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Well the wife closed out her post before I could ask this question and I am sure it has been beat to death.
Does anyone know of a front disc kit to maintain the wide 5 bolt pattern on the Thing? The wife really wants to get rid of the drums up front and have smoother stopping power.

There are a number of wide 5 disc kits intended for lighter vehicles such as sandrails and buggies. There are VERY few wide 5 for such a heavy car as the Thing.They are in the $1000 range.
However if you are willing to go to a 4 lug wheel or use an adapter then the 944 Porsche components are a bolt on conversion for the Thing. Very inexpensive. Do a search here on this forum as we have a recent post with dialog concerning this issue. PS Welcome to the forum. You find a lot of good info floating around here. Bob Ingman

wide 5 front disc brakes....the options

CNC or Neal make two different kits. Bob mentioned the kit(2 piston caliper) for lighter sand cars, you dont want that kit. However CNC & Neal make a heavier duty kit with 4 piston calipers. Would work great on a Thing. In the $1000 range

CSP has a kit from Germany that looks really nice. They advertise in Hot VWs. In the $1000 range as well

Gear One in AZ has a kit similar to the CNC/Neal offerings. Not sure on price, but I think they're around $900

SoCal Imports just came out with a wide 5 front disc kit. I think its around $600. Still unproven in my eyes. I would wait a while on this one & let me work out the "bugs." Sometimes they have quality issues.

Finally, you could use Ghia front brakes(4 lug) with wheel adapters to get back to wide 5. See Thingtech.com for info on it. It a Do It Yourself job. You would probably end up with $400 in it with all NEW parts.

Many of these disc brake kits WILL NOT work with the stock VW Thing 14" wheel. There isnt enough clearance. They all work with a 15" wheel I believe.

so cal imports is doing the wide 5's also and the owner is big time into things so it is worth lookign into