Hey guys, I'd like your opinion on welding up sfc's! The car's gotta be level for the welding to be done, so everyone recommends a suspension lift. The one I have at home is broken - Yeah, right, I don't have a lift at home! (I wish...)

So here's my thought- I want the Alston SFC's, and they're bolt-in's that can be welded in. What if I did this procedure:

1. Press each side's SFC up to the car with a small bottle jack, and put a few tiny spot welds at each connection point- just to hold the SFC up there.

2. Lift the car up with my hydraulic jacks, front and rear

3. Slid my jackstands under the SFC's themselves, two per side

4. Lowered the car onto the jackstands so the car's supported by the sfc's

5. Finished the weld job

Do you think this would be the same thing as lifting the car up by the suspension? Would I wind up with a "flat" car when I was done? The garage floor is very flat, no problems there... just not sure if (A) the SFC's could handle that weight when they're not welded in yet- would they spread open? And (B) if the car would tweak itself so the sfc's were the highest part, and the front/rear would be hanging.

Thanks for any/all ideas/opinions! And no I'm not going to dig a pit in my garage... it's too cold for that.

 

How about ramps under the front wheels and jackstands under the axles.

 

Spohn has instructions for loading the suspension if ou don't have a drive on style setup, so you should be able to put jackstands where he says and do it. Look on his website, I think they're on their somewhere.

 

TomP, if you get the front onto ramps and jackstands under the rear you'll be golden for installation.

I would think twice about spot welding the SFCs before the suspension is loaded. Could lead to misalignment of SFCs to subframes.

 

you don't really want the car level, you want it just like it sits on level ground. park the car on a known level surface and take some referance readings with an angle finder. jack the car up and replicate the readings you had with it sitting on the tires. use the support points so that it loads the suspension, front and rear. then install and weld in the SFCs

 

So I shouldn't put the weight of the car on the SFC's until they're welded in? Bummer. The spot welds would've been just to keep the SFC's from falling off the car as the car was being supported by the SFC's. (If you can get what I mean... I didn't want the car falling on me!)

Ede, the angle finder you mention... where would I find one? Is this for regular hardware usage (like building a house) or is it a machine shop piece?

Now here's one more Big question- say you've got a car that's been put through hell, <i> and you're not sure how level the frame is anymore</i>! Is it possible for the car to sag in the middle? I've got over 264,000 miles on this chassis... I'm a bit worried if I weld in SFC's, even with a drive-on lift, that the car might be sagging a bit in the center. Or is that pretty much damn impossible?

Thanks!

 

well now I will prolly have someone tell me this is unsafe, but I have a bunch of solid concrete blocks at home we used for part of a retaining wall that are all about 9 inches high and plenty wide enough for the whole contact area of the tire tread to sit on. 4 of them wont cost you any more than 5 dollars, and they can offer you enough room to get to the areas that need to be welded. if you do that too, on on a garage floor that is level, the car will be sitting at the same angle it would be if it was on the ground.

 

tom, just about anywhere, sears would be a good place to look, or any similar place. cost is less than 20 dollars. i have 2 or 3 i've picked up over the years, all plastic so not a machine shop tool by any means.

fst brd i would get under a car sitting on concrete blocks for anything

 

Hey Tom. I did it the way Apeiron described: front wheels on ramps, rearend on jackstands and did it on my carport. Plenty of room under there and it worked great. I haven't heard of any cars really sagging, so to speak...except for those rare high perf V6 cars they put out secretly with over 400 HP...maybe you have one of those???


BWWWAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!

Ed

 

actually, the whole chassis tweeks and flexes under its own weight... so you WANT that sag in there... have the car sit like it normally does when its sitting on the street... then re-enforce it..

otherwise you're holding the chassis in a tweeked position......

 

(laughs) Ed, aside from a few hopped up '89 TTA's, I haven't heard of any.

I'm more worried about wear & tear over so many miles, and all the body rot on my car. In case any of you have a high-speed connection (for pics) and want to see the rust on my car, visit https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=108890 . Nope I still haven't replaced the quarter panel yet. I think my only opportunity is if I can buy a beater car for $100 and drive that while I fix my '86.

Is there a way to check that my car hasn't sagged out? Would I have to get measurements from a frame shop or collision manual? I'm assuming I could measure from each subframe tie point to the ground, and if the ground's level, those measurements should be within a certain spec... ?

Thanks for the tip on the angle finder, ede- hey, maybe I could sneak up on a thirdgen in a parking lot and compare it's subframe to mine.

I was doing a search... some guy on here once said he put in SFC's and was able to "correct his ride height". I asked him what he did, but never got an answer back- and now I can't find the message. I wonder if his frame was sagging or drooping somehow, and he somehow found a way to fix it. Either that, or he was mistaken about something he did. AGH I still can't find the message. Damn.

 

TomP,

Someone will probably flame me but what the heck !!!
I installed SSM SFC on my car a couple of years ago & before they were installed the bottom of my doors hit the rocker panel " enough that I thought that the hinge pin's & bushings needed replaced". After I installed the SFC's the doors fit like like they were new. I installed them the way that SSM suggested 'which is basiclly supporting the car in the middle, letting the front & rear tires dangle, which lets the body relax back to its origional condition. Then mount & weld in the subframe connectors.

Regardles of how you mount the SFC"s, pay attention to the gap between the doors & the body & also in how the doors themselves close. After you have your SFC"s tack welded in double check how they close before finish welding.

Later, Bruce