Just ordered some Spohn SFCs to weld onto my 85 T/A.

My friend with a 91 Z28 also has some Spohn SFCs lying in his garage waiting to be installed, but is procrastinating because of the cost to install them. He tells me that the place that would install his SFCs charges an upfront fee of $75 just to check if the unibody is straight. If it is, they can proceed onto the SFCs installation but if it isn't, they charge another hourly fee to straighten it out (he guesses around $60/hour). Finally, there is another hourly fee to install the actual SFCs after all that. For a four hour installation time, that's $315 alone... $120 more than the SFCs themselves.

On the other hand, I know another guy running around my town with an 88 IROC who has MAC SFCs on his car. He told me his personal friend who owns a shop in town would install my SFCs for me. He didn't give me an exact price but he said it wouldn't be more than $150 for a complete and correct installation. He also told me that all that other stuff (checking the unibody and all that) was just BS, a shop just looking to make a quick buck.

I'm confused as to what to do. Obviously, I'd like to take the cheaper route but not at the cost of an incorrect SFCs installation on my car. Anyone have any insight as to what I should do?

 

that still seems like alot for some welds.....and Im not entirely sure, but I think it's rather difficult to straighte a unibody if it's not aligned

 

Has your car ever been in a wreck? That would be the only time I would be worried about getting the car itself checked.


If its never been wrecked, have that friend of a friend install them. Myself and a friend installed mine during a weeknight after work. Main thing is to make sure the car is sitting level on all 4 tires... but yet far enough in the air to work under the car. We used 4 of them driveup car ramps.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking. A wreck would kind of worry me but fortunately it has never been in a wreck before.

 

If you can get the car to align to the specs you want, than that is all that really matters. I am not sure what that shop is trying to do, but it does not sound on the up and up. Trust me you do not want somebody trying to flex your unibody car.
As someone stated earlier you want the car supported evenly and by the wheels if possible. You want the chassis loaded the same way it would be if it was sitting on the ground. If you are concerned go have your car aligned, if it aligns with no problems, everything is fine.
I think the biggest tip I can offer is clean all your weld points very very very well. You want to see bare shiny metal. When I put my Subframe connectors in. I had a hell of a time laying nice welds. cause I did not have the metal clean enough. I ended up usually grinding the first weld off and doing it again. Also try not to put alot of heat into one spot at a time. I would tac each location a couple of times and keep working my way around the car until you ar finished. Your strongest connections should be at the front frame member and the rear trailing arm mounts. It doesnt hurt to weld the rocker seam also. I would be leary of tacking connectors to floor pan. It took some plate steel to get a good connection at the front. Hope this helps.

 

Always good to pull back the carpet and insulation too I did but still had a small spot actually catch fire due to insulation on the otherside of the spot weld. Luckily it was a welding shop I paid to do it so they quickly put it out without any problem.

Mine cost around 160 bucks for SFCs, reallocation brackets, and lower control arm installation. I gave them all the instructions that came with the kit and I made sure they would properly load the wheels. My car had even been in one previous accident by another owner. No problems to date.