2000+ km's on the Hagerty Spring Thaw highlighted some issues with my new front-end setup on the 1958 Beetle. Once you load the car with luggage, spares, co-driver and enthusiastic driving...the front tire clearance goes from tonnes to zero. Whelp, that was an expensive one-weekend tire! Came home, and tore the whole front suspension out of the car:
I will be installing a new 2" narrowed front beam, which will essentially put the front track width back to the factory width. The disc brake and spindle combination bumped each front wheel out by about 3/4", and the modern tires are wider/more square so the problem was compounded. Normally one would order spring packs already 2" narrower, but they were out of stock so I have to make my own out of a set of stock torsion springs. Dimpling spring steel is not easy!
I'll cut the spring packs down in length tonight, and the parts I found missing in my front end (upper mount rubbers, bolts and mounting plates) will be here tomorrow for the reinstall.
In the meantime, I started to make some swarf on the lathe...
And roughed out half of the Porsche 356 wheel spacers I need for the rear axle of the beetle. The factory units were threaded onto the studs, which was presumably so they didn't lose them in a racing pit-stop...but is otherwise a terrible idea on many accounts. So mine aren't threaded, and will simply slide over the new studs I picked up.
Once I've got the other five roughed in, they'll all go onto the mill for a couple of passes to ensure they are the exact same thickness (20mm). I may take the time to polish them, but haven't worked out how much material I'll lose in the process. I have all the gear to anodize them at home, except for the acid, but it's such a caustic process I'm not sure I have the motivation to do it :P
Sort of lost track of time in the shop yesterday. Went in for an hour after work, walked out at 1:45am wondering why I was hungry.