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Reply to "Newbie with many questions"

Any of us who have built pan-based speedsters know that there is almost no stiffness to the VW pan, especially along the outside edge.  

OK, make that none.  The pan is truly flimsy - you can make it flex with your hand.

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In order to get any structural integrity in the speedster, some sort of tube frame was absolutely necessary, so CMC (and others) used a 2" X 3" box frame member (3/16" wall or thicker) along each side.  That's what you see in Wolfgang's photo of a naked frame.  Everyone also used that side box tube as a (and I use this term unwillingly) "Heat" conduit, just like VW did, and we know how effective THAT is.  In later years (after 1970) VW seems to have listened to the plaintive cries of people in colder climates and actually double-walled that heat tube along the side and it improved heat somewhat - especially in warmer climates - and that actually improved side-stiffness in the newly introduced USA Crash-Dummy tests (so we now know it wasn't to give us any more heat, right?)

All that the kit designers did was mimic what Volkswagen did - When you place a VW sedan/convertible/Karman Ghia body onto the VW pan, it adds much stiffness to the assembly by way of the heater tubes running along the side of the body (carrying that tepid air from the anaemic heater boxes forward, to pretend to warm your foot).  Those tubes are approx. 3" in diameter and heavy walled, that's where Beetles got their structural integrity and that's what is copied in Speedsters with the sub-frame.

The good news was/is that it took a lot to rust out those structural/heater side tubes as they were tucked waaay up under the sills and running boards and on top of the pan - road salt almost never found its way up there.  The passenger side rotted out first (it's closer to the slush on the side of the road), but it might take 20+ years to do so, even in Michigan, the road salt capital of the World, so the Beetle had to be in really rough shape to fail a "jack test" with the jack under the center/side of the car or under the door's rear seam.  If the heat tubes were really rotted out I suppose it might fail a "jack test" but I've never seen it.  I bought my '57 sedan in 1967 (paid $25 bucks for it) and while it had a few dents and surface rust, it was easily salvageable and I drove it for four years, two as a sedan and then 2 more as a dune buggy.  Pearl has a 1969 pan that I bought in 1995.  All four fenders of the Beetle were bashed (she lived in Boston) but the body and heat tubes were all fine, although the floor panels were hit-and-miss and were totally replaced before I shortened the pan.

Pan Scan01Pan Scan02

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Last edited by Gordon Nichols
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