The problem I have is the distance to bring the body down on the chassis as you can see is a couple of inches yet I don't have the same clearance on the clutch arm on the gearbox and I also had a bar that supported the rear seating area by bolting to the upper shock bolt mounts but I have to remove this for now.........

Fitted the support bar back on and the front bolts on the body have gone in OK. The rear need tightening slowly as there is at least a couple of inches to pull down.

Moved on to the front end and made a start in installing the original VW beetle steering column BUT it appears to be too long. Will I honestly have to shorten it or do you guys recommend something else? The steering column support bar doesn't work with the mountings for the column as is. Again any ideas?

Could be way off the mark here - but wasn`t that mounting for a Golf column ?   

Chad's the man to answer any Q's but he is skiing at the mo.

Could be way off the mark here - but wasn`t that mounting for a Golf column ?   

I ordered it from volksmagic as a standard steering column support. Are there different types?

Any thoughts on the steering column dilemma 

The three buggy's I've built with balljoint beams, I have had to shorten the column, cant remember by how much though.

H

Any thoughts on the steering column dilemma 

Yes,
Speak to Chad, if you can't wait till he is back then speak to Lee at VolksMagic but he will probably say speak to Chad.

Hi Guys,

Back form Andorra eventually after a coach breakdown and a plane breakdown 

The column doesn't need shoertening otherwise it wouldn't fit the dash properly. If you drop the dash on you will see the steering column cowling fits into the part that protrudes from the dash mould (although you will need to cut out the front of the protrusion to suit th cowling you have - I find making a carboard pattern around teh cowling first helps and then you can mark this on the face of the dash. Then use a dremel and hack saw blade to cut out the shape.)

To make a standard column fit the support you need to cut off the butterfly piece on top of the tube and re-weld lower down the tube where the steering support plate is. You may then just need a packing piece between the butterfly and plate on the support bar to set the height to what you want it to be. Some tall drivers like it higher and some shorter drivers like it lower, so the design of the support allows you to set the column at different heights using a block of metal, bolted through.

Hope that makes some sort of sense.
Chad

Moved on to the front end and made a start in installing the original VW beetle steering column BUT it appears to be too long. Will I honestly have to shorten it or do you guys recommend something else? The steering column support bar doesn't work with the mountings for the column as is. Again any ideas?

Did anyone spot the LHD gear shifter !

LHD ?