THE PROBLEM:

    A1 chassis VW's only have something like 4.5" of wheel travel.   If you drop the front by 2" or more and you're almost riding on the bumpstops.

THE SOLUTION:

Pictured above is a coilover kit from Suspension Spring Specialists mounted on a modified stock strut housing.  With these modified strut housings and fabricated strut tower spacers I was able to drop the front by 2.5" without losing any suspension travel.(I think it's 2.5", if you know the distance from the middle of the front axle to the bottom of the fender flare straight above it, please email it to me.  I would also like the same measurement in the back of a Caddy.)

    The strut housings were modified to bolt the steering knuckles higher on the housing, lowering the whole car in relation to the wheels.  New mounting tabs were welded to the top of the old ones and to the sides of the housings.  In this photo, only the new top hole has been drilled. Because the struts will be at a greater angle the top hole was located a little farther out to allow proper camber adjustment of the wheels.  For additional strength, material was later added to the area outboard of the new holes.  The distance between the old and new holes is 3/4". The bottom of the housing and mounting tabs were ground away (and the end cap rewelded to the housing in that area) to clear the CV boot.

    The stock mounting tabs are made of sandwiched 1/8" steel.  I used 1/4" steel plate for the extension.  The top holes were later elongated to match the originals, and after test fitting and setting camber, a weld bead was added as a shoulder for the eccentric camber adjustment bolts.

    A cutoff wheel was used to cut the stock spring perch just above the weld (arrow).  A shoulder inside the coilover adjusting sleeve rests on the weld bead.  The proper kit is the COK-5 kit with 8" springs. I'm running 375 lb. springs right now with an Autotech hollow swaybar. The truck pushes just a little (the back has also been lowered, stiffened up, and has a 3/4" solid bar).  I plan on running a stock front swaybar with 425 lb.

springs. I haven't tried it yet but I think I'm going to like that setup more. The strut inserts are Tokiko Alumina's set at 2 or 3 depending on conditions.  Notice - these spring rates are probably too firm for most peoples tastes!
    You can see how the strut housing is ground to follow the contour of the CV boot. It was hard to get a good angle for this picture because of the front air dam, but there is now about 1/4" of clearance between the strut housing & CV boot.
    The coilovers are narrow enough to pass right through the hole in the shock towers. Spacers were fashioned out of wood 2x6's, filled, sanded, and painted with satin black Rustoleum.  They're the same shape as the bottom side of the strut bearing housings, but a little bigger. A hole was drilled in the center for the spring to pass through with a 4" hole saw, two mounting bolts pass through the stock tower & strut bearing holes, and two more on either side were added.  Since my Autotech strut tower brace mounts were angled in the side locations, holes were drilled there so the nuts & washers are directly on top of the strut bearings.

    Yes this is a Caddy. The fuel distributor is on the passenger side because I'm running complete A2 F.I. & ignition systems.  

    The bolts used are 8mm grade 12.5 bolts with nylocks.  I may replace these with ARP hardware but I don't think it's necessary. I doubt that all four bolts would completely break or strip at the same time with no warning.  So far it's been 20,000+ miles with no problems (but then, last time I wrote this kind of thing it was about the balljoint extenders and they broke a week later!).  With the mounts raised up, my strut tower brace no longer fits under the hood.  I'm waiting to install my 2 liter (ABA - 15 mm taller) block before fashioning a new bar.

    The gain of 3/4" on the strut mods, the 1-3/4" thickness of the 2x6, and 1/4" or so gained from the thickness of the strut bearing housing adds up to about 2-3/4" of wheel travel gained by doing these mods.  Together with the balljoint extender and tie rod modifications, it takes care of all the problems associated with lowering the front of the A1 (except that oil pan hangin' down there and possible tire rubbing issues if you're wearing EE shoes).
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