C Boyko wrote:
Hey, congrats! So....did you drive it yet???? And......????? Nosey little bugger ain't I? Come on, we expect to hear tales of thrashing now, don't let us down.....it's still winter, I need some virtual car fun...mine are still parked. (and my next suspension will be the bug, ugh...) CathyIt is with great honor and gratitude that I accept this finished suspension changeover.
Okay, well I took the car "straight to the alignment shop" like a good boy, 3 mi thru town on 25mph streets. Dropped off the car with a Prothane Rear Axle Mount Bushing set to be installed (heard getting the old OEM rubber bushing out was a PITA) prior to rear alignment. Shop called half hour later, told me that the mounting hardware for the rear bushing was rusted and seized together, unsuitable for disassembly. OK, skip the rear bushings for now. When I arrived later in the day to pick up the car, they were not quite finished with the front, and the shop owner explained that I had a sloppy control arm bushing which was throwing a variable into the alignment. Crap, now I need more bushings yet, and the old ones were Autotech poly only a few years old. Anyway, shop said they'd fine tune the front for free once the new bushing is in.
I saw the rusty rear bushing hardware, but the car was on the ground, so I didn't have very good view. I'll get the car up tomorrow in the garage and have a look. Are those OEM rear axle mount bushings really that bad to get out and replace? I could save a bundle by doing it myself , I was just ready to be done working on the car for awhile. Is stainless metric hardware suitable for those pivot points (True Value has a nice selection), or is 8.8 steel required?
Ran a couple errands in town today, so no cruises yet... didn't even get to go on the freeway! But I can say the the new Bilstein Sport/H&RSport Springs setup rides very much like the prior Boge Sport/Eibach over city streets. It was, and still is, quite a firm ride. Not teeth shattering, as I had heard the Bilstein Sports were quite the jolt. The car is maybe 3/4" higher than the very low setup before, which is fine... I won't worry so much about my 16's hitting the fender flares on bumps now that I have 5mm wheel spacer in the rear on either side. So far so good! and Damn those H&R springs are *purty*! Deep blue with metal flakes, they really soak up the light and look black until you examine them in closeup.
Man, to see the rusty old springs & strut housings is a nightmare! All the parts worked okay - in fact, they were performance components installed by PO - but the vehicle was originally an east-coast car, and rust issues always come up. Man are they ugly! I'd like to particle blast (as per a previous post of mine) and repaint, but the front strut housings may be unrecoverable. Brought them down to the local German repairshop to have them disassembled. Got the upper bearings and springs off where I couldn't at home, but they couldn't get the shock insert retainers unscrewed, they were rusted up so bad.. What a waste.
- Camron from Vancouver, WA USA '86.5 Black 16V 2.0L _______________________________________________ Scirocco-l mailing list Scirocco-l@scirocco.org http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l