ST2-NG questions

[JagerDanger]

Thanks for the explanation on how you did the brakes, definitely gives me a lot of insight of how to do it. Sorry took me a few days to get back on here and respond.

[JagerDanger]

My plans for this have not changed, but will be pushed to the back burner for a while even after I get a house. Will be picking up a VW aircooled buggy that someone had built either late 80s or early 90s. It had been licensed in Minnesota for street driving. 4 speed manual transmission, mostly square tube frame. It's been in a barn since 1994, maybe 1993 per the license plate tags. I have some things I want to do to it once I get it in my possession. It will be staying with my dad until next Summer while my wife and I find a house. I should be going up to Minnesota before then a couple times and maybe work on it a bit.

[JagerDanger]

I guess for a bit of an update. Went up to Minnesota in the first week of October and went to the farm in Wisconsin to pick up the VW buggy. It's a very scratch build, 2" square tube all over including the cage. Has a short Chevy/GM bench seat with lap belts. Master cylinder is shot. The clutch cable is janky. The front I beam axle is welded to the frame and not clamped in place like normal ones are.

Ended up getting an extra engine, front I beam axle, another transaxle, many carburetors, original steering wheel, several fan shrouds, original gas tank and many other random type 1 VW parts.

Very few parts will be salvageable from the buggy. Frame has too many terrible welds, it would take at least a day of cutting, grinding, and another day worth of welding. Overall wheel base is too short to be safe. So I'm going to have to get a different buggy frame and transfer everything to that, scrapping the square tube or keeping it all for other stuff. Looking at a knock down (weld your own frame) kit Acme Warrior.

Considering the buggy was street legal up through 1994, I may build that one up first and do the ST2 later. I'll need a new welder for either project anyway, current one will not be up to the task.

[darwinpayne2000]

One advantage of living in the upper Midwest. You have lo-o-o-n-n-g, cold winters where there's nothing else to do except work on your buggy.

Good luck on your project. Moving the VIN from the old frame to a new, (totally tubular, man!) frame sounds like a sound plan.

[JagerDanger]

One advantage of living in the upper Midwest. You have lo-o-o-n-n-g, cold winters where there's nothing else to do except work on your buggy.

Good luck on your project. Moving the VIN from the old frame to a new, (totally tubular, man!) frame sounds like a sound plan.

Back when I was in Minnesota, that was the case lol. But being in Nebraska, winter is more tamed, at least in Lincoln. Further west or north, it's similar to Minnesota. My wife and I are hopefully getting a house this summer, so I'll have a place to build both projects.

[JagerDanger]

Plans on the Badland calls for 11 3/4" shocks for the front and 16 3/4" for the rear. They call for dual shocks front and rear on each a-arm. I'm hoping to modify and just one shock per A-arm. Any suggestions on shocks that will work the long run?

[K-fab]

Any Fox or King would/should be good. FOA, uh... Pretty much any of the more popular brands.

Easy to tune, pretty universal, lots of springs that fit.

Fox Air shocks are probably the best, bang for the buck if your not racing - they do require a little bit of setup equipment (nitrogen bottle, regulator and attachment to charge the shock) but they're usually the least expensive and one of the easiest to tune. Very user friendly and would work well on a car your size.

[JagerDanger]

I may have to go that route. I was hoping to go a bit more economical at first. 15 years ago, it should have been relatively easy to find the shocks the plans call for. Closest I can find for the front if I go by the plans are 12" eye to eye from Azusaeng.com. They are cheap oil filled hydraulic shocks with springs to help, but I bet a time or two on the trails will wear them out. Seems like shocks are the single most expensive parts (even with the engine in my case). I'll probably look more at Fox, since those air shocks seem to be more reasonably priced.

[JagerDanger]

So looking at FOA and Fox, both more or less need to wheel travel. Is there any easy way to figure this out by just going off the blueprints or should I build it and then buy the shocks later?

[aschn]

you can build the buggy without shocks, but be careful when you weld in the shock tabs and other components around the A arms.

If you are building off plans, you could make a few sets of tubes that take the place of the shock. One set could be full-out and the other set could be full-in.

Also, look into AFCO shocks. They're used primarily for dirt track and drag racing, but SAE Baja buggies use them as well. They use the nitrogen filled coilovers shocks with adjustable rebound or compression.

You should be able to find some used on eBay or marketplace or just buy new.

Good luck!