How did you lower your VW back in the day?

[purple rag]

I was just wondering... Before all the torsion adjusters & new beams came out. How did you lower your VW? I saw a few people use short shocks. But I remember back in the day people would pull the leaves out, cut them, and then put them back in. I don't exactly understand the concept of it all. But it definitely lowered it & was very drivable. I even saw a few guys pull leaves out and simply do away with them. Again, it definitely lowered it. But one would think it had to be somewhat of a sloppy ride correct? So what was the "correct way" to lower the front back then?

[KEGZ]

Dropped spindles

[YDBD]

Select-a-drop was a popular choice, but didn't go that direction.

Sway-away beam adjusters were the better alternative, but those cost money that we didn't have. WAIT! I REMEMBER NOW! I did get some for my birthday!

My dad and I pulled the front beam out of my '67, used a pipe cutter and cut out sections of both beams and welded the adjusters in...the wrong way! Meaning it would raise the front end, contemplated the baja build instead for a few minutes, but really wanted the Cal Look...I mean Santa Cruz...come on!

We ended up drilling another hole, threading it and putting the center grub screw back in, dropping the front end about 5 1/2". The rear end was already drooping so the bug looked pretty good:

The front sway bar sat at about 1-2" off the ground, I remember driving and hitting a sewer cap on a crowned road and knocking the right lower arm out about an inch...it was low.
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'56 pan Dune Buggy since '69
don't live in the past...but when I did:
'67 bug
'64 baja
'60 dune buggy
'73 Personenkraftwagen Type 182 "Thing"

[AlteWagen]

I just pulled one leaf from each tube. Rode nice, didnt bottom out, but not slammed. The rear looks high in the pic as I backed up to park. Real flat 6 fuchs with 195/50/15s

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Grapes of Wrath $200 Engine Rebuild
Official Dual Carb Thread
Cylinder Head Quick Reference Sheet

[mikedjames]

Mine seems to have had the leaf spring grub screws removed, the collar allowed to rotate and then welded back in to position through the grub screw hole. Done about 5 out of the 19 previous owners ago, about 2001.

Quite soon it will have rotted so much on the horns, I will be buying a narrowed beam to replace it.
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Ancient vehicles and vessels

1974 VW T2 : Devon Eurovette camper with 1641 DP T1 engine, Progressive carb, full flow oil cooler, EDIS crank timed ignition.
Engine 1: 40k miles (rocker shaft clip fell off), Engine 2: 30k miles (rebuild, dropped valve). Engine 3: a JK Preservation Parts "new" engine, aluminium case: 26k miles: new top end.
Gearbox rebuild 2021 by Bears.

1979 Westerly GK24 24 foot racer/cruiser yacht Forethought of Gosport.
1973 wooden Pacer sailing dinghy

[vwinnovator]

My first lowering was with a sway bar/ "T" bracket kit they used to sell...

The "T" bolted to the bottom of the frame head and had a bolt that attached to a specially bent sway bar.
When you tightened the bolt , the sway bar would pull down and move the control arms, thus lowering the front end.

It made the car run a lot stiffer up front as well.

for the rear..always adjusted the torsion preload angle since day one...
But now, I'm doing torsion housing raises..

[Onceler]

Cut, re-clocked, and welded the center of the tubes. I usually had to do it twice.
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1972 Karmann Ghia

[Dusty1]

Pre- "68 VWs lower themselves.

Seriously. Fifty- plus year old torsion bars sack out. It's amazing how long they hang in there. Gravity eventually wins.

Do you have any idea how many sets of rear leaf springs you would have gone through by now with a '66 Nova? I'm guessing at least three sets even if the car is parked most of the time.


I usually run ball joint / swingaxle suspension ('66-'67) although there is a link / IRS setup in my future. My experience has been that replacement ball joint beams that replace my old beams due to rust are nosebleed high.

May so- called "restorers" never re- set the rear torsions. I don't care how many NOS parts you used, you didn't do a thorough job if you don't at least level the car.

[vwtrey]

[Olli from NJ]

Back in the day?

Front; pulled leaves, cut and weld, even tried the bolt-on version of the select-a-drop (yikes).

There were no dropped spindles "back in the day". For me that is mid '70s-mid '80s

Rear; reset the torsion bars.

[MURZI]

Vega Shocks on a BJ beam. Five minute job.
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62 vert
2276
Tim’s welded heads
45 Dells
A1 sidewinder
Fk44 cam

[Dusty1]

[NJ John]

My first bug came with one of those bolt on swaybar type lowering kits. It just forced the front end down and would sit crooked. Because the bolts were slowly pulling through the straps around the control arms.
Eventually did a cut and turn 3/8”.
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1973 standard, yellow, lowered, 3” narrowed front, 1600 blo-thru turbo w/single dell 15.4@86, so far
11.41 et buggy. Long gone
Let’s go O’s! Let’s go O’s!
https://www.youtube.com/@AirSpooledGarage

[esde]

I've seen the spare tire area full of scrap steel and sand bags. Stupid, yes, but also cheap. Hauling an extra few hundreds pounds around sure didn't help acceleration, man that thing was SLOW.
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modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[modok]

Cut and turn, weld. Costs nothing. better guess right tho

[purple rag]

Thanks to everyone who commented 👍

[madmike]

Here's one more,, I had 3 fat girl friends ,, JK
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'Black Ice'Drag Buggy 'Turbo'
Rail Buggy 1915 turbo
76 Drag/Street bug 2180cc 'Turbo' 11:85 @113 mph"If I go any faster I'll burn up the Hamster" ,gets 28 mpg. also 10/09/22 11.90 @115 mph
"If I'm ever on Life Support,UNPLUG Me, Then Plug me back In see if that Works"

[NJ John]

Step one, remove valve from front tire valve stem.
Step two, stand back and watch the magic happen.
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1973 standard, yellow, lowered, 3” narrowed front, 1600 blo-thru turbo w/single dell 15.4@86, so far
11.41 et buggy. Long gone
Let’s go O’s! Let’s go O’s!
https://www.youtube.com/@AirSpooledGarage

[EVfun]

[Erik G]

pulled torsions for sure. I still pull one or maybe 1 from each tube if it's just an adjustible full width beam. Rides a little better