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Finished the left upper arm.Wanted to get the full range of motion from the upper Del-Sphere so the arm was set to 3" of bump and the brackets welded into place. The adjustments on the upper arm allow for caster and camber adjustments of several degrees. Glad I went with this route.

That's a really interesting looking upper arm. I would have never expected something like that. However, physics dictates that it should all work fine. Curious to see what you'll do with your shock mount.

Had to widen the upper a bit so the Del-Sphere angle isn't maxed out. This basic aftermarket design is common for cars here in the US for easy track side adjustments. A friend has them on his car and I really liked the design. Hoping I can avoid a push/pull rod design for the shock, but we'll see. Plenty of room for it if i didn't have drive axles to clear

Drive axles, CV's/boots, plus shock, plus spring! Definitely going to be a "high rent" district down there! Might have to look into some of the small-body shocks and springs? Slight bends in the upper arm tubes could provide some extra space down the middle, or towards the outside depending on direction of the bend. Nice work!
Jeff

The lower frame mount points are about 10" out from center line, it's right where the end of the CV boot is. Plus the center line of the drive axle will be above the lower pivot mounts. I have a spare STi axle so I have been trying to find the sweet spot. People give me strange looks when I say I am going to order an axle that has the inner CV's of the rear and the outer CV's for a steering knuckle The axles are only about an inch in diameter so ideally I want the shock to be in that area. I can always redesign the uppers to mimic the lowers and go with a bar type setup but I like the simple adjustments of the two arms without having to undo components.

You are correct rent space is super premium. Looks like my steering shaft will go behind the pivots and over the axle. Neat thing is I am not limited to a predetermined mount angle, so I can rotate it for best fit. Sway bar can go under, over or on the upper arms. If I have to go push / pull rod then I can look at eliminating the typical sway bar.

Any thoughts of putting in a little anti-dive in the geometry? Adding in a few degrees in the upper arm mounts might go a long way without having to go to higher rate springs/shocks. I think I used about 3-4 deg.

FWIW, this pic can give some indication of running out of room. A lot more involved than just throwing a couple A-arms on it! Makes you appreciate how much "open room" is available with the trailing arm design. Doesn't look too bad here but note not shown is the coil-over spring - it just clears the upper BJ mount (at full droop) and limit strap, or the coolant line which had to snake up through/past the lower arm, or the sway bar. I got away with using an aftermarket BJ beam sway bar with custom mounts. It mounts high, just a little below the upper arm, with drop links to the lower arm between the tie rod and ball joint. Nice and cozy!

GS guy wrote:Any thoughts of putting in a little anti-dive in the geometry? Adding in a few degrees in the upper arm mounts might go a long way without having to go to higher rate springs/shocks. I think I used about 3-4 deg.

FWIW, this pic can give some indication of running out of room. A lot more involved than just throwing a couple A-arms on it! Makes you appreciate how much "open room" is available with the trailing arm design. Doesn't look too bad here but note not shown is the coil-over spring - it just clears the upper BJ mount (at full droop) and limit strap, or the coolant line which had to snake up through/past the lower arm, or the sway bar. I got away with using an aftermarket BJ beam sway bar with custom mounts. It mounts high, just a little below the upper arm, with drop links to the lower arm between the tie rod and ball joint. Nice and cozy!

Great point! Since I already have the measurements for everything, it shouldn't be hard to figure what % of anti dive I would want. Since its only the upper arms, I should be able to continue with the lower mounts. I could also make the upper mounts with multiple mounting points for different angles. As long as the mid point between the two mounts remains constant it should only affect the dive. Thanks for bringing this up, wasn't even on my radar. Perfect timing too.

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Bent the hoop for the upper mounts, also going to use it for the forward body mounting bracket. Temp positioned it and will weld it and add bracing to it once I finish raising the differential. Kept the hoop low enough not to interfere with the steering shaft. As I figured, I'll be running a push rod style suspension. The adjustment of the upper arms allows for up to 8 degrees of static camber and beyond 9 degrees of cater. Ended up taking Jeffs advice and added in about 3.5 degrees of angle to the upper mount points. This should give me an anti-dive of around 25%.

Ordered an inexpensive Mustang II Rack and Pinion for less than $100. I knew I was going to need a shortened rack. The shortened racks are crazy expensive an figured I would shorten my own. This way I could make it the exact size I want for ideal placement. If I mounted it forward of the lower frame the anti-ackerman angle would have been huge. To the point where the outside wheel would turn more than the inside wheel...no bueno. To keep the rack inline with the Suby steering arms (who's steering arm angles work out great for a VW wheel base) I need to mount the rack closer to the differential. Two choices were to mount it above the frame or below. I will end up flipping the steering joints on the knuckle to a top steer position. There's more clearance and more adjustment to dial in what is now ZERO bumpsteer.

Took the rack apart so I can shorten the rack on the non-grooved end and shorten the housing. Only a few mm will need to be removed and i can place the rack where I want.

hi there

what size box did you use for the main central frame and do you have the angles and measurements for the frame around the front diff. i am currently building a 4x4 1303s and after seeing this floorpan design i may re-address the chassis at a later point as this is a much cleaner look plus i'm sure a hell of a lot stronger.
cheers neil

Hey Neil,
It's 2.5" x 1.5" with 14ga (.0747") wall. It's plenty strong plus I haven't finished the bracing yet either. Made the front section in a way I can drop the differential without interfering with the sway bar or steering rack. I do updates to STF every once in a while but the most current updates are on the FB page.

@AWD69VertGhia

If you have anymore questions you can hit me up here or there. Glad to help if I can. Cheers.

Finished the rear torsion support, trans tunnel, and raised the driveshaft tunnel. Pedal mount and final suspension fit is next.

Awesome thread. Amazing work!

Not sure this will be helpful in any way, but has anyone ever tried using Rabbit/Golf spindles? I've envisioned, in the past, an awd type Super Beetle with a Subie inverted final drive gearbox and a Subaru, say, R160/180 rear diff at the front of the car, attached to the Golf front CVs with custom axles.

The pics above look like beautiful work. I was just curious.
H2OSB

P.S. Guess I should have read through the entire thread before I posted. Nice work!

I don't know if there's an advantage to using Rabbit/Golf knuckles. I kept it Suby for an easier combo of axles and brake calipers. Many JDM STi's came with Brembo brakes that are easily available. The rear (now a front diff) does have to be flipped. I have a set if custom axles that should be here next week and I can finish off the front suspension.