The front end removed from the vehicle

If you are serious about doing it tough off road then you can't go past the King and Link (K&L) pin front end. This was found on 67 and earlier beetles. You can lift then higher and push them harder than a ball joint front end which was in the later beetles. The K&L front is stronger than the ball joint by design.  If you wish to use it off road though it is a good idea to lift it. The best way to do this is by installing adjusters, modifying the bump stops and moving the top shock mount rearward. These 3 mods will give you about 4" or extra clearance up front.

STEP 1 - Stripping

	Once you have removed the beam from the pan you need to pull the stub axles off. This is quite simple and is done by removing the sway bar ( if fotted ) then undoing the two 17mm bolts seen in the picture. Then undo the tie rods and drop them off. I am not going to go into too much detail on this as it is covered in most manuals.
	Once the crap is off then we are left with a bare beam and front trailing arms. It looks much simpler like this.
	Now we undo the 19mm nuts and then remove the Allen headed bolts. These are grub screws which hold the inside leaf pack together. Once they are out you can simply slide the trailing arms out.
	All four arms out of the housing, there is top and bottom, with the shock bolts on the bottom ones.
	You can now see the leaf packs protruding from the front beam.
	Once we have pulled the leaves out we should clean them and inspect them for any damage or cracks. There is 8 leaves in each tube. 4 halves and 4 fulls.
	The leaves are notched to allow the grub screws to take hold and keep them all in place.

Step 2 - The adjusters

	This is what we will be welding in. It is an adjuster and its purpose is to allow us to change the amount of pre load in the torsion leaves. It basically winds them up so the place where the front end sits art rest is changed.
	It is made up by the bits in the picture. Some of them are a little tight so make sure you grease them well once they are in place.
	Now we have the bare beam, we must scribe a mark all the way through the centre of the grub screw hole.  This is so we can make sure the adjusters are put in the right place.
	Once we have a centre line we line the adjuster up and scribe the left and right of it onto the beam. This is where we will be cutting.
	To cut the beam square I have found a plumbers pipe cutter is the best. It makes short work of the pipe and keeps it all square.
	You need to make sure that you use a cutter with 3 cutting wheels. This is needed as you can't turn the cutter all the way around as it hits the other tube. The 3 wheels allow you to cut it through even though you can't move it 360 degrees.
	We then cut it along both lines and remove the centre section.
	Once we have cut through it is important to bevel the sides of the pipe down. This is so we can get good penetration with the weld. The adjuster is slightly smaller than the original beam so it does not need beveling.
	We then place the adjuster in, making sure the scribed centre line is in line with the new grub screw, ensure that the adjuster is set as low as it goes. This will allow you to go from standard height to well above when teh adjusters are set up. Then use a straight edge to ensure that the adjuster is in square.
	Then we weld it all the way round with a good bead of weld. After welding you can neater up any slag. Then repeat it on the other beam. Make sure you let the first cool properly so as no distortion is encountered when you cut the 2nd tube.

Step 3 - Bump Stops

	As you can see the original bumps stops, stop the arms going any higher or lower than standard. This is not what we want. There is a few options here, we can modify them or cut them off.
	Modifying them is quite simple, just remove the snub rubber and cut them on the correct angle to allow the arm move lower. This will then allow it to still stop the up travel at close to factory position.
	you can see the amount of extra movement gained.
	I prefer to cut them right off. I will set the up stops once it is in the buggy and I can swing the wheel through its arc, this will ensure that the tyres don't hit the fiberglass.

Step 4 - Shock towers

I have tried to keep this as simple as possible. If you have any questions please contact me at brad @ offroadvw.net . The entire job takes about 2hrs from start to finish. The results are well worth the time and the increase in ride quality can be felt straight away.