You raise some good points Jon, it’s always a contentious issue though and I think the underlying worry for people who have been in the scene for a long time, is that modifying a car from stock almost always leads to it’s early demise. Lowering a VW has all kinds of detrimental effects on the running gear, the rear wheel bearings for example become starved of oil when the half shaft tubes are in a constant state of negative camber. In addition, the fulcrum plates are constantly under stress on a lowered VW and become distorted.
Swapping the front axle for another and keeping the original for later replacement is a laudable plan, but it’s a lucky few that manage to make it back to stock height and stock running gear before the damage to the underside, the additional fatigue on the body and chassis (due to lack of springing) and the accelerated wear on the rear axle and transmission put the car beyond the interest of the type of collector who is looking for a stock classic to keep and maintain for the long term.
As regards loosening up, this has been said before and again I can see why you raise it, but the fact is that there are loads of places on the net for people to go to and talk about modified cars, but very few where the talk is restricted to stock cars – and there is a hard core of people for whom this is their interest.
I take your point though about people who have large collections of cars that never see the light of day, the bottom line of course is that it’s up to the owner to do with their car what they will and to drive it, show it or keep it locked away. Personally, I think it’s a shame to keep old and interesting cars locked away for years on end out of sight, it has to be better for the car to be used occasionally and it’s great for other enthusiasts to get to see them from time to time too.
Like your Dad, I too have a post ’67 stock VW that I have known since new (it was my Dad’s), I also have a post ’67 stock RHD UK supplied Cabrio with less than 40,000miles on the clock and I would like there to be a section on here where we could discuss post ’67 stock cars, it’s been raised before, but there was insufficient interest I think – perhaps we should raise it again? :wink:
Mike :thumbup:
Mike Peckham wrote: