THE FLOOR PAN

 The floor pan is a 1958 beetle pan. It was chosen as the early pans had much more metal in their tunnel and was therefore thicker. The later model 1500 beetle pans do ,however, come from factory with a lot of the modifications I am going to make. The message here is that if you are not 100% on a King pin pan then a later model ball joint pan can save you a lot of time or / and money.

That being said the finished product will be a king pin front Type 3 / kombi IRS rear end. It will run 4 wheel disc brakes, lifted front end, fabricated rear trailing arms, 3/1/2 " custom lift kit fully welded, 2mm checker plate floor halves, relocated brake lines, the gear shift is moved back by 5/1/2 " (like a 1500 pan ) access panels are cut in the front, and all brackets, holes and original mounting stuff has been cut off and re-welded. A dual golf master cylinder with 19mm bore has been mounted and the frame head has been countersunk to clear the raised front end. All work was carried out by myself or Custom Off-Road, at this stage I would like to thank George for all his information and assistance. I would strongly recommend him for all and any modifications to your  VW. I hope to have the pan finished in the not to distant future ( It is almost May 2001 Now..)

If you have any questions on why I have done something please send me an e-mail as I have spent many hours deciding what to do and am always keen to learn more ( e-mail brad @ offroadvw.net )

	Once the pan was shortened the original floor halves were removed. They were left in place so as to allow for easy alignment. Once the tunnel was welded I made up the lift kit using 75 x 40 x 3mm RHS. While the original halves were still In place it was easy to work out where everything had to sit. Once I was happy with the lift I cut out the floor halves and welded the lift kit in place. Once there I began to fabricate the front yoke section and rear bit over the tunnel they were a little harder than the sides. When the were complete I cut out and bent up some floor halves out of 2mm mild steel checker plate and welded it into the halves. By welding from the tunnel to the lift kit I picked up about an extra 1 - 1/1/2 inches of clearance as the rear foot wells were no longer required I tapered the rear of the pan up to once again get more clearance. The end result is sort of like a boat hull tapered from side to side. All up I estimate I have gained at least an extra inch in ground clearance..
	Here  you can see the tunnel part of the pan, there ain't much to her when she is in this state
	This shows the frame head which has been clearanced to allow for the tie rods to clear when the front end is lifted.
	This is what it looks like from above. It is cut and a piece of 3" pipe welded in to maintain integrity and strength
	The access panel here will have compensation plates welded around it to allow easy access to the pedal assembly without loosing strength in the tunnel. This is a great idea which many overlook until it is too late to do it neatly. It will get a cover which screws on when finished
	The gear stick has been moved backwards to allow for a better shift action. You get this from factory on a 1500 Pan.
	The frame head has been moved forward 2" to allow clearance of bigger tyres and give a slightly longer wheel base. The frond end braces were then added.
Pic to follow	The rear end has torsion bar adjusters installed. these are welded into the centre to allow easy height adjustment. They were made by Custom Off-Road

More Details to follow.