Having scraped through the MOT I treated myself to some decoration

Yesterday I spent 4 hours adding 4 degrees of pre-load to the LHS rear torsion bar.

Today I spent 3 hours finding out that the RHS was already at the same pre-load angle as I had chosen for the LHS!  - Why there was such a difference I have no idea.

At least if I don't like it I can probably change it in about an hour as most of the time was spent undoing/shearing /cutting the bolts! Now it has nice fresh ones in should be a lot easier.

The trolley jack and chain method of moving the spring plates on and off is pretty scary - especially if you don't have one of those 5T big stable floor jacks. I didn't fancy forking out £50 for the special tool so I made my own.
6mm bar bent in a vice, 12mm hole for the 12mm threaded rod, 10mm hole to bolt to the spring plate. Cost <£5



Put the bent threaded bar end through the shock mounting hole, bolt the flat end of the plate to the spring plate and use the nut to adjust tension. If you have a 19mm ratchet spanner it's even easier. 

Flipin' 30 seconds edit time is crazy!
Anyway it's a 12.5mm hole for the threaded bar otherwise it wont work!

[288 x 25mm disc.]

So for my IRS conversion I have the back end of a 944 S2 - which uses the same rear brake set up as the 944 Turbo ie 299x24mm discs/rotors and 4 pot calipers - that I don't have, and are around £2-300 used.



So I'll need calipers, but... I don't need the stopping power (or the price) of the Porsche 4 pots on a 700kg sandrail, and I want something that is relatively modern and not expensive.

After many hours of hunting and research I have a cunning plan...

As far as I can see the Golf Mk4 front caliper has the same 94mm bolt spacing as the Porsche calipers (only found info from the people that make adapters for Porsche brakes on to Golfs) and these comes in 2 flavours:-

a) 1.9TDi etc this is for a 280mm x 22mm disc

b) 130/150BHP version. for a 288 x 25mm disc. - Bingo!

So I may be be able to fit the 130/150 version straight on. If there is not enough disc clearance I believe I can fit the the smaller and narrower 944 n/a disc (289x20x100) - though  I will need to shim the pistons as it is 20mm vs 25mm on the Golf.  Biggest question is the mount-face to disk measurement that needs to be about 20mm for a straight bolt on.

If the above does not work then I will use a solid disc, lose the drum type handbrake and use a rear caliper that has a built in handbrake.

But now I have a potential solution to the wheels and the brakes I can move on with it...

I didn't fancy forking out £50 for the special tool so I made my own.

Wow... just read this.... 50 quid... what a rip off. I know things go up over time but I paid less than half of this .

283/288mm discs are used on a fair few varietys of citroen and peugeot's too with differing offsets so there should be plenty of choice to get you close.

Last of the sun ! Quick trip out for ice cream..

... and so it begins... Operation "Porsche A-ss" ('cos it's an s2 )

Before


Unfortunately a loan jig I have didn't fit my Porsche brackets/Torsion tube (tube is 90mm dia vs 71mm dia Beetle) so I made my own, didn't have any 12mm ID tube so drilled out a couple of nuts and welded a strip between them, then built the frame - a mate lent me some torsion bar end covers.



The TCT saw made short work of turning the Porsche torsion tube into a couple of bits. The trick now will be to mod the 84mm Id Porsche tube/brackets so fit snugly onto the 71mm OD beetle tube 



For brakes I am still unsure but at the moment leaning towards the Golf Mk 4 calipers as I think they will fit. Either that or it is fit solid 911 discs that are much lower top-hat wise, then use an MX5 rear caliper as there will then be space and it has the handbrake built in - that would also be significantly lighter. Golf calipers are cheap as chips (relative to 911 discs!) so trying them first.

Operation Porsche A-ss is delayed dues to good weather!

However thanks to a heads up from the other Fugitive-ish sandrail on the Island (who is off on a little trip to the Sahara http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/Sandrail23)  I checked my new mudguard frames for stress/fatigue - he was right too 

Offending mudguard frame, caught just in time



now with 6mm bar for a little support (along with some seriously thick and SHINY Toolstation primer and paint!)

  Great progress

YAY!  Brakes seem to fit perfectly.

Took ages to get them off ebay as only some of the MK4 GTI's had the 288mm disks (in this case a 1.8 Turbo) and a lot of the ads did not have the info. Anyway a good cheap solution, did a quick bolt up that only required a tiny bit of alloy removal. They are about to meet the electrolysis bath for a spruce up.

So I had to paint them after the e-bath



Still not taking the rear end apart as apart from this w/e weather has been ok. So collecting bits!

Had the wheel drilling template made up by http://lasermaster.co.uk/ - in 2 mm steel with 2mm holes. What a fantastic service ! £7 inc VAT,material and postage. 2 day turnaround. Just send them the dxf/pdf or standard stuff is on their website for direct order.

Right so I gave up waiting for the rain, time to strip! 
Having previously taken a jig off the Porsche torsion bar this so far is 3 evenings work:

Seats, wheels, electrics etc. out


Then I built this handy engine dolly



Jack sits in the middle and lowers the engine right onto it - really stable and compact. £11 for the 4 castors at SFix, 160kg rating



Engine out



Having found out that the IRS brackets, bushings and bolts were going to be around £120  I decided I would stick with the original plan of using the Porsche ones. Biggest complication is that the Porsche tube is around 85mm ID and the beetle is 70mm OD. I cut the Porsche tube as the one on the left and used cut sections of the Porsche tube bent to fit inside to provide a fit to the beetle tube.



Then I made a template and cut a big hole in the horn



Hoping to get a few hours on it this weekend.