Shock Tower Replacements and Reinforcement Kits

mustangmutt · Aug 11, 2010

The aftermarket export braces are inconsistent in their measurements. I have had some bolt right on and others that needed persuasion. I used a car that had good shock towers and bolted some upper shock mounts on and welded a piece of 1" square tubing to them and a couple more pieces from the tubing back to the fire wall where the export brace attaches. This gave me a jig that holds the towers in place. Do one tower at a time.

mustangmutt · Aug 11, 2010

Oh, and while you're at it, do the shelby drop on the upper control arm mounting points. I believe you can get templates from Branda.

Fordmus67tang · Aug 11, 2010

I actually used the stock export brace that came with car.

pyroman · Aug 11, 2010

rnrjunkie said:
Those 3 holes are used for alignment of the support that mounts to the the shock tower. Slpa some big bolts in there to hold parts in place while welding! Obviously you would need to measure beforehand, and make sure that you get everything in straight and level. Make sure that you inspect your frame rails while you have everything apart. (You will have the entire front end taken apart....there is no way around it.)

Haha thanks, luckily I've already gotten the entire front end off. I bought a complete suspension rebuild kit for it and decided to strip and repaint the frame rails and inner fender with POR-15 while I had the suspension off. Well this is when I discovered the shock tower problem. So I've ripped off both fenders, headlight bezels, bumper, front apron, grill, etc. This is what the driver's side looks like after stripping and hitting it with Metal Ready

and passenger side

This is how the driver's side looks after paint. Haven't gotten the passenger side photos uploaded yet.

I'm happy with the condition of the frame rails.

NasaGT said:
Use an Export Brace to help locate the shock tower. The spring cover holes on the aprons will help, but won't get the angle of the tower correct. The Export Brace will do that.

Alright cool, I have one. I'll do that.

Fordmus67tang said:
I replaced my drivers side shock tower due to cracking as well. I bought my shock tower from CJ Pony which was made by Dynacorn. The shock tower was thicker than the original which is cool for added strength. The way I lined it up was using the 3 holes on the apron and using my export brace to measure the distance. I've never welded, but my buddy welds as a profession so he showed me how to weld. Now, I'm addicted to it. Somehow, I managed to finish it. Mustang Monthly had an article online which was a big help. I am also planning on adding some reinforce kits, but I am going to make it myself. This site (http://home.flash.net/~sanco/mustang.htm) can shed some light.

I just saw that site yesterday, the sanco one. I plan on doing the welded up tower like rnrjunkie did and the guy specified in that site and I will also be making the brackets he has. I think that will be good for what I plan on doing with the car. I've also read through that Mustang Monthly article, good information in it .

mustangmutt said:
The aftermarket export braces are inconsistent in their measurements. I have had some bolt right on and others that needed persuasion. I used a car that had good shock towers and bolted some upper shock mounts on and welded a piece of 1" square tubing to them and a couple more pieces from the tubing back to the fire wall where the export brace attaches. This gave me a jig that holds the towers in place. Do one tower at a time.

I have, what I believe to be a factory export brace. It was on the car when I bought it and it is a pretty sturdy piece of equipment. My friend who I'll be working with said that the ridges on the original piece were deeper than they aftermarket ones, about 3/8" I think.

Hmm in regards to your jig, my friend has a 65 and a 69 Mustang both with good shock towers. Could those be used for the jig or do I really need a 67/68?

mustangmutt said:
Oh, and while you're at it, do the shelby drop on the upper control arm mounting points. I believe you can get templates from Branda.

