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Sun Dec 06, 2015 10:40 pm

rockcrawl wrote: The Beetle suspension was designed for a wheel with 1.5" negative offset. Your wheels have 1" positive offset. So the wheels alone will move the center of your contact patch out by 2.5". The VW only has about 4 degrees of steering axis angle, so a 30" tire and 3" lift spindle will only make up for about 1/2" of scrub radius, putting you at +2" over stock. I wouldn't recommend adding any width to the spindles if you plan to keep those wheels. You're already outside of what I'd be comfortable with, but my experience is with modern road cars, not off-roaders. I'm sure there are lots off buggies running around with horrible amounts of scrub.

To put this all into perspective, if you wanted to retain the stock scrub radius with those wheels you have and a 3" lift spindle, you'd need a 95" tall tire.

not sure what the whole scrub radius is about . my wheels have 1"positive plus another inch or more from thing spindles and 30in tires and drives great. pretty common.

Sun Feb 21, 2016 8:49 am

Here you go guys. I'm about 30 minutes into this one, including diassembling this side of the donor beam. Its not perfect, but looks as close as one can eyeball off the original. I assume Im close enough the adjuster will bail me out. Im guessing Ill have a solid hour in each of them when done.
2.75" lift
1.25" widened.

So total I will be 2.5" exta width. That coupled with my 6" wide 2.5"backspaced wheels. Should put me 6.5 wider than stock. I recogn that will keep me as stable as I can be riding high.

Sun Feb 21, 2016 10:42 am

I hope those will never be used on the street, putting others in danger...

Sun Feb 21, 2016 11:49 am

Please don't do this, I am always for home developement on stuff especially when on a budget.....but not in this case.....please just save up the money and get the thing spindles. Rockcrawl has it right and I too keep seeing incorrect info being put out on the site about using Thing components with T1. If you can get the thing arms even better! Just don't flip your T1 arms, I don't know where this got started from but I don't want to see it becoming the status quo. The lift is not quite 3" and the overall width increase using a stock beam as is being said. I have been racing on Thing components for decades and still have two setups I use. Even after several Baja 1000's, Baja 500's and lots of various USA races they have never failed and are still in use today on my play Baja's. The durability of the stock thing spindles outstrip most other balljoint beam spindles on the market. They are still available you have to be patient in finding them I just bought a set of arms for $100 two months ago and a full stock rusted out assembly for $150 early last year. You can find the most rusted out POS thing beams but generally the arms and spindles will still be good. Just put in german ball joints in the arms and stay away from CIP and the other Crap chinese ball joints out there.

Sun Feb 21, 2016 2:28 pm

No need to mask your envy boys...

These are just tacked, they will be as strong as the ORiginal german spindle allows when done. I have alot of boxing to do. There is alot of meat here that allows for some major gusseting. The only real things in question here are.
1 can i do it quick enough that its worth me doing and not buying some from blindchicken or getting thing spindles. (Seems all the others forsale have issues) I'm on pace to have an hour each in them, definetly worth my time.

2. Can i get the spindle straight enough without a jig, looks like I can.

Sun Feb 21, 2016 2:28 pm

No need to mask your envy boys...

These are just tacked, they will be as strong as the ORiginal german spindle allows when done. I have alot of boxing to do. There is alot of meat here that allows for some major gusseting. The only real things in question here are.
1 can i do it quick enough that its worth me doing and not buying some from blindchicken or getting thing spindles. (Seems all the others forsale have issues) I'm on pace to have an hour each in them, definetly worth my time.

2. Can i get the spindle straight enough without a jig, looks like I can.

Sun Feb 21, 2016 3:07 pm

Ok so Im 30 more minutes now.

Sun Feb 21, 2016 3:35 pm

Ok 20 more to finish. I may spend 5 min grinding. And yes the lower balljoint clears that gusset. By 1/8".

Sun Feb 21, 2016 4:54 pm

You really should have cleaned the metal before welding.

Mon Feb 22, 2016 6:36 am

rockcrawl wrote: You really should have cleaned the metal before welding.

I bet they snap the minute I lower the jack.

Mon Feb 22, 2016 2:53 pm

SamT wrote: rockcrawl wrote: You really should have cleaned the metal before welding.

I bet they snap the minute I lower the jack.

Yeah, real funny. That would probably be the best thing that could happen, at least nobody would get hurt. Chances are they will be fine, but when you're building something that is of questionable design integrity, you should make a little more effort to ensure it's done well. Your welds are full of porosity, you didn't even attempt to knock any of the rust off. That little growth at the end of your weld bead is from outgassing of all the crap you welded over.

Tue Feb 23, 2016 4:59 pm

I did the second after work today. Its no better/worse than the first!

Has anyone ever broken a steering arm? I see some beefed up, but I really cant see someone actually breaking the arm off.

Tue Feb 23, 2016 5:34 pm

I broke a steering arm off and link pin spindle last summer so it does happen.

Ed

Wed Feb 24, 2016 3:13 am

The break and bend all the time with impact and fatigue. I have more than a few here and got a buggy in a week or so ago that had and accident and bent one and snapped the other.

Does your lower arm clear the gusset you added ?

Good to see your happy with the result.

Wed Feb 24, 2016 4:55 am

Yes, the lower arm clears that gusset, barely though when at its closest point
Ok, i guess i will gusset the arm too.

Wed Feb 24, 2016 6:13 am

I'd buy that for a dollar!

I could criticize your welding habits as well, but I got better things to do than lecture people on how to and what to do with their rigs. (Actually I don't)

Let us know how they work.

Wed Feb 24, 2016 7:44 am

They actually look better than the blind chicken method, IMO. Were you able to retain the speedo hole?

Wed Feb 24, 2016 8:36 am

TDCTDI wrote: They actually look better than the blind chicken method, IMO. Were you able to retain the speedo hole?

Yea the bottom gusset is a little different on that one because i had pretty much welded right over where it would be on the otherside. So its about 1/2" narrower to miss it. VW put it at an excellent angle!

The second took me just a touch over an hour so say I have 2.5 hours in them. Some scrap metal, probably $10 in welding wire/gas, I didnt buy the spindle cores so I will call them free even though go for $30 a set around here. Id have 3 hours easy in them if I had cleaned the metal! My blaster is in storage while I build my shop. Im working in the garage for now.

Wed Feb 24, 2016 8:50 am

On a related note, does anyone offer a reasonably priced link pin lift spindle? They appear to be at least twice the cost of the ball joint spindles (I assume supply limitations).

Thanks, Jeff

Wed Feb 24, 2016 9:00 am

Tweeds has some 3" link pin spindles $550. I have their 3.5" bj spindles and love em.
SamT- what kind of welder are you using? Brand? Voltage? Thanks.