I have some pics for you all on the process I went through to lower the front of our 71 S Beetle.
The old strut inserts were leaking so I thought it would be a good opportunity to lower it at the same time.

Original height

Pretty sad looking with it's nose all hoighty toighty up in the air like that. Bloody tart. Rip 'em out

Rip 'em apart and chuck in some urethane bushes. Hate that shimmy.

Cut the original cup weld with an angle grinder. Don't cut too deep.

Knock the cup out of the way.

Grind back the old weld nicely. I used a belt linisher to do this one.

Clean it up. get rid of the dirt and reposition the cup ready top weld.

D.L.I approved welds. Helps when you have a MIG welder.

This is the lowered position welded.

Painted.

Two lowered struts, cleaned, welded, painted, ready for my mate the mechanic to chuck back in tomorrow morning.

Took a total of 1 hour to do everything.

Total cost. $0 I didn't even have a beer.

Oh I didn't mention the distance difference did I?

60mm

At least the rear doesn't need lowering.

Stock rims & tyres so the tyres should still fit under the front. The gap was 70mm.

wheres the new pic of the lowered car

It's getting put together today with the new strut inserts, so I will have a pic tonight. Hope I haven't gone too low.

Good job. What sort of inserts did you end up going for?

Here is an example of how not to do it, note the undercut from grinding and the shit welding (these come of a 72 s bug I'm wrecking). These have been raised not lowered.

That's horrific. Must have been a farmer, they often use stick welders.

It wasn't the only scary thing I found, check out the seat belt.

http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?tid=48814 

Hard to believe the front has been lowered 60mm.

Steers very nice now, and with the new strut inserts and urethane bushes, NO SHIMMY at all.

Stock strut inserts.

Lucky it cost me nothing to do the lowering, because my mechanic nearly killed me with the bill for the rest of the labour. Only charges me $35 p/h cash, but I am sure he takes twice as long as he should. He is fussy and does a top job. I am not actually complaining, just a little shocked. I am very happy with the result.

Na pete should be lower!:P put it in the weeds!!
nice job though i like it, will you be at the jamba?,
im getting my RWC hopefully on monday so rego that weeks as well, so i hope ill see you there with my bus.
cheers

ps. u should have a beer now with all the hard work you have just done, enjoy cya soon:beer

That looks really good!

What inserts have you used??
Golf or stock??

T'is amazing what 60mm can do!

you dont need big power.

A super set up well with decent rubber and a 3/4 healthy 1600 is a good car.

Throw it into some corners and be surprised

Good stance now

love seeing some super stuff

How did you end up getting the bottom of the struts out of the knuckle / atub axle thing ? I've tried twice with mine to no avail.

Looks like a rel nice job, well done.

Hi

When you put the stub axle back on the strut, make sure you put a big dob of grease on it. Those weld on the struts can be removed neatly in lathe. I also use a Mk1 Golf bump stop instead of the Beetle one, it can be trimmed down to give more travel and when its trimmed down the Beetle dust sleeves fit perfectly.

Steve