One of the problems with dragging your feet on a project is you forget what you have done or seen, about the same reason why shops charge more for you to tear things apart and for them to put it back together.
After talking to Marc and others I had forgot that there was a washers under the upper ball-joint nut and trailing arm. After a confusing (for me that is 'cause I had forgot about it) conversation with Bill at Bow Wow/Autovice (one of the Seattle area VW parts and repair shops) I started to worry about my memory which I already know is a little shaky (

). I had torn apart the beam I am working many years ago, maybe as long as 4 or more years or so and I had just flat forgot about them.
After the conversation at Autovice I came home and cleaned up the garage some (don’t get too excited, I found my barber chair but still can’t sit in it) and my shed but still couldn’t find the trailing arms, spindles yes but the trailing arms… no! I finally went in the house as it was cold out (38°, rain and rain w/freezing rain mixed in, sleet, snow) but there was something still in the back of my mind trying to push forward so after a bit I went out and got on my prayer bones and dug under my assembly and junk storage bench to get to the two storage boxes stored there. I finally got to them and opened the first one up and there were a pair of double spring-plate trailing arms, all nice and clean, ready for paint and four front trailing arms; two uppers with the washers stuck to the alignment off-set spacers… Hot Damn!
I am assuming that they are the same as the Thing washers as the threaded part of the ball-joints are the same in both the Thing and the sedan. Whoo-hoo!
A special thanks to Bill at Autovice and Bruce and Marc at STF!
Lee