1969 Ghia Front Beam Lost Cause?

[rustydents]

With the body off, I decided to pressure wash the front and rear suspensions. They were covered in gunk and lots of asphalt, as if someone drove through wet asphalt years ago. Anyway, after getting some gunk off I noticed the driver side front beam Shock Tower, at the bottom, has a rusty hole eaten into it on either side of the shock tower seam. One side of the seam has a hole about 1 1/4" vertical by 3/8" wide. I sprayed inside the hole with WD-40 and rusty debris just kept coming out.

The passenger side has the beginning of metal flakes, so chances are it has a small issue.

I do not know much about the front beam, since with my previous VW it had a solid beam and did not appear to need work.

Do the rusty holes in the front beam shock towers warrant a new beam (or refurbished)?? Or can this be repaired?

[mooopers]

Just my opinion but when any thing like that happens its best to replace.

It can be fixed and some might recommend that, but for me and piece of mind its a replace. The three things you never take chances with are tyres, brakes and suspension they have to be 100% no exceptions. None of it is expensive on a VW really either.

Good luck
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1958 Beetle
1960 Ghia Coupe
1965 Volvo Amazon 131
1969 T2 Deluxe

[Ian Godfrey]

I would try to get a better beam. Is it link pin or ball joint?
new ball joint beams are available, not sure about link pin.
patch panels could be make and welded in but only if you really have to
good luck

[bhartwell59]

Had the same issue with my beam. Rusted out and not solid.

Since I didn't need any special beam (lowered or narrowed) I got one from Rockauto 3 yrs ago. Think delivered it was around $260
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'74 Zambezi green Ghia vert, autostick, 101k
'87 Jeep Wrangler, 4.2, 330k

[rustydents]

Thanks for the help. I have a ball joint front beam. Guess I will start looking for the replacement beam.

Is it advisable to reuse my current torsion leaves?

Wondering if I need to replace everything on the front suspension now.

[kiwighia68]

The Bentley book says the beam is replaced and never repaired. As someone suggests above, you don't mess with the brakes or the suspension.
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Festina lente - hasten slowly
1968 Ghia named Emiko
Resto completed Dec 2015

[Ian Godfrey]

If the leaves aren't broken, reuse them, same with all the screws and fittings.
keep the Zerks, (grease nipples)
the new beam should come with new roller bearings on the outside and bushings on the inner. If not get new rollers.
You should replace the ball joints in the arms, but test fit the arms first to make sure they are not worn. if they are good, get the new ball joints pressed in.
There is another thread on ball joint brands, some people have had trouble with Meyle recently (to stiff), I've used some Febi/Bilstein which were good. (in Australia) hopefully someone might have some recent US experience on the ball joints.
I would add a new steering damper to the shopping list.
Do a search on steering box..... if possible get your old VW one rebuilt as it will be much better than the TRW replacement ones
I think this is it

[Rome]

[rustydents]

Thanks for the help, folks. Much appreciated. That's good advice on the front beam. Just waiting on the front beam to arrive.

On to the next problem....discovered that the previous owners ran the fuel line around the bottom lip of the pan (passenger side) all the way to the back. And the tunnel is full of acorns and seat stuffing and a mouse or two.

[Rome]

[Rome]

[crocteau]

[rustydents]

The external fuel line was attached near the body mount brackets using what appears to be cut up (shortened) rigid conduit clips. They were screwed thru the pan using sheet metal screws and it was concealed and held up rather well, but I don't like how they notched the pan by the front right tire.

I can use the Napoleon hat reroute, as I think it would be better than notching my new pans.

What are the chances of reusing the tunnel fuel line? Does that require opening the tunnel from the bottom? If so, that's way out of my comfort zone.

[Ian Godfrey]

the chances of the old fuel line being good are slim, they rust.
but you can run a new line through the tunnel without opening the pan, but is does take patience. you leave most of the old one there.
there is a thread on this somewhere on the Samba. Let me know if you can't find it. It is the same job as on a beetle.

the tunnel cleaning and derusting is important to do. Another way is to make a vacum cleaner extension and work from the front access plate. I hung a little light globe through the gear shift hole and the back cover so I could what I was doing

[rustydents]

I managed to tape 4 shop vac extensions together with a 3/4" PVC 90 at the end to clean out the tunnel. Worked pretty good.

Since I have to fix the "mouse" hole someone cut in the tunnel near the emergency brake, I went ahead and opened it up a little bit more so that it is more of an even rectangle. Was able to clean out from that location as well. I did read how the tunnel steel is structural, so I will make sure the new piece is butt welded thoroughly.

Inside that tunnel hole is where I noticed a bolt bent in the shape of a U, wrapped around the 2 big tunnel cables at the bottom. That bolt sticks out the bottom of the tunnel and has a nut on it. Will have to figure out how to fix that. I remember seeing a cross section of a tunnel here a few weeks ago. I think I remember seeing some home-made brackets.

Was going to cut out my old pans, but I am stumped at why/how close the passenger side and driver side inner seat rails are to the tunnel. Looking from the bottom side of the vehicle, if I cut the pans off right near the edge of the tunnel, both of the inner seat rails will be cut up significantly.

[Ian Godfrey]

to save the seat rails you need to drill out the welds and take them off first.
Then you then drill out the pan welds from the top as well.
Another approach is to get repro seat rails

a 'Blair' spot weld cutter is better than most others, I like the sort with the drill in the middle, it wanders around less.
I glad the vacuming went well

[rustydents]

I cut out the drivers side pan. Cleaned up 90% of the lip where the pan will sit. However, the rear portion of the frame, near the jack mount is rusted bad. This is the back corner where the the new pan holes will line up with the part of the frame with holes. Any idea what this piece is called and if anyone sells these? I searched for rear cross-member, but did not find what I was looking for. This piece is rotted so bad, there isn't much left to save or repair.

[c21darrel]

[rustydents]

Thanks for the tunnel pics.

Its not the jack support I am looking for; thanks though.
It is the back lip that supports the pan. The corner portion with the holes in it for the body mount bolts.

[rustydents]

Hopefully this image of the part in question is not too close up.