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Looks good John!

@dlearl476 posted:

Looks good John!

Thank you, Sir! 

Looks great. Definitely agree with the black cones on the front.

Many issues are solved by centering the front wheels in their respective wheel wells !

ReV

Looking sharp!

@Robert M posted:

Looks great. Definitely agree with the black cones on the front.

I was too impatient to get everything assembled — will paint them soon.  Thanks, Robert.

@edsnova posted:

Looking sharp!

Thanks for all of your help so far, Ed!  

@Robert M posted:

Looks great. Definitely agree with the black cones on the front.

That’s weird. I always thought the front and rear skins were the same, but the front ones had a rubber cap to provide access to the bearing pre-load nut inside the bearing cap.

@dlearl476 posted:

That’s weird. I always thought the front and rear skins were the same, but the front ones had a rubber cap to provide access to the bearing pre-load nut inside the bearing cap.

That's correct.  The original drums had a dust cap in the front, covered by a rubber cover.  We paint the drum skins to mimic that look.  The rear had the exposed axle nut holding on the drum, so the skins have a hole to leave the castle nut exposed to mimic that look.

@wulfrik one note (that you may already know) all front upper control arms will already have a camber adjusting eccentric nut already, but they make one with 3 degrees of adjustment vs. the stock 2 degrees, to assist in camber and caster correction on lowered cars.  We run the 3 degree eccentric on the spyder because A) most people run the spyder front end lower than stock Beetle and B) the Spyder front end has an extra degree of caster built into it compared to a Beetle.  So this allows for a little additional adjustment over the stock part.  

Just pay attention when adjusting, there is a reference mark on the adjusters that has to stay pointing generally forward (from straight left to straight right or anywhere between as long as it is not pointing backwards).  Moving this reference mark to the rear starts to negate caster.

@chines1, what caster do you build into your Spyders?

5*30' +/-30'

@chines1 posted:

5*30' +/-30'

Thank you!

@chines1 posted:

That's correct.  The original drums had a dust cap in the front, covered by a rubber cover.  We paint the drum skins to mimic that look.  The rear had the exposed axle nut holding on the drum, so the skins have a hole to leave the castle nut exposed to mimic that look.

@wulfrik one note (that you may already know) all front upper control arms will already have a camber adjusting eccentric nut already, but they make one with 3 degrees of adjustment vs. the stock 2 degrees, to assist in camber and caster correction on lowered cars.  We run the 3 degree eccentric on the spyder because A) most people run the spyder front end lower than stock Beetle and B) the Spyder front end has an extra degree of caster built into it compared to a Beetle.  So this allows for a little additional adjustment over the stock part.  

Just pay attention when adjusting, there is a reference mark on the adjusters that has to stay pointing generally forward (from straight left to straight right or anywhere between as long as it is not pointing backwards).  Moving this reference mark to the rear starts to negate caster.

Thanks, Carey.  And no, I didn't know already, as I'm a newbie to the vintage VW world.  😁 Great tip on the adjusting of the nut -- much appreciated, Sir. 

Great post, @chines1. We forget to forward the things that new guys need to know.

I've set my camber at 1.5 degrees negative. With the aftermarket adjusters, this gives me a touch more caster. I've had the car up to 125 mph true(GPS speedo) and she is nice and stable.