Hello all,
Im new to the forum and pretty much new to VWs. Been around hot rods and drag racing for a long time but never really VWs. Ive taken possession of this 74 standard that was my grandpas. 59k original miles and in really good shape. He bought it in San Diego in 1990 and its sat in his garage ever since. My dad says its been driven maybe a few hundred miles total since 1990.
The yellow is actually a lot brighter than the pic seems.
It didn't run, had a lot of light issues and zero brakes. The entire brake system seems to have evacuated all its fluid over the years. MC reservoir is bone dry. I have it running pretty good now and all the lighting issues fixed. Now its on to the brakes.
Regarding your brakes.
If you are needing to rebuild the entire system, please consider the step into modernity with discs up front.
You already need to purchase
2 front and 2 rear brake lines
2 front and 2 rear wheel cylinders
Master cylinder
Reservoir to master cyl hose
The disc conversion (Ghia style) would add spindles*, front rotors, calipers, and (optional) backing plates.
*you can purchase used spindles, or even use an adapter caliper mount on your existing spindles to keep costs down.
The difference in braking is quite impressive.
Please also do some reading on tires (age and its effects) and tire pressures specific to these VWs as it has a much larger effect on safety on these VWs than most anything else.
This is the best forum on the planet for technical stuff, especially for those of us who are not afraid to deviate from the exact assembly that was delivered from the factory.
In the long run I would like to do exactly what your suggesting. I have a friend of a friend who has 2" drop disc spindles he'd sell me for $50. I may grab them.
But... Also would like to just get these stock drums "working" to simply be able to drive the car around the block.
The drop spindles sound like an awesome deal, esp if they are disc style.
If drum type, there may be issues fitting discs.
The drop spindles generally don't take backing plates/splash shields.
A 2 1/2" drop F&R with good 195/60s on 5.5" rims (with the right offset) will utterly transform the cars handling.
(175/70 ot 185-65 fronts with 195/65 or 205s/60s out back work well too)
Addendum to Newtons first law:
zero vehicles on jackstands, square gets a fresh 090 and 1911, cabby gets a blower.
EZ3.6 Vanagon after that.(mounted, needs everything finished) then Creamsicle.
The readily-available stock style front calipers are actually repops of what was used on Type IIIs from `66-`71, and some find them to be a little much for a Beetle with bone-stock rear drums. If you find that there's too much front brake bias when you put the disc brakes on, the first thing you'll want to try is installing "front" wheel cylinders on the rear.
I mention this because if you're not sure that the existing front wheel cylinders need to be replaced to get them working for the short term, there's another incentive to buy new ones - there's a better-than-even chance that you'll want to recycle them on the rear when you get the front discs on.
Stock disc-brake front flex hoses are slightly shorter (by about an inch) than the drum-brake parts, but the longer ones will work in a disc application - just takes a little more care in "clocking" them so they don't rub against the rims at full lock...and with the drop spindles, the extra length isn't such a bad thing. So go ahead and buy new "drum" front hoses, 113 611 701D, you shouldn't have any problem using them later with the discs.
Thanks guys.
Im going to do some more researching and determine if im better off buying a complete front disc kit or buying the used spindles and then piecing the rest together.
So far as I know everything on the market these days is of comparable quality with one exception - the Chinese-made kits which're made to sell at a cheaper price point. The others typically come with Brazilian-made calipers (Varga) and rotors which are of adequate quality - and if you ever need to rebuild the calipers, kits will be readily available.
Wheel bearing quality is a subject unto itself - most everything comes from Brazil or SE Asia or India these days, and there's been a big counterfeiting problem with Chinese & Indian stuff (you really can't tell what you're getting by the name on the box).
Short answer, I guess, is to buy from a reputable source and pass on Chinese where possible.
