seanis2cool

First off, its a 69 beetle, How do you remove the front beam? need to get it out the way to finish welding up the new front end, also, it looks as if its been messed about with in the past? Looking at the welding anyway, doesnt look factory, is this a std beam?




And how does the rear valance come off? As in, where is it welded to? as i need to get a new one, cheers, sean


Oh, also, its a long shot but would anyone in the coventry area be able to possibly help me pulling the engine out of my beetle? Ive heard its not too hard but i can tell i'd cock something up. cheers, sean

flat4fanatic

The rear valance is welded on at the sides, it wraps over the rear quarters.
Beam -
disconnect steering column donut
remove tie rods
disconnect brake pipes (or if discs tie the caliper up so theres no strain on the pipes)
2 bolts under the petrol tank
4x bolts going into the framhead (can be seen in the pic)

Looks like the beam has been cut & turned. They look like adjuster brackets but there's no other bits which is odd. can you get a straight on pic of them? the bit of weld in the middle of the one in the pic looks a bit suspect to me.

Get the engine out when the valance is off & make the new one bolt off - makes it a lot easier than jacking the bug up and pulling the engine out from underneath.

seanis2cool

yes i was thinking of making the new valance removable just to make things easier in the long run, and yeah i thought they looked like adjuster brackets after seeing a picture of a beam on here but like you said, theres nothing else there,

when you say straight on pic, do you mean as in directly from underneath and not at an angle?

flat4fanatic

Pointing into the adjuster so it's like a U to see if there's a hole in the beam for an adjuster & what the bit of weld in the middle of it is doing

seanis2cool

oh, you mean the blob of weld in the middle? i did think it looked a bit odd but didnt take much notice of it, was too busy wondering what the bracket bits were haha, will get a picture tomorrow

kkkango

whilst the beam is out I would grind off the brackets and tidy the welds up. Also check the axle is straight, the lowered one fitted on the wifes when we brought it showed up as 3/4 inch back on 1 side when mounted in the vice on the bench to free the adjusters off. also check the bottom of the shock towers for rust and that the drain hole is clear.

seanis2cool

that pic any better? its so hard getting into there to get a photo without it being too close and just blurring up lol

kkkango

the picture makes you wonder what is holding the torsion bars at the centre mounting position or are they just held in position by the arm seals at the end allowing them to float side to side.

seanis2cool

ahh im confused. i've got to pull the beam off soon to weld up the front end so il try get some better pics and get a closer look when i do that,

orange912

should look like this in the middle, but yours has the ajusters missing and some "weld" in it's place, not a good look