Hello!

After I killed my super (hit a bloody audi....) so it totaled, I plan to build my new daily

the plan is:

take a 1200 beetle
put the irs and gearbox of the 1303 into it by welding the holders of the irs to the 1200 pan
use front spindles from a Thing/Kuebel/ 181 whatever u know what I mean
throw my 1300 dualport in, but it will get 1600 cylinders, pistons and a 34pic-t carb before

put some 5,5's and big off road tyres on it

now my question:
can I get the normal super beetle rear axle as high up as the 181/thing swing axle is? I only want to have it as high up in the bakc as in the front

later I want to transplant a watercooled engine
what one would you use for daily driving AND offroad fun? I'm doing 80 km per day to go to work and some more on the weekends...
I thought about 1.8 Golf GTI or 2.0 GTI or maybe an ej20 oder something like that, so 100 up to 120 hp, more I can not legalize with better brakes ihere in germany...

I hope you understood what I want to tell you, it's three in the morning here in good old germany :-D

I put my arse into bed now hoping for good answers

Greetings from Germany
Tommy

Ok in short no .

The 1200 will be a King Pin front end and the 181 is a BJ, you can not put a BJ onto a King Pin frame head, unless you are going to cut it off and weld on a BJ frame head.

The rear of the Super will get close to but not as high as the 181. The 181 runs a larger CV which allows a few extre degrees of travel which is why the 181 Spring plates and retainers are different to the Beetle.

I have 181 front end, beetle IRS rear end in a few buggies and the rid quality and ground clearance is great. How bad is your super ? might be easier to fit a BJ frame head to that pan and put the 1200 beetle body onto it.

sorry to correct you there brad but in europe, you can buy 1200's along side of "L" bugs, both them and "S" (not even sure if they have S's) had 1300's, is a silly set up but pretty sure the 1200 he is talking about would be something like we think of as a '68. we actually got cooler parts than they did in the later years, to do with sales numbers i would think, so we are probably in a really bad position to offer advice. They have a totally different setup as far as what features came on what bugs.

Tommy you are probably better off hitting up the fellows on, bajaclub.co.uk
they will have a better understanding of europen beetles and what can be taken from where, they will be able to help you out with the law side aswell. cause i know insurance over there is a nightmare

ok, yes no yes no.
i europe they had an awful lot more variations the here in Oz,
LK why dont you use a mexican 1300, or a semi auto 1500? both have swing axles and both have ball joint front ends, you can swap the 181 parts over so you can lift the bug easy as high as the 181.
but hey heres a thought, why dont you get a 181 then do a motor transplant, the 181 box will handle the power of a subi 2.2 / 2.5 liberty motor, theres lots of room up front for the radiator and plenty of space inside for the rad pipes! it would be an awsome off roader and a totally different daily driver, reliable fun and cheap to run!
cheers jon

I think our old 1970 1300 Standard had swing axle rear with ball joint front. 4 wheel drums too.

so, to releaso you from confusion XD

the 1200 I am talking about has the later front axle, it will be a mexican beetle from the mid 80's
so new (ball joint?) front beam and swing axle in the back, drum breaks all around
I was thinking about IRS because it would be my daily driver and the 181 swing axle is a bit instable if you drive faster than let's say 100 km per hour

I know that the 181 spindles fit to the front beam my car would have, so no problems there

Brad, you say the IRS from the superbeetle can not be pulled up as high as 181 swing axle... this makes me ask: later 181 had IRS, too.... were the rear springs different? or what were the differences.... then I would need my IRS parts from the super (I think the pan is fucked up, the crash was hard... all the body is.... out of order, dunno the right word... hit the audi with the right front fender and the left door won't open ) and the parts from the 181 that are different from the super irs

The IRS in the 181 is similiar to the super bug but it has different spring plate stops as it ran larger CV's so the rear end could go higher. We are talking like 1/2" total height here so bugger all.

The super IRS will sit about the same at ride height and if you ran type 2 CV's then you could go the same as the 181. If you got output flages and stub axles from the 181 then you could go the same height no probs.

ok, thanks so far!

must I use the 181 spindles or can I go nearly as high up with an adjustable frontbeam? this would make the brake issue easier

what do you mean with 181 stubs.... is that the swing axle stuff with the extra gear.... things in it?

sorry i dunno the words

Sorry my bad, front stub axles same as spindles.

aaah ok, thanks...

you mean by using 181 spindles and beetle IRS in the back my rear will be a little bit lower than the front so it will be level with the front if I use large diameter tyres... ok

the 181 swingaxle is not so good? anybody here using it? i always see IRS...