Home made adj struts

[PeterHolm]

My 72 vert becomes to look like a car again after a couple of years of restoration.
My first reflection was that is was very high in both ends.

I found the Maxx Struts but did soon realize that before I had these in Sweden they would have cost me about 700$...

I saw that some people had used the Honda CRX rear coils and spring cups, because these coils are narrower than the VW coils.

Hopefully this would let me use my 17" Porsche Cup II rims without widened fenders.

Ok, I had a pair of extra VW struts to practice on so the work could start!

The components in my struts would be VW Rabbit (called VW Golf in Sweden) shocks, springs and dishes from Honda CRX mounted on shortened VW struts. The idea was also to make them adjustable.
I don't have access to a milling or lathe machine. My tools would be restricted to a mig welder and a grinder.

Of course I did realize that the look of the struts would NOT be very high tech.

First a picture of the vert before lowering:

I bought a pair of used Honda CRX rear struts and had them shipped to me. The cost for struts and shipping was about 100$.

This picture shows the CRX struts compared to original Super struts:

Disassembling the CRX struts, this is NOT the recommended way

CRX struts taken apart:

Disassembling the VW struts...

Ok, the VW struts are ready for further work.

I cut the VW strut right above the plate because I wanted the Rabbit shock to stand in the bottom of the VW strut. If you cut the strut in half and weld it back you need to put a tube in the bottom of the strut. This because the Rabbit shock doesn't narrow in the bottom such as the Beetle shock.
Due to this I could cut the strut almost 4", othervise is it only possible to cut approx 2".

Ok, this is enough for today.
Please make comments if you think this topic is interesting or just a waste of your time

// Peter

[Superbug Scott]

I think this is very interesting and a lot of work.

Do you think I could pay for a trip to Sweden if I brought a few pairs of Maxx Struts with me?

[Kirk]

I find it interesting any time anyone takes the time to properly do custom work. Keep us posted.
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[Fattie]

...continue
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[PeterHolm]

This wasn't actually a LOT of work to do this. If you have (or have access to) better tools than me, e.g. a lathe machine and a miller you can easily do this over the weekend.
AND with a much better result...

Importing to Sweden has a problem. If you love to pay tax, Sweden is a paradise. You have to pay at least 25% tax when importing from a non EU-country and this add up the price. There are of course workarounds for this also

Ok, lets continue with the fabrication.

We need to grind the bottom cup that we cut from the VW strut to make room for the Rabbit shock because it's a little to thick. Took me about 10 minutes on each cup to do this and I used my Dremel-copy grinder for this.

Finished grinding the cup.

To reduce the grinding work on the bottom cup I removed the paint from the Rabbit shock, about 2" up from the bottom.

Now does the shock stand in the bottom of the cup and no extra spacers in the bottom are needed.

Testing the strut, the two lines are from my original plan to cut away a piece from the middle of the strut but then I choosed to cut in the bottom instead.

Then I removed the cups from the CRX struts. They can easily be knocked off, they are not welded.

Cutting off the center from the top VW spring plate.

CRX top spring plates cutted off.

And finally welded the VW spring plate center piece on the CRX spring plate. Here is also the spring rubber from the CRX attached and will of course be used.

First ruff assembling of the strut, just to get an idea of the result. Bottom spring plate isn't finished yet.

So far has every thing very smooth but then I wanted to have the strut adjustable and this became a problem. I wanted to have a threaded tube about 8" long with two nuts on each strut. One nut should be welded to the botom spring plate and the second nut should lock the plate when it's positioned.
First idea was to let the plumber thread a water pipe but he told me that he couldn't thread more than a couple of inches before the pipe would get twisted.

Second idea was to let a local machine shop make the tubes. They would charge me 60$/hour and needed maybe 3-4 hours to this and I thought this was too expensive.

I was thinking of this as an prototype and wanted to have the struts made as cheap as possible (and thats also what my wife sad ).

Then I found a shop in Sweden that fabricates struts and coil overs and they had threaded tubes (M60 threads) with two aluminium nuts/tube for sale, 128$ plus shipping.

I decided then to go real cheap. Went back to the plumber and bought one meter water pipe for 5 bucks and borrowed a friends upright drill to make four holes round the tube, with one inch between them.

Ok, it will not be high tech but I think it will work.

Inserted the strut inside the pipe and welded in both ends.

Made a ring out of flat bar and welded four nuts on the ring and then welded the ring to the bottom spring plate from the CRX.

Everything is finished for assembly. This is the parts I used to put everything together. I used the "rubber" stop from the CRX instead of the VW stop.

Starting to put the strut togehter.

Finished!

My home made strut compared with the original VW strut.

Struts installed on the car, looks good but the rear is to high.

Ooops, too low in rear
One inner spline is too much.

One spline in the outer end will be fine I think. Will do the final adjustment of hight when the Porsche rims can be mounted. Must drill Disc- and drums first.

In the beginning I had an idea that I could mount the spring plate/cup a little bit off center to get more clearance but wasn't sure if this would be ok. Any ideas about this?

I look forward to try the vert on the Swedish roads (when the winter has passed...) before I know how the struts works. I have never drowed this car before so I have nothing to compare with but I will be back with a resume later.

Feel free to add comments, good or bad ones is ok.

Regards
// Peter

[UncleBob]

For you lazy people.

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don't worry, the ciggaret is fake.

[Fattie]

you remind me of...me , ...awesome bro keep us updated on any annd all things done to your super..be sure 2 let us know how it rides once on the road
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[twinfactor]

what did your fabricated struts end up weighing compared to the original super struts?

awesome job, really interesting post!

[PeterHolm]

[fiskesjo]

Hello

Hope the pictures will start work so i can se and build my own struts.

[PeterHolm]

[Mauserdude67]

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=214899
explains it all
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1987 Mexican Beetle

[AcyTom]

Hi!

My plane is do the same thing as you did. Put the honda coil springs....
How is car handle with this new struts? Is worthed the money and lost time?
If you have some additional pictures please sent this pictures on web!

Regards!

Tomica

[PeterHolm]

[AcyTom]

Thanks for your answer!

Do you have maybe some numbers (maybe not now you are in Laos (Asia?)) like new strut length? You added new pipe (is this standard pipe?) When car is on new struts and springs how much compress the spring?

You are living in Tirana? My father was there in '80. You have nice beetle nice color. You can see some pictures of my bug in my galeria...
Welcome to Zagreb in autumn. My be you could come to our local Beetle club, at Friday we have meetings there you could see some beetles...

Until then best regards

Tomica

[Anthonyisawsome]

What year rabbit struts are those?

[Joel]

It's only the inserts and whatever year mk1 finished early 80s

[Anthonyisawsome]

[Joel]

That is mk2 and mk3 which are totally different, they are sealed units, you replace the whole strut not the insert.

Why dick around with used ones from a junk yard?
used ones if they aren't stuffed already may only last a day, a week, a month? is it worth the gamble for saving a few bucks?

New ones are only $110 a set

http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ACC-C10-4062

Not trying to be a dick but you can never be too cautious when it comes to safety items like suspension brakes and steering.

[Anthonyisawsome]