Coils spring tower reinforcement

[karstic]

How do you reinforce the upper coil spring seat?

My passenger side has been fubared

The shadow along the seam in the fenderwell is because the left piece of sheetmetal has bowed back (into the enginge compartment). The dark area to the left of that is creasing in the sheetmetal.

 

[GrimmJeeper]

heat it up, beat it back down from the other side, hope for the best. The problem is once it bends it's going to take less of an impact to do it again. vetteboy even plated his with steel and it still bent again. You have a cage in your rig, right? how elaborate is it? you need to brace it from the back side to something solid, If your cage is close to the firewall on the inside you may be able to run a tube to that :dunno:

 

[vetteboy]

Yep.

And fully welded all the seams in the inner fender, too. It lasted about a year before bending beyond what I felt like fixing, so I have coilovers now.

My two suggestions: Make sure your bumpstop geometry is as good as it can be. At full contact mine wasn't hitting straight at all, and this problem compounded itself:

This was the later geometry; angle isn't quite as bad, and the plastic bump pad helped keep from 'grabbing' the bump:

Second. If you do decide to reconstruct it with airbumps similar to the above (or maybe you can do this with the ACOS); run the tube all the way through the spring tower and into the engine compartment, and tie it into the inner fenderwell structure/firewall/engine cage. The springs themselves don't really cause any issues at all, it's the bumpstops hitting hard at an angle, and if you can use as much of the structure as possible it'll help keep things together.

 

[karstic]

I have a cage bar that goes from the A-Pillar up to the front bumper loop. The issue in tying the cage into the spring seat (I was thinking of running a bar across the engine bay) is all the crap in the way. Coolant bottle and PDC on the passenger side and master cylinder on the driver side.

 

[J Money]

Mine was done like this

Just make sure the bumps and shocks are set up right. If they are, your sheat should be legit.

 

[karstic]

Vetteboy and J Money did you guys basically wrap the seat with sheet metal?

 

[J Money]

Vetteboy and J Money did you guys basically wrap the seat with sheet metal?

Yep, but it was also tied into some additional structural stuff.

I think if your bypass tubes are set up right, you won't be smashing the bump stops too much. Bump stops are kind of like a band aid to a problem, bad shock tuning. Just my opinion.

 

[vetteboy]

The springs themselves don't really cause any issues at all, it's the bumpstops hitting hard at an angle, and if you can use as much of the structure as possible it'll help keep things together.

I think if your bypass tubes are set up right, you won't be smashing the bump stops too much. Bump stops are kind of like a band aid to a problem, bad shock tuning. Just my opinion.

Kinda what I was saying.

You need to manage the stress on that bumpstop tower, whether it's through bracing the bump itself, or redirecting it elsewhere (the top compression zone on a bypass shock). Reducing leverage by aligning the bumpstops themselves as much as possible is a good starting point; if you're able to brace things together that's the next step; if you are already running bypass shocks and have the shock mounting taken care of, then yeah, use that to your advantage.

My stock coil seats were bent and crushed into oblivion, so I went an alternate route.

YMMV.

 

[zoomy97acr]

If you can, you need to get a parts XJ and remove the inner fender / coil support and replace it. it has already been weakened. then reinforce it and the frame rails, and if possible,support the replaced inner fender with an engine cage. I have straightened and reinforced them before, and they will bend again. It does not take that long to do with a spot weld cutter and air chisel. be sure to weld the seam like was mentioned earlier.

this is a good kit;

http://www.temper-mentalracing.com/TMR/Parts_and_Services.html