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Cuccuzze
Samba Member
Joined: June 26, 2013
Posts: 67
Location: Sharpsburg, GA
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 Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2021 1:18 pm Post subject: Front beam damage |
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So I'm replacing my ball joints. Got the front drivers side lushed into the torsion arms and moved to the passenger front side. Cleaning the front beam noticed deep pits and my screw driver went right through it.😭 ground it down and got all the rust flakes out. The axel is sturdy just the cover is worn through. I can weld some sheet metal over it and cover it. Or but a new front beam. I've seen other threads here where the center pin was bad. So you think I can weld a patch on this cover?
,
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1971 VW westy
My generation made girls take home ec and sewing. I really wished they let us learned cars! |
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RalphWiggam
Samba Member
Joined: February 02, 2018
Posts: 906
Location: SouthEast
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| Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2021 1:34 pm Post subject: Re: Front beam damage |
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| Ill defer to someone who has dealt with this before, but if it were me I would swap it out. |
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Vanapplebomb
Samba Member
Joined: November 03, 2010
Posts: 5408
Location: Holland, MI
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| Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2021 1:49 pm Post subject: Re: Front beam damage |
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Patch it. Some 16 gauge sheet metal will work nicely.
The bottom isn’t critical.
What matters is the meat between the two tubes. If this is also thin and breaking through, you can get pre-stamped repair pieces to weld between the tubes that match the profile of the shock tower. The two half’s just weld together… one on the inside and one on the outside.
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1800 Type 4 Berrien 295
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=487021 |
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TDCTDI
Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013
Posts: 12848
Location: North Carolina
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| Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2021 1:54 pm Post subject: Re: Front beam damage |
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| Vanapplebomb wrote: |
| you can get pre-stamped repair pieces to weld between the tubes that match the profile of the shock tower. The two half’s just weld together… one on the inside and one on the outside. |
Are these available for a bus beam?
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Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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metahacker
Samba Member
Joined: May 26, 2010
Posts: 692
Location: san.diego
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| Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2021 2:52 pm Post subject: Re: Front beam damage |
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| Error on the side of an abundance of caution - the lives of the people riding in that vehicle are at stake. I had a rust related failure on my first (east coast, work-horse) Bus that made me realize....if it didn't occur in a parking garage, I'd probably be dead. |
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Abscate
Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014
Posts: 22639
Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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| Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2021 4:04 pm Post subject: Re: Front beam damage |
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You need a new axle.
Don’t drive that, it’s much worse than it looks
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SGKent 
Samba Member
Joined: October 30, 2007
Posts: 41031
Location: Citrus Heights CA (Near Sacramento)
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| Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2021 5:38 pm Post subject: Re: Front beam damage |
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look for a good beam. There are sold new in I think the UK but the shipping would be a killer.
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin |
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