Leaf springs

[Hloni]

But who knows with potholes. My sister hit one in her Jeep Cherokee and had to buy a new engine management computer...

Must have been in Transkei!!

[Barry]

remember it is a spring, so dont put excessive heat into it and quench ot immediatly after you tac the spacers on...

quenching spring steel will make it hard........and brittle.
Not a good property for a spring you would like to have stay in one piece. If you do go this route please keep a camera running while driving so we can watch the results when it inevitably breaks. Love a good giggle at someone else's carnage. Try not to take out too many innocent bystanders...

Even slowly cooling it in sand/mica or whatever is a hit and miss affair at best. Proper tempering on a safety critical item should be a no brainer....you would think. But then not fcuking with form before function should be too....

[Ron&Gill]

But who knows with potholes. My sister hit one in her Jeep Cherokee and had to buy a new engine management computer...

Must have been in Transkei!!

No, Vrystaat.

[JamesD]

remember it is a spring, so dont put excessive heat into it and quench ot immediatly after you tac the spacers on...

quenching spring steel will make it hard........and brittle.
Not a good property for a spring you would like to have stay in one piece. If you do go this route please keep a camera running while driving so we can watch the results when it inevitably breaks. Love a good giggle at someone else's carnage. Try not to take out too many innocent bystanders...

Even slowly cooling it in sand/mica or whatever is a hit and miss affair at best. Proper tempering on a safety critical item should be a no brainer....you would think. But then not fcuking with form before function should be too....

Historic Formula Vee's did things a bit differently... It has worked for hundreds of others and is in the manual so I am not fussed about trying it...

[Barry]

Knock yourself out James.....

FWIW:
1050 Spring steel would be heated to 820C then quenched. THEN reheated to a fairly precise temperature and held there for 30 minutes. A difference of 40C (at around 300C) will result in a hardness anywhere between 35Rc and 55Rc. That is the difference between deforming, and breaking.
Granted we are talking about a single leaf in the pack, but it is pretty hard to control temperature that precisely. And of course you would need to know the specific alloy as each would have a different tempering regimen.

A racecar on a track is one thing, daily driver on regular roads is something else.

[MINCE]

I thought adjusters were created to prevent this kind of job from being done. I have never heard a good ending from anyone I know who did what you are trying to do.

[MarshallGTi]

what about a spring works place that specialises in these kinda things? friend of mine had the rear leafs on his nissan 1400 bakkie heated and reworked at a place that did work on truck suspension, they heated it and reshaped it to give about a 40mm drop. would that kinda thing work on a beetle where the springs are in the axle?

[AirPower]

I drove my beetle for 16 years with 2 leave springs removed from the top set.
Result:
Squirrely handling from 100km/h and a rock hard front suspension. I think the only suspension that it had on the front were the tyres compressing.

I drove it like that because I cannot stand the front being higher than the rear and didn't want to spend money on adjusters.

In hindsight, I would go the adjustable route, seriously.

RE the welding: I did try an' weld the springs and I could break them with my bare hands afterwards (one at a time )
But that was a cross weld and not just a tack.

What you MUST do is ensure that the grub-screw cannot let go of the springs - after all that is all that is keeping the wheel attached to the rest of the suspension. Could cut the ends off the removed springs and put them back in as place holders, but I don't know what you'll do in the middle.