Anyone here with experience removing the body from a superbeetle?

R

i have done it what i8s the issue...

How to remove the steering column...
How high must I lift it?
I am thinking about lifting it straight up, rolling a dolly under it at the same time, then rolling the body out.
So, I remove the motor, remove the struts, all the body bolts, and the steering column...once I get that figured out....
Then lift it straight up and roll a really wide dolly under it that is taller than the wheels...
The question is, how high must this doll be?
Think of a 4*4 dolly with legs, and wheels on the bottom.
So, its wider than the wheel base, long enough to hold up the body from the front and rear areas, and high enough to roll the body right off the chassis..

Rich

Hmm I seem to remember that the first time I did it it was a case of lift lift and lift but I did disconnect the steering box first. The second time I did it it was a late Beetle and it had rack and pinion so that was easy. Hmm, I would suggest taking off the steering box and doing the column at leaisure..

I did it a while ago, I believe you have to remove the gas tank to remove the rag joint that holds the column to the steering box.

A couple of hex bolts under the steering wheel should allow you to remove the enter column (but you do not need to to remove the body)...

Good luck,
Dan

Yes the column seperates at the ujoint under the tank on a 72 sb. I haven't removed the steering box if thats what you mean. It's about the only thing I didn't remove though. I also didn't remove the body from the pan. The column is almost identical to the 75 914.

You can't just unbolt and roll a SB pan out like you can a standard beetle pan because the strut front suspension is partially attached to the body. You won't have any control of the front wheels on it so you'll need to use a floor jack to support the front. Completely doable, but not nearly as easy and straight forward as a standard beetle. Hope this helps. . . Good Luck!!

super beetles don't have steering boxes or rag joints... they have rack and pinion. you need to disconnect the u-joint, or take the whole steering column/wheel out first.

but as stated above, there is no way to raise the body and roll the pan out since the front suspension has struts. you need to pull the body off the pan, leaving the pan where it lies. 2-3 strong guys can move the body it it's stripped down well enough.

I usually make some 6' wide x 3' tall saw horses and place them under the heater channels.

Im sorry, but I need to ask... why are you doing this to a "super" beetle?

I know all about the front suspension deal...
The front will go on a dolly for the short term.
the body will get moved off the pan...I know I cant roll it.

why a super...well, it is my sons car that we re-painted a while back..at that time we replaced the driver side heaterbox...well that thin ass piece of crap is now gone...the original passenger side box is still fine..
I think we got an old part that was sitting for way to long on a shelf in a wet barn...damn shame really.
This time we are removing the body so we can do the pan with new chemicals and just have an easier time dealing with some tight areas around the front tunnel horn...it needs some work , grinder and paint and it will just be a better job if we take it off.

I am not going to replace the heater box as a whole unit.
I have all the parts to make a heater box and I will feel alot better when I can seal up the inside this time...the previous aftermarket part obviously had nothing sealing the inside of the box...we will do better.

Yes, this car sees year round use in salt and snow.
So did all of mine and they lasted alot longer...5 years is not ok.
The vendor who made this should be ashamed..it was made from 22 gauge and it fell apart in 4 years.
The car has sat for a year.
He is back from school, fenders are off, bumpers are off...he has been busy.
He also has strong backed friends...

At the end of the day, the superbeetle suspension is a better design...before you argue, look under all your cars...macpherson struts survived...torsion springs did not survive the engineering evolution.

Rich

I was just giving you a hard time with the super beetle thing.
Ive always been into the split/oval windows.

even if you're not replacing the whole channel, make sure you tack weld some supports across the door frames prior to removing it from the pan. this will help everything stay nice and square.

good luck. It is NOT a fun job.

Actually, only the late model SBs ('75 on) had R&P steering. The '71 - '74 had a typical worm drive steering box and a way over complicated system of ball joints, idler arms and a bell crank to get the wheels to turn. This is why the early Sbs have a front end wobble @ 45mph when things get worn; too much stuff between the box and the wheels. . .

When you get the tank out it will be easy to see the ujoint to the column, it may still have a rubber boot on it. I actually thought it might be identical to the 914 at the top but the shaft sticks out further on the 914. I have just spent the last 8 months redoing my son's 72 for him. We didn't redo the front end as it only has about 60k on it but I bet he will have to do it in the near future. The only rust we found was the area around the cresent vents. I wanted to take them out completely but he said no so I got to spend a lot of time there. I just hope we got the motor sealed up good. Stopping oil leaks on aircooled german motors is a real challenge for me.
Not only the torsion bars (92 toyota truck) but the fi from the early 70's (type III), and the unibody all survived. The only problem is for performance the strut sure makes wide wheels a challenge.

I already did it once...about 4-5 years ago...cant remember the exact time.
I did the whole thing with the body on the car, just jacked up a bit.

I will be putting a few turnbuckle bracing thingamabobs in the door to keep it square. I have not figured it out just yet, but I will when I am standing there.

Rich

Actually they do have steering boxes. I had a 74 that I fully restored and it had a steering box.