Does anyone know if somebody is making raised spindles for a late bay yet, i have seen lowered spindles advertised on classic vee dub, be good if someone made raised ones?

Just drop the Beam like the rest of us

I'm with rexy, I've dropped the beam but I want more! MORE I TELL YAH!!!
Blind chicken does A lifted spindle but that's only for the bugs and buggy's.
If someone ends up doing one for the bays put me down for a set!!!
Yeay baby! I'm excited!!!

Ooh! ooh! can we use the reduction hubs on the IRS too?
What a combo!

Been done with the reduction hubs for a long time now , you just have to invert your 091 box and build the rear arms but hey you have stil got to be able to drive these babies on the road ya know , and they dont exactly handle all thet well at best , let alone 4" up more
And how would i know you ask , well we have one and our best upgrade has been the flat six Subaru power

Any Photos...? I'm not much for practicality. Not on the road anyway!

So who sells the plates for the dropped beam already drilled out so i can just weld them on?Pity the guys in the usa arent making the spindles, surely they can reinforce them with extra steel plates or something to make them stronger, are the original ones steel or cast?If they are steel i would almost try myself:p

Welding plates onto beams is as dodgy as it comes. for people who want a cheap and nasty way out. If you are going to do it then do it properly and don't make it look bad for everyone else.


BTW my uncle's dual cab has 11r's under the front with clearance. Is that high enough for you???LOL


Andrew my uncles ute handles pretty damm good with the IRS redution set up. Not as good as my bus but considering how it is it ain't bad.(also depends on how big your gonads are too)

Sorry Brenndan, I'm with Brad,
The chassis mod does look good, but all that chassis
fabrication is a lot harder to undo, and I never found out why the lift plates were dodgy!?

I have seen 2 Kombi's(1 dual cab and 1 bus) that had the boomerang plates welded to the front end come to my uncles when he used to do them with issues. The plates had bent and kinda buckled from a guy hitting what he described as a minor creek crossing on Fraser at 50k's hr. Plates had bent, broken 2 welds which cause the front end to sit at a funny angle. That was the dual cab. The bus had been out bush and the guy was on a downhill track and slid into a hole at about 30km'hr in the mud. Hole he says(going on what the owners tell here) was about 400mm deep . Pulled the car up dead(owner smacked the windscreen with head LOL) bent steering arms and flexed plates and snapped 2 front end bolts.(what grade bolts were used??? they weren't the VW ones)

I have seen both sides of the story as far as lifting Kombi's are concerned and have been involved in prolly the most extreme punishement on lifted Kombi's(when my cousins and I were younger doing those big wheelstands etc etc) and not once have we ever had a front end even move or look like breaking. Yes it is harder to remove the fab'd piece of chassis but honestly why would you go to that much trouble to get it lifted, cut guards etc then change it back. Like doing a convertible then wanting to put the roof back on. The way my uncle did the lift on the front end was approved by DOT as it did not involve "modifying" the front end as such in any way. they were happy with the way it was done from both an engineering side and also a strength side.

One of them commented about a bus he did an inspection on with these plates welded to the front beam and how unsafe they deemed it. Now whether or not you do it properly or not I don't know but Transport Dept tar everyone with the same brush no matter what. Welding a plate to the front end is welding a plate to the front end. They deemed it unsafe but the chassis mod way was seen to be ok. I have seen how it could be unsafe first hand if people who aren't really a qualified tradesperson attempts it in the back yard cause it's the easy way to go and cheap. Some people may do it properly using plates but at the end of the day for every good lift how many dangerous ones are out there??

When you can buy plates ready made to do a DIY it becomes an issue of sorts. A lot of people think it's as easy as front end out weld plates on and back in. So what about the modification needed to brake lines, drag link etc etc? This is where a lot people can come unstuck and the car then becomes a danger. I have stuck my head under nearly every lifted bus at some stage or another and some of the sights are just scary to think people drive that on the road.

My uncle no longer does lifts as he simply got too many people wanting to do cheap jobs or wanted a kit to do themsleves. He did a complete lift front and rear with all the little things that needed modifying done to make the car safe. His motto is do it properly or don't do it at all and the case with a lot of VW owners they don't want to spend a lot money and always want a cheap job done or simply patch it up make it look good.

I guess that's why he now builds race cars. People who want to spend money to go fast no matter what the cost is. Plus you don't get anywhere near as dirty!!!!!

Mate a lot of good points there. VR did a few of these as well, in the 90's with good results.
We can only gather that the importance is in doing a complete and proper job.

Building race cars sounds much better !

As John says I don't get as dirty and most of his customers come to him and say "do this" not "how much can you do this for"??

It's sorta like maturing with age !!!

Like you said it's not so much the style but moreso the ease of using plates that unqualified people do themselves with the incorrect materials and incorrect methods. Happens in all types of modifications as you would know.

FYI you had the blue dual cab(faded)??? i know who did the lift and it was someone who tried to copy the chassis section and from what i saw failed miserably LOL

It was faded orange with a blue door and then I painted it with pool paint.

From what I was told it was done by someone you should know but I have no real knowledge of that being the case.

Let's just say the person in question hasn't attempted another that I am aware of. Oh and the previous owner turned out to be a total tool as well. Part of the reason it wasn't good was because of him.

if anyone is looking for a baja bus heres mine for sale and yes it was done properly by John truth is i wouldnt buy one that wasnt

there have been some real shockers over the years