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thinking about building a ratrod
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fonzy
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Joined: January 21, 2005
Posts: 126
Location: Omicron Persiei 8
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

See now THERE is an EXCELENT question Bugnut:)

Having ridden in and driven a beetle with the ford front end on it I can honestly say it rides like crap:) the handling I have to say was very crisp and gave quite a bit of feedback (i.e. slipping of the wheels, bumps etc) without overloading the steering wheel. I felt like it was actually manuevering the same as a stock independant beetle would/does.

For the most part this adaptaion is still relatively new and not explored really well ON a beetle. . . it has been worked over heavilly by the ford crowd though and I don't see very many of the volksrods taking advantage of that accumulated wisdom... either from not realizing its there or they don't want to spend the money (they are in fact a cheap alternative to building a 32)

I have every intention of building one of these rat rods next only because I have been knee deep in another very (read: VERY) involved project for some time and won;t be done for quite some time.

my wife has a simple "one pile of crap in the garage at a time please" rule that I adhere to religiously if I want any nooky:)

I plan on using a early ford suspension and a few things I can see doing differently to improve the overall 'adaptation' are correct "weight" springs... many of the kits dont come with one and dont tell you what to use... so alot of guys are running WAY too heavy a spring for the lightweight beetle making it a bit kookie.

another problem I see is the wishbones (they tend to look like huge horizontal tuning forks on either side of the car) aren't very easy to setup using proper geometry... and they will tend to eat away alot of turning radius at the same time.

the big kick in the teeth is that you lose the factory VW speedometer ability since theres no WAY you can drill out the center of the early ford kingpin and no WAY for clearance of the cable to exit the hub area...


But for the most part it is TOTALLY for the look:) it gets the front wheels out front a bit, lowers the front end a bit, and just overall kicks ass in my humble opinion. Its one of those things somone somewhere thunk up and got it to work, and work it did:)
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A legend and an out of work bum sure look alot alike, Daddy.
jhicken wrote:
That dude (FONZY) is the Martha Stewart of VW modification. Nice job.
-jeffrey
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brody
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Joined: September 30, 2005
Posts: 300
Location: Oregon... somewhere
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 11:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

BaggedVdub58 wrote:
If u do decide to go with a tall shifter try getting one built from alum or some other light weight material because a steel one would be to heavy and pop out of gear on hard bumps..... Just a thought My shifter is sits right in the middle of windshield....


lets see some pictures!

[/quote]

yeah no kidding... wtf wants to do something un-original like a rat rod?

Personally, I haven't seen enough white convertible superbeetles get restored back to ... umm... factory specs... yet...

OHH OHH! wait! even better!
a white convertible superbeetle NOT restored back to factory specs! just sort of half-assed cleaned up and driven daily!

man now THAT would be the shiznit!

bet it would hit the cover of every major bug mag in a few weeks![/quote]


aint that the truth.
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bugnut68
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Location: Eugene, OR
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 9:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the honest reply, Fonzy, it's appreciated! I'll admit that someday I would like to build a '32 deuce, as from time I saw the yellow coupe in American Graffiti I wasn't ever the same...lol. I have to admit that one of the tech errors in there that I have yet to figure out is when he supposedly pulls the header plugs before the race at the end, it doesn't appear anything is undone...the pipes off the collectors just go underneath to the mufflers. Unless there's a hidden plug on the dump pipe itself? Hell, I'm probably reading into it farther than necessary. lol
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Flipper_1938
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Joined: July 13, 2006
Posts: 96
Location: Kentucky
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 10:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tuning the spring rate and shocks go a long way in making a straight axle work.

My dad has a T-bucket that handles like a sports car. It took several tries to get it right, but it flat out kicks ass.

We are going to have to go through the process again.....he is doing a motor swap to a 1953 Jaguar DOHC inline 6 w/ a 4 speed.
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fonzy
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Joined: January 21, 2005
Posts: 126
Location: Omicron Persiei 8
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 7:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

bugnut68 wrote:
Thanks for the honest reply, Fonzy, it's appreciated! I'll admit that someday I would like to build a '32 deuce, as from time I saw the yellow coupe in American Graffiti I wasn't ever the same...lol. I have to admit that one of the tech errors in there that I have yet to figure out is when he supposedly pulls the header plugs before the race at the end, it doesn't appear anything is undone...the pipes off the collectors just go underneath to the mufflers. Unless there's a hidden plug on the dump pipe itself? Hell, I'm probably reading into it farther than necessary. lol


I was lucky enough to see the original 'chicken yellow' (and it's co-star, a remake of the black chevy Harrison Ford drove) at a car show many years ago...

I noticed when the guy was driving it around it seemed the front tires were WAY overloaded... like they were almost flat in a turn from the 'push' of the car.

and those headers are/were popular setups... they were 'zoomy' headers with a full length exhaust branched off under the car (with mufflers). when ya didnt want to get any crap from the cops for the noise, you plugged the end of the headers so the exhaust ran through the full boat mufflered system. for a few more HP, remove the plugs from the headers:) kinda cool idear.
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A legend and an out of work bum sure look alot alike, Daddy.
jhicken wrote:
That dude (FONZY) is the Martha Stewart of VW modification. Nice job.
-jeffrey
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