instead of beam extensions has anyone ever seen the front control arms reversed and swapped side to side to push the wheels forward?????

yes there is a rod in nsw with it

oooooooooo interesting.. can someone elaborate more on what this is? diagram or something.. as the explanation confuses me a little (and by a little i mean i got no clue)

Is there a downside to this?

I knew it could be done.... ok what this is you take the control arms off the drivers side turn them around and mount them on the passenger side and visa versa thus pushing the wheel forward about 6-7 inch at a guess, then its a matter of reversing the pitman arm on the the steering box... in theory all steering arms remain the same length no cutting no welding no engineers? not sure about that last one but its all vw and no welding so maybe...... I'd love to know how it drives and to all the KNOCKERS ready to pounce..... its a cruiser not a race car

Totally illegal and non compliant in registration. You have altered the original wheelbase. You must get an engineers report. Contact any engineer and see what they say.

Reckon I'd only drive that down the back paddock...they let that one at the nats drive on the road with other vehicles???......hope I'm not one of them.

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Originally posted by pod yes there is a rod in nsw with it

What does it take to mount a T ford front end? and how hard are they to come by?

Maybe that will be the safer more 'legal' option. Although sounds more painful to sort out.
Torsion bar suspension being completely rotational would certainly be dangerous set in that fashion. Not to dig ur idea, cause it looks mad. I luv that style, its got hotrod written all over it. But yea.

Hard to explain in words, but picture an arm rotation around the bump for both factory, and the 'ahead' of the front wheels position.

Simply, yes you could forward mount the arms to do the look. Leaglly any way you modify the original wheelbase by any means has to be approved by an engineer. Been there and done that.

i dont know the legalities of this conversion ,not my cuppa tea ,i just posted the pic up from the bugin thread last easter ,as i remember seeing it there

is that the same rod from Warwick?? it had the same and was doing 1/8 mile runs. sweet ride.
i couldnt see it being legal straight up, but youve got alot of other engineering and legal things to work out if you removing guards and hot rodding it anyways.
being all VW parts would make it all alot easier.
I say doit, looks sweet, and as long as you get the angle of the arms right it should ride ok. better than the 6inch narrowed beams with no shocks at all that you see under alot of US cars.
I also saw a VW rod on the net while trawling US VW sights for ideas,with the real old school rod front suspension, it looked like it was a kit you could buy, but that would cost a packet and be hard to get legal anyways. but ill try and find the pic and link it.

another thought.
the car in the Pic's has no shockies? well not that i can see.
But to do it with shocks, simply swapping the arms from left to right wouldnt work because the shock towers are wrong, why not turn the whole beam around, which would require cutting the bolt up brackets off and putting em back on the other side, but thats not too hard.
thus still having shocks on it, and a place to mount lights on

now lets think about this for a second! if you turn the torsion bars left to right then the rotation is the same..... ...think about it!
so the only issues i can see is the lengthening of the wheel base which would throw the ackerman angle out ( actually yes I do know what im talking about ) and ensuring the castor angle is correct. as far as the ackerman angle goes it was always questionable on a beetle anyway ,the caster can be corrected with shims. mounting the shocks is a minor issue,.,.,. could be an interesting long weekend project just to see how it does drive... at the end of the day we are talking about a cruiser not a race car.

the car pictured does run shocks, it has lever type shocks like on old vintage cars. I think he got them from a hot rod supply place?

Would be easier to cut off the beam mounting brackets and weld them on the back then you wouldnt have to flip the torsion leaves and the shock mounts would be in the correct spot.
Of course you`d also have to relocate the steering box mounting lug and steering damper bracket.
Looks shit though, I`d go with a framehead extension.
Also I don`t see how a 1920`s FORD front end could be "Safer" than a reversed VW Beam!!! I would never contaminate a VW with Ford crap!

nicely said chook, and yes thats the way id go about it too. still undecided as to how im gonna go about mine

The beam extension is the only way to go. The front suspension isn't called "trailing arm" for no reason. The amount of lateral force put into the torsion leaves and H beam would be far far greater when the trailing arms are "leading". I know it's just a cruiser, but a beam extension isn't that hard to make, especially if you're not getting rego. Plus, with an extension you can get the exact length and drop that you want. You do however need to extend the brake lines and steering shaft. Not exactly brain surgery.
Well have fun with your rod, they all look cool to me : )

Another thing, in regards to the I-beam (model T ford) style front axle, kits are available through Speedway Motors. They're not ford bits, it's all custom, so they're pricey, but they look awesome. Like the Rat Patrol volksrod.

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Originally posted by squizy Quote: Originally posted by pod yes there is a rod in nsw with it Please note this is not registered though. The only way you can legally do this is with a beam extension.

yeah i had a chat to an engineer down here in SA, he didn't like the idea one bit, with the stresses put on them.

all good feedback and no BS for a change.... SO is anyone in OZ making an extension yet?
the yank stuff is not a bad price to buy but the freight is ridiculous...............

Hi. I could make you one like this one pictured which is a 10 inch stretch and 2 1/2 inch drop. If you want it a different length that can be done too. Only problem is I can't do it straight away, there'd be a few weeks wait. Either way just send me a PM or something and we can work something out. The only thing I haven't got working again since I fitted mine is the speedo, but if I can get a second hand one from somewhere I'm sure a splice job wouldn't be too hard out of the 2 cables.

I cant find an engineer in SA happy to allow a beam extension.. however extending the pan head is some how legal and easy to get engineered, whilst again from my questions and experience the SA engineers dont want a bar of beam extensions. but at the same time depends if cops would have any idea (and if you dont mind getting pulled over )

Other people have moved the body backwards.