# Mk4 rear beam mod sit inner lip on 17s.. my how to



## mannythechamp (Oct 21, 2009)

On the mk4 platform the rear beam is the way we hold our rear suspension up it houses both springs or bags, if you have an Airlift tapered sleeve bag in the rear then your bag will bottom out before the rear beam does, this leaves some sort of wheel gap if your running 17s like in this picture,










then if you have a re-5 or ss-5 or air house bag then you bottom out your beam before you bottom out the bag which gives you a bit more low but about 1/2 and inch.

The idea for me was to sit perfectly between lip and tire after much work i ended up with this...



















To achieve this i got the rear beam where it mounts up to the chassis and added about 1inch and 1/4 of metal between it and the car.. therefore making the mounting point lower, which allows more swing of the rear beam before it bottoms ..

adding a piece of metal here










between that and the chasis basically like the relocation plates if they were completely drilled through rather than tapped to shift backwards... 










*Note I am not shifting the rear beam backwards i am bringing it straight down separating where it mounts to the car itself to create more swing or motion!*

Now we just use extended bolts in place of the ones that held in the beam before.. 

Now we have created the clearance for the beam to bottom out lower than ever, (or rise into the car itself more than ever)... basically getting you lower, now the gap between the basket and the nipple is very small about 1.5 inches no bag will ever compress that small so then the next step was cutting the baskets where the bags sit and dropping them about 2.5 inches...

i went from this 










to this 










i cut off the rear baskets.. 










grinded of the paint and used 3/16 inch steel to extend it straight down.. 










there really only is 3 parts you need to extend down..



















this is it upside down..










i kept the strut mounting place in the same location that way the shock reaches max extension before the bag that way when you jack up the car you dont over extend the bag.. 

my car finally ended up sitting where i wanted like this..




























Note this is not the only way you can do this, I am posting this to show what I did to achieve the stance i was looking for, i have driven the car to and from school which is 400 miles away from home several times already and everything holds up nicely.


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## najob08 (Apr 28, 2008)

This is awesome. :thumbup:


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## crispy21 (Mar 26, 2012)

wish mk6s had centering plates


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## Slamtastic (Jul 24, 2010)

Nice work! :thumbup:


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## Bierce IV (Apr 5, 2010)

my rear sleeves dont bottom out before anything else. Ive been on about 6 sets of 17's this last year and i never once had that issue.


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## bryangb (Jun 16, 2010)

:beer::beer:


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## mannythechamp (Oct 21, 2009)

Bierce IV said:


> my rear sleeves dont bottom out before anything else. Ive been on about 6 sets of 17's this last year and i never once had that issue.


i dont get what you mean ? your bags and your beam don't bottom out ? :screwy:


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## CRacer21 (Oct 6, 2004)

Nice work! So now your wheels sit back in the center of the fenders when you air out? Any shots from the side?


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## mannythechamp (Oct 21, 2009)

CRacer21 said:


> Nice work! So now your wheels sit back in the center of the fenders when you air out? Any shots from the side?


no the wheels are still a bit forward... i doesnt really move the wheel back.. but ill post some side shots later when i find a few :thumbup:


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## theguy831 (Feb 28, 2011)

Bierce IV said:


> my rear sleeves dont bottom out before anything else. Ive been on about 6 sets of 17's this last year and i never once had that issue.


this^

I too am confused.

from the looks of the first pic...I would say you were on stock shocks and that is what was holding you up.


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## mannythechamp (Oct 21, 2009)

theguy831 said:


> this^
> 
> I too am confused.


What do you mean ? :screwy: you can basically tuck 17s on a bolt on bag setup ?

I'm trying to understand what you mean


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## .Ant (Jun 7, 2011)

Great work, but you could have just bought IDF plates.

How my car sits with IDF plates, airlift rears, and 17s


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## mannythechamp (Oct 21, 2009)

.Ant said:


> Great work, but you could have just bought IDF plates.
> 
> How my car sits with IDF plates and 17s


Yessir I pm'd you once about this because you have this fitment, but I wanted to avoid the camber with the idf plates that's all.. 

Glad you understand how hard it is to sit like this on 17s


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## theguy831 (Feb 28, 2011)

mannythechamp said:


> What do you mean ? :screwy: you can basically tuck 17s on a bolt on bag setup ?
> 
> I'm trying to understand what you mean


tuck no. but not with wheel gap like that.


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## .Ant (Jun 7, 2011)

mannythechamp said:


> Yessir I pm'd you once about this because you have this fitment, but I wanted to avoid the camber with the idf plates that's all..
> 
> Glad you understand how hard it is to sit like this on 17s


Ahh... I see. No camber.  and I do remember talking to you now.


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## mannythechamp (Oct 21, 2009)

theguy831 said:


> tuck no. but not with wheel gap like that.


Only reason I had that gap was due to the stretch I ran... If I put a meatier tire or more poke I would have sat tire.

I wanted to sit lower than tire sit in the lip basically, and the shock mounting place stayed the same after the alteration I did not move it I still have way more low to go to bottom those out:thumbup:


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## mannythechamp (Oct 21, 2009)

.Ant said:


> Ahh... I see. No camber.  and I do remember talking to you now.


