Zombie's Customs 4" beam build

[zombiescustoms]

I know this has been covered a lot but I wanted to do a step by step description of building a narrowed, lowered beam, with some tweeks from the standard off the shelf narrowed beams.

here we go:
beginning, bone stock, 5.5 inch chromies and 205/60 15 rears and 175/55 fronts

your standard 1964 king and link pin beam

wire wheeled to remove crud

marking for cuts to be made, I'll be cutting 4" but off set from the center

removing uprights

going under the blade

I'm not using the tubes supplied with the sway away style adjusters in stead I cut the beam off set from center and notched it using a 1/2" end mill

Notice how much longer I made the slot as compared to the off the shelf adjuster, this will give you more range of adjustment

adjuster pieces rotated to allow more drop

here is what the car look like all the way down with no dropped spindles

and yes it is just about on the buckets, spindles on the way!

I will have more pics of the beam once I take it out to do the shock towers

[Jgowin]

Good ideal, I like the ideal of only cutting the beam once.

[spectre6000]

I think there might be a step or two missing for those of us who are new to the idea of beam narrowing. Why did you remove the part that goes between the beams and attaches to the frame head? Why remove the 4" off center? Are the adjustable parts sold separately? I've only ever seen them on finished beams. How did you narrow the torsion bars themselves? Sorry if any of these questions are beyond naivete, I've never seen this done before.
_________________
Jason Hopper

-'58 German Market Deluxe Beetle (in progress)
-'84 M1009 CUCV
-'81 K10
"Buy the best, cry once." -Gene Berg
"A cheap man will always buy the cheapest thing available, and then buys another one hoping for a better result, and then spends the rest of his life in misery complaining about it. A thrifty man will buy a good part once and never think about it again." -RockCrusher
"Don't feed the Shitty Parts Monster!" -Me

[59eurobug]

[zombiescustoms]

59eurobug covered most of your questions, the adjuster parts are not sold separately, i just cut up a set with a cut off wheel, as for cutting the torsions, rap with duct tape or a zip tie and use a cut off wheel here too, I narrowed 4" so I took 2" off each end, another tip is to install the leaves in the beam before cutting them, they seem to slide in the arms better than they slide in the adjuster center after they are cut.

The reason the beam is cut off center is that I used the beam tube to mount the adjuster as opposed to the thinner (probably crap) tube that comes with the adjuster, this way there is only one seam to weld and it is all original German metal.

[iaccy]

Are you still running shocks? did you have to modify the shock mounts to fit without hacking the body? And what about the steering gear box? How did you know where to weld that back on? Sorry to bombard you with questions.
_________________
'67 Beetle (sold) http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3289202#3289202
OG '63 Beetle http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=444566

[Jerry Hundley]

I really like the way you did the adjusters. The next one I do will be that way. Very cool
_________________
Jerry Hundley (AKA Slammed 66)

Because Stock Sucks!!!!
70 baywindow deluxe
65 slammed bug
69 bug
64 drag buggy

[zombiescustoms]

[zombiescustoms]

I was up till 1am working last night on tie rods and torsion dimples, the beam ended up in and out of the car twice and now just needs shock towers.

here are some pics:

I used the old sway bar to insert inside of the tie rods for strength

[mdnick]

nice work... you get worried about welding tie rod ends at all?
_________________
-nick-
purists seem to think everyone should conform to their standards. i seem to remember a certain historical figure that believed the same thing. yet we called him a lunatic? weird.

[ottvw]

When doing the tie rods it's easier to cut off 4" off one side then retap the side you cut off.
_________________
Save a tree eat a beaver

[drscope]

[zombiescustoms]

Unless you have a 14mmx1.5 tap laying around, it is way easier to cut and weld, takes like 10 minutes, and its free, and the sway bar makes it more than strong enough.

[Joey]

[LUNATIK]

I'm going to tackle narrowing the beam of one of my VW's this weekend, I have never done this job before but it look very straight forward, but the only thing that I will need for someone to explain to me is the reposition of the damper; does you move the damper back or buy a short type steering damper?

Regards
_________________
You cannot fight with STUPID people; becasue you have to get down to their level and they will beat you up with experience.

[zombiescustoms]

[50ate]