Info on donor cars

oops!  i know pan will have to be shortened; looks like minor track diff.  any history?

Super beetles use McPherson strut front suspensions, not the torsion bar type normaly found on type one and twos.....   The strut suspension uses the body/inner reinforcment to do its job instead of being mounted to a "frame head"....  This would make it extremely difficult to incorporate in a Speedster build.....   Thats why type ones and the occasional type two are normally used.... 

Actually, I used a 1971 super beetle for my last build.

Volkswagen built two types of Super Beetles for several years - the majority had MacPherson strut front ends, but quite a number had the old torsion bar front ends, too, and mine was one of those.  Apparently they continued both models until early 1973, depending on where they were made (and, of course, the Mexican beetles were trailing arm, seemingly forever).  The first thing ya gotta do is look under the front fenders to see if there are trailing arms or MacPherson struts under there....makes a BIG difference.

Leon's right, though, in that if you have a MacPherson strut front end on the donor it becomes an almost impossible task to convert it over.  I sold a conversion kit a couple of years back that I had, which had come from CMC.  It utilized the strut front end lower mounting points and was a very rugged, 1/4" thick, steel plate assembly that reproduced the front torsion bar mounts and, thus, converted from strut to torsion bar front end.  I have not seen another one for sale, since, and believe that CMC sold very few of them.  

The only other alternative is to remove the pan headset at the welds and carefully align and weld on a replacement headset for a torsion bar front end.  I did this on mine because the headset was rotted out and jumped through many hoops to insure that the headset was welded on perfectly in alignment to the rest of the pan by making up several alignment jigs.

MUCH easier to start with a torsion-bar-front-end car.

You can contribute to SOC and download the build manual here (RESOURCES/LIBRARY).  CMC built an optional conversion kit that let you use a Super MacPherson front chassis.  It is pictured in the build manual with installation instructions.  You had to supply a standard bug H beam.  Someone on SOC had one for sale quite awhile back - otherwise not sure where you'd find the kit.  If you have the Super chassis with a good title to match the VIN stamped near the shift coupler you could find another untitled chassis and make the cuts according to the build manual but using the Super rear 1/3 and the 2/3 from the standard bug.  Or an easier solution would be to buy a custom built chassis - again a SOC member had one for sale on the east coast awhile back. Do a search - perhaps both solution parts are still available?

Update - Yup, it was Gordon that had the rare Super to Std optional conversion piece.

I've have to make some hybrid front endfloor converted super beetle pans. I would recommend getting a standard beetle pan to shorten, or send me the super and ill put it in my pan jig and replace the front bulkhead with a factory style standard front bulkhead. Or I can always do a Mendeola Suspension package.

NOT MINE. Not too far from you - just shorten and add engine - $1500.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/cla...etail.php?id=1458988

or this one - a bit closer and add the Super rear bit.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/cla...etail.php?id=1493554

thanks for all the good info - bought a '69 with title yeaterday as a donor.  glad i found this forum; gotta lot to learn!

Richard:  I used a '69 donor pan on Pearl.  It's a pretty good year to use as it has the IRS rear and should, when done, handle really, really well.  That year had two different IRS spring plate set-ups;  

One version had a single spring plate on each side with a pre-IRS torsion bar cover and a different torsion bar end incorporating the single plate.

The other version had dual spring plates on each side, making the response of the whole rear end "crisper".  It needs different torsion bar covers (they have bolt spacers welded on to push them out to allow for the second spring plate) and the torsion bar end has the dual spring plates.  As far as I know, the actual torsion bar is the same for both versions and everything fits (splines match and all that).

If it doesn't have the duals, try to find a pair of duals in a salvage yard.  I'm pretty sure that's what was used in the 914 about that time.

Gordon - I have the dual spring plates ('70 Chassis) but want to replace with the adjustable spring plates so rear height can be finely tuned.  All the adjustable spring plates I see are are single springs.  Do I have to choose one or other?

 NIX on using the 914 rear - they don't use spring plates.  They rely solely on coil over shock - MacPherson style.

Thanks for all the info.  Preparing to begin - the body and steel structure was left out in the weather so there's rust on the square tubing.  Does anyone know whether these cmc bodies we rivited to the steel in one piece or two.  I want to remove and clean up the frame..  There's a diagonal seam on each door sill and it looks like it might have been put on in two pieces and then glassed together at the sill?  Any knowledege or advice? 

Was just talking to local guy that has a complete CMC wide body mold.  He said the main body mold is comprised of 18 mold pieces bolted together.  The main body is then cast (flashed) as 1 piece.  The steel subframe is both bonded and riveted into that body.  I've used a rust converting acid solution to stop surface rust.  It leaves a black gloss finish that can be painted with Rustoleum.  I would not attempt to separate the pieces.

http://www.napasco.com/enrustreat.htm

If you get a copy of Hemmings Motor news, any week, they have a bunch of ads in there for etching rust eliminaters.  POR-15 seems to be the most popular.  Don't remove the body from the frame......just pour on the POR-15 and let it work.