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I just purchased SPOHN subframe connectors for my 1984 firebird, and it looks like there are only weld points on one side of the bar. They do look like the product from the picture. But I don稚 see how this is supposed to work. I知 a novice and I知 hoping the frame guy I知 taking this to tomorrow knows what the hell to do. Any and all tips and suggestion welcome, thank you
Mine fit very well. Stitch welded along the pinch at the lower rocker panel. At the rear they 90 into the rear lower control arm mount. The front has cross braces to tie into the front subframe.
Put a jack under the rear control arm mount and the entire side of the car lifts pulling both side tires off of the ground.
Seem pretty stout to me.
^^ What he said. Mine did wonders for my Vert. Stitch welded along the run. Takes a lot of welding and you need to find a shop willing to do it. These aren't my pics but the same job.
Last edited by Tootie Pang; 02-28-2019 at 08:22 AM.
Thank you guys so much, this helps a lot! I am going to a frame shop today to get a quote, and I will present these pictures for a guide. I also read that the cost may be in the 200-400$ range for labor. I’m hoping no more than 200$..
There's a lot of prep work involved and the installation can be time consuming. Powder coat removed where the stitch welds go. Clean up the pinch weld where the floor meets the rocker and hope that this is solid enough to accept the weld and not severely rusted. Not to mention getting all of the components square and level. I helped manage a small chassis shop at one time and my car was on the rack most of the day.
Not really. A round tube is more rigid than square or rectangle tube. Probably the best application of them all except the DSE
I do not like anything Spohn. There are better options out there, especially the rear lca area. Other versions have a pocket to support the lca area vs these that have nothing, just thin flimsy sheet metal on one side.
I believe they need to be welded on while car is bearing it's own weight, not jacked up by frame.
Also careful with carpet / welding = fire inside....
I've had bad luck with every Spohn purchase EXCEPT this one...
Thanks for all the responses guys. I’m a newbie so all tips help out. I went back and forth on which brand to purchase, I just read a lot on this forum that most people preferred a round tube SFC, and a lot of people recommended SPOHN, and some said that if they did it all over again, they would’ve chosen SPOHN. I hope it works out ok. I finally found someone out here to put these on for a decent price, I went to one mechanic in south hollywood, he quoted me 1500$-2000$ for installation... I couldn’t f____g believe it...
I think 2 to 3 hundred will do it.
You will notice the car is much stiffer, especially going up / down driveway curbs...
check out Founders Performance for Rear Lower Control Arms and Panhard Bar, if you're just doing street, go for the 3 way poly joint.
If you car is lowered, get adjustable ones, non adjustable if stock height...
Replacing the stock rubber torque arm bushing with a poly one will also help... Probably get all that done for about $250 in parts, basic mechanical stuff you may be able to do yourself, will make the car feel / ride and hook up noticeable better...
Depending on the condition of the car (and the skill sets of the installer), that job could easily eat up a day of shop time. Don't forget that at the very least the sill plate has to be removed and the carpet pulled back. That means the seat belt anchor has to be removed as well. The cross bars at the front? Mine came delivered as square cut pieces of tubing. I had to tube notch the outboard ends and bevel cut the inboard side for proper fitment. If the exhaust /convertor is in the way (passenger side front where there's an offset built into the SFC) then you have to deal with that too. You could easily burn up 2-3 hours before even starting the installation itself. All these hours add up. The OP could offset some of those costs by doing as much prep work himself.
My estimate (FWIW) and I'm guessing at the $/hr figure is 6-8 hours. At 120/hr it doesn't take long to reach 1000 bucks. Of course if its a small shop (or scooter perhaps) then the overheads are less and costs also.
Not being a dick here. Just saying be prepared.
surprised to see people hating on Spohn products. Im liking the cross member/ torque arm and wonderbar I got from them. The general thirdgen.org consensus is that Spohn SFC's are one of the better designs as well. I'm about to order them myself so I can finally drive my car enjoyably with the new engine I put in.
Unfortunately I purchased a Spohn K-member, trans crossmember, and torque arm. The K-member is horrible, it is not even symmetrical. They made modifications to make the wrong parts work, it is absolutely ridiculous. The trans crossmember is similar to a lot of other vendors, but still a large and bulky design. Torque arm has a big bulky one size fits all mounting bracket that dose not work well either. Everything they make is poorly designed. Unfortunately the OP already surrendered his money and getting it back is probably not going to happen. Had he posted before buying I would have recommended anything other than Spohn. Other vendors offer better products. As I said in an earlier post a full lca pocket is available from other vendors. It is just a little better of a design for an outer sub frame connector. I am bent because Spohn got my money and it is totally my fault for not researching before I bought. If anyone has yet to buy from Spohn look into a different vendor with a better product.
Thanks for all the responses guys. I知 a newbie so all tips help out. I went back and forth on which brand to purchase, I just read a lot on this forum that most people preferred a round tube SFC, and a lot of people recommended SPOHN, and some said that if they did it all over again, they would致e chosen SPOHN. I hope it works out ok. I finally found someone out here to put these on for a decent price, I went to one mechanic in south hollywood, he quoted me 1500$-2000$ for installation... I couldn稚 f____g believe it...
That's what I thought.. You just need to find the right shop. Maybe a hitch shop. Finally found a "heavy" exhaust shop and the guy needed the work. He charged me $400 and my job isn't half as good as the pics I posted. But it does work.
I do not like anything Spohn. There are better options out there, especially the rear lca area. Other versions have a pocket to support the lca area vs these that have nothing, just thin flimsy sheet metal on one side.
That "flimsy sheet metal" is 3/16"~ thick steel- you obviously have no idea wtf you're talking about.
