hi all, i have an ad in the wanted section for a fug4 i have spent some more time trawling this site, brilliant :D .man there are some cracking vehicles out there ;)and so the reason i was wanting a fug 4, is i am of large build and 6,7'' but it looks like whatever i get i will have to adapt for my size. can any members give there opinions on adapting fugs for the larger than average bear. there isnt much i cant do mechanically its just veiws on direction am after :ph43r:

Well I'm nowhere near that tall at 6 foot 1 - but I'd say your biggest issue is probably going to be with your head being near the "roof" rail on your right.

A crash helmet will make the chances of contact higher so I'd err towards a Fug with a screen if you can.

Laid back seats will help over more upright ones.

Moving the drivers seat more towards the centre of the car and the passenger one towards the left side of the vehicle will help a bit as well - mine has the seats mildly offset like this. Downside - passengers not too happy when it rains!

I've seen cars where the pedal box has been lowered through the main floor slightly, it may be possible to do similar with the seat as well if the ride height isn't too low.

I've also seen cars with the roof rails re-angled/re-worked to give more clearance - never think they look quite right though.

Have you tried sitting in one yet? If you're near someone willing to let you try theirs it'll probably give you plenty of ideas.

I'm sure others will be along with more suggestions - and welcome :D

hi paul
thanks for the indepth answer, a great help and insight. no i havent tried one out for size yet. i live in northern ireland (never even seen one on the roads here)the one i did see was near gloucester when i was visiting. do you know if anybody has the old plans for me to look at ;)

Welcome to the site :D

I tubbed and dropped my seats by 60mm because I considered the roof bars too close if I wore a crash helmet. The lay back original style of seat defo helps this.

The beauty with a Fug is you can just about do whatever you like, they will adapt to whatever your imagination can throw at it B)

Welcome along!

I'd definitely go along with what Paul said, the seating position is critical to get your head to clear the tubes. I'm in the process of rebuilding a Fug 4 at the moment and I am on my 3rd set of seats to try and get the position right! I'm only just under 6ft (so a short arse compared to you!) but still my head is close to the tubes with a fibreglass seat on the deck. They key is to have a seat that is very laid back - look at the pictures of an original seat to see how they did it. As Tigger rightly points out though if you are handy with a welder the sky's the limit.

On another note if you are looking try to find a correctly registered one (that shows UVA on the V5). That way you can probably mod it and no-one will even question it when you come to MOT time. Mine doesn't and it is causing a few potential headaches over if I have to reregister it - and you know what that involves. Don't mean to open the debate on this but it is a hot topic and I'd rather save someone else falling into the trap I'm in.
On a brighter note though, from what I can gather on the forums there is very little that's more fun than a Fugitive out for a blast on a good road :D
I can't wait to get mine out there!!

Hi,
Think it's all been covered now, but I'm 6'4", I'm close to the side bar but it's acceptable, would not have room to wear a crash helmet though. Had to play about with steering colum and move pedals etc but it's quite ok and useable. Did think about dropping the floor, but as I wanted off road look that would be wrong as rails are made to have flat bottoms for a reason. If your going for an on road look, drop them like Tigger has, it's the best option I believe. Changing the hoops never seems to look right, and if you move the seat towards the centre you'd have no shoulder room. You will find it pretty narrow on shoulder and elbow room anyway, mine is awkward for me if I have anyone my height and shoulder width in the passenger seat.

hi to all of you, and thanks for the input, jees there is some short people on this site :rolleyes: . as i said on my previous post i am bear like! suppose more grizzly than black so shoulder width would also be a issue, i was in employment as a welder at one time so it looks like its going to be a "skies the limit thing" ;)

so when you all talk about the books/v5 being right..is it model= fugitive, make= uva on a age related plate or can it be Q

V5 wise it can be either of what you said, what it can't have is VW beetle on the V5. I know that's pretty obvious, but there's still Fugs on the road registered as VW's. Goes without saying that's not legal and consequently voids insurance etc. You are clearly going to have shoulder width issues, I am really on the limit even if I've got an average adult size passenger. To give an idea, I'm 6'4" and 17st. I spend a lot of time down the gym, so I'm pretty stocky. By what you've said, try before you buy, it might not be the ideal car for you.

