Front tires were wearing horribly on outside edge. I adjusted the lean as much as possible to get them as close to vertical as I could but still had wear problems. The tire gut told me after my last new tires that I had broken springs in the rear and that I would not be able to get the alignment right until I got new springs. I jacked up the van and looked at the springs. They were not broken but the spring perch on the trailing arm was mashed in and the bump stops were gone.
Pretty bummed at this point but decide to try to make a replacement spring perch patch based on one I saw on the samba.
I used two layers of 16 guage sheet metal from Home Depot - about an eight inch and as thick as I could cut with a jig saw. I cut one disc slightly larger than the other and welded the two together. The difference in diameter gave me a lap joint where I could run a bead and practice my sorry welding skills. For the bump stop I used a 1 1/2" plumbing coupling fitting. I was able to cut the top off of the old bump stops and welded those onto the coupling. With the patch perches done, I welded those onto the trailing arms. You will need a grinder with a twisted wire wheel attachment to get down to good bare metal for the welding.
