Front Suspension, Wheels, Chassis Finish, Gearbox

pholzer · Post by **pholzer** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 7:09 pm

I am current building a Chesil Speedster [chassis away for mods at Chesil]. I need to order some bits ready for the chassis build, and would appreciate some advise:

1. Looking at using 63mm lowered spindles, instead of an adjustable beam, on the basis that I will get better ride quality. Does the 63mm lower the chassis the correct amount? Are shorter dampers also required?

2. I'm intending to fit 5/205 15" x 5.5 356 replica wheels. Does anybody have any experience of the best offset required, given that I may fit the CB dropped spindles [see above], and CSP front disks?

3. Has anybody had any experience of powder coating the VW shortened chassis, or is spraying best?

4. Gearbox wise, I'm looking for ratios to give me rapid 'county lane' type acceleration, with a longer 4th gear. I've been looking at a 4.125 final drive with a 0.82 4th gear. What do you think? I'm looking at a 1800cc to 2000cc type 1 engine with 85-100 bhp, is it worth going with a 'pro-street' type gearbox, or is standard ok.

Any help/advise/experience is appreciated.

Cheers,

Phil

shambly · Post by **shambly** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 9:08 am

Phil,

1) Chesil always used standard beetle shocks with an adjustable beam. Its hard to say what the correct amount of lowering is as the pre-load is different with the change in weight compared with the beetle.

Beware of widening the track (as arch clearance is tight, esp. at the rear); I think some lowered spindles increase track by 10mm.

You'll need an adjustable beam to set the precise ride height at the end of the build.

2) I have first hand experience here. The mangel wide-5 wheels everyone sells have a smaller offset (~10mm) than the 4-130 mangel wheels that most people build kits with. This gives you less wheel arch clearance. e.g. 4-130 wheel ET25, 5-205 wheel ET15 (both 5.5 wide).

With CSP front discs, CSP rear conversion drums, an IRS chassis, mangel 15x5.5 ET15 wheels, bridgestone RE720 195/60R15 tyres, I did NOT have enough clearance at the rear (one side is always worse than the other) and had to change to 175/70 tyres to gain a few mm.

From CSP I managed to source 15x5.5 ET25 wheels (after a six month wait) and could go back to my sticky 195/60 bridgestones.

Recently I've gained more clearance at the rear wheel after fitting CSP rear discs which reduce the track by 10mm.

3) I had Chesil smoothrite mine and upon delivery there were already some scratches through to the metal. I decided to coat it in a thick layer of Rubbercoat and liquid rubber that set solid after a few days. This particular product is no longer on sale but there are others like it. Also do something with the subframe - My one regret is not ordering a galvanised subframe as it started rusting almost immediately (I understand Chesil have changed powercoating supplier now, but I'd still give the subframe some additional attention prior to attaching it to the chassis).

4) It depends whether you mind a large gap from 3rd to 4th. There are plenty of gear ratio tools on the WWW that would help you decide the optimum for your driving style and engine.

A standard gearbox should be fine with <100 bhp if you don't abuse it with standing starts.

Simon
www.chesiloutlaw.com

pholzer · Post by **pholzer** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 9:12 am

Thanks for the help Simon.

Post by **Bootsy** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 9:34 am

Good luck with the build Pholzer - keep up up to date with progress.

Bruce M · Post by **Bruce M** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 1:45 pm

Smoothrite chips real easy, avoid it where there is impact from stones etc.

POR15 is good on previously rusty areas but because it's really thin it doesn't cover well on new steel.

Jenolite Repaint (I think thats the name) is better for exposed new steel areas.

Cheers,

Bruce

Old-Bugga · Post by **Old-Bugga** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 4:08 pm

I'll add another voice to the ANTI-SMOOTHRITE campaign. From my days of restoring Beetles I know that I wasted many hours carefully painting all my chassis bits with Hammerite or Smoothrite, only for it to speckle with rust incredibly quickly. Additionaly, it looses it's shine very quickly and is very prone to scratching/chipping/flaking. MORE IMPORTANTLY-Hammerite Thinners are the work of Satan himself! Ask anyone whos spilt or used some to remove spots of paint on your skin and they will tell you......it BURNS/STINGS really badly.

http://www.frost.co.uk/productList.asp?catID=38

The recommendation would be to brush seam sealer into any joints using a brush/finger dipped in thinners to finish, then spray on Stone-Chip (you know dimples imapct protection finish), then a top coat of Chassis Black paint, or brush on rubber underseal. Most Paint Supply stores should have all this available.

Mr. Whippy · Post by **Mr. Whippy** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 2:45 pm

I've found hammerite to be OK for undersides etc, but not on it's own.

If you give the (clean) bare steel a couple of coats of 2 pack etch primer, then use hammerite on top, I've found it gives pretty good protection.

A good tip for cleaning it off is don't use the special thinners - use unleaded petrol. Much cheaper. You can even recover brushes that have gone solid with hammerite if you leave them in a jam jar with some unleaded for a few days.