Front End Questions

[TPI-7]

I just saw the socalook homepage and their kit for the "ford" front end. It is only available for the kingpin or ball joint type. I unfortunately have the strut front end. Are the frame horns interchangeable or is there a way to get rid of the struts completely and move the front wheels forward? I love the look and that would be about the only way I would hack on mine is if I could move them up. What other options do you have to move the front wheels instead of the kit, maybe using the stock parts and a spacer of some sort. Sorry for all the questions. Thanks.....

[vwfanaticboy]

Honestly, the Super Beetle Strut front end does not lend itself well towards this kind of modification. The SoCal kit definitely will not work in your situation.

The upper strut mounts on your car incorporate the body of the car which means that it will be nearly impossible to move the existing suspension forward from where it is.

I've never really tried this or even examined a super beetle enough to find out if this is possible but....

maybe you could take the body off of the car and cut the chassis tunnel right in front of the firewall. Remove any chassis in front of the firewall and somehow weld on the framehead of a standard beetle. Using this framehead you can use the SoCal kit or you can extend the stock framehead and use a stock VW beam front suspension (just pushed forward about 12")

This is all that I could come up with.

Logan

[vwfanatic]

do yourself a favor if you have to have this type of look. sell the super and get a standard beetle. it will save you from getting frustrated and abandoning the project half way thru.

[mcotie]

I own a Superbeetle and I have been crawiling all over the front end of my car and drawing and re-drawing a front end set up to have a Ford front end on this thing. I truly respect what Marty and Cliff have given to this community but I don't believe it is the ONLY way to do it. I'm that hard headed. I believe there is enough existing material in the Superbeetle frame head to come up with something. It will have to be completely fabricated design but it can and will work.
I agree it is easier to use a standard bug, because the trail has already been blazed. But a Super is what I have and that's what I'm going to work with.

TPI-7 this doesn't do crap for answering your question. But I don't see any way yet to make the strut sytem work for the look you wanting. I thought of shorter struts from a doner car of sorts, but the structure for the strut s would ahve to be remade as well. I f you move your struts forward on the super, they will stick out above the surface of the hood. it might look a bit wierd.

mitch

[gowjobs]

Okay... this is just a strange idea, BUT...

What if you build box-section radius arms to mount to a Ford-style front axle, pivot them at re-inforced points back toward the "cowl" and use the strut spring/cartridge to suspend the car by seating them in clamp-on sockets welded to these radius arms? It'd be kinda like an old Bronco suspension.

Dave

[walt]

Anybody got a picture of a Super without the front sheetmetal? I've never had one apart.

[dez]

probably the easiest way is to do a framehead swop on hte chassis , for a standard torsion bar one, (its been done many times before!!) so you can fit a front kit, and you keep the irs rear end too. you can then hack off as much of the front sheetmetal as you like cos its no longer structural.

[living_dead]

http://www.1302super.com/page5.html theres a pic of the chassis with out body hope it helps some.

[Nick]

You can cut the front part of the super's framehead and attach a donor swing or balljoint framehead cut at the back, this'll give it an extended frontend using VW suspension (extra framehead support will be needed). Would then look kind of liek this:
http://volksrods.com/forums/uploads/post-2-1072656718.jpg

Or...
http://www.1302super.com/MacPh.JPG

You see how the front part of the framehead goes, make/design a way for the leaves to bolt on this part kind of like this:
http://www.socalook.com/socallook/Front%20end%20detail.jpg

Technically there's more open space in the super's framhead so there should be more space to fabricate onto it ;) Might as well cut the entire front end of and make a custom front end similar to ladder-type chassis like on original Ford hot rods. Would then look this this (except this one's a fake ladder frame chassis in front of the apron)
http://68.55.195.90/vw/Rods/bugrod-sale.jpg

[TPI-7]

Hey, thanks for the info. If you were to stretch it and had your choice of VW "front ends", which would you go with? Does the Link Pin look better or worse than the Ball Joint setup. I am planning on just buying the frame head and weld in an extension when I replace it. What kind of bracing would I need to support the stretch. What is the average stretch length?
Thanks Again.

[crack monkey]

the 2 beams are closer together in a link pin... to me that looks better... also allows you to get closer to the hood cause you can push it out further. it would be more costly for adding disk brakes though

[wrenchmonkey]

I saw a pic in Volksworld last year of a car that I think was in California.
The guy flipped over his control arms on the beam from side-to-side and then pointed them forward (it was K/L pin beam).
This had the effect of pushing the front wheels out further forward and looked pretty cool. At least I thought it was...Unfortunately, there were no close-ups of the actual control arm/spindle so I dunno how exactly it was achieved.

I have a baja'd bug that was once a 1302 but someone previously cut-off the macpherson frame head and welded in a beam head. The car is pretty much gutted at this point, but I'd like to give this K/L control arm flop a whirl if it would actually hold up....because the rest of the work has already been done - apron removal for the baja kit that is/was on it and spare tire well cut back.

Any experiences with this type of control arm flop setup for rod looks?

[lilbill]

theres a couple dozen pics scattered around here of that forward flop deal along with some discussion.