My Buggy Re-Build Project |
The Front Suspension and Brakes
OK, here we go!! This is a picture of the whole front end package. I have close-ups of the individual parts so you can see them in detail. I kinda enjoyed dragging all the parts out, and laying them out for these pictures. I only wish I could have started assembling them. Maybe tomorrow if I'm lucky, Saturday at the latest. I forgot to get the stupid link pin shims, so I can't start assembling the arms and spindles. The through rods need to be welded, so I can't put the arms into the beam either. I may go get some all thread, just for a temporary fix to get a start on things.
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The Front Beam
Here are a couple of shots of the front beam. It is an 8" wider than stock, 10" towers, coil-over beam made by Steve Tweed of "T.I. Designs" out of San Diego. Looks like some pretty nice work. I'm really looking forward to my first ride in this car. |
You can see the hooked tower tops to clear the coil over shocks. The rack & pinion steering mount is already tacked in position for zero bump-steer. |
Beam End Close-Up
This is just a closeup of the beam end to see the welds & construction method. |
Here is a shot of the front trailing arms. These are also made by Steve Tweed of "T.I. Designs", and are 1-3/4 wider x 2-1/4 longer than stock. According to Steve, these should give between 13 - 14" of front travel with the 10" tower beam and 10" coil-over shocks. These are some pretty stout arms with some very nice weld work. Thanks Steve!! |
King & Link Spindle Close-Up
Here's a close-up of the King & Link Combo front spindles. More nice work by T.I. Designs. These are very well gusseted, and set up for International Tie rod ends. I went this route since the Saco rack & pinion is only set up with them as well. I figure that if the VW ones would hold up as well as they have, the International ones ought to hold up just fine. After all they are about twice the size as the stock units. |
The nice Beefy Saco Rack & Pinion in the front of the picture will make a very nice replacement for that old, leaky, worn out stock steering gear to take care of all the steering duties. These are some nice looking aluminum tie rods. They are in a satin finish but can be easily polished to a gleaming shine no problem. Those are the International tie rod ends by the ends of the rods. |
 10" Fox Racing Shocks Boy, Ain't they pretty?!?. LoL These puppies ought to make this thing ride like a dream. Fox Racing Shocks with 10 inches of travel, Dual rate Eibach springs to soak up the bumps and an external reservoir for added oil capacity to help keep them cool. Just looking at them makes me want to find a rough dirt road to haul the mail on... ... and hopefully find a few places where I can get enough speed to catch some air to test out the suspension. Oh yeah!!, I can feel the hairs raising on the back of my neck just thinking about it!!! |
... OK, speaking of hauling the mail, all that stuff will make the car ride & handle better which will make the car be able to go through the rough stuff a lot faster... BUT!!! the stock brakes, well... They Suck!!! So, how about some disk brakes to put the WHOA on this pony. A nice set of CNC disk brakes & pedals ought to bring the speed to a stop a lot faster than those old drum brakes... Especially after going through the water crossings.
Well, that's all for the front end parts... The next installment will be the rear end parts, then it should be time to get started on the fab work real soon...
My teeth are hurting from chomping at the bit!!!
UPDATE!!! The latest word is my missing parts have shown up at work, and a friend is going to drop them off on his way home in a couple of hours... WOOO HOOO!!!
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