Shock Tower Stiffener & Rick's Fender Braces

[Doug Brown]

I was one of the people that bought a set of the Fender Braces that Rick made. Very nice design and construction!

I have wanted to make some form of shock tower stiffener but everything I had seen or sketched up was coming out like a moon rocket. But when I was test fitting the braces, the light bulb went off on how I could tie the shock stiffeners to the fender braces.

Basically you just use some heavy sheet metal (same thickness as the fender brace mounting pads) and fab up one piece that will fit on top of the shock tower and be secured in place by the shock bolts and another piece that mounts on the opposite side of the forward most mounting pad of the fender braces. These two pieces of metal need to be welded together.

A major tip - don't cut the big shock tower hole out with a saber saw -- go and buy a big hole saw!! It will save you hours of work and will look much nicer when finished.

I plan on buying some all thread to make "long bolts" that will replace the fender brace bolts that secure the big pad (on the left side of the picture) to it's backing plate onto the car. The extra length will go thru into the engine bay where they will secure the shock tower brace to the car and fender brace.

Still a work in progress (just started it yesterday) but a very easy addition.

I'll get more pictures during the week as the project moves along.

[mikemounlio]

This is a great idea. I love it and will be doing this as well. Want to send me a copy of your plates? ill weld them up myself.

[Hot_Wheels]

If there was enough intrest my buddy can cnc plasma cut them. Looking good!

[Doug Brown]

Shock Tower Brace -- Details & Pictures

Here are some more pictures and a drawing with dimensions of the right hand shock tower plate. The plates are .105 thick steel. You could use 1/8" if you want.

WARNING: Make these out of heavy poster type board as your patterns, as the left and right side of the engine bay are NOT identical!!! You'll have to do some fitting and trimming to get the patterns right.

Pictures show how they look tack welded. Before I tack welded them, I clamped them in place with various Vice Grips to keep everything tight and the angles correct.

After tack welding (on both sides to keep the plates from bending) I put them on the car, clamped them in place and crawled under the fender well to mark where the shock bolt holes needed to be drilled.

Once I put the doors and the fender brace frames permanently on the car, I can cross drill the shock tower braces to tie into the fender braces. I plan on welding the brace to the shock tower, although you could drill a couple of additional holes and bolt it on.

[mikemounlio]

How do you plan to tie into the fender brace?

[mikemounlio]

How do you plan to tie into the fender brace?

[Doug Brown]

The forward pad on the fender brace has holes for bolts and the forward pad doubler has threaded nuts welded on to it.

My plan is to make/find some long (3 to 3-1/2") bolts that are all thread. Once the doubler has been secured in place, it can be fastened/welded so it doesn't move. You can the remove the 2 short bolts that were supplied and pass a longer 1/8" drill through holes (using them as a guide) to drill thru the inner bulkhead and shock tower support metal. These would be your "pilot" holes and will have to be enlarged to let the "long" bolt pass all the way into the engine compartment.

The long bolts would then be thread back into the doubler plate and keep on going out thru the new shock tower holes into the engine bay where they can be nutted.

To make sure all the parts stay in alignment, you can bolt the shock tower plate in place using the bolt holes for the shocks and drill a hole thru the forward most part of the shock tower pad and use a short bolt to secure it to the sheet metal. You could also do the same for the rear part of the pad but will have to use a longer bolt (3 to 3-1/2"). This bolt does not have to have all threads - only threads at the end (a "normal" bolt).

In effect you will be "sandwiching" the fender brace and the shock tower brace to the existing car frame work.

Does this description make sense to you? I'll take pictures as I'm doing it - which should help illustrate it better.

[mikemounlio]

I get it.

[mikemounlio]

My only concern is that the bolt will not be stiff enough. I will have to look into the brace more before i pull the trigger. Ill make my strut tower brace then test it. If i need more stiffness ill look at bracing then .