I like it I just didn't prefer it you pull it off nicely, I was going for something, lets call it different


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## Burth (Oct 15, 2010)

Damn that's a lot of work,

Like ant said, idf plates, airlifts with modified top bracket,! 


Ether way! PROPS FOR ALLTHE WORK YOU DID:thumbup:


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## theguy831 (Feb 28, 2011)

Burth said:


> Damn that's a lot of work,
> 
> Like ant said, idf plates, airlifts with modified top bracket,!
> 
> ...


Didn't think you needed to touch the top bracket with drop plates? 

Op, side shot of the car? Anything special going on up front?


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## mannythechamp (Oct 21, 2009)

theguy831 said:


> Didn't think you needed to touch the top bracket with drop plates?
> 
> Op, side shot of the car? Anything special going on up front?


I'll post up some today... 

And as of right now notched frame for axle and tie rods cut subframe sitting on the ground, nothing new looking for ways to go lower up front about an inch to sit 20th valance on ground on perfectly flat surface makes me upset -.-


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## theguy831 (Feb 28, 2011)

I've become a bit discouraged on how difficult, or rather expensive, it is to get proper fitment up front on 17s.


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## Burth (Oct 15, 2010)

theguy831 said:


> I've become a bit discouraged on how difficult, or rather expensive, it is to get proper fitment up front on 17s.


It's not that bad,
R32/tt lcas/spindles sectioned subframe:thumbup:


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## najob08 (Apr 28, 2008)

Why I would do something like this is to have a firmer ride in the rear at a lower height. Rubbing wheel on fender isn't fun...

I run the IDF plates and HATE how the car looks unless its aired out, I'm considering just getting my own made that don't move the wheel back as far as theirs.


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## silvermannn (Feb 6, 2009)

I always felt bad for people with the rear beam that does that. So annoying to have the wheel sitting forward like that. 

Does the centering plate make the wheel dramatically far back when air'd up?
Also, how low do you guys with fender in lip insertion drive? If that bottomed out and hit that couldn't be good.


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## najob08 (Apr 28, 2008)

silvermannn said:


> Does the centering plate make the wheel dramatically far back when air'd up?


Yes, personally I think it looks even worse than when the wheel is pushed forward.



silvermannn said:


> Also, how low do you guys with fender in lip insertion drive? If that bottomed out and hit that couldn't be good.


As low as I can really, but since the bags extend so much (Bagyard Classics) they ride like crap when at a low height since there isn't a lot of pressure. I don't understand why they were made with so much lift, its pretty pointless having that much travel.

That being said most MK4 rear bag solutions will have a similar issue.


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## mannythechamp (Oct 21, 2009)

najob08 said:


> Why I would do something like this is to have a firmer ride in the rear at a lower height. Rubbing wheel on fender isn't fun...
> 
> I run the IDF plates and HATE how the car looks unless its aired out, I'm considering just getting my own made that don't move the wheel back as far as theirs.


I keep pretty good bag pressure with this mod with my airlift rears..



silvermannn said:


> I always felt bad for people with the rear beam that does that. So annoying to have the wheel sitting forward like that.
> 
> Does the centering plate make the wheel dramatically far back when air'd up?
> Also, how low do you guys with fender in lip insertion drive? If that bottomed out and hit that couldn't be good.


I drive extremely high especially since I go over at least 10000 speed bumps a day I drive with about 50 psi in the back and that gives me 4 finger wheel gap any higher is pointless and when I carry people since i have a 4 door I keep about 65 pounds and that's max extension on the shocks all the way up which is super high il post pictures tonight..


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## abadGTI (Sep 3, 2003)

Good job. In for more pics


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## Twilliams83 (Jan 25, 2011)

i sat on lip with airlifts and no idf plates.


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## Rat4Life (Oct 14, 2004)

damn so much work, i usually just trim the top bracket a little,thats all. 
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/r...kr.com/6202/6126226492_d5b2a26267_z.jpg[/img] IMG_2247 by misha/rat4life, on Flickr[/URL]
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/r...kr.com/6190/6125683885_b5cb01694a_z.jpg[/img] IMG_2263 by misha/rat4life, on Flickr[/URL]
and with these you wont even have to modify anything.
http://bagriders.com/modlab/products/IDF-MK4-DROP{47}-CAMBER-PLATES-.html


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## ornithology (May 6, 2009)

This looks great!


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## ForVWLife (Nov 12, 2004)

Bierce IV said:


> my rear sleeves dont bottom out before anything else. Ive been on about 6 sets of 17's this last year and i never once had that issue.


same here


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## ericshell (Dec 22, 2011)

interesting issue, but props to the work and idea :beer:


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## mannythechamp (Oct 21, 2009)

If i would have cut the top bracket 1st which was my first thought unwound hav dropped maybe 3/8 or half an inch not 1.5 inches that I needed and if I completely removed the top bracket which was my next idea (fabricating a flat plate and mounting the line inside the body) I would hav only dropped the height of the bracket plus what ever bracket I make which I's still 1/4 inch from what I need... So instead i did this and nothing stops me I can go as low as i want or need


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## RG.Jeff (Apr 16, 2011)

:thumbup::thumbup: good work


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## President Lincoln (Jun 27, 2005)

Lot's of work there..

For my rear, I just bolted on Bagyards and called it a day. Goes plenty low and rides fine with my dampening adjustable Koni shocks.


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