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lowering a thing
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nhernandez@varco.com is offline 

PostPosted: Wed Nov 13, 2002 12:59 pm    Post subject: lowering a thing Reply with quote

I own a '74 thing and have gotten my hands on lowered spindles. These spindles will drop the car 2-1/2". Has anyone done this before, if so, do you recommend going about it this way or should i get a bug/ghia beam and lower it that way? I also need some to give a direction on lowering the rear.
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ChrisM181
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 13, 2002 8:56 pm    Post subject: lowering a thing Reply with quote

VW went to all the troble of beefing up the thing front beam, arms and spindles to raise the height and make it more durable and you are going to lower and weaken it! Why?
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TimGud
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 13, 2002 9:24 pm    Post subject: lowering a thing Reply with quote

If I heard this correctly the thing front beam is the same as a beatle front beam only it has re-enforcement brackets and is turned. A beatle front beam should work. I think. Good luck.
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2002 6:34 am    Post subject: lowering a thing Reply with quote

Let me tell you why, first of all,I live in Houston where it is totally flat here. The only hills we have are the overpasses on the freeways. Second, Just about all of the Things i've ever seen have been "stock" or "baja", i want mine to be different. I dont want just a plain ole Thing. Houston isnt much of a "off road" city, and even if i did have mountains, i wouldnt take it off road, my thing is for shows and to be driven on nice sunny days, its not a daily driver, its my toy. Besides, do you know how long it takes to clean one of this cars??? I've got a carpet kit in it with an clean interior so i can take a water hose to the inside. Wink
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TimGud
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2002 7:03 am    Post subject: lowering a thing Reply with quote

That is one sharp thing you've got there Neil! It would look good lowered.
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keifernet
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2002 8:05 pm    Post subject: lowering a thing Reply with quote

Yeah but Houston is also a city of 3.5 million..... potholes that is!... and if those don't get yah what about the nice neighborhood road humps???? or the ever popular "sink hole" not to mention the plethtra of R. R. crossings.....lowerd cars may look cool sure but they ride like shit.... most of them anyway.....
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keifernet
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2002 8:09 pm    Post subject: lowering a thing Reply with quote

Oh yeah, do what you like... it's your car and I temporarily forgot... 2 1/2 with spindles is the right way to go and should not cause much of a ride difference.... I must have been stuck thinking of the "pulling the leaves thread" LOL!!!
But also the roads are terrible in this town..... cruise it easy... hope to see you at one of the local events.....
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ChrisM181
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 16, 2002 11:02 am    Post subject: lowering a thing Reply with quote

A Thing beam is the same as a bug, except it has a the brakets welded on it for the arms that connect from the pan, it also has extra reinforcement on the shock towers.
But the arms and spindles are completly differant than the beetles, notice that on a Thing the balljoints both point down, also the balljoints are much bigger than bug balljoints. On a bug the top balljoint points down and the bottom one points up. The thing beam is not turned, it sits up higher because of the differant arms and spindles.
So if you want to lower your thing you can use your beam you just need to get some bug arms to go with your lowered spindles, the thing arms will not work with a bug spindle.
If I were in Texas I would gladly trade you bug arms for thing arms, thing arms are great for offroad, these would be perfect for someone with a Baja bug with a ball joint frontend, they are way stonger! So you should have no problem selling them, or do a partial trade, get somebody to give you some bug arms and money for your thing stuff, the thing stuff is worth more than the bug stuff!
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ianvilleza@aol.com is offline 

PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2002 3:52 am    Post subject: lowering a thing Reply with quote

Just bolt on any bug ball joint front end and it will drop your thing 2-3 inches..
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fajkus@msn.com is offline 

PostPosted: Mon Dec 23, 2002 8:51 pm    Post subject: lowering a thing Reply with quote

I put bug front beam on my Thing. It's no where low enough to scrape anything. As far as the rear, the Haynes repair manual for bag and Ghia's shows how to do it. It's pretty intensive, I started but gave up and had my local mechanic do it for me. The manual showed removing brake lines and stuff that my mechanic was able to bypass.
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