lifting a super

I just bought a 71 super for $300 this morning I couldnt say no.
how doyou lift the front of these I know theyre not as strong as the bj ones but for beach driving it should do till i get my kombi
marcel

you can do it one of two ways.

- add coil spacers to the front strut assemblies
- pull the strut apart and cut off the perch and move it up.

Hi

If you can get hold of the top perch from a later style 2 bolt strut, they have a pointy head and will give about 1 inch lift.

I think I have some laying around I could post to you for just the postage cost or I could take them to Valla with me.

Steve

are supers any good for bajaing? i allways thought they wernt as good as link or bj

Hi

They are much tougher than they are given credit for, you just need to use your head, I think he only wants to use it on the sand. Most WRC cars run front struts.

Steve

hi steve, pm me your address an I'll send you some money for those perches that would be great

where do I get the coil spacers brad

also I read on the sbo forum that golf rear coils will fit and are longer?
marcel

Hi Marcel

I will have a dig around to make sure I have them and work out postage costs, and get back to you.

Steve

type82e wrote:hi steve, pm me your address an I'll send you some money for those perches that would be great

where do I get the coil spacers brad

also I read on the sbo forum that golf rear coils will fit and are longer?
marcel

You can get coil spacers from Repco, pretty common item or most 4wd shops.

Most of the stuff u read on SBO will be in relation to lowering. Golf Struts are shorter than supers and are what people use to go lower.

Most supers sit pretty high in the front from stock so you may not lift them to high anyway.

That being said I am playing with some super struts at the moment and it looks like the later 2 bolt lower control arms are longer than the 3 bolt control arms. So if you fit longer struts and some later control arms then you should be able to get a few inches of height out of the setup.

If I get real bored I will put a set in and put it on the wheel aligner to check. Usually when you lift a super they ended up with a set of front wheels that tuck in as the lower control arms pulls the base of the strut in towards the pan which in turn increased the angle on the stub and thus the wheel.

Building some lowered struts ATM so I can't see why you couldn't reverse the process to go up.

In relation to strength, with a race car, yep BJ and KL is stronger but how many people have you heard of busting lower BJ's on a super ? We have quite a few Bash cars out there which are lifted supers.

great info brad
I looked up the coil spacers on ebay can you get them specifically for vw's or do they have generic ones?
marcel

type82e wrote:great info brad
I looked up the coil spacers on ebay can you get them specifically for vw's or do they have generic ones?
marcel

Donlt matter what they suit as long as the spring diameter matches the super which is about 125mm from memory.

what size spacer should I get I was thinlking 2 inch but will that be too much?
marcel

hey Marcel,

the later 74-75 upper spring cups like steves got are great for a 1-1.5 lift cos they dont change any suspension geometery just use ur original bearings and mounts cos the late ones dont fit thro the hole in the body
and if thats not enoug like i said to u b4 u can raise the lower spring cup up abit, reverse of lowereing

have u seen how high that 2 tone blue fox 75Lbug near ur old place sits??
that thing makes makes me dissy

i adjusted the rear suspension up 1 inner spline today and notched the spring plates about 5mm but it tops out now
also the shocks are too short now.
can I clearance the spring plates more or grind down the carrier (not sure what its called)
I like the stance but do I need to take it down a little maybe?
I took some pictures and wil post when I download them
marcel

type82e wrote:i adjusted the rear suspension up 1 inner spline today and notched the spring plates about 5mm but it tops out now
also the shocks are too short now.
can I clearance the spring plates more or grind down the carrier (not sure what its called)
I like the stance but do I need to take it down a little maybe?
I took some pictures and wil post when I download them
marcel

Nope, if you go any higher your CV's will click and explode. 5mm is about the limit and even that is getting close.

If you play with the lower strut mount look out for the tire.

