Cutting spring plates

[SpceSpff]

how hard are spring plates to cut? these are not chromoly... my car uses longer than stock plates, and the salesman at mckenzies convinced me to buy these SAWS they had taking up space, rather than spend 5 times as much for custom length cromo plates. so i got these long ones i need to cut down. any tips for getting them to be the perfect length? how bad is it if the are off a bit, and the tires are toed in/out? thanks

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[MikeAdams]

Definatley do not want toe out- it scrubs off speed in the sand and wants to wash the car out around corners...

I would use straight edges against the drums to adjust toe, and a straight edge across the beam to measure wheel base. If the toe is at 1/4" and the wheel base is out- it will dogwalk. You can also measure across from straight edge to axyle in a giant 'X' to make sure it's not all cantywampussed....

After you mock the axlyes where you want them, cut them where a stock springplate would sit on the overtube. Then make the u-notch for the overtube with a holesaw and a chopsaw. Then drill the holes.

Hope this helps- anybody have a better way? I just did it on a sandcar- and it seemed to work well...

[Protech975]

Tim - I made a few sets of spring plates for this car! We used these same X-long SAW plates because as you know the plates on the car are longer than any stock or aftermarket plate available. These SAW plates are made for a mid engine car just for information. You should have been given a set or two of old plates but if not I may still have an old bent or cracked one laying around that I could measure? I will check and get back to you. Oh and by the way, I believe you can buy custom plates now for less than $125 a set made from laser cut chromoly. So you may want to think about that option for the next set! TTYS Rob S.

[doug969]

Call Joel Mohr (760)947-6647 He can make you up some.

[MikeAdams]

out of curiosity- why are they longer? Isn't that a stock housing? Is the motor and tranny moved back that much? Just wondering...

I'm slowly getting a parts bin going for a nine- after college I'm going to want to race one, so I'm trying to learn all I can about design before I actually do the build.

thanks for the info...

[SpceSpff]

Mark- It is an aftermarket housing (stock dimensions) that has been moved forward. engine and tranny are where they have always been. It was done to distribute the weight of the car better. Sandy Parker did it, and he had 16 top 3 finishes in 26 races like this!

Doug- I talked to Joel, and he said he doesn't do that. He was very helpful however, figuring out what needed to be done.

Rob- The other plates from this car were used on a different car... can't do anything about that now. But, Scott measured the plates he kept and they were 18 1/2" long, So I should be good to go. Too bad I didn't look harder for some plates, laser cut chromo sounds nice! oh well, next time.

I'm going to go swap out the axles for long tubes this weekend, I will be starting on the plates then.

[racer951]

Sandy Parker was the man! Whatever custom stuff he did I would keep the same. If he was still around I have no doubt he would have helped set-up my car and made it work better. Nicest guy around to boot.

RIP Sandy.

[The Doctor]

Spring plates may be from any manufacturer, but must retain stock dimensions. I know of at least 3 cars that have longer spring plates. What gives, am I misinterpreting the rules or ?

[MikeAdams]

From the 1999-2001 Score rule book...

Rear Suspension
Rear suspension is limited to Stock VW Type 1 components. Rear Suspension torsion bars may be of any origin. The torsion housing must retain stock dimensions, aftermaket housing is allowed. Torsion bar grommets may be of any manufacture as long as stock dimensions are retained. Torsion adjusters allowed.

Rear suspension limmiters and spring plate retainers are allowed. Rear spring plates may be of any origin.

Just like everything else in the book, it's friggen vague. In the very beginning under "Competition Regulations" it has the statement "All parts called out for in this class shall otherwise remain in their stock shape, size, and or configuration unless otherwise state herein."

I don't know what it would fall under. Sounds like Sandy ran them for years and it wasn't a problem then. Is a different weight bias an advantage? It seems like it would move all the weight forward, since the housing is further forward, the cell, and the seat would have a tendencey to move forward.

A suggestion would be for Corey to have an agreed upon set of concise rules for the big race he is planning...

Sorry for the read..

[Protech975]

Mike - When I had the car up till 2001 it still had the "Bone Stock" VW torsion housing in it! The only thing that Sandy and his Bros. did was to move the housing forwards about 3". With this car "76 Chenowth 1000" the weight when configured to a 9 car was too far back so they decided to move the CG too directly under the Torsion housing! What this did was balance the car so that they could then tune the car with the shocks rather than adding weight or overly tweaking the bars!
This car still had a very light feel to the front-end like most single seaters, whereas most 2 seaters carry more weight on the front tires! When this car was right it was "Perfect." It was a dream to drive and in the 14 races we raced with it we had 6 Wins and two MORE Class championships! and only one DNF! I feel very fortunate to have owned and driven "His" winning car.
But that was then and now the car has an aftermarket T-housing with ?? bars, so I could not say what it would take to get it back to where it was?
I still have a picture of Sandy on the front of my Tool chest and I think about him often! We were best friends for over 25 years and he was the best! Life has not been the same since he left us! I am however finishing up a restoration project on the 1971 Funco Hustler that he started for his nephew nick! We are almost done and it looks awesome!