The Boyd Coddington Beetle Build.

[nacha]

So the combination of requiring as much camber adjustment as possible and needing a shorter strut i have decided to go down the route of raising my strut towers.

There are a few different routes around raising your strut tops.

first way is to use the style that is often used on mk1 golfs, ill find some photos as well. This style is essentially
just cup that bolts in and moves the strut top up by a few CM.







The second way is to cut a set of towers from a donor car and fabricate them onto the top of your pre existing towers.

[zeberdee]

If you can fab your own strut tower , you can make so it fits the MK7 top mount properly .
That will gain you more than enough .

Or be lucky enough to find a scrap MK7 & cut it’s strut towers out & mod to fit yours .

👍

[nacha]

I have considered both options and decided to opt for the second one, this is because of a few reasons the main one of which is that i don't think i will be able to have much camber adjustment in such a narrow tube that i would have to use if i went for the first option.
The style of stock top mount on a mk4 platform car is quite small in diameter, meaning that i would have to cut up my top mount to fit in a larger tube for it to work appropriately.


So the first step is a trip to the scrap yard to see if I can cut off some strut tops off of a MK4 golf or preferably a Beetle.

I unfortunately didn't find any Beetles however i did find a couple of MK4 golfs and a 1.8t Scoda VRS wit the same strut towers. I didnt picture any of the mk4 golfs while i was there however i did take a photo of the scoda.






In short i failed miserably

i went with the intention of cutting off some strut towers and left with a restock of fuses and a couple of little bits for other people,

The only small win from the day was finding a tire in the size that i thought would be about correct for my width of front wheel.

And with some messing around later i had it mounted just to test my sizes and stretch before i order new tires
(i wont be using this tire to drive on)









Yes i know they are stretched, ive see worse and run worse myself with no issues, this isnt a sports car its just a bit of fun they will be ok like this.

[nacha]

While i was getting my tire mounted by a good friend of mine i mentioned that i had failed at cutting off the strut towers from a mk4 golf.
Luckily he happened to be breaking a mk4 golf for parts and said he wouldn't mind if i cut the towers out of that.

So armed with a reciprocating saw i made light work and walked away with a nice fresh set of strut towers.



Rip MK4 golf

[stealthstylz]

This should be pretty cool. Getting stuff really low and static is pretty time consuming. The first 4-5" is easy enough then the last couple take all the work.

[generallee]

I don't much like new Beetles, and the wheels don't do much for me.... BUT! I love you bought the wheels you love and are building a car around them.
Retro Rides ethos FTW

[craig1010cc]

Interesting to see another new beetle being built.
This was always my fav one built and wanted to build mine in a similar style (never happened sadly)

[nacha]

Apr 19, 2023 19:33:15 GMT stealthstylz said:

This should be pretty cool. Getting stuff really low and static is pretty time consuming. The first 4-5" is easy enough then the last couple take all the work.

I couldn’t agree more, it’s definitely that last little bit that takes the most effort.
I had a similar scenario on my last car, I got it to a point of being very very low with just coilovers and sort springs.
But then to go even lower I had to machine my hubs to flip the track red ends, extend the lower hub and also had to make lower arm extenders. All of this to just gain that little bit extra.

[nacha]

Apr 19, 2023 21:03:56 GMT generallee said:

I don't much like new Beetles, and the wheels don't do much for me.... BUT! I love you bought the wheels you love and are building a car around them.
Retro Rides ethos FTW

To be fully honest with you i also don't really like the new shape beetle, i already had it though so why not have some fun.

And the idea of building a car around some wheels is so backwards that i think it might just work, we will have to find out.

[nacha]

So ive now got a pair of donor strut towers to do the raise
Time to get them striped down and un spot welded.

[grizz]

Funny about so many of us not liking the New Beetle, but loving the fact that people mess with them to maximise the looks.

I am enjoying this so far, and to be honest, the wheels I do like as well, mainly because they are not conforming.

[nacha]

Apr 20, 2023 12:16:46 GMT grizz said:

Funny about so many of us not liking the New Beetle, but loving the fact that people mess with them to maximise the looks.

I am enjoying this so far, and to be honest, the wheels I do like as well, mainly because they are not conforming.

yeh the wheels are most defiantly non conforming, probably intended for something more alike to your Chevy truck.

[nacha]

So now ive got the donor strut tops all tidied up its time to have a test fit and see if I'm going to be able to gain enough from them.

after a load of trimming and messing around i had them fitting alright, should be enough to give me a roughly 35 to 40mm raise.



Is that going to be enough though?

yes probably but barely.


So what should i do about it.
It feels like a lot of work for something that I'm not certain will be enough, for this reason i have decided to go down a different route and to make my own weld on assembly that increases the height of the strut tower. doing this will also make utilizing the adjustable top mounts far easier.

[Davey]

Apr 21, 2023 10:52:10 GMT nacha said:

So now ive got the donor strut tops all tidied up its time to have a test fit and see if I'm going to be able to gain enough from them.

after a load of trimming and messing around i had them fitting alright, should be enough to give me a roughly 35 to 40mm raise.



Is that going to be enough though?

yes probably but barely.


So what should i do about it.
It feels like a lot of work for something that I'm not certain will be enough, for this reason i have decided to go down a different route and to make my own weld on assembly that increases the height of the strut tower. doing this will also make utilizing the adjustable top mounts far easier.

Would it be possible and maybe simpler to extend the donor mounts?

What is bonnet clearance like?

[nacha]

Apr 21, 2023 11:40:53 GMT Davey said:

yes i think it would defiantly be possible to extend the donor mounts however I will still run into the issue of the adjustable top mounts so would probably want to make another plate to go on the top instead anyway.

The bonnet clearance looks all good, i will have to re make the bonnet hinges slightly differently to relocate them slightly outboard,
or just remove them and use hood pins, just take the bonnet off every time I wanted to work on the car.
I am currently leaning towards the second option as I know if i make them slightly wonky the whole bonnet wont line up correctly.

[braaap]

Boyd Coddington isn't just wheels, but mostly customizing.

So make him (or rather his designers like Chip Foose) proud by overhauling the beetle completely!

Just start with the bonnet opening sideways or to the front or with a flip front if You have to alter the hinges anyway. 👀

[nacha]

Making my own strut towers,

so as i previously said i don't think i will gain quite what i need from using a stock strut tower to raise there heights.

So I'm going to make a pair myself,







With a hand from one of my co workers we formed a pair of steel rings for me to use as my new strut towers.

i just need to make the tops for them next.

[nacha]

Next was to make the top plates,

so for this i used 6mm steel plate, quite possibly over kill however i already had the material.
I needed them to me 175mm diameter, to achieve this I cut them out using an angle grinder to slightly oversize and drilled a hole in the center.
Using this central hole I held them in the chuck on the lathe and turned them to size measuring repeatedly with a set of 0 to 300mm Vernier calipers.

i unfortunately did not photograph this process

[nacha]

The next thing to do is to get the strut tops all cut out






i used a combination of angle grinder reciprocating saw and an air hacksaw.
I found the best way was to remove the spot-welded central piece that would have originally held the strut top, then using an air hacksaw with a fine blade trace around the line that you have drawn.

[nacha]

OK so my old strut tower are cut out now, so it time to get my new ones in there place.