Just wondering if the condition of the springs/shocks will have any affect on installing SFC because they will be weld on, and i know the rear shocks are in bad shape

 

No

 

what kind of shop would i take the sfc to so they can be welded in, ive called several and only 1 said they would for $88 an hour @ 3 hours, this a good deal?

 

If you pull the seats out and lift up the carpet before you take it in, there's no way it should even take them an hour to do it.

 

you have to remove seats and carpet to have these welded in?

 

If you have a set that runs along the pinch weld at the sides of the car, like Spohn's, you'll need to lift the carpet to keep it from melting or burning. You'll need to take the front seats out to lift the carpet.

 

If you weld them in following the instructions there is no need to lift the carpet.

 

well, possible, but that might be a little risky....it is recommended to remove the carpet (you can just roll it back all the way towards the console/middle of the car). Just to be on the safe side, b/c the heat is very intense from the welder...pulling the carpet back wasn't that bad really...a bit of a pain but it cam out and went back under the molding without any real problems

 

also...you might be able to save money by having someone with a drive on lift weld them on...it will take less time b/c they won't need to adjust for ride height

 

Depending on which set you have, the instructions might tell you to lift the carpet.

 

My shop removed the seats and rolled up the carpet but not enough, they still burnt my carpet installing the Spohn SFC's.

Spohn's stuff is great, but the installer still had to tweak them a little to get them to fit my car perfectly.
Cost $450, took them about 6 hours.

Took a lot more time than they expected but they did a perfect install. Incredible difference in the car, especially since it was a vert.

They also paid to have new carpet installed in the car for their mistake in not getting the carpet out of the way and burning it.

 

What did they have to tweak?

 

They didn't quite line up straight with the frame of the car, so they had to do a little bending to make it just right.

I'm sure they could have just slapped them in the way they came, but I took it to a really good shop here in Phoenix and the guy that was doing the install is pretty meticulous about his work.

It was a lot more than most people spend to have them installed but it was worth the money to know it was done right.

 

I'd be inclined to believe that your frame wasn't perfectly straight.

 

i recently had the Spohn's installed and the guy originally gave me a price of 100 bucks...but he didn't know that the height had to be adjusted (unfortunately he had a frame lift so the install was more exspensive ($260.00) it took him 5 hours to do it (including all the setup time)

 

Might be, but I think that was just the way the car was made.
It was an 88 IROC with only 40,000 original miles, no accidents.

 

I went to the local muffler shop. They use drive on lifts. And I only paid $60. iIt took the guy about an hour, he has done tons of these and knew exactly where to weld. Didn't mess with anything in the interior either.

If anyone in southeastern Michigan needs a place to get em welded on let me know and I'll point you to the place.

 

Find someone in your area that installs them if you can. You dont want someone to learn how to weld them in on your car. I didnt remove anymore seats or touch the carpet and there is no melting. It costed $215 with lower control arm relocation brackets. He did have to drop my y-pipe to get to the passenger side sfc. These were the spohn sfc and lca relocation brackets.

edit: I wouldnt put sfc on the car if it sags to one direction. Personaly if you are going to change the ride height. I would do that before you put the sfc on.

 

i just called performance shop to have them installed and the guy said they use a frame style lift i asked him if the car needed to be on its own weight and he said no, hes done many cars with no problems, will this work? i dont want to install them and have problems later this is the only shop i have found in the area that will do it, should i wait and try to find a shop with drive on lift or does it really matter?

 

I had Alston sfc welded in and with those there are no removing of the seats or lifting of the carpet.
KOLKANE the guy you talked to said he could use a frame lift to lift your car and that wouldn't matter, well I would der dissagree. I am no master mechanic BUT I would think you would want the car sitting in its natural state to have these welded on. I wouldn't have anything like that welded on unless it was a drive on lift. the guy that weled mine on was a little surprised though b/c he said the frame must be galvonized which I guess makes it a little harder to weld so that could account for so guys running into longer weld times than expected.

 

I don't think the frames were ever galvanized, certainly not in 1984 anyway. It shouldn't make a difference either way.

 

wouldnt you figger the frame would be in its most perfect state if it was sitting on a frame lift? lifting it up having the weight on 4 points around the car? id think if you welded them on while it was at ride highth and ride stance if your frame is already messed up, you just made it permanently messed... im prolly wrong though, it just doesnt make sense... and for future reference, im sure you could probably put 4 jackstands under the car (two on the rear axle and two on the front A-arms) and it would be like ride hight w/o a drive up lift

 

If the frame isn't straight on the ground, it never will be in the air, no matter how you lift it. That's why the frame should be checked before the SFCs are installed.

A frame-lift lifts the car by the frame, not by the suspension. The suspension is unloaded and the car can flex in an unusual way. Even if the car is perfectly straight when it's on the ground, it won't be when it's lifted by the frame and the suspension is unloaded.

 

well with all these different responses im even more unsure what to do now, frame lift or drive on lift, replace shocks/springs first or not, to me it makes sense to replace worn out shocks and springs first and have the SFC installed with the car on its own weight before everything is locked in by the SFC (btw the SFC i have are full length and bolt through the control arms, made by CGS chassis)

 

Do it on a drive-on lift. Don't worry about the shocks and springs before you do it.

 

thats what i would do as well...that way its just safer to know that the car won't flex/twist on a frame lift....

 

you should intstall sfc on an alignment rack so that the suspension will be loaded and the car will be level in the air. If they do it other wise they dont know what there doing.

 

He can get away with starting it on yhe ground then welding the whole thing up in thew air. You want the car to sit how it will be 99% of the time though when you weld it up.