58367 The $75 Junkyard Carrera coupe restoration

[911quest]

I can still buy in Kentucky if you need some cans let me know.

[bbspdstr]

Thank you.....I will dig into whether old stock may be available from a distributor in PA or NJ and maybe what was changed. All I know from salesmen who call on my shop representing various vendors is that all of the products similar to the 3M can I showed has been changed in potency due to new VOC regs.
We now use an certain "enamel reducer" instead of lacquer thinner for paint cleanup, as it's more aggressive and still sold in PA and DE.

Thanks again,
-Bruce

[JTR70]

I hear you Bruce, such a PIA to not be able to purchase the chemicals and cleaners you come to rely upon. Victor Miles was in awe and very envious that I could still run down to my local Lowe's Hardware and buy all the Lacquer thinner I needed. Its getting harder all the time to restore a car in California.

1/4/16
Begin assembling and setting up the front suspension.

Skipping around a bit but am doing the things that I can do between color sanding duty. I'm getting into the technical aspects now so if you more seasoned guys see something I don't I'd appreciate the advice.
Indexing the torsion bars.

I opened up the adjusters (several years ago)to allow for maximum rotation against the threaded bungs.(to lower the ride height) Since I only recently installed the bars I never checked to see if they rotated equally at their new maxed position.

I made a quick angular position tool as described in both the factory and Elfrink manual.

With both units set at their maxed out rotational positions I set my gauge to the lower bars pitch first.

As I moved it to the top it was confirmed, the upper bar doesn't rotate as far as the bottom. As there is no more modification I can do to the adjuster this shallower upper bar is the baseline. The bars should be angle indexed equally. (right?)

The tool was adjusted to the upper angle (the base line)and the lower bar was relaxed down to the matching profile here. The final ride height has yet to be determined but I wanted to start it at my lowest available adjustment then work my way up as needed. The factory calls for 40 degrees mine are sitting at an additional roughly 21+or- degrees more. Quite a bit more lead over stock once that's transferred through the length of the arms I would think. Control arms going on next.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

1/17/16
Installing new control arms.

With the danger of paint overspray behind me I could now finally install my new custom set of race arms I had a buddy of mine build me several years back. Packing the bearings for installment.

All the Porsche mechanics seem to praise Swepco products so I bought a few sleeves of grease for the job.

right side in first

reused the original seals as they were still in nice overall condition.

Took a while to refill the cavity between the inner bushing and the outer bearing with grease but about half a canister for each arm later the grease was finally squeezing out around the outer seal as the Elfrink manual described it should when full.

ready to repeat on the left side.

After that would be measuring the arm offset to shim the spindles.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

Begin shimming process for the spindles.

Asked Bill to borrow a digital micrometer so I could get the offset distance between the upper and lower control arm mounting surfaces.
Right side read 8.54mm(+or-) which was on the high side of the scale.
The left side came in closer at 5.38mm of offset.

Here is the table in the Elfrink manual with the offset distance on the left hand side with the corresponding shim arrangement to the right. As you can see the right side was high.

According to the manual you're to use 10 shims on each link pin but no more or less than that. A&C shims are your critical ones and the remaining shims B&D maintain the proper link pin depth. At first I didn't understand why 10 shims was a must especially on the B&D side but as I played with it, it became clear that without an overall index spacer equaling the 10 shims the link pin groove would no longer line up with the clamp bolt on the end of each arm. Over 10 and the pin would become short. under 10 and the groove in the pin would over shoot the clamp bolt or there would be space and slop that you could not tighten out. All meaning you'd never get it bolted and/or snugged up correctly. At least this is the way I understand it.

Ready to begin mocking up my new spindles. This of course isn't exactly stock suspension but I could think of no better jumping off point than setting it up that way.

Right side spindle shimmed according to the 8.5MM's of offset found with 7 shims at "A" with the remaining 3 on the backside at "B". Then down low with 4 shims at "c" with the remaining 6 on the backside at "D".

