Well I couldn't drive it like this, so I bought myself an early Christmas present, which arriced on the 27th of December, Transporterhaus Adjustable spring plates. No second hand stuff this time tho, straight to the source!
The come in a black zinc finish, but I wanted a little extra protection, so I primed and sprayed them black. (not Hammerite by the way, I've used it once on something else, and its rubbish, never again!)
So, just fit them now then..
You need to support the axle and hub when you take it apart, and remove that poxi hardline, more brake fluid wasted!!!
On the Nearside, i ran the handbrake cable thru the hole in the springplate, thinking you had to cos it was lower, but the cable conduit ended up with a bad kink in it, so on the O/S I ran the cable under the trailing arm as per stock, and this seemed alot better, so no i have to take the nearside apart again to re run the cable, if it ever stops raining!
I put the plates on as close to stock height as I could as they come with a 1 inch drop built in, and I only need 2 or so inches, as the ass on my bay is a tad saggy, but I still had to cut the bump stops down. At the moment I've just cut off the first 'lump, but that only gives me 10 mm of free travel, so I think i'll be loosing another lump, leaving me with 1/3rd of the bumpstop. I also noticed how close the adjuster block is to the inside tyre wall, which may cause me trouble when i go to my alloys and bigger tyres. I hope to run a 205 70 15 or similar on the back, and 165 70 15 on the front.
I've got a set of 17 fuch copies that we had on our A4, and they look cool on the back
(this pic was before i lowered it) but i dont like 17's on the front of a bus, so i would have to buy a couple of 15's. I do however have a set of Gas Burner reps that I bought for my Crew Cab (one of those other projects that I've since sold) so for now i think these will be going on.
There's a bunch of other stuff i want to do, I've fitted one of the 'early bay' rev counters, http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=55602" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; very nice it is to, and i have a Berg shifter to go in and a rather nice woodrim wheel,
which is another story, but I really need to sort out the sunroof next as i cant leave the bus uncovered in the rain cos it pees in all over the floor as there are no drain tubes at all, or any provision for fitting! So the hole in the roof is going to be my next big headache
I've located a fair amount of all the little pieces i need to get it working, but i still need a few more, then once its functional I'm going to get the roof blasted and painted. i'd like to paint it body colour, but the bus has had a cheap U.S respray at some point, so is no longer the lovely Chianti red that VW gave it, but more of a tomato sauce red, so i may be going off white with the roof, until i can get the hole thing painted, then i'll have the roof repainted to match...one day!