1972 VW Super Beetle

The time has come to drag my very first car out of the storage locker I've left it in for the past 25 years and "restore" it. (And, yes, I've had the car since I was 6 (!) - my parents were VW mechanics - and I learned to drive in it at 9...)

Here's the plan: - stock white exterior with a subtle color change to 1964 356 ivory white; 1975-9 Super Beetle rack and pinion steering; 2.4L big bore/long stroke 914 Type 4 (already built); 944 brakes hiding behind widened 912 steel wheels; 924 front seats; Golf 2 rear seat upholstered to match; Momo Prototipo with Wolfsburg horn button...

I've got a few 924 and 944 parts cars laying around and I've read (somewhere, long ago) that 944 rear control arms will bolt into my Super Beetle? Can anyone confirm or deny this? Can anyone tell me how it's done if it is possible?

Also, if any of you know how to make the cars actually handle, I'd love to hear it. The VW magazines all seem to show how Beetles can be lowered for looks, but there doens't seem to be any mention of making them actually drive or handle better.

Are we talking a restomod with Fuchs alloys, a stinger exhaust and a drop???

Pretty sweet that you had your own private barn find to unearth.

I've got little advice beyond what you've already got in mind, but Topline has 90% of the bolt on handling goodies you could ever want. Their Maxx struts lend gobs of room up front for wider tires, such as:

http://www.toplineparts.com/

If you're not already there, http://www.superbeetlesonly.com/ should lend some usable info as well. Keep us up to date with a build thread, eh? Nice to see some aircooled content here again.

Wow, a Super Beetle with the front end lower than the rear end looks great! The nose being up in the air always irked me.

Agreed.

Wow--some great Beetles in this thread.

I don't know much about the modification scene of them, but clearly, adding more Porsche DNA to them renders some great results.

Cool pictures!

I want to do a sort of resto-mod build, but I want to make it sort of a sleeper.

The exhaust tips will exit the stock cut outs in the apron, no Fuchs wheels - I want widened steel 912 wheels for the Porsche bolt pattern (so I can use 944 brakes) and a look that people who don't know VWs will think are just stock steel VW wheels

I am going to lower it a bit, but most importantly, I want to make it really handle. I learned to drive in it as a kid, then I drove it for less than a year when I was 16. Agricultural is how I would best describe it...

As an aside, I love my 1984 911, but when I drive it, I can feel the Beetle DNA in things like the shifter, the lack of heat and the floor-hinged pedals. That said, I wouldn't trade it for anything...except maybe a Boxster S

Yes the 944/924 rear arms will bolt on. Better brakes and if you got the aluminum ones lighter to boot!

Im not a super beetle guy, but i think there may be a way to swap front struts also with the Porsche.

Thesamba.com will provide a ton of info for you.

Good luck, and keep us updated!

Sean

I have heard too that the front suspension to the beetle was the precursor to that of the 924/944.

I had a 74 super.. I loved the curved windsheild design over the flat one my 68 had. Was a fun little car with far too much HP for stock brakes and suspension, My father and I built up a 2.0 Type 4 from a 914 for it. Back before they had upright cooling shrouds for that engine.. we had to hack the rear apron to get it to fit.

It was a fast, if very ugly beetle

I was looking at German VW sites and I found a complete coil-over suspension conversion that I'll probably use. It's adjustable and uses Konis, so it must be good, right?

I'm thinking alloy 944 rear control arms, coil overs all around, pre-86 (non ABS) 944 brakes all around, 1977 Super Beetle front spindles (needed with the 1975-9 rack and pinion I have for it), and Sway Away front anti-roll bar/944 rear bar. I'll run 185's on 15X5.5" front steelies and 205's on 15X7" rear steelies.

This is just an idea - a bunch of "dream-parts" I've assembled in my head. In actuality, I have absolutely no idea how to set this car up to handle well. What I do know is that I don't want 17"+ wheels or low profile tires.

Does anyone know anything about Super Beetle suspension set up? Spring rates? Anti-roll bar sizes? Rear torsion bar sizes (if I don't go with coil overs)? How do I adapt the 944 brakes to the 77 Super Beetle front spindles?

For the handling end of my '70 beetle (non supper) I used KYB shocks and wider tires. I also have a rebuilt front beam on it as well.

Vdubengineering has a lot of good information about the 944 brake swap. It would be possible to do a swap using the spindle and out from an early 944 but would require first swapping to latter style super spindles and struts. Topline also has some performance suspension parts. There is also a good amount of performance modifications for supers on german look.

I'm 90% sure that Super, Rabbit & 924 control arms are the same. I've held Rabbit & 924 arms side-by-side & couldn't tell any difference, but I've not seen a Super arm in person.

Super Beetle control arms are much longer and thinner - they are like a foot long bar with eylets on either end. Nothing like a Rabbit or 924. T

he spindles may interchange, though. I've read that the struts and spindles are similar enough to be swapped. Only one way to find out...

Another idea I had was to either Heim-joint or have custom needle bearings machined into the control arms.

Keep the ideas coming! This is great! I'm getting really amped about this project!

I've been scouring the forums at germanlook.com today for tuning/handling/braking info. Great site! I'd highly recommend you check it out, seems to be 80% Super Beetle content.

Ahh that makes sense, I remembered there was something that swapped between Super & Rabbit front ends.

There is a company making a full double-wishbone conversion for Standards. It isn't cheap, but maybe you could get some inspiration from it.

petegossett wrote: There is a company making a full double-wishbone conversion for Standards. It isn't cheap, but maybe you could get some inspiration from it.

Hey, I remember reading about that one a few months ago in Hot VWs(still missing VW Trends). Makes me rethink buying a torsion-front Beetle.

edit: an hour of searching turns up the kit here: http://www.eyeball-engineering.net/

I went the cheap route on my 74 super. Maxx makes a nice coil over front strut but thats $$ The beetle strut is rebuildable, slap a rabbit strut cartridge in there and a spacer (it's shorter). I grabbed some Honda Civic rear springs from a junk yard for $5 each. The press / bathroom scale says its a 20% higher spring rate and shorter (kinda, the 1303 spring is a progressive rate). If you have money to burn.... http://www.eyeball-engineering.net/ (edit ValuePack beat me to it)

I haven't messed with the rear much, bolted up an aftermarket sway bar and it flattened out a LOT. I did see one incredibly awesome setup I intend to duplicate. No torsion springs, Heim joints on the outer control joint pivots where the arm used to spline onto the torsion spring. Then a coil over where the shock was mounted. (lots of bracing added to the shock mounting points). The heim joint is threaded so you can adjust toe I suppose you could change the mounting point location around on that rear heim joint to adjust caster as well.

Some inspiration http://www.aichlseder.info/d_index.htm