So, first order of business, take her to my regular VW shop, V-Dub Folks. They've worked with me on my 1969 Karmann Ghia and 1968 Bus. Good folks. They've been around since the dawn of time.
They're at 1410 E 6th St in Irving, TX. Their phone number is (972) 438-5610.
They'll be handling the initial mechanical work. And here's a mark of a good and honest shop: They welcomed me in on a saturday afternoon and let me take pictures of the work in progress. I can think of many shops today that wouldn't allow that. These are good old fashioned VW folks.
This
picture makes it a bit clearer. The previous owner had cut, twisted, and
rewelded her beam to give her huge ground clearance. I decided to replace
her beam and much of the front end. A close look at the pictures in the
Front End part of this website shows that her
front suspension was in pretty rough shape. Lots of rust, and just beat
all to hell from being twisted so far out of shape
And here's the bare frame head. "A" is the bottom of the trunk.
"B", of course, is the collapsable steering column, so in an
accident the driver's chest doesn't ingest the column.
She received new ball joints,
new steering stabilizer, and a new steering box. But the beam itself has been replaced with an adjustable Beetle beam, with additional supports added to it by V-Dub Folks to add strength, similar
to the supports that differentiate a Beetle beam from a Thing beam. Clicking
this photo will bring up a much larger version.
