Anyone know if using Bug spindles and arms narrows the front

peterjager · Post by **peterjager** » Sun Nov 23, 2003 10:21 am

I put on the bug spindles and arms and it seems that the front tucks in more, am i imagining this?

It is lowered front and back now, i am putting 17x7.5 Velox rims on as soon as my new 68later drums are done.

Any help is greatly appreciated, Peter

Will be taking pics of before and after.

Bob Ingman · Post by **Bob Ingman** » Sun Nov 23, 2003 11:07 am

Peter I see no reason to lose width when using the bug components. As you know height is lost but then that is the reason you have done this so not a problem. Be sure to save your 181 pieces as these are valuable not to mention a nice option to a prospective buyer somewwhere down the road. best of luck. Bob Ingman

Kubelmann · Post by **Kubelmann** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 3:36 pm

Not to bring up a silly question but... If you go for the lowered look why would you miss your chance to put 67-74 Ghia spindles and gain front disc brakes at a very low cost. Just a thought. Like Bob suggested, save the Thing front parts. Restored front arms and spindles with new ball joints are going for around $300. Even though to me the Thing is a standing tall offroad vehicle I always try to respect appreciate others projects. Remember I have a major predjudice in that I live down a long dirt road far from pavement.

K-mann

Kubelmann · Post by **Kubelmann** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 3:45 pm

Peter, I reread your original message a few times after my last post and had a different thought. Have you alligned your front end since you changed the arms? There are eccentics above the ball joints that set the camber and I was wondering if what you meant by tipped out was a camber adjustment. After you take the front end apart you always need to align things.. You can do it roughly by standing back and looking for things. You can also us a string to get fairly even measurements. I do this prior to going and getting a "real" alignment. The VW front end is so elegant and simple that regular folks can get it very close to alignment making visual and string measured adjustments. Hope this is of some help and makes some sense. Best of luck. Hopefully you can make it up to Colorado for one of our Thing Flings in the future. El Paso is just down the road after all..

More later, RW

Capn Skully · Post by **Capn Skully** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 7:54 pm

I just read an article on Thing.Org magazine list. The Thing is 1.2 inches wider in the front than a standard beetle.

http://www.thething.org/vwgreats73fall.html

Bob Ingman · Post by **Bob Ingman** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 9:46 pm

Capn, can you be more specific in that statement. I know the same beam is used on both cars and assume that the width increase is a product of wider wheels on the 181. If this a matter of the Thing components being wider then it is news to me but then I DO NOT know it all. Most of what I know would be best described as off-road technique. Thanks for your input into this question. Best of luck. Bob Ingman

Capn Skully · Post by **Capn Skully** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 7:15 am

I was never questioning anyones knowledge. The measurement the article refers to is the wheel base length and wheel tracking width. The article stated the Thing is 1.2 inches wider in the front and 3.3 inches wider in the rear than a standard bug.

Since the beams are identical the torsion arms and spindles that could be different or the offset of the Thing wheels.

I only read the article last night and I was only trying to help. Apologies if I offended anyone.

Gary

Bob Ingman · Post by **Bob Ingman** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 4:16 pm

Oh no not at all. No one offended. I too am curious as to what the difference is. Thats all. Hey were all inthis thing together are`nt we?
I was just asking that you might use the article as reference so we would know what the didderences were. And then stated a guess on my part that perhaps the wheel width could be the reason. It seemed to be about right. Best of luck. Bob Ingman

lastsafari · Post by **lastsafari** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 6:30 pm

Have you noticed that your front brake hoses are longer than the beetle ones? There´s a reason. the front beam is basically the same as a bug´s beam except for the shock reinforcement and the two bars conecting to the pan. Arms are made just like the beetle´s in shape, but they have larger openings to host the larger Thing ball joints. So the only reason for this difference in lenght are the spindles wich are made wider from the ball joint holding ears to the plates that support the brake shoes.

Bob Ingman · Post by **Bob Ingman** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 10:45 am

Once again, thank you Pedro. None of us knew that. Capn Scully had the answer but we did`nt know why. Now we do. Best of luck to you. Bob Ingman