I readjusted the rear yesterday one outer spline which I thought would sit a bit lower and not top out but it still does. what should I adjust it by to give lift but not too much so that it tops out?
marcel

I adjusted it again today using this table (see attachment)
7 down on the inside and 7 up on the outside which should bring it up about 4.4 cm
now I just need to lift the front as much then I can get to the bodywork
marcel

heres a picture of how it looked originally

and now a picture of the rear lifted hopefully it will settle a little bit at the rear. and next I'll fit the lbug strut perches to bring the front up as well
marcel

Hi

I posted the perches today.

Steve

heres a pic of what it looks like now with the lbug perches fitted it sort of sits level now it just needs some bigger tires now not sure what size to go 195/80/15's
or 215/80/15 ?

are you planning on a baja kit??? do they make em for supers??

No I wasnt going to fit a baja it, unless i find one cheap
I was just going to leave it as a full sedan
they do make them thought theyre not very common
I found it very easy to raise the front just fitting the lbug perches gave itan inch of lift easily by fitting some coil spacers as well you could get more and the fit some larger tires and it will go most places
marcel

did you have to remove the body for any of your mods??? i have the same bug and have similar intensions and have been seraching my ass off to find someone who can tell me exactly how to remove the body??? can you help??

are the perches just the top of the strut were it bolts to the body???

you dont have to remove the body at all
its not that difficult if you know what youre doing it all depends on your experience I guess
to fit the perches you just have to remove the struts, compress the spring then undo the nut at the top and then remove the old perch and fit the new one, or the coil spacer then reassemble and fit
to adjust the rear its not that difficult if you know what youre doing

do you know anybody whose done it before?
if you were anywhere near me I'd be happy to help/ show you how to do it

other than that any vw shop should be able to do it for you
marcel

thanks marcel, the lift is definitley on the cards now i sortta know what to do. my dad had a baja when i was real real young but it was '70 beetle with BJ front end so he can only help me so far + plus hes away at the moment so no good at all....
i have finally found the last bolts and removed from the body but the fella who owned it before me had fitted different, wider, seats which need to be removed before i get the body off... only thing is, the idiot has tack welded all the bolts on the seat and the rail.

what size tires can you fit on after the lift.. 31's???

does the lift change the camber at all???

cheers
luke

why are you removing the body?

you should be able to fit 31's under the rear with some wider guards not sure how your motor would pull that though I had some 29's on thre back which wasnt too bad

not sure how big you could go under the front I was thinking 195/80/15 which would fit under the stock guard and on the stock rim I priced a federal ms351 for $125
marcel

i'm going to put coil spaces on my celica now :P

im removing the body just to give the whole floor pan a check up and a once over....

i did think the 31's might be a bit too much for the old girl so maybe 29's are the go but i am going for the level look - that is - same tyres all round, i dont really like the little tyres on the front so the biggest tyre i can get under the front, is goin on the back

what is a federal ms351???

cheers
luke

federal is a brand of tire and the ms351 is the offroad version they seem pretty cheap www.federaltyres.com.au/suv
and they come in a 195/80/15 which is the largest tire they'll fit to your standard rim

im having a heap a trouble tryna find 4 stud rims so do you know what to do to change them to a six stud pattern or know where i can buy some four stud of road rims???

whats wrong with the rims you have?
you dont need special off road rims if you want to go to a wider tire just get some wide rims.
robnjo has 2 for sale on the gold coast in the parts for sale section
marcel

the rims i have are a bit boring, i want somthing similar to a sunraysia.. do they make sunraysias in 4 stud or do you know where i can get some stud adapters??
and also the lift kits you can get for the earlier beetles (the square tube), are they easy enough to fabricate for supers???

heres a thread on how to fit a standard pan to a super body
http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=117460
marcel

some really good stuff there... i am still plannig on keeping the super as a super though... think i might go the three piece kit at the back and just hack the front guards a little bit if i feel confident one day.
do you have any pics of completed baja supers (doubt it but im lookin for a bit of inspiration)
cheers

marcel, do you have any pics of what you have done to the front and rear suspension for the lift?

Hi im looking at restoring my super beetle in to Baja, how much ground clerance can u get out of a superbeetle like the one in the picture and how did u do it?
thanks