dropped spindles on a Vintage

Is anyone out there riding a Vintage Speedster with 2 1/2" dropped spindles and standard torsion bars (no adjusters)whats the ride quality like?, ride height? any pictures?. Or is the best of both worlds to have a beam with 2 adjusters and dropped spindles, for ride quality and height?

the ride quality would be exactly like a stock beetle.

i have an adjsutable beam and DS.

I just did this on my VS a couple of months ago. I had lots of help and suggestions from everyone on here and you can do a search to read all about it. My speedy has one adjuster on the lower beam and I'm glad it did, because the car was just too low and I needed to crank it up a bit after installing the drop spindles to keep the nerf bars from scraping. It was actually a very easy job. Check the past posting for details.
Troy

troy - you only have one adjuster? if the top and bottom torsion leaves are not the same angle - the front end is considerably more stiff. with the weight of these cars (next to nothing) - that is not a good thing (ie: no suspension travel)

That's the way Kirk builds them at VS. It sure seems to have full suspension travel, but I wouldn't know if it was any stiffer than any other speedy because I've only riden in one other.
Troy

if you sit on the front fender - does the suspension compress?

Paul, I am confused by your physics on torsion leaves in the front beam. Seems to me that the "spring rate" is the SUM of the two torsion leaf bundles (one upper beam and one lower beam). How does the vehicle know whether or not the load is evenly distributed or if one spring is taking more of a load than the other? Doesn't it still add together?

To go to an extreme - imagine a very light speedster with only torsion leaves in the lower beam. The upper beam has no torsion leaves at all, only a hollow bar appropriately splined to retain the upper trailing arms. Why wouldn't that work? What would make that setup "harsh"? How would the car know? Plase explain your logic, or is this a result of real world empirical data?

Yes Paul, the suspension compress' if I press hard on the front fenders it compress', but granted, not much.

Troy, one adjuster on the lower beam?, my vintage has one adjuster, but its on the upper beam, there is some suspension travel on mine, but i am considering a disc brake conversion combined with dropped spindles, not to lower the car further but improve the ride and handling. The intension is to fit the dropped spindles/disc brakes and then wind the adjuster up to regain the current stance

Paul, Can you drive it this low?, surely the front wheels foul the fenders when you turn the wheels?

Correction. Matt is correct, my adjuster is also on the upper beam. You were asking Paul, but my tires clear the fenders just fine. You may not be able to crank it back up to the original height after installing the drop spindles. Just be sure you check first, if you haven't already.
Troy

Matt - there is no engine, wiring, interior, top - so nope - havent driven it yet. :)

depending on the ride quality after i get it going, i might pull the beam - cut off 1 inch on either side and weld it back up.