Z-Bar is LIKE a way bar, but works in reverse to reduce "Jacking". Offroad it is not a good thing and I recommend removing it. It DOES NOT help hold up suspension at all.
1. for now keeping swing maybe notch spring plates
2. 235/75s rear front?
3. make the webber progressive carb i have in garage work maybe not idk i have a 34 pict now and an 009 dist
4. shifter/ steering wheel prob gonna do the short shift kit and just rebuild the current one
5. seats hopefully get some out of like a civic or something the drivers is real worn out
6. roll cage someday hopefully
7. link pin maybe run an adaper and supportit
im looking alot to that grey one for an example
1 - Do NOT notch spring plates with a swing axle!!!!!!! You need to ADD material to the stop to keep the camber in reason. Usually about 1/4" and add spring plate retainer straps to keep the spring plates from popping off the lower stops. Too much camber will put you on your head faster than you can blink. Trust me on this. I won a Championship racing a swingaxle car.
2 - 235-75s are OK for the rear, but you could go a little larger. Preferably wider rather than taller. 215s will rub on the inner fender panel and limit the wheel up travel anyway. Taller tires just hit sooner. For the front on stock spindles and such, 235s are a little big. I like 215-75s.
3 - Start out with the 34PICT-3 and worry later about upgrading for more power. As ol fogasaurus said, get it running and keep it running as much as possible. Downtime is addictive.
4 - I put one of the short throw shifter kits in my Baja Bug in the early 70s, then put one in my race buggy and another in the Baja you see in my avatar about the same time in the mid 70s. I've always been happy with them. Never worn one out or broken one. There are better shifters, But I'm not into throwing money at something that works pretty well.
5 - You're making sense on the seats. Just don't go for the seat mounts they sell at most VW outlets. They're crap.
6 - Rollcage would be right near the top of the list from my point of view. For safety of course! But also for ruggedness of the car and for structure to support fancier suspension.
7 - The beam adapter question will get the same answer I gave you on Samba. I don't approve of them for offroad use unless they work with a cage structure to support the beam. Then they and the beam mount bolts could be left out of the car. Lots of Bugs that have only seen street use have rust, crash damage and fatigue where the beam bolts thread into bosses in the frame head. I've repaired a few over the years.
If that 68 Bug were in my hands to build an offroad car out of.. It would head in this direction:
Slice the fenders and add 3-4" strip to make them wider, raise the fenders on the body a couple inches, Baja Bug suspension, wheels and tires, cage inside, tucked headers, bolt-in trimmed rear apron, trimmed front apron, and cool factor through the clouds.
That picture was the cover of the HP book on building Baja Bugs from 1970. The car was from Riverside and was built and raced by the guy who designed the 1-piece Baja front end and the wide-eye style multi-piece kit that's the most common. It looks in the pic like its right hand drive, but his son says it was center-steer.
