Prepping the New Beetle for the tough stuff

I have been asked several times about the preparation the bug underwent in order to complete the Alaska trip without mechanical failures or flat tires. Well, here it is:

It all started about 3 years ago when we bought the car. It was in really bad shape and needed a TON of help. I called BoraParts and ordered all the major service items:

Then installed them all. The car was much happier after the work was done, and I could trust it to get my wife safely to work every day. 

She told me she wanted it to be "beefier" and be able to withstand some of the road debris that had damaged her previous New Beetle, so I lifted it a little - 2":

 And then installed Bilstein HD's and VR6 288mm brakes. This significantly improved the driving experience!

 The car still wasn't ready to be called "beefy" though, so I installed the most important part - the skid-plate from Evolution Imports:

The car served us very well for the last 3 years in this configuration, and took us places like Death Valley, Pikes Peak, and Canyonlands in Moab Utah:

We had decided to go to Alaska and the New Beetle was the obvious choice for the trip. It was due for a few things like coolant hoses and filters, but what it really needed was tires. The General Grabber tires we had on it before were great, but I heard Alaska was a muddy place. I wanted to find something more aggressive, and was shocked to find that BF Goodrich made their Mud Terrain T/A KM2 tires in 215/75r15 - just one inch taller than what we had run previously. (Three inches taller than stock). I knew it would be close, but for that tread, the risk of tons of clearance work ahead made them worth it, so I bought a set:

 They turned out to be VERY close! I'm glad to say though that they work perfectly after very minor rubbing on the spring perch portion of the strut:

Clearance in the fenders was a major issue. I worked at it with a heat gun for quite a bit in order to get the liners away from the tires, but they finally took on a form that allowed the tires to fit properly:

And after much work - they fit!:

 It was all well worth the work, as we didn't suffer any tire damage over our 8,919 mile trip that included driving the full length of the Dalton Highway both ways: