Exhausts and rear ride height

Dear listers,
I keep having that feeling that something isn't right when I look at my replica from the side. The rear ride height is too high, even though we lowered it significantly. From photos of original Speedsters I noticed that the exterior limit of the rim stays at the same height as the rear wheel arch, while in my replica the rear wheel arch stays more than 1" higher. My mechanic told me that he couldn't lower the ride height much more, otherwise the shocks wouldn't work properly.
So, my first question to fellow listers with vw pan based replicas is what experience they have with lowering the rear ride height; did you have any problem? if you did, is there any solution for this?
The second question is: if I lower the rear ride height my exhaust will hit frequently the ground; I would like to find an exhaust for a Type I engine that looks as original as possible (with the less possible exhaust noise) and allows lowering the ride height; does anyone know of a supplier for such an exhaust?
Thanks in advance.
Best regards.
Miguel Caldeira Proenca

See Kirk at Vintage, he has an exhaust system that is perfect for what you are talking about.....pic shows it on my car, not a great shot but you get the drift

Miguel, my car sits that high now too. Need it for the poor roads here in northern Canada.

Your roads aren't much better than ours. I was in the Algarve again in June and you've got a lot of construction obstacles, potholes and such...well, maybe not as much as us. Plus you guys drive un on the curb to park on the sidewalks....how are you going to park that beautiful car if you don't have that clearance? ;-)

Brian

Miguel, I have a VS and my car has been lowered with adjustable arms. The stock shocks are fine, but they do sell VW shocks for lowered vehicles. As far as the exhaust, you should pick up headers for VW Thing. They sit higher up than the type 1's. The mufflers are a different story. I had custom built glasspaks installed at a local muffler shop for around $200.00 NO MORE SCRAPING!!!! They sound great also.

Gabe

Hi Vince! I'm back from a nice Vacation!

I had a VS with a Swing Axle and the Camber Compensator. Part of making the stance better was in using absolutely the cheapest shocks money can buy. I believe both VS and JPS will tell you that a stiff shock will make for a bad ride and I think it raises the stance. The base VW shocks can be broken in before installation by cycling the shock to full extension and compression several times. And, It took some time breaking in that Camber Compensator. Oh, and you can lower the height of the ride in the rear... look at your manual. I never did it, but asked Kirk to set it up low. I think it's been discussed in detail and a search of old forum posts might be productive.

Up front an adjustable beam works, or dropped spindles, with the shorter shocks.

I am sure that the more experienced VW/Porsche guys can share a better way to do this and still use upgraded shocks, etc, for better handling. There are some here that autocross.. I am sure they know how to set up your car right.

Exhaust. I think Eddie Janis has a great looking set up on his VS. Check the Registry for pics and e-mail. His VS sets low and the exhaust looks stock Porsche but has bigger boxes and a good 1.5 system.. I used a CSP 1.5 system, duals, and I think it looks good. It comes out at the stock Bug locations. It's a little pricey, and I think a mod to make it tuck higher would make it perfect.

Ola amigo ,como vai
Miguel you can lower the rear till it hits the bump stop if you like,I think the ultimate are the adjustable type but you will have to import parts like that and ofcourse as mentioned previously a special shock with shorter travel for lowered applications.Do you have a beetle club in your area,they are usually quite helpfull,we have an Amigos do Carocha (beetle buddies) gathering here once a month and we trade ideas over a cup of coffee etc.Will you be coming to Algarve this summer,as usual its hectic at the moment.

Um abra

Dear listers,
As always you are a valuable source of information. Unfortunately, I was foolish enough to send you an information request the day before going on vacations to a no-internet zone.
Still, I try to answer back to all of you who kindly replied to my request.
Luis. OLA, OBRIGADO. When I get back to Portugal, I send you my contacts, so that I can bug again again with Beetle club issue. That could be an easy way to solve the problem.
Brian, when I started posting I thought about mentioning our sidewalk temptation, but I was embarassed to confess to all of our worldwide users that it's in our blood to park on sidewalks, hehe. Possibly, it's a latin thing. If I solve the ride height issue, I promise I'll park it geeently.
Vince, thanks for your help, but once I asked VS to sell me some parts and they weren't helpful at all. I felt they were only confortable selling parts to VS owners or US customers, I respect that.
Last, Gabriel, that one hell of an exhaust!!! You have to be a pround owner. Thanks for the suggestion regarding shocks for lowered VW. I'll try that at local Beelte clubs.
All the best and thanks for your help.
MCP

has anyone hooked up an original 356 muffler to our 1600 dualports? iseen it done at the knotts show.

Miguel, do a search on exhaust and look at recent threads on this subject as early as a few weeks ago. This has been covered extensively on this forum.
I have tried many exhaust systems since I have the same situation as you and my conclusion is that there is no solution but to go "custom" built. Look at Gabirel's exhaust for example. There is also A1 tiger exhaust link listed elsewhere here. A guy Vazquez makes a custom exhaust for speedsters... that probably be my next try. Currently Im using a bugpack hideout system but the triangle still scrapes and the header tubing is 1-3/8"... I want 1

My car is at least as high up as yours Miguel but my tires are 205 x 55 so it sits lower then yours would. I suppose with higher tires I would want to the car to be higher on its haunches too.

I really like the air shocks I put in the rear as I can just pull out an airhose and lift the car an inch or so or let out some of the air and lower it. I don't think these are performance shocks though because I think I only paid about $30 for the kit off Ebay. If your put those on front and back and then hooked up a little 12 V compressor to them in the car then when it came time to park you could just raise the car and go over the curb... ;-)

I'll be switching them to adjustable coil over Spax units like what's on the front eventually.

Brian

Miguel; get adjustable spring plates ($85.00 a pair from Serrano's); you'll be able to do it fairly easily without compromising your shocks' function plus you'll be able to dial in ride height fairly easily with just an Allen wrench. With respect to exhausts provided your car is a VS; Kirk's new system (as suggested by Vince) will work as well as the VW of Mexico (or EMPI) header with dual tailpipe and both look fairly close to original 356 exhaust systems.

Miguel, Ricardo is right on! Do what he suggests and you'll be fine. I did the same and suggested to Ricardo to do the same. Do a search. Suerte!

For pan-based replicas, lowering the rear suspension may not be he problem. My JPS looks tail high sitting in side view. Yet I can drag my rear nerf bars when I go out of my driveway or even across deep rain gutters on a few streets. Obviously the pan is as low as it can go. The problem - is my flared body sits too high on the pan. Old time street rodders would say I need to "channel" the body. I agree, but that is a major, major task. In other words, the body to chassis fit is trapped in the mold construction of the glass body. You can't do much about that.

impala when you talk about kirks new exhaust do ou mean the muffler going directly to muffler or the one with tuning pipes and the small muffler welded to the pipes?

MIchael; Kirk's new system is a Tri-Mil for Type 2's. Here's a picture.