Narrowing front beam on a bus....

mikeeboy · Post by **mikeeboy** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 10:34 am

Whats the best way for narrowing the front beam on a Bus? have seen a couple of ways of doing it, one involving cutting the chassis and one not.... can anyone give me any help / info???????????

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Old veedubs never die, they just get lower

mikeeboy · Post by **mikeeboy** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 4:38 pm

????????????

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Old veedubs never die, they just get lower

mikeeboy · Post by **mikeeboy** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 9:43 am

Can someone give me ANY tips? It's crunch time and i dont really want to flip my beam completely through making silly mistakes..........

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Old veedubs never die, they just get lower

mikeeboy · Post by **mikeeboy** » Mon Jul 22, 2002 7:30 am

FAO Panel!?! I know you've done it to your 65 turbo'd bus....

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Old veedubs never die, they just get lower

Pillow · Post by **Pillow** » Mon Jul 22, 2002 10:21 am

Details! Year and WTF you are doing.

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Adrian Pillow
'66 VW Westfalia - "Biscuit"
'67 VW Deluxe Westfakia - "Dino" - FS
'79 Porsche 911 SC - "Cochese" - FS

mikeeboy · Post by **mikeeboy** » Mon Jul 22, 2002 3:32 pm

My bus is a '74 Baywindow. I want to narrow the front beam to move the front wheels in so it will still steer and drive properly whilst on the deck. I know that several people have already done this and just wanted some advice. As i understand it there are two main ways of doing this; 1. as per a beetle beam, narrow it the amount you want, which then presents the problem of how to mount it, which is solved by remaking the mounts and effectively narrowing the chassis by the same amount. 2. Remake the outer sides and shock towers on the beam, thus narrowing it at the ends, rather than the mniddle, so you dont have to narrow the chassis. As i understand it you remove the std shock towers, then remove the rest of the outer side of the beam (leaving the inner intact, and not cutting the outer ends of the torsion tubes). Cut out and remove the amount of the torsion tube you want to lose from the middle of that side of the torsion tube. then unstich the welds holding the tosion tube to the inner part of the beam side, and pull it through till it mates with the middle of the beam again. Weld the torsion tube back together, and weld it back to the inner part of the beam side. Do this times 4, and then make new beam outersides from THICK steel plate, and weld to the beam innersides......sounds simple when I say it like that.

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Old veedubs never die, they just get lower

Pillow · Post by **Pillow** » Tue Jul 23, 2002 10:33 am

I figure #2 is the way to go. Granted it is a lot of work if you are not a welder.

I am not sure exactly how much you can trim off either w/o rubbing the inside.

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Adrian Pillow
'66 VW Westfalia - "Biscuit"
'67 VW Deluxe Westfakia - "Dino" - FS
'79 Porsche 911 SC - "Cochese" - FS