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Tue Mar 23, 2004 10:44 pm

Hey all!! I am currently working on lowering my 73.. I bought a new bug adjustable beam, dropped spindles.. and new BRM's.. so my question is...

what size tires on the front of the car as well as the back.. my car is going to be pretty low.. so all the help would be great!! i was thinking smart car tires.. but need some help..

also looking fro the best exhaust to run so it wont scrape.. and i have a 1915.. so s and s wont work... from what im told

Thanks!!!

Wed Mar 24, 2004 10:35 pm

anyone have ideas?? som ehelp please!!

Thu Mar 25, 2004 3:16 am

Hello

What is the width of your rims?
4.5, 5.5?

Regards
Pierre-J MACUA

Thu Mar 25, 2004 6:23 am

I am intrested to know also, I am thinking of dropping mine and using 5-1/2" Empi 5 spokes.

Thu Mar 25, 2004 7:13 pm

I can tell you that installing KG spindles will drop the front end 2.5 inches right off the bat. I should be careful here, you guys might think that I know something technical about Things. I'm really just a hack with a wild imagination. :)

Thu Mar 25, 2004 10:04 pm

15 x 5.5 BRMS..

Fri Mar 26, 2004 5:03 am

nthang, when you used the KG spindles did you use the arms also ? ball joints are different right ?

Fri Mar 26, 2004 9:46 am

I'm guilty of allowing a (reputable???) shop install front disc brakes on my thing without specifying exactly how to do this proceedure. Well, that said, this shop did a weird one on my front end. They took my thing trailing arms and turned them upside down and changed sides....they turned the left arm over and plugged it into the right beam ends. To make that "mod", they had to put a smaller ball joint in (the top or bottom, I cannot recall).

This worked mechanically just fine; drove okay. But the front end was exactly 2.5 inches lower for their efforts. When I bitched about it, the manager said: "You didn't say anything about height. You said to install front discs and that is the way that we do it".

I put my Thing spindles back on and that took a bunch of hours to do. But I will always remember the 2.5" drop from KG spindles. Sorry for the lengthy report, here.

Sun Apr 04, 2004 1:04 pm

I run a lowered bug beam with (stock) ghia spindels and disk brakes
and I sit about 9" from stock
I run a 17' wheel with 215/40/17
the tire is about 7 1/2 " wide
if your using 15" tire you should be able to put a good size tire on with out rubbing.
the 17s work great the bug beam sits lower than a thing beam and rides like a stock bug.
no need to change spindels ,no need to butcher or mickey mouse a beam together (reputable shop) trying to kill someone.
its really easyer than it looks just change to a bug beam
as for the rear mine sets 2 clicks lower than stock and I havent had any trouble with a merged header I could also get a 18" rim back there with no trouble

Mon Apr 05, 2004 10:25 am

Hey 181Freak I have some 145's I'll give you a good deal on! :lol:

Fri Aug 20, 2004 3:49 pm

After being lowered, the original tires didn't fit no more...
So I borrowed 15x5,5 BRM's to put under my thing.

The tires on the front rims where low profile continental tires
they use as rear tires for smart cars.

With my adjustable puma front axle as low as possible,
the rubbed a little...

But it looked nice!!!

Fri Aug 27, 2004 11:33 pm

Hi All I'm running Cookie Cutters 205 70 r15 in the rear and 135's up front if you want the back lower go with 195's because the rear tire will buzz the fenders
you can take a look at mine in the thing forsale section...Robert
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=100078

Sat Aug 28, 2004 6:23 pm

Why won`t an S&S header fit your 1915? Engine size does`nt matter.

Wed Sep 08, 2004 7:15 am

My Trekker runs a '67 balljoint beam, slimmed by 2", further dropped by 2.5" CB spindles with fake 5" Empis on Smart Eco-Contis. Rubs a bit but drives XLNT :wink: