That perch plate is only held down with a few spot welds. A pneumatic chisel will get it off in no time! Look under the main plate and see if things are in good shape. The GW fix is actually an upgrade as its plate is thick enough to actually provide some structure. Part of the decision depends on if you plan to replace the spring. The OEM spring has the small tails that rest inside those depressions which the lower damper (cushion) fits into. All aftermarket springs work best on a flat plate. If your replacing the springs than go all out and knock off those seats and replace them and make-get some flat dampers top and bottom. 

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Neil N
Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2015 3:19 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Rear Trailing Arm Replacement Fun!

Thanks again for that link Dennis.

On the replacement arm, I'm seeing more rust than anticipated at perch plate.
Image:  http://tinyurl.com/ozq3bqq
top of perch plate looks ok. Image:
http://tinyurl.com/n8xb7c9

IF the rust hasn't progressed too far,
would it be a waste of time to:

remove perch plate, paint arm and plate bottom, tack weld plate back onto arm, paint as needed is this a waste of time?

I'd tack weld the plate as that's what VW did, and, it would make future removal easier.

Thoughts?

Neil.

On 1/18/15, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com> wrote:

> http://www.gowesty.com/ec_view_details.php?id=23662&category_id=&categ
> ory_parent_id=
>

--
Neil n

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