I have now finished tack welding the VW bug front strut link. I cut and trimmed the ends to complete the assembly. Again I will finish the welding later with the bearings removed. Anyway, I can now start to create the under structure for the link.
With everything lined up on the VW bug front strut link, I can weld everything together. I will be putting a minimum of tacks in place because I don’t want to heat the metal too much and fry the bearings. I have an additional grounding strap on the assembly to make sure both pieces of steel have a good ground for weld penetration. I will finish the welding with the bearings removed.
The VW bug front strut top link needs to be fit to the MR2 strut tops themselves. After getting the link tube close to fitting, I needed to drill out the top strut bolt holes to get it to go down all the way against the mounts. I seems to fit very well.
All of the photo pages are now under one page “Custom VW Bug Build Phictures”. The new picture shows are of the MR2 front steering knuckle modifications and the positioning of all the struts under the VW bug body.
I can now cut out the front VW bug strut link with my cut-off wheel. The video stops for some reason during the first cut, but I finally get it all cut out. I have to expand the tubing a bit on the ends so that the MR2 spherical strut mounts will fit. But a little bit more grinding and drilling and it should fit fine.
With my MR2 front strut link template created, I can trace the profile to the steel tubing. The template is made from 1/4″ foam board and the link itself is 1.5″x1.5″ steel tubing. I will now cut the steel tubing a bit longer and slowly grind it down to fit.
Now that I have everything lined up and all my measurements, I need to construct the VW bug’s top strut link from 1.5″x1.5″ steel tubing. I slowly cut a 1×2 board down to the correct length and clamped it to the MR2 strut mounts off setting it a bit so I can place the foam template. The foam template will be 1.5″ wide and will fit the front profile of the link.
Now that I have both of the front MR2 strut mounts finished, I put a small bend in the tabs to align them straight across. I then cut a board to fit across both mounts and clamped them to the tabs. With the foam template in place under the board it appears that everything is lining up OK. I will need to remove the VW bug body once more to continue with the lower support.
I have finished building the front MR2 strut mounting brackets. I had to cut the mounting bolts down a bit for better clearance but I can now test fit them under the VW bug fenders before I build the strut link member.
I now have the grade 8 bolts welded through the MR2 spherical strut top mounts. I had to clean them up by grinding down the bolt heads a little so the bearing would slip neatly through. I will be cutting the bolts down once the entire assemblies are bolted together.