sway bar

have new vintage speedster and was suprised it doesnt come with front sway bar. who makes a good aftermarket one and is it necessary. or has vintage got this figured out.bill

Do a SEARCH here --- several good write ups on it -- some had photos of how to mod the bumper brackets.

Word of caution !!

With a lower front end a stock sway bar will dip to low and scuff when you hit the brakes hard and that sounds awful

Been there done that ..

A bar needs to be developed that bolts to the front bumper brackets with the superbeetles saddle brackets and a converted superbeetle sway bar that then uses the 2 smaller swaybar clamps that were normaly used on the beetle that clamped to the lower control arms closest to the lower ball joints.

That should be the best course of action. I intend to try to do this next to my car next . However the sway bar may be from something else. I'll let ya know.

VW front sway bars (aftermarket) come in two varieties: standard ride height (for those with lowered spindles ONLY) and lowered ride height (for those with adjustabel beams). The lowered version has the front of the bar bent up to clear ground, and that is why it interferes with the bumper brackets. Don't despair - it's a relatively easy fix.

When I had my JPS built, we put on nerf bars for bumpers. Little did I realize then that the real function of the nerf bars is to prevent you from botoming out your car. The bottoms of my nerfs, both front and back, have taken a liking, but the body and chassis remain untouched!

A good 3/4 inch anti-sway bar only costs ~$35.oo plus some bushings and clamps. It's a worthwhile investment you can feel in the vehicle handling. Just google "VW sway bar" - there are many sources.

Do a search on here for "Front Sway Bar" of variations on that theme.

LOTS of good info from the past to read through, and it will save you a lot of extra work....

It still dips to much, shall I send you my prezzel swaybar picture.

Again Been their Done that. if you soften the front spring to get a good ride like this as Vintage does that is what happens I have 3 springs out of the top tube and 2 out of the bottom with fill in spacers on the ends of all springs

It has a good feel in the curves this way .But the front will list in the curves with out the sway bar..

A 10mm sway bar is the perfect match. to that spring weight. It works just right,for road course and high demand driving.

Barry - I like your solution by varing the spring rate by removing torsion leaves. MOST kit cars though retain normal # leaves and either use dual adjuster on the beam or 2" dropped spindles (or both). So do to having less weight in front of vehicle the "springs" are indeed probably too strong for a comfortable soft ride (maybe not being 30+ years old though).

I just said in my above post, "standard ride height (for those with lowered spindles ONLY)". What the heck does that mean???

Lowered spindles would of course RAISE the chassis. Guess I been reading too much about Baja Bugs lately.

How about this: a lowered chassis, by using "raised" spindles would still require a "lowered" front sway bar for adequate ground clearance. I'm outta here!

Will.... Vintage doesn't list a sway bar in their options/ upgrades list, but will install one for you. I had them put one on for me before I drove away with the car. I had a mechanic tell me it's fairly light duty, but it seems to work just fine for me.

Yelp and if the sway bar is tied to the front bumper brackets it can't dip period.

This speedster is much lighter than a stock bug. I have had the stuff apart several times adding and removing springs untill I was happy with it. it was a headache but worth the effort and answers you saw posted. It has 4 adjusters because of the wider beam. and 2 aditional 2x4 square tube supports from the beam back to the cab that bolt down the sides of the lower cab panframe. the bummper brackets bolt onto them as well locking the beam in very rigid this one dont flex at all. Only a tube frame could be better.

It has a real good ride firm enough to handle and just soft enough to allow you to go for long rides without getting rattled to death.

I have had 3 ruptured disc and Im quite comfortable in the car and only stiff after a long ride More because of the artheritis. But NO disc pain. I can testafy it works and works right. even one of my freinds said it rode realy well on a beach trip a few years ago he has back problesms also and was please with how the car treated his back

I admit the seats are a part of the working package 1984 Honda accord seats narrowed 3 inches and dropped 2 inches in the rear. They look correct for a Drauz Roadster as well. I did my own pattern work on the covers and did have a pro sew them up as I stood by and instructed. They still costed me $250 each to make and it was all by hand. and very well worth it . CUMMFEY.

Light duty is fine! Remenber it a very light car

Now if you built a very elaberate tube frame you would need more because the car would be heavyer.

Just ask Cory.

Barry, concerning the front axle spring rate:
Why can't I just put the the full spring pack in both beams, because they (or spacers in your case) are needed for proper grub screw location anyhow? Then, after setting the ride height, just start adjusting the upper torsion pack relative to the lower torsion pack until you get the spring rate desired? Upper and lower adjuster settings would each be different in this case.

With your set-up you have an unequal number of leaves from the upper tube to the lower tube. Wouldn't keeping the same number of leaves in each tube and just adjust each beam differently achieve the same effect?

