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Shock tower replacement...

742 views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  Gatlin69 
#1 ·
Well since i have my motor out i can see a whole lot wrong with my shock towers. They look like garbage... the PO has welded everything. There are many cracks, and they are dented like hell. I have an origional, rust free set of shock towers sitting in my back yard that are from a 69' 351w coupe. The problem: my dad doesnt think i need to replace them! I mean geeze... on one side there are bolts holding half of a shock tower on... how does that not need replacing??? He thinks that im going to break everything when i take it apart! How hard is it to replace a shock tower? If i do one at a time, it cant be that hard, right? I would mainly level the car out right now, and make sure it was that way before i weld it back together, using a monte carlo bar and the shock tower braces as spacers. Would this work? How much chance would there be of the car coming out messed up? Thanks in advance!
 
#2 ·
You need to support the whole undercarriage of the car and framerails
so that the angle between the firewall and framerails does not close or open.

best thing to do IMHO is to remove and replace one at a time...

Cut some holes the size of the factory spot welds onto the panel that will overlap the other....and plug weld.....this way the weld is stronger than a stock spot weld...then with a flap sanding wheel, smoth the weld down....heck get a rounded punch and smack it while it is still hot...for the spot weld look.

good luck...and YEs if you have any type of cracks either a good welding repair or shock tower replacement is in order...

Be sure to lube your control arm zerk fittings as this may be the culprit for cracked towers...
 
#3 ·
I have done two without much trouble. They are easy, you just have quite a few spot welds to cut out. I would measure twice, weld once. I would also use an export brace and a monte carlo bar to hold it in place along with several clamps. Take your time and use a good welder. The sheet metal parts are easy to weld to but the metal is pretty thick where the towers meet the frame rail. You want good penetration to that metal! Good luck!
 
#4 ·
That makes me feel a lot better! The shock towers in the car right now just look like crap... An origional, perfect set will look great with the new motor! ::
 
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