There's not a damn thing wrong with the Spohn connectors, it's a good product.
The car is in pretty smooth condition, garage kept for about 10 years, only has 69,000 miles on it.. I found a shop in Burbank, they are currently installed on the car, I should’ve taken pictures, I’ll try and get underneath there tomorrow and shoot some pics, but you guys are right, it feels really solid. It took some driving around to notice, but I can definitely feel the difference. So my next question is, is there supposed to be another piece that welds to the middle of the frame? I noticed in one of the pictures above, there was a center piece weld. What’s the next piece to subframe connectors that gets installed?
I had them installed in my car along with the lower control arms relocation brackets, for around $400. I notice a huge difference at the track (homestead), very happy with my set.
Sorry for the late responses guys. He followed the instructions that came with the connectors, I believe it was stitched every 3-4 inches? I apologize, I left the instructions at the shop. The car feels a lot different, much more solid. I dropped the car off at the end of the day on a Thursday, picked up the car next day by 11am. I知 guessing it took him 3-4 hours. I am really pleased with the guy that did it, he said he had done many sub welds in the past.. Burbank has a big classic car community. I wish I had done slightly more research because I discovered inner subframe connectors made by Alston. I would致e preferred to get the inners and outers done at the same time. That is my next installment here in a couple weeks. Here's a pic of the car
Last edited by Jcampus2095; 03-10-2019 at 12:44 AM.
Looks to me like they did a good job installing them. I installed mine years ago, and it made a huge difference, especially on a T-top car. I don't have tubular ones, but square stock type Spohn ones that was the predecessor to the ones you have - and they weigh a lot more than the tubular ones. Mine do tie in with the rear lower control arms. Same bolt that holds the lower control arms on goes through the connectors and then you swing the connectors up along the inside of the rockers/pinch area and stitch weld every 4-6". I did mine myself lying on the garage floor....it sucked!
Sorry for the late responses guys. He followed the instructions that came with the connectors, I believe it was stitched every 3-4 inches? I apologize, I left the instructions at the shop. The car feels a lot different, much more solid. I dropped the car off at the end of the day on a Thursday, picked up the car next day by 11am. I知 guessing it took him 3-4 hours. I am really pleased with the guy that did it, he said he had done many sub welds in the past.. Burbank has a big classic car community. I wish I had done slightly more research because I discovered inner subframe connectors made by Alston. I would致e preferred to get the inners and outers done at the same time. That is my next installment here in a couple weeks. Here's a pic of the car
That is a real nice looking car, clean and my favorite color combination. I had the Alston inners bolted in and was satisfied with what they did. Keep us posted on what you pay and where you go for your installation. I am very interested in your total cost for both types of connectors.
Ok will do. I was informed on another chat site that it wasn’t advisable to get the inner subs if I planned on doin an LS swap. They said the inner subs would get in the way of the exhaust and transmission crossmembers.. does anyone have any experience with that? I may have to start another thread with that question..
I went to Morse Muffler.. See Tom. He is an awesome guy, and just all around easy going and a straight shooter.
here is the address:
1022 W. Burbank Blvd. Burbank,CA. 91506.
Thanks for following up and glad it worked out. Which shop did you use? I may want to swing in and have him put more welds in mine. I'm near Burbank.
I went to Morse Muffler.. See Tom. He is an awesome guy, and just all around easy going and a straight shooter.
here is the address:
1022 W. Burbank Blvd. Burbank,CA. 91506.
There are the Alston inners and Spohn LS swap T56 crossmember. This is how I went about dealing with the interference issue. I didn't want to cut up my nice new crossmember, in hindsight the Spohn junk should have been cut. You can see that if you were to have the Alston inners installed soon and a LS swap in the future, you would not have to remove all that much from the crossmember. I will admit I am not 100% sure that these parts mate up on the car exactly like I have them set up in the picture, but it is close.
There are the Alston inners and Spohn LS swap T56 crossmember. This is how I went about dealing with the interference issue. I didn't want to cut up my nice new crossmember, in hindsight the Spohn junk should have been cut. You can see that if you were to have the Alston inners installed soon and a LS swap in the future, you would not have to remove all that much from the crossmember. I will admit I am not 100% sure that these parts mate up on the car exactly like I have them set up in the picture, but it is close.
ok gotcha. The last gentleman that suggested against the inner subs made it sound like I absolutely should not get the inners.. I plan on doing an LS swap, but I am realistically about 9-12 months away from that.. I wanted to reinforce the frame and work on the suspension before anything and I can only do that in increments.. Would you suggest installing the cross members first?(I知 still kind of a newbie to this). I was also thinking of going with a different manufacturer for the crossmembers.. I really appreciate you posting pictures man, thanks a ton, I need all the advice I can get!
I went to Morse Muffler.. See Tom. He is an awesome guy, and just all around easy going and a straight shooter.
here is the address:
1022 W. Burbank Blvd. Burbank,CA. 91506.
Thank you! Back in the day I used Enoch's more than any other but I paid them all a bunch of money trying different exhausts on my 5.0s
ok gotcha. The last gentleman that suggested against the inner subs made it sound like I absolutely should not get the inners.. I plan on doing an LS swap, but I am realistically about 9-12 months away from that.. I wanted to reinforce the frame and work on the suspension before anything and I can only do that in increments.. Would you suggest installing the cross members first?(I知 still kind of a newbie to this). I was also thinking of going with a different manufacturer for the crossmembers.. I really appreciate you posting pictures man, thanks a ton, I need all the advice I can get!
The crossmembers differ depending on what engine and transmission you have. Same engine and just different transmissions can require different crossmembers. If you are concerned about interference just bolt the frame connectors in for the time being.
02-27-2019, 05:26 PM
