I ended up putting the beam on and then having to take it all off again because I didn’t realise I had to put some rubber bits on between the bolts! I also had great fun trying to put the steering box back onto the beam once it was fitted. The steering is grinding a little bit, I think it is where the bottom of the rod going from the wheel to the box is grinding on the tube bit..

I now need to buy some new ball joints for the steering, a new steering dampener and I should really replace the shocks. Once I replace the monster tyres (and maybe the wheels??) it will be even lower!

Before:

After:

Last night my friend came over late and helped me quickly finish removing the front beam so hopefully tomorrow I can put the new beam in and go pickup some parts that I need. I’m not sure where I’m going to get new shocks from though!

Today I was helping a couple of my friends with the upgrade of a 1300cc engine to 1600. It has been a good day and I think I have learnt a fair bit. I think once I have done lowering the front I will want to upgrade the engine and then next job would be to lower the back.

The disc on my angle grinder (which I only bought today) has run out and I can’t put a new disc on because the stupid angle grinder wont unlock where you put the discs on. So right now the front beam is still in the car but only just!

Luckily they were kind enough to jump start the car so I could leave again. So right now I’m still having to jump start the car each time I want to go out.

I’m buying an adjustable front beam from my mate for about £90, I think I will be picking this up tomorrow. I have put the front of the car up on axle stands and intend to take everything off the car tomorrow, fingers crossed! I have never done anything mechanical to this extreme so it’s gonna be fun trying to take everything off and split ball joints and such like.

If you click the pictures below then you can see bigger versions

I managed to convince a guy out with his kids to try help me bump start it but he was pushing too slow and it didn’t work. I also tried pushing it as fast as I could and jumping in but each time the car slowed down too much because I have to jump in, stick it into 2nd gear, turn the key and press the ignition button. Anyway, I ended up running my toes over at one point which made them go numb!

Tonight I put the back up on an axle stand and took a look at the start motor. I disconnected the battery before I did any work. One cable had fallen off where it wasn’t a tight fit. I disconnected all cables and wire brushed them and the connectors on the motor itself. After connecting everything back up, I put the wheel back on and lowered the car back down. Tried to start it and NOTHING at all!!! Oh wait, I forgot to reconnect the battery The engine turned over but didn’t kick in… damn!

I was quite disappointed, I supose this is quite a simple process but to someone who isn’t all that up on cars, it seemed like a fair bit of work to me. I decided to try use some jump leads to give the beetle battery some extra juice so I hooked some leads between my clio and the beetle….. BROOOM BROOOOOOM kicked straight in!

I don’t know how long the beetle has been sitting so I might be able to get away with borrowing my mates battery charger, if not then i’ll need to buy a new battery. Someone has suggested it might be that the alternator is not charging the battery but lets hope its not that :p

So anyway I have kinda diagnosed one problem! Next thing is to try work out why/where it is leaking oil from tomorrow!

I didn’t want one that was completely rusted through but at the same time I didn’t want one in perfect condition because it limits the amount of work you can do yourself.

It was a bit of a pain picking up the beetle, I had to travel to Bromley by train which was a nightmare! I got my first train at 6:30am and didn’t arrived until about 12!! After spending all that time on different trains I decided I was going to buy the car regardless of the condition anyway because I refused to get on another train.

She was born in 1971 and runs a single port 1300cc engine. She needs welding on one of the heater channels (damn!), passenger door and some plates under the front.

Get this though.. I stopped off at a petrol station on the way home and someone reversed into her and smashed one of the back light units..DAMN! Luckily it was just the light cover which is about £10-£15 and the guy gave me a £50 note so I guess I did well out of that.

I bought a MIG welder with the intention of welding her up myself so all I need to do now is learn how to weld This easter weekend I intend to replace the front beam with an adjustable one to lower her. I also need to lower the back but I’m not exactly sure how this is done yet.

Once she has been lowered I want to tcut her and clean the wheels up so that she’s nice and shiny I also want to remove a sticker from the rear bumper and some stickers from the windows. Hopefully I can get all this done between easter Friday and Monday.

Once this work is done I want to look at welding her up but I think this could take awhile because I need to learn how to actually weld first.

Click the thumbnail to see her in all her beauty