Just wondering if anyone has been known to widen a VW van. Plenty
have been stretched and no few shortened, but it seems to me a useful
and feasible custom trick would be to widen one.

A Split or Bay (T1/ T2) is a basically simple construction and ought
to lend iteslf to this. A T3 would probably be so as well, but is
already a little wider than the older van. The T3 suspension would be
easier to widen, as none of the major components are bilateral; the
T1/2 torsionbars and housings are bilateral and would need custom
work to widen.

I think that not only would it open up a bit of extra usable interior
room (and allow comfortable seating 4-abreast in the back), but might
look kinda neat. A widened T2 or T3 might look better than a T1, as
widening the narrow point of the front-panel "owl-beak" might look
awkward. Any list-artists around who can widen a photographic image
by splicing in a 15-20cm strip in the middle?

Other cars have been widened. A Golf 1 GTi body was widened and
fitted to a Porsche 928 floorpan in Germany... looked REALLY good,
and was stiffer than a stock 928. And Mitsubishi Australia widened
the first-generation FWD Galant Sigma for the Australasian market,
and repeated the trick for the second-generation, resulting in the
idea being adopted by the head office and being sold around the world
today as the Diamante (among other badge-engineered names).
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin, New Zealand
64 (3) 473-8863
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Fossil preparator
Seashell, Macintosh & VW/Toyota van nut