McPherson in a Standard
 

Hi, I'm thinking on the possibilities to improve the handling of my standard.

I have heard several guys have put the 1302/03 suspension under the standard body. All infos are well come here..is it a real pain in @ss or just a challenge?

(BTW, once I have seen a bright blue (STI powered) bug on 18" black porsche wheels with this conversion, that was a piece of art but can't find it again)

To improve the front suspension of your 1974 standard bug you have two basic choices on alternative systems:
1) Macpherson struts. A good system that can provide a good level of handling and roadholding but with excellent packaging - hence the preferred choice for modern manufacturers.
2) Double wishbone suspension. the best system for handling and roadholding but requires a reasonable amount of space.
decide which of those fits your requiremenst best.
You won't be able to easily graft a 1302 Macpherson strut front onto a standard beetle but if you still desire a macpherson strut suspension then ignore the VW connection and develop your own from other sources that will provide additional benefits e.g FWD, big brakes, coilover struts, compression struts etc. The layout will then need to be set out very carefully. Ignore spring/damper rates initially as these will be easy to resolve at a later date when the system is near completion. the geometry is the most important thing here.

Yeah Clive, thanks for sharing that.

The wishbone is the best solution, no doubt. For me it's too pricey at the moment and all of the Mendeola, Eyeball and Red9 products are new on the market, no one knows their disatvantages at the moment - if they do have some. (Or let's say I don't know anybody who has tested all the 3 products in his car yet) Maybe a 2.0 version will be the ultimate solution.

The coilover setup sounds impressive to me, but I still have no personal experiences with them. Based on the infos can be found on the web the bad point of this conversion is the fact that the beams originally were not designed to carry the whole weight of the car and they can easily break. However I accept this, I haven't seen a broken beam yet and for example all the Remmele cars have this setup..don't know whom to belive

I like the original SB setup, because:
- contains genuine VW parts
- I know how a car handle with that
- a lot of HQ products are available like struts, springs, ARBs etc.

I definitley like the look of a standard bug, but the handling is very far from that I could live with. The bad point in my case I have put a lot of work in my standard, so get a new car is not a real option. What is more I have a swing axle at the back..so I think my winter project will be an IRS conversion. But if it is possible to match the standard body with a super pan, than an other pan would be the way to go.

I have just realized that in South-Africa a few cars were produced with the curved window and plastic dash but with a ball joint front end at the same time..so I'm sure with a little engineering parts are more or less interchangable...but haven't seen a conversion like this, that's why I'm looking for somebody who has done it.

BTW if no one is interested in this topic we can talk about it in PMs

I know of two cars that had a standard body and one Ghia(the Bader Ghia) that have been converted to McPherson suspension.The wheelbase is 20mm shorter.

pm me your email address ;)