Beamed Baja

[Beamed_baja]

Hello everyone I’m starting a build thread it’s a Baja bug build, but I’m putting I Beams on it. Just got the beams cut today on the plasma table and I’ll be doing some mole up soon. Tbh I’m kinda winging it I’ve never set up for beams so it will be interesting. If you guys have any feedback I’d love to hear it but if you say “just do A-Arms” or something like that I’m more than likely going to ignore it. Other than that hers some pics. More progress to come mostly want this as motivation to keep building

 

[UR_Mawm69]

JUST DO FUCKING A-ARMS!




that's not EXACTLY what you said you'll ignore sooooooooooo................

haha.
but honestly, im trying to picture beams on the front of a baja..... the whole front clip will need to be shock towers, wont it? do you have any pics your inspiration/idea is coming from? or just....... where did you see it/think of it/ wut?!?!?!?

hah. not talking shit either, i imagine itll be sick if its done correctly! even if i cant visualize it in my head. haha

 

[FasterNU]

yea, seems odd. isnt the pan/frame super narrow in the front? Would seem to make a better platform for center mounted gay arms.

with that said.. interested to see what you come up with!

 

[dwphoto]

scissor me timbers...

 

[Beamed_baja]

JUST DO FUCKING A-ARMS!




that's not EXACTLY what you said you'll ignore sooooooooooo................

haha.
but honestly, im trying to picture beams on the front of a baja..... the whole front clip will need to be shock towers, wont it? do you have any pics your inspiration/idea is coming from? or just....... where did you see it/think of it/ wut?!?!?!?

hah. not talking shit either, i imagine itll be sick if its done correctly! even if i cant visualize it in my head. haha

As much as A-Arms seems like the way to go and easier set up I want to go beams they honestly look better in my opinion and less moving parts essentially. I’m not exactly sure how they’ll be yet but anything is possible with a grinder and welder right? I saw a ranger just running through the desert with beams and said” damn that would look sick on a bug” we’ll see in a few months when I have more tubes in and the suspension built. If anything I sell the beams and go A-Arms

 

[Beamed_baja]

yea, seems odd. isnt the pan/frame super narrow in the front? Would seem to make a better platform for center mounted gay arms.

with that said.. interested to see what you come up with!

I’m fabricating a tube chassis I’m only keeping like 12” of the pan to keep the vin for it to be “street legal” so it’s definitely a project that snowballed. Like you said “gay arms” they’d be easier and less fab but hell it’s a project for fun and to push my creativity.

 

[DialedShockPrep]

I think beams on a Baja bug would be awesome. Once you figure out what spindles you will be running, the rest is pretty straight forward since you will have a blank canvas. You will want a set of tubes or boxed “frame rails” that come from under the body forward and have an upward kick in them right before your front hubs centerline. The kick will help you with having room for the beams to swing upwards and not crash into the frame/tube work. From there you can hang the beam pivots down and outwards off of those tubes and also use those tubes to locate the steering swingers as well.

For radius arm pivots, i would run centermounted radius arms that are a few inches below the i beam pivots (in relation to the ground at ride height) Having the radius arm pivots below the beam pivots is the same as having the lower a arms at a few degrees off level so the suspension wants to swing back as it cycles upwards as well, it aids with bump absorption and ride quality.

The tricky part will be achieving all of this while still keeping the bottom of the car relatively flat. VW pans are much flatter in terms of height when compared to a traditional truck that has 6-10” of room between the floor of the cab and the bottom of the frame rails.

If you wanted to go way outside of the box then find a standard cab shortbed ranger and place the VW body on that chassis and make an actual “Truggy”.

 

[Beamed_baja]

I think beams on a Baja bug would be awesome. Once you figure out what spindles you will be running, the rest is pretty straight forward since you will have a blank canvas. You will want a set of tubes or boxed “frame rails” that come from under the body forward and have an upward kick in them right before your front hubs centerline. The kick will help you with having room for the beams to swing upwards and not crash into the frame/tube work. From there you can hang the beam pivots down and outwards off of those tubes and also use those tubes to locate the steering swingers as well.

