I hear this all the time, and what makes you think that you can get away with saying that Cabriolet bodies are not as strong as tintop, non sunroof mk1 golfs or rabbits? Have you ever taken either apart? Have you ever cut a roof off a rabbit and realized its a 2 man job to move the roof around cuz its so incredibly flimsy? This is not a 60s or 70s American convertible twisting on top of the same frame as its hardtop counterpart, this is Karmann learning their lessons from the Beetle and building a purpose-built convertible. How be you sit back and get educated;
Firstly, the cabby has a thicker guage second skin that stretches from behind the headlight, all the way to just ahead of the tailight, passing all suspension top hardpoints.
Firstly, the cabby has a thicker guage second skin that stretches from behind the headlight, all the way to just ahead of the tailight, passing all suspension top hardpoints.
Its twice the thickness of any of the rest of the unibody sheet metal, doubles the inner fender panel across the shock tower, gussets the A pillar from just below the windshield down to the inner rocker which is the most evident difference from a rabbit as you can see the reinforcing rocker extend below the car. Its basically square structural tube, the outer rocker is just for show now, to hold on the clipper kit, that's it. Then there's a gusset at the B pillar that hoops across the headroom under the roof; this is what makes the cabby more rigid, the tintops have no link across the B pillar at all, other than a pair of stamped cross members glued to the roof sheet metal, just to keep the roof sheet from flapping. How many GTI have you scrapped and noticed a little kink in the inner rocker panel (that usually rots out from all the paint flexing off too) just ahead of the B pillar. Imagine the sides of the rabbit or golf twisting in relation to each other, as they are only held together by a cross member above the rear hatch and across the top of the windshield. The door latch is doing work it shouldn't be. If you tell me that the gasketted windshield is aiding structure, then you really don't know these cars at all. VW even added metal grip tabs under the rubber, to mk1s in 1984, cuz the windshield tended to pop out in a roll over.
Lets move back to the rear shock towers where there's a heavy guage second skin from the floor up to the shock top mount, (you know, the area that separates due to rust from the fender on regular rabbits and jettas) oh and that giant trangular cross bulkhead between the towers, try cutting one of those with a sawzall...its a blade snapper. Um yeah, the rabbit doesn't have that...it relies on the floor and spare tire well to fight the rear suspension twist. Rear stress bar? Cabbys don't need it.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that behind the back seat door panels is an even thicker piece of steel that mounts the rear window winder gear, but also triangulates the B pillar, cross bulkhead and roof mount.
How about the Jack test? Put a jack under the rocker, mid point of the door of your rabbit and Jack it up! What happens? Hmmm, yeah, ouch.... Jack up the cabby same spot....wow, different result. Which rocker is twisting under load? How many cabbies have you seen with frame failures due to gravity? Doors unable to close, even due to excessive rust? C'mon, tell me its a number other than zero.
front inner fender thru shock tower (Yellow is extra cabby gusset, not present on reg rabbits or jettas)
front inner fender btwn shock tower and firewall (Yellow is extra cabby gusset)
rocker cut just ahead of B pillar (Yellow is extra cabby gusset) Red dotted line is regular rabbit/jetta section
A pillar cut just below top hinge (yellow is extra cabby gusset)
B pillar cut just below striker (Yellow is extra cabby gusset)
"Oh but the Cabby has no hoops around the doors, quarter windows or rear hatch" Yeah ok, the rear hatch is behind the rear suspension mounts, so it does nothing to overall rear rigidity other than hold the bumper up, with twisting action occurring ahead of it in the susp area. In addition to the looped B pillar, the cabby has a hoop across the rear shock towers where the roof attaches too, and um yeah its pretty robust to hold the 6 M10 bolts for the roof attachment. The hoops around the doors do nothing to the lateral rigidity of the car, same goes for the lack of, on the cabriolet.
Lets move back to the rear shock towers where there's a heavy guage second skin from the floor up to the shock top mount, (you know, the area that separates due to rust from the fender on regular rabbits and jettas) oh and that giant trangular cross bulkhead between the towers, try cutting one of those with a sawzall...its a blade snapper. Um yeah, the rabbit doesn't have that...it relies on the floor and spare tire well to fight the rear suspension twist. Rear stress bar? Cabbys don't need it.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that behind the back seat door panels is an even thicker piece of steel that mounts the rear window winder gear, but also triangulates the B pillar, cross bulkhead and roof mount.
How about the Jack test? Put a jack under the rocker, mid point of the door of your rabbit and Jack it up! What happens? Hmmm, yeah, ouch.... Jack up the cabby same spot....wow, different result. Which rocker is twisting under load? How many cabbies have you seen with frame failures due to gravity? Doors unable to close, even due to excessive rust? C'mon, tell me its a number other than zero.
This is a purpose built convertible, and shares very little inner body panels in common with the tintop brethren. In a perfect world, with Project Rabby, I was thinking about melding the inner structure to a rabbit outer skin to make a wicked track car, but garage space came premium when the old bug came home.
Still not convinced? Then drive one HARD, corner it as hard as you can. Feel that? The outside tires are digging in harder. That's good structure that your tiptop doesn't have without significant upgrading with stress bars, roll bars and inner rocker reinforcement. No? Not convinced? Then prove me wrong with facts, not conjecture based on an assumption that Cabbys are for women and therefore not masculine enough to be structurally superior...
Still not convinced? Then drive one HARD, corner it as hard as you can. Feel that? The outside tires are digging in harder. That's good structure that your tiptop doesn't have without significant upgrading with stress bars, roll bars and inner rocker reinforcement. No? Not convinced? Then prove me wrong with facts, not conjecture based on an assumption that Cabbys are for women and therefore not masculine enough to be structurally superior...
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