Mounted and very promising at first but a couple of problems cropped up with the link pins. Will post that next.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[Impi]

Hi Justin
I have found when using adjusters in beetle front beams there is perceptible left right movement of the center adjuster block unless it is tightened first. There is about 0.5mm play in the groove in the torsion tube allowing the torsion bar set to move side to side. Ideally you would set ride height lock the center in place and then do your shimming. I have been caught out with this once as the suspension started binding when I raised it up for a tour and did not see that the slot was not perfectly 90 degrees to the beam and allowed the center to move to one side while adjusting.
Regards
Armand

[Don C]

Justin,
Your new spindles look lower, correct? By how much? Also what degree of camber are you shooting for?
Thanks,
DC

[bbspdstr]

First, thanks to all who offered the 3M adhesive solvent. I was able to score 10 quart cans in a neighboring state before even that state's sales entities had to send that chemistry back. I got them last week, picked up and not shipped...as shipping into PA could have put that outlet in jeopardy.

Justin, as for front end items, I'll ask what speedo drive will be used with the aftermarket arms, as I got the EMPI HD units for my car and the left is not drilled for a cable.

The IH tie rod ends and shafts are almost TOO HD, but I bought them for a customer who changed his mind and I just kept them for my own use. I learned that reinforced arms are a sure addition to torsion bar tube bending if involved in a hit. They were designed to be sacrificial in both early VW and Porsches. Heavy duty enough for rough roads, but early on, cheap and easy enough to replace rather than do unibody straightening.

Sure, we reinforced those for racing because they flex, but add un-sprung weight in the process. The VW bolt-on t-tube assembly is far better than the 356 set-up for getting bent things replaced. I just had to do bent/kinked tube grafts on two 356s. Donor sections of any value are getting scarce and the labor (time) gets expensive.

As for grease, any brand- cheap or expensive- seems to work fine, but if you think the tubes are full now, drive it a while and add more. You will likely use another tube. It's advisable to heavily coat the bars as they are installed.....something un-painter-like but best for the longevity of all the parts involved and to avoid sticking. As Armand alludes to, it can feel like a frozen shock.

Great posts, Justin. Thanks for the inspiration to get my own A Coupe back on the road.

-Bruce

[bbspdstr]

Don, those spindles don't look 'dropped' but Justin can clarify.

To lower the front end of a 356 for racing, A model and on, the slots were ground on the tubes and the external access to take them all the way down, well past the 'stock' limits. That was old SCCA and later Vintage rules until the SCCA permitted coil-overs, I think in '76. Vintage hadn't, as of my end in racing, '99.

I do not remember if Justin did that while the tubes were clean and bare. Justin?

The 'slammers' can get VW dropped spindles, much easier....but the grinding can always be ignored if a raised 356 is later desired. I raced against pre-A Speedsters that had the aftermarket VW front center adjusters installed and with other complimenting suspension components that just bolted on, those could handle as well as an A. With motors and transmissions being open (except for engine displacement), a couple of the eastern drivers, like Herb Wetanson, could really get around a course.

-Bruce

[JTR70]

Thank you for all the great tips you guys! I should have asked for some advice before attempting this on my own the first time out.

Taking your advice first Armand I cycled the suspension through its full range..



And found no signs of any binding. Thanks for the tip!

Hi Don, They are sort of lower. When he builds these for off-road race car applications they set the shank toward the bottom of the sleeve/body for just a touch more clearance. I asked him to do the reverse and set the shank as high as he could so I could get just a touch more lower. As for camber the shims do not really offer any significant adjustment in that respect maybe a fraction of a degree? Once the pins and bushings are synched up tight and flush the machined clearance doesn't allow for much change in the angle of the axle. If you tried it would just bind up once you begin tightening it all down. I had these spindles made with 2 degrees of negative camber so it would handle a little better. It of course will be harder on tires but for the amount of miles it will realistically see it shouldn't be a problem.

Bruce, Thank you too! I did not lube up the torsion bar or the inside of the arm. I pulled it all back apart this afternoon to do it.