Just had a thought, if your weldings good and you've got the time, widen the whole thing! If you get one with IRS it's a piece of cake to do, then put wishbones on the front. If you have a look at a frame, it really wouldn't take more than a weekend. Obviously the bonnet would need widening, or just run a frame like I do. Kinda wish I''d done mine while it was stripped now :( Reckon if it was about 10" wider it'd be a lot better, then slam it to the ground, or lift it if you want, either way it'd be a better looking Fug.

cheers 100bob. your thoughts are my thoughts (vulcan saying :rolleyes: )that is exactly where i have been thinking, except on two points, first being i didnt know beetles had irs thought they were solid bell housing with connecting torsion bars. (maybe that is irs but i dont think so)
wishbones? wasnt aware they were beetle either
time is what i got so abit of reading up me thinks
if anyone can point me in the right direction or pics it would be a great help
i have found out that seamless tubing is approx £5 a metre

Right, 1303 and 1302 beetles had IRS, others had swing axles. the torsion bars bars etc wouldn't be an issue on either type as it won't affect them. At the risk of a row, IRS is better. All that would need doing is extend the driveshafts. Didn't mean to misslead, beetles don't have wishbones, I purely ment that as an option as widening a beam axle would be complicated, although possible. Making a set of custom wishbones isn't really that hard if you think about it. I haven't actually done either so please make your own conclusion. Just one other though, measure everything for yourself, don't assume that because it's original it's in the right place. Although I love them, Fugs are very inacurate and rubbish build quality. I moved numerous bars, put bars in where they obviously should have been and rewelded a good amount of the frame. They are an awsome concept but do need reworking.

again thanks, just ordered a "building a buggy" book (i realise its not a fug but its the closest i can find) it promises to clear up chassis and electrical issues. although bikers usually have a good grip on electrics :angry:

Sorry to be the damp squib here but widening a fugitive chassis is one thing but getting the IRS to fit is another. The only way to do this would be to split the torsion housing at the centre and add a section there so you retain the torsion bars. Then you 'just' have to lengthen the drive shafts. Front wise there are actually kits available to widen a torsion beam so that would be the easy bit. But defo not in a weekend...sorry! Personnally, I reckon 4 to 6 inchs would make a massive difference, and if you leant on the side of 4 more than 6 you 'could' widen the cab without upsetting the track at all and so make your life so much easier...just a thought :P

cheers tigger thanks for the input, its good to get more veiws. eventually a plan will form then all thats needed is the donor
been reading today i now understand irs as opposed to the swing axle, i think for my first build i will head in the easiest direction with irs and hub to wheel spacer (anybody know what the spacer limit is)
as far as the fronts concerned i thought of putting 2" sway aways and wheel spacers but i cant find out how to extend the spring leaf inside(ideas please)

How to widen a ball joint front beam thread. is in brakes steering and suspension. 3rd page almost at the bottom.

Some people do it and get away with it but it's not a good idea to use wheel spacers at the front end. It affects the wheel offset and the scrub radius.



If you fit a spacer it moves the whole wheel outwards.

If the wheel already had a positive scrub radius this will be increased and you will get massive kickback through the steering.

If the wheel had a negative scrub radius to start with this will be reduced or even changed to a positive scrub radius and you may loose all the feel from the steering.

The same thing can also happen if you fit wheels with the wrong offset.

At the rear there is not the same problem. The only drawback to rear spacers or massively offset wheels is the extra strain on wheel bearings and wheel studs. I would not go wider than 1" (25mm) spacers at the rear.

thanks for that gtmdriver, an interesting post. just read up on scrub radius and steering axis :huh:
must remember not to mess with a std front beam till i know what i am doing :o

I run 1" spacers all round, I didn't choose to, they were already on it so left them on as it had extended studs. I know the concept of the steering angles etc with regards to offsets, but it doesn't always work that way in practice. Bit like a "Bumble bee can't fly"
I ground out the wheel centres on a Suzuki sj, flipped them round which changed the offset a good 2". Rediculas you say, drove it for 2yrs like it and it drove better than the standard ones ever did. Moving to Beetle stuff, the strain on wheel bearings etc. isn't even a concideration, Fug weighs far less, your not going to do 20,000 miles a year in it, and they're about 20 quid if you chew them up anyway. I must admit, the rear torsion bar set did scare me a bit, I'd not worked with that sort of thing before, but take it apart and it's a complicated as Lego. You could even bin the torsion bars and go trailing arms and shocks, it's not hard if you can weld and have some time.
Don't get me wrong I love Fugs, but I'm also a realist.
With regards to time it'll take, it's something we're all guilty off, treat it as a hobby and it'll take years, treat it as a job and it'll take no time. It took me ages to deceide the size of my alloy fuel tank, my mate made it one afternoon after work for example. If you were in a fabricator, welder job you'd be expected to widen that thing for 2 days wages, well you would if you worked for me anyway :lol:

just finding the donor is the only thing now, any fug will do with irs, the books are right an mot'd
tell you what 100bob i will buy yours mate, widen it an i will pick it up next friday(couple of extra days to paint it given to paint it for me) :D

For a price I can guarantee we could :D

Brilliant, i like your style 100bob ;) and i have no doubt. but i was only joking the idea of this is doing it myself. even if i had the money to get a fug tailor made i wouldnt.
if your thinking of selling though gives a shout :rolleyes: