5 hours ago, Patcon said:

It would be pretty easy to make those shock towers stock again. Provided you know how to MIG. Just make sure you get the front end on level and square. A frame rack would be best for that

        drill out and replace the whole tower?    buncha spot welds, that would be a pain to get all to look right...

 

Practice run…..

1 hour ago, dspillman said:

        drill out and replace the whole tower?    buncha spot welds, that would be a pain to get all to look right...

 

Ideally, you would remove the whole tower and replace it. Or you could just move the center mount of the shock tower and patch in the metal around it to make it look right

11 minutes ago, Patcon said:

Ideally, you would remove the whole tower and replace it. Or you could just move the center mount of the shock tower and patch in the metal around it to make it look right

Thinking of drilling out spot welds, or cut outside the tower lip?

I would drill out the spot welds if possible. I would think that would be the best method for the most invisible repair

  Removed this reinforcement panel today,off a parts car to determine how difficult to replace on  hls30-00051       It shouldn’t have taken 2 hours, but it did…… not for certain of the interior attachment points….. and they were non…….  Bits don’t stay sharp long with this endeavor…..     

Edited May 30, 2024May 30 by dspillman

12 hours ago, dspillman said:

Bits don’t stay sharp long with this endeavor

Were you using spot-weld bits (what brand?) or regular drill bits?

Also, you say: "It shouldn’t have taken 2 hours, but it did……not for certain of the interior attachment points….. and they were non……."   Please explain further.

1 hour ago, Namerow said:

Were you using spot-weld bits (what brand?) or regular drill bits?

Also, you say: "It shouldn’t have taken 2 hours, but it did……not for certain of the interior attachment points….. and they were non……."   Please explain further.

        Having not removed this section from a car before, was somewhat cautious, assuming there was a center support of sorts.       I was surprised the strength of this 3 sided "box"....

       Regular bits for this, I have several different brands of spot weld bits ordered....

I like the spot weld cutters like this

or this

I do not like this style

A little oil helps. Be careful with the bit corners, they are brittle and easily damaged. Constant pressure helps. The carbide or specialty coated ones last a lot longer.

My tool of choice for spot welds is a die grinder with one of these

That section of the frame is pretty stout. It's thicker than a lot of other areas of the car

 

  Quick update for hls30-00051   Having been back and forth with what to replace front radiator core support with…  late/early.. spot weld imitating factory look, etc…… I’m fortunate to have the 4th option of just replacing front clip from another early car that  was supposed to be a race car back in 2006/7…..     too beautiful of rails and front clip, never hit or modified.    
       Transfer front clip, swap out the tops of strut towers.   Compared vin 51 to vin 3400 something I can’t really see any difference in rails etc……,   Doing a practice run today , Cutting out one “top” should be a clean experience….

Wow, cutting the tower seems pretty gutsy. Would have thought drilling out the weld’s would be easier.

17 minutes ago, bluez said:

Wow, cutting the tower seems pretty gutsy. Would have thought drilling out the weld’s would be easier.

    I’m looking at all the welds to try and duplicate the original appearance and alignment of the entire structure.