse project - For sale
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them...

[Buzzfagan]

How much lower can you adjust the front if you install the weld in adjusters?

[Lo Cash John]

You can lower the front down until the fenders are laying on the tires if you want. Not a great idea but it can be done.
_________________
www.LoCashRacing.org
More brains than bucks...Believe it or not!!

If you actually drive your VW, you need www.AirMapp.com

My boss told me I need to work on my mutli-tasking. So now when I use the bathroom at work I surf The Samba on my iPhone.

[manxdavid]

[wythac]

To the original poster, Buzz,

I just counted 7 new threads on this first page that you've started. 6 are on topics best answered in the Beetle forums as they are not buggy specific. The one you started about buggy shocks is in the right place, but if you'd done a search you'd have likely found 50-100 threads already discussing that topic on this forum, so the topic you started has been covered and covered again and better elsewhere.

As I mentioned, you'll get a lot more out of a search in the appropriate forum than you will by starting new threads. There is a wealth of information right here, that you aren't utilizing if you aren't using this tool. Everyone here is happy to help. My point is that it is likely that they already have. Use your search tool, you'll get more out of it than the method you are currently using.

As always, good luck on your project.

[Lo Cash John]

I think there's so much info here at The Samba that it's over whelming for a new person.

There should be a video tutorial on how to use SEARCH.

To Buzz, if you need help with search let me know and I can try and talk you through it on the phone or something.
_________________
www.LoCashRacing.org
More brains than bucks...Believe it or not!!

If you actually drive your VW, you need www.AirMapp.com

My boss told me I need to work on my mutli-tasking. So now when I use the bathroom at work I surf The Samba on my iPhone.

[wythac]

Lo Cash,

Agreed. I usually include a search that I've already done for the new posters to get them started. I did that for this guy on one of his other threads on this topic to help him down that road.

I think we can do a disservice to some of the new posters by not having them take a look at the wealth of knowledge accumulated in forums other than this one...I know its a lot, but it seems that we don't really fully answer a lot of these type of questions on a new post here because, as regular users and contributors, we know it is likely covered in greater detail elsewhere. As a result, the answers in this forum on Beetle pan/running gear issues are usually pretty terse and also presume knowledge that the new posters often don't likely have.

I hope this explanation helps the original poster understand why its a good idea to poke around a bit. Sometimes what separates you from the information you need is a lack of knowledge of the right terminology...everyone here can help with that too.

[andk5591]

Totally agree with that - even though I use search a lot, there are times where I dont know the right question to ask without ending up with 7,841 results....Can be a challenge but running multiple simialr threads can be really confusing.
_________________
D-Dubya Manx clone - 63 Short pan,1914.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Cindy's daily driver.
Max - 73 standard Beetle hearse project - For sale
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them...