For radius arm pivots, i would run centermounted radius arms that are a few inches below the i beam pivots (in relation to the ground at ride height) Having the radius arm pivots below the beam pivots is the same as having the lower a arms at a few degrees off level so the suspension wants to swing back as it cycles upwards as well, it aids with bump absorption and ride quality.

The tricky part will be achieving all of this while still keeping the bottom of the car relatively flat. VW pans are much flatter in terms of height when compared to a traditional truck that has 6-10” of room between the floor of the cab and the bottom of the frame rails.

If you wanted to go way outside of the box then find a standard cab shortbed ranger and place the VW body on that chassis and make an actual “Truggy”.

That’s a lot of helpful information thank you. All the stuff I have is off of DIY off-road I got the beam plates cut yesterday and now I’m waiting for parts to weld them up. The uprights are also off that website they utilize a Chevy 2500 hub so that will be easy one I get all that cut and welded. Then it’s all the geometry. I did think about using ranger frame but I still want the rear engine but this is still a possibility or to just to save time chop the front of a ranger frame off finder center and start throwing tubes at it.

 

[Beamed_baja]

The beams that will be used wait on hiems to assemble fully

 

[Beamed_baja]

Haven’t had much time got one arm just about done. I’ll be done with the other this weekend.

 

[Beamed_baja]

Definitely a lot more welding than I anticipated. I still have to build the other arm. A bit of a learning curve. I’m used to welding handrails and small fab. As time went on the welds got better. Any tips will always be noted.

 

[Beamed_baja]

More pics

 

[Beamed_baja]

It’s been a minute but I got some progress done. Designed the cage in cad cause I’m new to cutting and notching but luckily theirs software for that. Cut the pan out just keeping the vin and IRS section to be “street legal” lol but I’m about to move house so won’t have updates for a little bit as if I update as much as I won’t to. Like always feedback is always appreciated! I got thick skin I know I’m retarded lol.

 

[Beamed_baja]

It’s been 6 months and I’m finally getting to this thing picked up what I believe to be a ranger frame today. Once finish cleaning up my garage it’s time to tear down measure, cut, and booger this thing together. Also if you want to follow me on instagram for the build it’s @itllbfine_offroad.

 

[JACKSONRALLYINC]

Here is some motivation for you.....maybe. Don't really need the Ranger frame.
Look at their take on the radius arms as well.

Not at all how I would do it, but it more or less has been done on a Buggy.

I took this picture 25 years ago

 

[DesertGoat]

I want to go beams they honestly look better in my opinion and less moving parts essentially.

I think by the time you factor in the steering it is probably exactly the same number of moving parts, to be honest.
But that said - im fully in support of being weird just for the sake of it. Go for it.

 

[Beamed_baja]

Here is some motivation for you.....maybe. Don't really need the Ranger frame.
Look at their take on the radius arms as well.

Not at all how I would do it, but it more or less has been done on a Buggy.

I took this picture 25 years ago

View attachment 21320

That’s pretty sweet! I got the fram mostly because I’m still new to fabrication got the frame pretty cheap so it’ll help with aligning thing and eventually I’ll more than likely build a tubed chassis when I actually know what I’m doing. Thank you for the motivation

 

[Beamed_baja]

I think by the time you factor in the steering it is probably exactly the same number of moving parts, to be honest.
But that said - im fully in support of being weird just for the sake of it. Go for it.

Yea I can see that. a bug beam would probably be the least amount of moving parts but ya know beams look cooler lol and if all else fails I chop it off and put an Arm kit on it’s all for fun and learning!

 

[Beamed_baja]

Here is some progress mostly just cutting the heck out of it! Soon will be the actual fabrication stuff!
For more updates and videos follow me on instagram @itllbfine_offroad I post almost weekly!

 

[Chancegoodman]

So are you just lacing the big body on top of the ranger frame or are you going to try and retain the irs rear