I am looking for a good floor with ball joint/disc brake front end, IRS would be nice. If possible motor and gear box. I have a fiberglass beach buggy body and the floor I have is beyond repair. This is a project I have started with my boys 9 and 11. A good age to be spending time in the shed doing blokes stuff. T Trying to do it on the cheap and enjoy the experience. we live in the Albury Wodonga area Ph. [02] 60 206-681 or Mob.0409 192727
Ps. a complete beetle could be an option

I have a 68 Bj/IRS Ran From a Semin Auto, that has been converted to MAnual. No Beam, but Im sure we could find one Easy. Im within 8 km of Melb CBD though, so Im not sure if that suits. If it does send me a u2u or call me on 0414 580 857.

Thanks Nectar

i HAVE A FEW BEAMS!

thanks for the reply and the chat nectar.
Need to find something more user friendly for me my thoughts were to find something with most stuff there brakes,front end, gear box at least etc. Any more out there who might have something to offer ? thanks

maybe im being to fussy let me know what is out there plese

bump

I have 2.. both are swing axle.
1974 with type 4 brakes and type 3 drums rear and the better ratio box...front lowered 2 inch.

1500 pan with box in excellent condition, comes with really straight bug that had bad cancer in roof, and in the heat of the moment, we chopped it.

Only prob is Im in sydney...

I also have an irs 1500 semi auto, no motor or box..has car on it.

0416 115 993
Matt

Thanks Matt. Sounds like the semi auto is what I would be looking for . What year would it be ,is the floor good ,what about brakes etc and how much do you want for it
thanks
peely

peely. Assuming that your existing buggy is registered or has a registration history, if you intend to repan your buggy you could be letting yourself into the Individually Constructed Vehicle minefield, if you also intend to shorten the new pan.

Regardless of what you intend to do it may be cheaper and easier to fix the old pan, no matter how bad it is, as a new pan is a new car and all the beureaucratic nonsense will begin. Not the least of which will be that your buggy will need to comply with the 2004 Australian Design Rules, as you will be considered to be building a new car and as a result you will need a recent model electronic ignition, fuel injected etc. non-Beetle engine. (Usually a Subaru)

Before you spend your hard earned on anything, I suggest that you check that out.

An old shorthened body pan with a registration history is worth a lot of money. The pan/chassis is considered to be the vehicle if the body is separate. About the only way around the new regulations, that have made it virtually impossible to build a new, old style Beetle engined buggy, is to use an old shortened pan with a registration history. If you do repan your car the old one will be worth big dollars.

The semi auto pan will give you a ball joint front end with the big disk brakes and an IRS rear end with the big drum brakes. I believe that a 1500 pan is the same or similar.

Good luck.

I have been thinking about the idea of fixing up what Ive got and have found the chassis no. 4773873 . From what i can find out it looks like a 1962 model. can any one tell me whether it would be worth converting to irs? and whether the front beam can be changed to ball joint/disc brake with out to much trouble. I'm also not sure how to go about fixing the floor. The centre tunnel seems ok but the rest of the floor is really really really stuffed . what should I do? any suggestions please? thanks .

ps it is a long wheel base and the body i think is a super sports [any one know of them? ]
also it was registered in W.A last not sure how long ago any idea how i would find some history on it?
thanks
peely

peely.

Getting a rego history can be difficult and time consuming. If you can find out the old rego number it can be easier as the records tend to be based on the rego number. You may get some success with both the chassis and engine number. Visit you local rego office when you have a lot of time to spare and in time, (Oh! Yes! it will take some time.) you might get what you want. They may want you to do it in writing. More time.

I hope that you don't get put off by what I'm about to say, but what you want to do must be done exactly right or you can make a mess of the whole thing. It's complicated, but not difficult if you get the right advise, so ask all sorts of people for advise. Don't just go on what I say only.

The main strength of the pan is in the tunnel. Complete new floor sections are available. Usually welding in new floors is not a big job. Otherwise make your own with new floors added to the original outer rims if they're in good condition, with 1 inch rolled hollow section (RHS) welded into it. Otherwise make new outer rims that lift the body a maximum of 3 inches above standard, which means that you can fit 4 x 2 inch RHS section there. It gives good side impact strength and the rego peole will love that. A problem with making your own floors is that you will have unapproved seat mountings and may need an engineer's report. ICV/ADR nightmare here we come. See? This ain't simple.

Converting the rear to IRS is possible. I can send you a copy of an article of how to do that if you U2U me with your snail mail address.

You cannot fit a ball joint front end to a link pin front end without also fitting a new front support horn of the pan as the torsion bar tubes are wider apart. If you do that you will need to remove the old horn and weld on a new horn. Then you will be modifying the pan and the whole ICV/ ADR business will rear its ugly head. Don't go there.

Now that we know that your buggy is a long wheel base model, life is now simpler. A better pan with ball join/IRS could solve your problem easily, but don't expect to get one that does not need repair work.

I'm not certain of this, but I think that the cut off date is 1972 or 1973, by which I mean that if your new (to you) pan is before those dates, the old rules apply, and if it is after those dates the new ADR rules apply. Be very careful about the age of your new pan. It's critically important.

As I said earlier, you are entering a legal minefield, so before you spend any more time or money on your project make sure that you will not be faced with a rejection at rego because your pan is the wrong age.

I suggest that you get as much info as you can and then 'phone your local rego people, tell them what you want to do and see what they recommend. Try to remain anonymous. Make sure that they understand, right from the beginning that you will be using an unmodified, full length pan and that the suspension, steering, brakes, engine, gerabox, etc. will be absolutely stock standard and take it in for rego in that form.

If you want to modify the brakes, suspension, steering, wheels, tyres, engine, etc. do it after you get the car registerd in stock form. It is a lot easier to get approval for a modification of an existing registered car than to do it all before rego. If your aversion to a link pin front end is that you want disc brakes, then modify that part after rego. Fitting IRS after rego will be more difficult as it would be much easier to do that without a body on the pan. Be careful. If they discover, at rego, that you have converted a swing axle pan to IRS, then as far as they are concerned, you might have modified the pan and you could be rejected. See? This is not difficult, it's complex.

There are two ways to get it registed. Do it well and in stock form and just take it in to them without any prior contact with them, or get permission in writing to do what you want to do, beforehand.

In the first you just present them with a fait acompli as in "Here it is, now pass it, please." That's potentially very risky. The second which can be either more complicated, but more certain in some ways will mean that you won't have them say to you. "Why didin't you talk to us before you went to all that trouble and expense? We would have advised you of the correct way to do it." The rego people may want to insect the work at its various stages as part of this process. Find out what they want, first. That's a decision that you will have to make yourself. You will hear all sorts of stories of which way to go .

If you know any hot rodders, talk to them, they've been doing this kind of thing for years and they will give you all sorts of useful tips.

Keep your chin up. Get the right information, then put you head down, your tail up and in the fullness of time, welcome to the ranks of buggy owners.

Richard.

The pan is a 69 or a 70. It still has a car on it that I need to strip and remove before the condition is fully known. I do know it has a couple of small holes round the battery tray...all easily fixed. My mate who has only superficial knowledge of cars has just stripped his pan, pulled his front and rear end apart and we POR 15 it all. he rebuilt it all and put new brake lines and it looks like a show car pan. The good thing about VW's, is no matter how much there looks like there is, it still doesnt take that long if you get stuck into it.

For the pan, front end and brakes about $700 ( i will fix any rust in it)
matt