Re: After 30 hours with my new Mk1. And a spring cutting question.

["Dan Bubb" <jdbubb@ix.netcom.com>]

Way back when I cut my springs to lower the car a little.
Just cutting like 1/2 coil off the front was enough to stiffen the spring enough to make the car 
understeer a noticeable amount more. Needed the next size larger rear sway bar to rebalance the car. 
And NO! cutting the rear spring some also will not make much difference since they are progressive 
and the part you would cut off has practically no effect on the rear spring rate.

Your car might look somewhat better if you cut the spring to lower it, but it probably won't handle 
as well.
A set of lowering springs are pretty damn cheap in the overall scheme of car modification and they 
retain your handling balance.
Dan

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Piwonka" <t.piwonka@ttu.edu>
To: <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 1:52 PM
Subject: Re: After 30 hours with my new Mk1. And a spring cutting question.


> a cutting wheel would probably be the easiest way to cut it, yes you can do it all without removing 
> the struts.
>
> -Robert
>
> GGehrke wrote:
> > Phew!  Just returned home from one ridiculous road trip.  Flew from
> > Baltimore to Las Vegas, bought a car, fixed it on the street in vegas,
> > and drove it home to Kentucky in 2-1/2 days.  It's an awesome car and
> > I had a great time.  Pictures of the car and the trip, a full account
> > of the trip, etc will be forthcoming but I'm pretty pooped right now. I think the trip was like 
> > 2500 miles.
> >
> > One problem the car has now though -- it rides higher than today's
> > SUVs.  I put some really nice 15" Borbet wheels on it and it just
> > looks ridiculous.  At some point I'm going to splurge and put on nice
> > coilovers, but not just yet, so I think I'm going to cut a little bit
> > off my springs, front especially (front has about 2" more wheel gap
> > than back for some reason)
> > Has anyone done this before?  Insight and Advice?
> > The shocks are working really well for the suspension (at least in
> > giving me a comfortable ride over the last 3 days -- though I haven't
> > yet put the car through rigorous paces to test its handling) which I
> > don't want to completely destroy, so how safe is the process with
> > regards to not destroying my shocks?  I think they've been replaced at
> > some point in the cars life with new boge shocks, stock specs.
> > I'm thinking it's going to be quite possible to cut the springs on the
> > car..  just jack it up, put on some spring compressors and snip a bit
> > off the top.  Am I retarded in thinking I can do it without even
> > removing the strut from the car?
> > What should I use to cut it?  I know a torch is a bad idea, but what? hacksaw?  sawzall?  cheese 
> > grater?  i dunno....
> >
> > Anyways, time for bed for me.  Looking to cut the springs tomorrow
> > though, so let me know if you anyone knows anything about that. Thanks.
> >
> > -Grant-



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