BTW: do you recommend red loctight on the grub bolts or is the jamb nut sufficient enough?
I did open up the adjusters like you SCCA guys did back in the day. I want a lowered stance with attitude but I don't want it too low so drop spindles weren't on my list. I did completely flush the torsion housing clean of all the old grease; that took some doing!
No, one of the sacrifices with these combo spindles is the loss of the speedo-drive. That Big king-pin runs straight through and is lined with roller bearings so drilling a for the cable isn't an option. I'll use a GPS to find out how fast the car is going.
Yes, these parts are completely HD and overkill for my application...but they look trick don't they?? These parts are designed for class 1600 off-road race cars and would stand up to running 70MPH across the desert while falling into 3 foot holes as it went so yes, the beam and/or front of this car would give up long before these suspension components will. I remember you giving the same warning on the Registry as the subject of gusseting the old cast iron arms came up. I definitely took that warning to heart which is why the tie-rods will be made from T56 alloy tube or bar stock to become the sacrificial weak link in the chain if trouble should ever arise.
As for additional unsprung weight there is a bit of reciprocation. The arms are lighter than the stock arms but the spindle is of course a touch heavier. I might of added several ounces but nothing a poser like me will ever be able to detect going down the road. Thanks too for the tip about grease.
Thanks again for the help you guys!!
Justin

[JTR70]

1/19/16
Initial link pin issues

The link pin set I purchased (example on the far right) turned out be just cheap Chinese crap. I always suspected it based on their presentation but once I got to mocking up the spindle I noticed the shafts gauging and scoring very easily. They were obviously not case harden. These might hold up for a while against a bronze bushing but as you can see on the left side example I'm running roller bearings instead. These are an original set of 550 Spyder bearings I bought from Ole' Porsche-Bill Brown a few years back; Can't help it, I just love race parts old or new. Anyway with these hardened bearings with the weight of the car would have made short work of those mild steel pins so I ordered a cryo-harden set the following day.(the middle one) The quality and hardness of this set was unmistakable.

Once I got back to fitting the spindles the next problem was clamp bolt fitment. The thickness of the stock set up of 10 shims, bearings and thrust washers wouldn't allow the clearance recess in the pin to go in far enough to allow the clamp bolt to pass through.

Pin recess above for clamp bolt. The only solution was to begin removing shims until it cleared. Because this is not set up like a stock unit where the clamp bolt is used to both draw the pin in tight and clamp it I'm not forced to stick with a count of 10 for bolt and groove alignment needs. With these the large nut on the back draws the pins snug and the clamp bolt just has to be able to pass through and well, clamp.

It took a few tries but eventually the magic number of 5 shims max was determined for minimal clearance.

With that limitation my shim count deviated quite a bit from the stock baseline. My "A&C" shim count for the right side went from 7&4 to a 5&2 with the left going from 4&7 to a 2&5. I was bringing both the top and bottom in equally by removing the same amount of shims so the relationship is the same but just a touch closer so I could get those clamp bolts through.

I was able to confirm this after purchasing this digital protractor to check the camber. The reading stayed within 2-3 tenths of a degree between shim changes. It finally settled out at 2.3 degrees of negative camber here. more later...
Thanks for stopping by!
Justin

[roy mawbey]

Well documented Justin. Nice photos. I changed one of my link pin assemblies quite a few years ago. At that time over here, I had to use the steel on steel VW versions. The original bronze bushings were not available then. I know now they are now possible to get but to date the VW ones seem to have worked well. Maybe they were made under VW standards I hope so. I can see the scoring on the Chinese ones you tried.

Your wheel well and suspension looks like new!

Roy

[JTR70]

Thank you Roy! Before I really dove into it with the manuals and everything the set up with the shimming seemed almost mystical and very intimidating but its really pretty straight forward with very little room for any adjustment or deviation after the fact. Yes, I remember in the 80's buying the VW link pin sets with the steel bushings. Aside from them not being brass the kit was exactly the same for 356 but a good 100 bucks cheaper. Thanks again! Justin

1/21/16

According to the Elfrink manual the castor is 5 degrees in the neutral position. My spindle angle is showing 5.3 so within spec.

Began prepping the backing plate bolts with a oil an heat seasoning like I had suggested Phil do with his backing plate hardware.

After a couple of passes they have a nice black rust resistant surface that won't chip.

With my hardware ready I could now install the backing plates. I think for good, but I won't safety wire the bolts just yet until I'm more sure.

Arms and spindles are definitely overkill but for me they complete the package for the racing brakes.

Long way from mounting the drums on yet but wanted to see them on.

Fun while it lasted. Onto building the tie-rods, swaybar and buying the shocks.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[Bill Sampson]

Just like I season our Lodge cookware - well, maybe without the torch. The good news is that your fried eggs will not stick to those bolts.

[Phil Planck]

Justin
Great pics and description. On your blackening, do you just soak the bolts in oil and heat? vegetable oil?
Phil