The Wildebeest

[TDCTDI]

I recently placed an ad in the classified section for a pretty complete, fairly original,1970 sedan, for what I thought was a pretty decent deal.

However, with only a few exceptions, damn near everyone that responded either offered me half (or less), or they started whining about shipping costs & expected me help cover it… Fuck that.

So, I decided to play with it how I please.



Introducing The Wildebeest



By now, I’m sure that most of y’all know that I like to explore & there really isn’t a better platform than an old VW, and since I had another Thing beam laying around…

(Yeah, that one wasn’t as reasonably priced)


I am totally going class 11 style.

So the first step is to start prepping the beam for its new role in this project, and that began by dragging this nasty bitch out & start cleaning it up.

I have found that the easiest, less messy way of cleaning off old grime & paint is to scrape off the bulk of the crap, & then warm the paint with a torch to soften it. And then, using a stiff steel bristle brush to scrub it off.

Yeah, it’s labor intensive, but I only spend fifteen minutes to an hour or so on it at a time as I can.

Once I got the first tube cleaned off, I mapped out & scribed my center lines and then my cut lines.

And then, after removing the spindles & trailing arms, I used a pipe cutter to score a line around the tube.

I learned early on that these pipe cutters are not able to cut completely through the tubes. They get about half way through & start breaking the cutting wheels, but they do a great job of making a perfect score mark around the tube, which then finish making the cut with a die grinder.


Here’s the first adjuster fitted into place.

If you look closely, you can see where I scribed a line on the adjuster. This line corresponds with the center of the adjuster at not quite the lowest setting, just in case. Aside from that, the adjusters will be set to raise the car… in addition to the 3” that the Thing spindles will already raise it.
_________________
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.

[calvinater]

_________________
"Albatross"!

[johnnyvw164]

A lot of people still expect to pay 1990's prices...LOL.

Looking forward to this build!

[Dusty1]

I just posted a rant complaining about the relative (compared to 20 years ago) lack of quality engine parts. General consensus is we all want good 'n' cheap.

Turns out anything good isn't cheap.

I likely saw your Bug in the classifieds. $1600 seems reasonable for a good solid project. I would have been knockin' at your door with a towbar and cash if not for the several states between here and there that frown on flat towing. Gasoline over$4.00 per gallon doesn't help.

Congratulations on your new project! I like where you're going with it already.

[TDCTDI]

Thanks y’all! I didn’t think that I was out of line, especially since there are plenty of titleless, rotten shells going for that or more.


Anyway, after burning that first adjuster in…

I cleaned it up…

And moved on to the next tube.

_________________
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.

[toxicavenger70]

Nice! I have been waiting on another thread from you.

[Speycaster]

Nice beads on the welds. I'll be following your posts/ journey.

[TDCTDI]

[Beetsme]

Nice project. Great work pictures also. I've always admired the skill to be able to take photos in the middle of work. Seems easy right? Well it ain't, at least for me.

What are you thinking for the rear suspension and axles, or have you pondered that far ahead? Class 11 rules...or just class 11 "style" as you say implying some room for artistic interpretation?

[TDCTDI]

[aquavette]

Awesome. Love these threads.

[TDCTDI]

[Dan the workingstiff]

Nice job on your gussets.
_________________
'69 Beetle
'66 FG buggy
My other air-cooled's
'76 IH 1200
'75 IH 1200

[aquavette]

Are Warthog and Skullduggery still in the works?
(Even though I am certain this will be my favorite.)

[TDCTDI]

[TDCTDI]

Wanting to make a bit more progress while waiting for paint to cure a bit more, I decided to tackle replacing one of the torsion bars & it’s spring plate.


Here it is with the typical saggy ass.

Just for comparison, I measured the clearance from the ground to the fender.

I began by jacking it up, removing the wheel, & then I removed the trailing arm bolts & the bump stop.

Next, I unbolted the spring plate retainer.

To get the spring plate & torsion bar out, I found that I could remove the forward three fender bolts & the bolt attaching the running board, and then gently flex the fender out of the way.

I slipped the retainer off…

And after jacking the trailing arm all the way up, I pried the spring plate off the stop.

Once that was off, I removed the original torsion bar, here it is compared with the new one.

Fortunately, I already had a pair of spring plates that were previously notched that I had removed from the Ghiapet, so I wedged some new bushings on it with copious amounts of urethane grease.

I then slipped the new torsion bar in…

After a half dozen attempts of indexing the torsion bar, I finally got the spring plate where it needed to be & then reassembled everything, here is where it sits now.

Looks like about 3.5” difference.

_________________
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.

[TDCTDI]

Nothing exciting, but the dent in the fender was pissing me off.

So I grabbed a couple greasy boards & clamped them on either side of the fender & slowly straightened the fender out.

Once it was closer to straight, I hammer & dollied the creases out.

Check it out! Those (25 year old) new tires still have the nubs on the tread side.
_________________
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.

[TDCTDI]

For today’s episode, I replaced the torsion bar & spring plate on the driver side.

The preferred trailing arm bushings are these yeller ones from Kartek. They sourced these from another shop that is no longer around, but they don’t have the outer ones, so I got two sets of inners & ground the nubs off.

Once done, I globed on this nasty, tacky, snot like, goo that is urethane grease to keep the bushings quiet.

And proceeded to tear the corner apart.

I then stuffed the new torsion bar in, tossed the spring plate & retainer on…

I used a few longer bolts to help draw the spring plate retainer in, here they are with one of the original bolts.

And slowly bolted it down until it was close enough to the torsion housing to start the original bolts.

And, well, this is where I got into the groove & forgot to continue taking pics.
_________________
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.

[TDCTDI]

As much as I wanted to just stuff the beam into the car as it was, I just couldn’t do it, especially since I had stripped what paint there was on it, off.

Unfortunately, that has sent me down the rabbit hole of cleaning & painting everything.


So I tasked myself with continuing the process & I began prepping the rest of the front end components. Here’s the first candidate.

Just so you can see it in the process…

And after it’s silicon carbide exfoliation.

I also had to extract the lower shock collars off the trailing arms. I began by heating them up to expand the collars.

And then coaxed them off with a pair of vice grips.

_________________
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.

[TDCTDI]

With the Thing beam painted & curing, it was time to extract the Beetle beam.

After jacking up the front & removing the wheels, I removed the gas tank & pulled the bolts holding the body to the beam along with the steering damper.

Curious as to how bad the tank was, I removed the fuel sender.

And took a looksie inside.

Not that you can tell from the pic, but it’s actually decent.


Next, I yanked the speedometer cable…

And cut the brake hoses.

I then loosened the tie rod ends & popped them loose with a BFH.

After that, I pried the lock tabs off the bolt on the pitman arm and removed the bolt.

And gently pried the pitman arm off the steering box.

And slid the tierods out.

With that out of the way, I disconnected the steering shaft & removed the steering box.

I then removed the bolts holding the beam to the frame head. And gave the brake drum a gentle nudge.

SUCCESS!
_________________
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.