I supppose you'd have to keep re-setting the ride height with each adjustment also?

Tried that,,, Did not like the stiffness it gave the front end. the car wouldn't float along like I wanted it to. It didn't suit my taste ,and Im faily sure you'd hate it, as well...

Now there is a chance I may have had the wrong sway bar the first time, But it was up level with the bottom tube most of the time.

My spring tweek did allow the front end to move easyer up and dowm and was a contributing factor to the saybar dipping so far.

I still beleave this is about the best you could hope to achive. I simply cut up some 2 inch long fillers out of scrap spring and spot welded them at the tips onto the other springs.
Then pointed the tips with a grinder and made sure they would slide into the arms and the tube bushings. when you touqre the studs they will stay put that was the least of my problems.

Right now .. Front wheel well center to the floor is 24 and 1/4 and it a match to a 356 I measuered In Clayton Georga In 2001. I do need to reajust the rear of the car I raised the front a bit and I want the rear to match.. So Now the has the exzact correct ground clearance

Thanks for the insight. I'm going to have some interesting conversations with my beam builder in a few weeks.

As far as comfy ride and floaty go - for the past ten years the best riding vehicle in the motorpool was my F-250 pickup, and my wife even agrees with that! I may be beyond floaty by now - but it sure sounds inviting.

I have a SS Elcamino with the cadilac sways amd springs The 356 Beats it and the bug all to peaces. as far as handleing. I did not settle with what I started with by no means. I kept tinkering and trying things untill It got better. Now with the rack the steering is as light as a feather. Its gona take some getting use to Its very different. GOOD but not like any bug I ever drove.

Mr Vestal has a 74 Super with pretty low milage he said I realy improve the bug front end and the word he used was fabulious. a major improvement even over his super,

Well that what he said I got it home this evening and noticed the passanger tire tread cut the grass just a little making the turn to get it in the garage.

But It will still need to get it alined by a pro. Its got to be pretty close. but No cigar yeat.

Hey Barry, can you take a couple of photos of your rack and pinion setup? I'd love to see how you did it.

AND the 7/16" (10mm) sway bar. That should rattle some that boast 1" or larger bars !!

If you have tube frame car you may need a bigger sway bar . The one thing I have learned here is trial and error. and latly may error be fore success.

The picture are in my old profile as.. oldyeler. They need to be moved to my new one as ziggy

William - FWIW, here are some pics of my front/rear sway bars. These are the standard Empi bars.

Now my rear sway bar was made from a mid 80s G body car like a maibu. its 1&1/4 thick. The weight is on the rear of the car and thats where, I uped the sway bar thickness where i felt it was needed the most I did get that right first try.

Jimbo, Where did you get this done? I need to set mine up also. I've been driving my speedy alot lately, due to this awesome weather we have here is Beautiful SUNNY SO. CAL. The wife and I drove down to Laguna Beach and had lunch yesterday, was pretty awesome.

Gabe

Hey Gabe,

I helped Jim install the sway bar and altered the bumper brackets.
Just let me know if you need some help.

Jim - I see what appears to be sheet metal connecting your upper and lower bumper brackets. Is that somethng you did, or Vintage normally does? Reason I ask, is that my JPS doesn't have any sheet metal, but it does have a piece of 1/4 plate connecting the upper and lower brackets just inside the front fiberglass. My nerf bars bolt onto this plate. I know all our cars are a bit different. The details are interseting.

Thanks Robert sounds good.

David -

What may appear to be sheet metal is actually just a fiberglass cover over the bars of the bumper bracket (maybe to give a more substantial appearance).

Hey Gabe,

Give me a call, and we can set up a time to work on your brackets.
(714)376-5634

David and Jim; in our case, we did away with the fiberglass and welded on steel plates to try to strengthen the brackets; we realized that by removing the bottom part they were weakened. Not that it makes a substantial difference in terms of real road safety anyway. I'd say the bumpers in these cars are more decorative than anything else. Heck, by riding around in a fiberglass tub on wheeels you're already at risk!

Back to Wolfgangs comment about kit cars with all the springs in the beam Borrow a racers tire scale weighing each wheel if it weighs as much as astock but thats fine . but if the car is concideably lighter by as much as in my case the total car weight with fuel was 1620 lbs as apposed to a stock beetle 2200 lbs with a 70 /30 weight ratio on the speedster where the beetle was 60 /40 from front to rear.

DO the math..

I forgot what I came up with the first second and third time . But it was still off some,, Hence another tear down of the beam and more tweeking and less springs.

Thankd wolfgang for you suport on my aproch to making a speedster ride and handle good. That ment a lot to me..