1969 VW Bug Project - Episode 53 - Narrowing the Beam Part 2 - Welding in the Airkewld Adjusters

As usual, a few words about my videos: these episodes document my efforts to restore an old VW Bug and are not intended as how-to's. I am a professor of English by trade, and I have no formal mechanic training (which is often quite obvious). I'm also into making semi-interesting/entertaining videos showing how I've gone about my restoration work. But I make no guarantee that my results will be your results, nor that you will remain injury free if you try to do what I did. You may harm yourself, others, and/or your car if you copy me. If you do, that's your fault, not mine. Please be safer than I am, make safety first not third, and do not do anything if you don't know what you are doing. If you have any doubts at all, consult a qualified automotive professional, and pay him or her or them to do it right and safely.
Intro music is "Go Down Swinging" by NEFFEX, provided royalty free by the artist.

[@CAMERAMAN173]

Great explanation and no nonsense video.

[@SchoolStGarage]

I appreciate that. It was honestly not that hard of a project once I broke it down into steps. I've had no issues since.

[@Rev768]

Finally after going for hours on youtube i found you, thanks for this amazing explanation, you gave me the courage to do that on my beam! Thanks alot for this, keep it going man !!

[@SchoolStGarage]

So glad I could help, man. I wish you all success. If you have any issues, hit me up through the comments, and I'll do what I can to walk you through it.

[@hded06]

Excellent Video!

[@vwcoco]

Good to see you back on utube. Nice work on the beam 👍

[@SchoolStGarage]

Thanks! I'm glad to be back at it.👍

[@vwdarrin]

looking good

[@zimms-world]

Good stuff. Your braver than I am

[@SchoolStGarage]

Just break the big projects up into small steps. But also, not doing it to my original beam gave me some breathing room.

[@67VWForever]

If you're not cutting your shock towers you will have problems I have a EMPI 2" narrowed beam on my 67 and that's as close you can get with shock towers your literally and 8th or less from wheel well on the inside the shock towers.

[@SchoolStGarage]

I ended up shaving a bit of the inner fender well to make them work. Didn't have to compromise the shock tower strength at all doing it that way.

[@brianpedersen4714]

Just curious, why not cut at the point outside of the bracketry?

[@SchoolStGarage]

If I'm understanding you correctly, it's doable and I've seen guys better than I am who have done it, but there's very little room driver's side between the steering bracketry and the shock tower. I think what I've seen is that in order to do that, you'd have to cut the welds holding the shock towers on, remove them entirely, lop off the two inches from the torsion tubes, and then reweld the towers on the end of the shortened tubes as a nice 90 degrees. In the end, I didn't trust myself to get the towers back on perfectly. I felt more confident in my ability to realign the tubes with some L-bracket bracing as I welded them back together. I also preferred welding the thicker tubing rather than the stamped steel of the shock towers.

[@jacquelinechellis4036]

I dont weld so well but i would do roset or plug welds to get good strength from the the tube underneath. I got drop spindles and dont like the lesser clearance so i am considering doin it also and also adjustability raising it up is a good idea also. Good video thanks