I've got that already As I said above I bought a complete suspension rebuild kit before I found out about this shock tower issue. I expect this thing to handle like a completely different car after I'm done with this work.

mustangmutt · Aug 11, 2010

According to application the export braces fit 65-70, so the measurements are the same. If you want to fab up a jig use the 69 only because the shock mounts use 3/8 carraige bolts to secure them to the tower. Where the 65/66 use 5/16. But if your car already had an export brace that fit well, (without forcing the ends over the mounting bolts) you can use it. Remember, you will be sacrificing a set of shock mounts, but your friend will have a jig that will work on all 65 - 70 stangs in the future. Just in case they happen to get more jobs like yours. I made mine 5 years ago and have only used it twice, but I got one for whenever i need it.

pyroman · Aug 16, 2010

Well I've gotten started on the process. Yesterday we got the passenger side tower out and got a good bit of the spot welds drilled on the driver's side. My friend fabbed up some reinforcement brackets. I have a couple of pictures here.

Have a question for you all though. Do I need to remove the steering box to get the last of the spot welds on the driver's tower? It looks to be in the way, so I'm thinking yes. I've never removed it before, how is it done exactly? There are 3 bolts holding it to the frame rail I know of but do I need to separate it from the steering column? Thanks.

mustangmutt · Aug 17, 2010

Weird, all of the pictures I posted disappeared.
Those reinforcements look good. You should be able to remove the tower with out removing the steering box. I always drill/grind the welds from the outside and drill holes in the tower to weld it to the inner fenders.

pyroman · Aug 17, 2010

Thanks. I got all but one of the spot welds drilled yesterday from the engine bay. The last one I got from outside the car. Didn't end up removing the steering box so that was nice. Towers are out now, this afternoon I'll get started on cleaning and straightening everything up before welding the new ones in.

pyroman · Aug 18, 2010

mustangmutt said:
The aftermarket export braces are inconsistent in their measurements. I have had some bolt right on and others that needed persuasion. I used a car that had good shock towers and bolted some upper shock mounts on and welded a piece of 1" square tubing to them and a couple more pieces from the tubing back to the fire wall where the export brace attaches. This gave me a jig that holds the towers in place. Do one tower at a time.

When you say do one tower at a time, do you mean remove one whole tower and weld in the replacement before removing the other one?

NasaGT · Aug 19, 2010

I have done a lot of searches, from what I have read the "good" export braces with the deep bends are spot on. The problem people have with installing them is that the shock towers tend to sag a bit. So even a car with what appears to be good shock towers may no longer be in the correct locations anymore. The "good" export brace is your best bet for locating the towers.

I've only replaced shock towers once, so my knowledge base is mostly based on reading threads here and at VMF. So take what I say with a grain of salt.

pyroman · Aug 19, 2010

When you did yours did you completely remove both towers before starting to align the new ones?

Also, does anyone have a picture of an original export brace vs. an aftermarket one? I think mine is original but I'd like to be able to compare it to something.

Thanks.

NasaGT · Aug 20, 2010

Both of my frame rails were damaged/bent from an accident, so I had to remove both spring towers at the same time to patch the rails.

I used Dynacorn spring towers, both needed a little "massaging" where they met the frame rails to get everything to line up correctly. Don't be too disappointed if you have to do the same. For me, doing both at the same time was easier, because I could bolt them to the export brace and then move them around to get them symmetric. Neither tower was close enough to use as a good reference. They were close but not quite right. My export brace wouldn't flex or twist at all, if one tower was clamped in place incorrectly, I couldn't get the other tower to line up at all.

Now if your towers are in good shape and bolt up to the export brace without any issue before starting, then I'd do one at a time. My 2 cents, hope that helps.

pyroman · Aug 20, 2010

Neither were in great shape. Each had massive cracking and one was patched so badly it looked Frankenstein-y. I've already removed both of them and am in the process of trying to align them. I originally thought my export brace was the original variety, but after looking at some images, mine does not appear to have as deep of ridges as the originals. Here are some pictures of mine:

As opposed to this:

Those ridges look alot deeper to me.

In lieu of this, I'm looking for either an original export brace or am thinking about using the jig that mustangmutt described earlier in this thread.

Mustangmutt: Do you have any pictures of that jig you made? My friend just brought home a 67 Cougar last night and I was thinking of using that for reference, provided it has the same geometry as the mustang, which I'm thinking it does.

