With the car cleaned up & fully inspected, it was time to start upgrading the drivetrain. Tracy gets prepared for a full brake system refit.

One of the nice things about this car is that the old, prettier '68 body sits on top of a more modern '71 chassis which means disc brakes in the front and independent (I.R.S.) suspension in the rear. This was in our plans all along but finding one already swapped saved us a lot of work! Here, Tracy installs new calipers, pads, and flexible brake lines purchased from Jarrett Imports at a VW show we

went to in Farmington, North Carolina.

Tracy tightens up a new rear wheel cylinder. The brake shoes looked OK so we left them there.      In this picture you can see the drive axle with it's rubber "accordion" CV boot. This axle design, which is the same as the axles used on today's front-wheel drive cars, has a free-rotating constant velocity joint on each end so the wheels can move straight up and down in a vertical plane. 1968 and

older Volkswagens had swing axle rear suspension that had a joint only on the inboard end of the axle. As the wheel moved up and down, it would tilt in or out at the top and bottom depending on the angle of the axle. This made for unstable handling, especially in high-speed cornering.

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