Front Suspension

A small tragedy occured after trying to fix a curious intermittent brake pressure problem - my father, being the firm-handed man that he is, hammered all the rust off the front brake discs, but in doing so weakened the suspension bracket (which must also have been quite rusty). It's probably a good thing that he did this actually, and a poor show for the guys who did the last MOT, as when I sat in the car it just dropped several inches. The bracket which holds the large suspension spring at the bottom had disintegrated, the only thing stopping the spring now was the brake pipe bracket! Oh dear. Here's left and right for a comparison:

This, sadly, is how the beetle has remained for the last few months - unused and unfixed - in a spare patch of driveway, the money has simply run out. I suppose the only thing to do would be to order the suspension strut/damper and try to replace it myself, then at least it would be driveable. As yet I haven't had the courage or the inclination; just when I thought I was getting on top of things it has to pull a stunt like this. It really took me by surprise too, and despite several attempts to sell the beetle it just sits there. I may well order the parts soon, but I won't be looking forward to doing the work though (I would replace both front ones to make them equal in strength etc).

Update

I have now managed to sell my Beetle as a restoration project. There were simply too many jobs that needed doing to call it road-worthy. I was very sad to see it go, gone to a new home in Essex, but at least it drove onto the trailor under its own power! Some day, when I have the money, I may well buy another one, perhaps a camper van, but until then at least I have the happy memories from my first Beetle.