NasaGT: Sounds like you had an original export brace when you did this. After all the massaging did you get the 6 bolt holes in the inner fender to line up with the shock towers?

mustangmutt · Aug 21, 2010

I will try to find one tomorrow, I'm not a the shop today.

NasaGT · Aug 23, 2010

My Export brace came from NPD, and looks like the one with the deep ridges in your picture.

I had to replace all of the inner fender aprons thanks to damage to all of them. The fronts were mangled from the wreck, the rears had the hinge bolts ripped out of them apparently when the hood was forced backwards. So I stripped the front end entirely and used the Export Brace as my reference point. I took tons of measurements before I cut it up to try and measure other reference points. And the shop manual has some key dimensions in it as well.

You can see pics of my shock towers here:
Engine Bay pictures by FordP51 - Photobucket

pyroman · Aug 23, 2010

Wow that is a lot of work you've put into your car there. Respect. I went ahead and bought the deeper ridged export brace as well. I picked it up from Dallas Mustang on Saturday.

Here are some pictures from my mock up

I was looking through the shop manual and saw the frame dimensions drawing. I think that is the only one or is there another?

It sounds like you took an exhaustive amount of measurements, but do remember what some of the more important ones were? If not it's cool I just want to double check before I tack it in place.

Thanks a bunch for all the responses guys. It's been a huge help and hopefully this thread will help others who are tackling the same issue.

NasaGT · Aug 24, 2010

Well I was patching the frame rails, so a lot of the measurements were to get the length of the frame rails right. I took some measurements to locate the tower from the firewall, and measured how high they were off of the framerail, etc... Mostly just to make me feel a little more confident about were I was putting them. Since your aprons are in place and your frame rails are there I don't think that will be as critical.

Your pics look great! Nice work, I don't think you have anything to worry about since you have the export brace and original aprons to work with. I think I'm going to beef up the towers like you've done, very nice looking.

pyroman · Aug 24, 2010

Thanks, I'm glad to know I'm on the right track. I fiddled with it some more today trying to pin point the right alignment. I decided to bolt the subframe to the shock tower to check it's fit before I tack them in place. This is how it looks.

The holes on the fender apron look like they align much better. (I did a bit of grinding and gentle hammering to adjust them) However, the subframe doesn't appear to quite line up with the holes in the shock tower. I had to slide it under the frame rail and then pull up on it to get a bolt through the alignment holes. Is that normal or should it line up with no additional elbow grease?

After I got the bolts in I noticed another issue

With the shock tower fully seated against the frame the subframe is still covering the crossmember hole. I notice when I tightened the clamp that instead of the subframe moving towards the outside of the frame rail it deflected downward, most likely because I had to pull up on it to get the alignment holes to line up. But even when I checked to see if the subframe would not cover the crossmember hole without the shock tower mocked up, it was still misaligned. Meaning, when those two holes on the engine side of the frame rail and the corresponding two holes on the subframe are aligned(which the clamps are covering in the first picture), the crossmember hole is still partially covered side to side by the subframe. Anyone else run into this? I'm thinking of just widening the hole a bit if it's inconsequential but I have established that yet.

I hope what I tried to say makes sense, I'm tired and describing this is sort of tricky. Thanks again.

NasaGT · Aug 25, 2010

I had the same problem on the drivers side. Passenger side didn't have that issue. The lower subframe fit better after I had welded in the upper spring tower, and after some mild blows from a rubber mallet it seemed to move enough to let the crossmember bolt through, but just barely. I did a touch of grinding on the hole to give it a little more clearance though.

pyroman · Aug 25, 2010

In the end did the subframe sit "flush" (for lack of a better term) with the outside edge of the framerail? From the looks of the picture, I'd say I'm about 3/16" to 1/4" from the edge as is.

Shock Tower Replacements and Reinforcement Kits

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