Here's one for those of you who've run their beetles into solid objects, or maybe the Baja enthusiasts who go serious offroading.

In my exploration of my '63 project I've discovered that the wheelbase is about 40 mm shorter on the left than the right :o. Looking down through the fuel tank aperture it's reasonably obvious that the beam's bent . Frantic measuring has broken out all over the chassis although, with the body on, a lot of good reference points are inaccessible. So far it looks as if the distortion's only in the beam.

Question is though, have any of you found that it's possible for the beam to take a good enough hit to bend it without writing off the pan?

Hope so.

i think you might find thats its just the beam thats bent.
40mm is a fair hit so if ur pan was bent i reckon u would b able to see it, ie creasing

beams are very prone to bending when hit. Most of the time they bend all on their own.

However I have seen pans which bent the beam and also the pan. The pan usually bends on the frame head just behind where the beam bolts on.

Thanks guys. That sounds fairly hopeful. Although I haven't fully cleaned and inspected the area yet (although I have knocked off the 20 kg of sand that had collected on the shelves) there's nothing too obvious in the way of creases so far.

I'll see if I can find a straight beam, bolt it up and remeasure.