Ok ran the beetle into a kerb on my way home from work last night, i pulled the steering arm off this morning as it resembled a banana, so i put the arm in the press to straighten her up a bit and rebolted it back in, oh and the steering damper has popped to, but anyway back on track, there seemed to be a little bit of damage to the top of the swivel pin at the top (unsure of exact terminology) so when i put the car back on the ground its still toe-ed right out, where should i start for solving this?

Swivel pin ??? wtf is that, tie rod end maybe?
If it's a beam/torsion bar front end, the steering box may have moved on it's mount, but to damage a tie rod end, some serious hit occured.

the two bits that swivel on the spindle, theres an upper and a lower, the bits that connect the beam to the wheel hub. the lower has what looks like a pin facing up and the upper faces down. i think its real name is the kingpin

I would start by having a professional look at it. The whole front end my need to come out if it has taken a good knock. Its the bits you can't see that may cause alignment issues after an accident. Spewin!

yeah that was my thought get it home and drop the front beam out as a whole and look at it all and work out what iv got and what i need, i was quite annoyed last night and then reversing 300 metres back to the workshop so it wasnt sitting on the road overnight

as it looks like a later bug ,you mean the ball joints ,if a hard enough whack you can bend the spindle or the arms its attached too

Pod's got it. The arm gets bent in a big hit.

so does the beam...

take it to someone who really knows what they are doing if you dont..
bits that look like a banana after a whack doesnt sound sound good n the good old days of bush mechanics like bending back into shape are really not required as there are many replacement parts on offer that can be replaced..
n theyre not that dear compared to other models on the market
my 2c
good luck with it n itll be interesting to see what actually got bent as a result..

I think He's talking about the trailing arms..

Bent??

thats some impact...

Best to get replacements
so Your steering- toe in etc will be OK...

Lee

Maybe another complete assembly is what You need...

check for cracked paint on the front torsion bars

if it bends it usually cracks the paint...

cheers

LEE

yeah my bush mechanics are just so that its good enough to drive onto a trailer, has any one got a pic of the two types of front ends so i no exactly which style mine has, its just this car seems to have bits pulled from everywhere so i cant be sure on anything

Its a 68 model by the way

You'll have a ball joint torsion bar beam front end.

Cheers

ok after further examination the left hand side has been twisted so i will need another front beam

Did you get on to the guy I mentioned?

theres a complete beam on ebay atm so im onto that one and it looks like going cheaply

Pauld,

You have a PM regarding the replacement beam you bought.

Cheers
Brendan

well my beetle is finally back on the road got her sorted out this weekend and am incredibly glad to have it back after having it off the road for a touch over 2 months, it looks good with the new wheels and tyres so will post a couple of updated pics up of it

How did the weekend cruise go?

it went pretty well

Not bad dude, not bad at all. Any other dubs out or were you the only two?

i think there was one other purple one out