Lowering a VW

[Rick Schmidt]

So I'm redoin a Polar Lights VW... decided I'm gonna lower it and such, Not being knowledgable on VWs it took a little figuring out was discovered that the way they are designed causes the rear wheels to do odd things when dropped ( could also see it in a pic earlier with wrecked Porshes which showed one upside down ) Where I'm at now is the modding the rear to drop. My question is about the angle of the rear tires. They are lined up with the rear axle piece from the kit which is bent upwards. Am I on the right track for the Angle of the wheels ?? Am I gettin the look right ?? I do know once the angle is set I need to figure out a way to flatten the inner edges of the tires to show the weight on em but at the moment I'm just trying to figure out its stance

Edited December 6, 2011 by Rick Schmidt

[W-409]

It looks like you have too much camber. That's just me, but it looks like that... Check out this link- it's Swedish... http://skallerackers.se/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=9492

I translated it with Google Translator. It's not perfect english then, but I think the basic point can be understood...

"I was pleased to note that not only am I siom like to build bubbles here on the forum. One of the simpler bubbles building is of course Gunz / GSI Creos / Mr. Hobbies 56: a Oval Box because it is a curbside kit. These are also grateful to convert to such as split boxes if you like! I know that many have seen how I lowered my bubble front and the rear of the former building wires, but now I want to take this opportunity to teach ONE (of many) ways to reduce the bubble front and rear and in as simple a manner as possible! ! We start at the front, JOIN:

Cut carefully remove the pins with "shields" from spiders.

*1st picture*

Saw off the top half of the "box" on the front axle center, who will then be inserted into the base plate bracket

*2nd picture*

Have you done right, it should look like this when you mount the front axle of the bottom plate infärstning. This moves up the shaft about 2.5 - 3 mm

*3rd picture*

Finally, you glue back the shields / pins ¸ spiders and move them up while about 2.5 - 3 mm

*4th picture*

Since you moved the wheel around 5 mm in the wings, it becomes a little short on space and suggested shortening you because the front axle also with approximately 2 + 2 mm by removing approximately 2 mm on either side between the simulated front axle mountings and the "box" on middle of the shaft.

*5th, 6th and 7th pictures*

This front end is now lowered about 4 - 5 mm and driven about 5-6 mm to the original!

OK, it was the front end there! Now we take the rear end too. These old bubbles has a simple jointed rear axle and therefore the bit strange slope of the rear wheels after you cut it, not so nice like some, but entirely proper appearance! Here we go:

Start by cutting off control arms and "shock absorbers"

*8th, 9th and 10th pictures*

"Break" CAREFULLY shoulders up, after having dropped a bit tublim in / over sågjacket the drive shaft. Add some "moderately high" (3-5 mm) distances in the "shields" and forcing the motordummyn against the surface until the glue dried

*11th picture*

Now will no longer support arms / shocks to fit properly, but you must either extend these little before you place them back or simply build new ones of a pair of rectangular plastic card-bit

*12th and 13th pictures*

Drill a 3 mm hole in one end of the lever arm and the "open" then the hole in the back as shown

*14th and 15th pictures*

Drill a 3mm hole in a thin plastic card-piece as shown and open it up on one side

*16th and 17th picture*

Glue the lever arm as shown and then there the small U-shaped plastic card pieces between the support arm and the "brake shield"

*18th and 19th pictures*

Now it is almost clear. How should it look like if done right.

*20th picture*

Finally, cut a small circular "tray" of a piece gjutstam or evergreen rod and mounts on the outside of the control arm at the front mounting

*21st picture*

What now remains is to fix the "shock tower" and shock absorbers and it will probably be up to each o one depending on what you want in the way.

GOOD LUCK!

[David G.]

Old swing axle Bugs only had one CV joint on the inner end of the axle. That's what causes the wheels to kick out when lowering the rear. The Bugs made after 1968 have a CV joint on both ends of the axle and can be lowered and keep a more proper wheel camber. The front was usually lowered with dropped spindles.

So that looks about right.

David G.

[Greg Pugh]

You do have too much camber. The lower you go, the more camber you're going to get but even if you were scrapping pavement, you wouldn't have that much camber. I'd mess around with it but, I'd probably go somewhere in the middle. In the 1:1 world you can get extended spring plates to help cut down on this so even if you're a little less than what would normally be on a swing axle car, it could still be convincing.

[Rick Schmidt]

Ok guys thanks. I'll be tweekin it then. I'll post up my results again to be checking with yall. This is my first Bug so this is all new to me.

[VW Dave]

I agree, there's a tad too much camber in that Herbie. I grabbed a pic of a lowered swingaxle-equipped Beetle from www.thesamba.com to illustrate about how much negative camber you need to show:

And here's how much negative camber I added to my fenderless 'VolksRod:'

I took it easy on my lowered '56, because the real car I based it on had the rear end lowered only slightly. Like on many 1:1 custom Beetles I did narrow the front axle beam a smidge to allow the front end to go lower:

[Rick Schmidt]

] Ok guys based on what you have told me this is what I have come up with . First I figure Maybe I had it too low so I raised the rear back up some which also undid some of that Camber. Am I at least gettin on the right track now ??

Now I'm also coming to the comclusion that the wheels don't seem to move as I thought I thought as they went up they turned inward at the top too ?? are they able to go up without swinging in to a certain degree ??

[Greg Pugh]

I'm not following what you're saying there. This is lowered bug /--\ This is stock bug |--| And this is Baja bug or lifted bug \--/

Does that help or make any sense?

[Greg Pugh]

I think this looks good here, I'd probably drop the rear a little more to match that camber though. Or, if you like the ride height, I'd do just a tad more decambering.