72 Super Beetle, tire rubbing spring (Marmalade's crash damage)

[redeyedtreefr0g]

Starting a new thread so I'm not piggybacking on the other one.

I have a wrecked beetle with this issue [tire rubbing coil spring]. The car was being flat towed and went through a construction zone where the narrower tires were able to get snatched by a deep groove so hard it broke the (admittedly old) strap on the steering wheel, allowing the steer tires to turn all the way. The resulting fishtail wasn't recoverable, ended up facing backward and had flung the beetle hard against a guard rail.

Other than the obvious crunched fenders, the left front tire was against the spring.

Obvious damage wasn't visible at first... Then I think I saw that the strut might be bent inside the strut housing. At least it did not appear that they were perfectly straight to each other.
Also underneath, the control arms didn't look damaged, but the anchoring bracket they attach to which is welded to the frame had kinked. The control arm looks like it transferred all the energy to the bracket. The front of the bracket has just a minor-looking kink, but the rear of the bracket was much more severely bent so that the rolled edge broke and it tore a crack in the bracket t least half an inch up. It appears like the control arm may have been pushed backwards more than in, which fits with the description of the crash where the lead vehicle slid sideways into the guard rail, but the towed beetle was more "slapped" against it, face first and then swinging to hit broadside.

We put a new strut in and reassembled enough to see if any difference has been made. Not really. That's when I compared the lower strut housing itself. If you squinted, it kind of looked like maybe the triangular surface where it bolted through the spindle to the ball joint might not be the right angle compared to a donor car part. Hard to tell if the spindle was the culprit, but that strut housing definitely seemed thin enough to crush and it not be obviously visible since it was a tube.

So I took it back apart, we put the donor strut housing and spindle on, reassembled.
Success! Sort of.
The tire is no longer touching the spring (which I put on the second time upside down). The camber bolt was originally found to the center of the car. We reinstalled with it to the outside. I have since put it back to the inside which I think gave a tiny bit more clearance also, like 1/16". It's very hard to measure with a conventional measuring tape.

The passenger side still has a lot more clearance to the spring.
I don't really see any other damage... Is there other stuff to check or adjust on the cheap?
How close is too close for the tire to be- is it possible we've fixed it "enough"?
_________________
(Most recent photos can be seen through the Facebook link, I don't always upload to these forums, sorry.)[/code]
_________________
"Marmalade" a 1972 Super Beetle, autostick

[redeyedtreefr0g]

fixed??

Folks on Facebook seem to think this should be good, what say you?
_________________
"Marmalade" a 1972 Super Beetle, autostick

[raydog]

I don't see where you repaired, welded the lower control mount. Do this first if you haven't already. Get your control arm where it should be then worry about the strut, followed up with an alignment. Comparing to the passenger side isn't the way to go.
_________________
Come on, It's not rocket science. KISS

[toddgsanford]

On the lower control arm there is a concentric bolt washer you may be able to even the gap by rotating the position. OR you have a damaged lower arm lower arm bushing. From what I can see might be that simple. Or possibly wrong off set wheel on that side. The damage in saw on the lower control arm. Did not apear significant. The adjustment appears full to the inside putting Your control arm further away from center. Replacing the control arm bushings at this time is not a bad idea. Top line parts has excellent kits for this.

[redeyedtreefr0g]

Correct, raydog. The best I've managed is it lever the kinks more straight with the trusty Knipex pliers. I'm unsure how else to return the track control arm mount wings to an approximation of the original position, there is the rolled edge to work around and the camber bolt square lockplates.

The eccentric bolt was on the inside, I reset it there. My limited grasp of the suspension physics says pulling the control arm in should lever the top of the wheel (where it is close to the spring) outward because of the ball joint pivot point.
_________________
"Marmalade" a 1972 Super Beetle, autostick