Front Suspension 3

The Total Cost Involved front suspension comes with frame boxing plates that need to be welded in.  Its important that these plates are parallel to the surfaces and square to each other since the rest of the suspension welds to them.  

The surfaces of the passenger side frame rails were pitted and wavy so it took a little extra massaging and grinding to get the reinforcement plates to sit where they need to be.  The top edge of the side piece and the outer edge of the top piece need to be parallel.  I also used a cut-off and sanding disc to get the top outer corner nice and straight. 

It took a few clamps to keep the edges lined up for welding. The edges are supposed to parallel while leaving a small gap so you can include the old frame rail in the weld but my rail was a little too narrow.  

I tack welded around the edges on all sides and left room to drill holes in the top outer edge to reveal some of the old frame rail.  This allows me tie the old metal to the plates for extra strength.

These plates are completely welded but there is still one more plate to weld in on the bottom then a little more trimming.


Then its time to move on to the drivers side.

Next: Front Suspension Part 4

    

Front Suspension 2

A small piece of metal still needing to be trimmed is seen at the forward
edge of the plates

With the extra metal removed and ground smooth, I welded the side piece of the factory rail back on to the frame rail box at the original seam then ground smooth again.








The Total Cost Involved front suspension kit comes with chunky frame rail reinforcement plates.  I can now install these.  They line up with old steering hardware holes in the existing frame rail and are bolted together using supplied bolts before welding.

Next: Front Suspension Part 3

Front Suspension 1

While waiting to get the new pieces for the rear suspension, I decided to start the front suspension. A while back I bought a Total Cost Involved coil-front suspension to install in place of the incomplete, non-original, worn out front end that came with the car.  The original shock towers also had already been removed by a previous owner.

The first step is to remove any remaining old suspension parts. On mine I just needed to remove the sway bar and the old strut bars with my impact.

The next task is to remove the flanged piece of steel where the frame rail is spot welded to side plate.

This seam is then welded back together and the area is ground and paint is stripped clean for welding the new crossmember.

Next: Front Suspension Part 2