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Front Beam Narrowing...
Gibbo - January 5th, 2006 at 04:55 PM

Hey all,

Does anyone know how much you can narrow an Ovals front beam before you need to make body shell mods?

Cheers!

Unity-28 - January 5th, 2006 at 05:52 PM

Up to 4 inches, with custom shock towers.

N!

vwtyp2 - January 5th, 2006 at 08:14 PM

mine is 4"
no body mods.
no shock towers either.

Gibbo - January 5th, 2006 at 08:48 PM

Thanks vwtyp2!

Wicked news!

Any pics of the setup without the guards on?

hellbugged - January 5th, 2006 at 08:57 PM

did you see this one gibbo?

http://www.btinternet.com/~aircooled/wolfsburgeast/home.html 

[ Edited on 5-1-06 by dumone ]

Gibbo - January 5th, 2006 at 09:08 PM

Great Stuff!

Im hoping that I can do the 4" narrowing without any mods! :)

Details pls!

Cheers!

Unity-28 - January 5th, 2006 at 10:17 PM

This is 4 inches as well, but ball joint

Dasdubber - January 6th, 2006 at 07:28 AM

From memory Gibbo you'll be able to go 2in and retain the shock towers (but need to have them modified so a flat plate replaces the pressed/raised inner face of the shock tower). My friend had his k/l pin front end narrowed 2in in the above way by Custom Offroad and his shock towers are pretty much hard up against the body.

If you haven't got paint yet you can "massage" the body with a BFH (big f'ken hammer) to allow a bit more room. I did this with my b/j front end and inner gaurds so I could narrow mine 80mm.

I could be wrong but I'd be surprised if you can narrow it 4in without modifiying the body, or doing away with the shock towers/modifying the shock towers - I'm happy to see evidence if people have done so without the above mods.

Cheers
Alan

Unity-28 - January 6th, 2006 at 07:41 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Dasdubber
From memory Gibbo you'll be able to go 2in and retain the shock towers (but need to have them modified so a flat plate replaces the pressed/raised inner face of the shock tower). My friend had his k/l pin front end narrowed 2in in the above way by Custom Offroad and his shock towers are pretty much hard up against the body.

If you haven't got paint yet you can "massage" the body with a BFH (big f'ken hammer) to allow a bit more room. I did this with my b/j front end and inner gaurds so I could narrow mine 80mm.

I could be wrong but I'd be surprised if you can narrow it 4in without modifiying the body, or doing away with the shock towers/modifying the shock towers - I'm happy to see evidence if people have done so without the above mods.

Cheers
Alan


Hey Das, It can be done, you just need to get the measuring right....Here is one that was done on lowlifevw.com

http://www.lowlifevw.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4866 

N!

HGFS - January 7th, 2006 at 12:02 AM

Heres another way, this guy was selling these plates on thesamba for something like $80 US and he put up these pics to help his cause. Not sure if I like it or not, looks a bit ghetto. But I spose if its welded up all nice & painted it would look good. I think you can go about 3 inches with this setup, since the new shock tower is on the outside of the old one...

HGFS - January 7th, 2006 at 12:03 AM

Coupla more piccies

Dasdubber - January 7th, 2006 at 09:38 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Unity-28
Hey Das, It can be done, you just need to get the measuring right....Here is one that was done on lowlifevw.com

http://www.lowlifevw.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4866 

N!


Cheers N! - that is a cool way to do it. What I was mentioning above was it would be hard to narrow it 4inches without "doing away with/modifying the shock towers" (as done in the lowlife example - ie. modifying the shock towers).

Keep the pics coming - good to see how others are doing the narrowing!

Unity-28 - January 7th, 2006 at 04:25 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Dasdubber
Quote:
Originally posted by Unity-28
Hey Das, It can be done, you just need to get the measuring right....Here is one that was done on lowlifevw.com

http://www.lowlifevw.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4866 

N!


Cheers N! - that is a cool way to do it. What I was mentioning above was it would be hard to narrow it 4inches without "doing away with/modifying the shock towers" (as done in the lowlife example - ie. modifying the shock towers).

Keep the pics coming - good to see how others are doing the narrowing!


Of for sure man, You would be hard pressed narrowing more than 1.5 inches without modifying anything on a link beam....

N!

Brad - January 7th, 2006 at 04:51 PM

As others have said you can go 2" by skimming the inner surface of the shock tower and replating it flat. More than 2" and you need to cut at least the top half of the shock tower off and relocate it.

Great thing about street cars is they have bugger all wheel travel so clearance isn't to hard.

When you go more than 2" you wheel travel needs to be bugger all as your bump steer goes through the roof due to the length of your short tie rod. Easy enough to setup if you only have like 2" or travle anyway.

With 4" you end up with nothing on the outside of your shock towers and you usually counter your dust seals to get as much as possible out of it. This then effect your availible offset a little on wheels as they can't be as negative as before.

Cheers,