shock tower clearancing for 944 spring plates

[zen]

Originally Posted by Maynard

I'm doing the same thing and was wondering if you have to provide clearance for both bolts or just the e-bolt?

see post #8 above. it will show you the path of the bolts. both have to be clearanced.

[Stuart]

I don't advice to cut in to the shocktower. This will weaken the tower to much. My solution is to just grind 1 mm from the tower and 1 mm from the face of the bolt. Thats all. It works great for me and have no problems with clearence!!!

[zen]

thanks for the advice Stuart. i agree with you. i am not overly comfortable with having to do it, but i clearance one side all the way through. my fitments don't show 2mm clearancing cutting it. not sure how tight VW's tolerances are in this area of the years and models. the bolts are 6mm thick and the shock tower webbing 7mm. can't see 1 or 2mm of webbing making that much of a difference. i can bend that by hand.

i have the one side cut and will fit the spring plate up a final time to double check clearance. if i can get away with less on the other side, i certainly will. hoping that the cup brace will help make up some of the difference in lost material. very worst case i will replace shock towers with less clearancing if needed.

i am only thinking of having a piece of flat steel welded on the inside to make up for the lost webbing.

question...how much load are you guys starting the spring plate with? using the bottom of the spring plate and the bottom stop as the reference point, i am debating between the slightly above the stop that my previous setup was at (no preload) and one spline down from that making about 7-10mm below the stop.

[boygenius]

What do you guys think of boxing in the entire backside of the shock tower like Zen said. I have access to pieces of steel big enough to box the entire rear side of the shock tower in but it is only 2.5mm thick. Is that thick enough????

I will have a kafer cup brace to help stiffen up the rear chassis.
I will also probably have a 10 point cage to help also.

[boygenius]

Hey I found some steel plates laying around the shop that just so happen to be the right size for my shock tower braces. The best part is that the metal is 6.25mm thick almost as thick as the metal removed from the other side.

[NO_H2O]

You might have to TIG it in. That is fairly thick and the shock mount is cast. You could try 100% argon and the right wire, then max out your MIG and see what you get. You might even need to use a tri-mix gas. Ask someone at you local welding supply shop.

[boygenius]

My mig will weld 3/16" in a single pass so think I can weld it. I will angle the metal back at a 45 degrees so I can use about three passes to get a good weld. We shall see, I should be able to weld them up tomorrow night so I will let you know how it goes.

[zen]

Originally Posted by boygenius

Hey I found some steel plates laying around th eshop that just so happen to be the right size for my shock tower braces. The best part is that the metal is 6.25mm thick almost as thick as the metal removed from the other side.

did you find 4 by chance?

[boygenius]

Originally Posted by zen

did you find 4 by chance?

There might be enough metal to make four braces. I will cut them out with a torch tomorrow at work. If I can get four pieces out of the metal I will ship you up a set.