I just got my Spohn SFCs in today, ready to install them on my '89 IROC. The only thing I need to do now is get them installed...

First thing is, I don't weld, nor do I know anybody personally who does. So that means that I need to pay a shop to do it. I didn't really know where to start on who to ask, so I just called my machine shop. Of the places that he recommended, I am looking at two options right now:

1. the first guy charges $45.00 an hour for labor
2. the second guy says that he would charge $175.00, flat rate

I have more places to call, but these are the only two guys who even sounded like they've heard of SFCs (most people just gave me the impression that they hadn't even heard of SFCs before). Ideally, I'd like to go to somebody who has worked specifically with Spohn SFCs before and knows what he's doing, but I guess when it comes down to it, it's just simple welding. I obviously don't want to spend more money on this than I have to.

So, I'm just curious, how long do you think it should roughly take (hour wise) to get these things installed? This is assuming that the people doing the labor are proficient with body work and welding. Also, what prep work, if any, could I do to reduce labor costs?

Last, if anybody could recommend anyone in the Dallas area who has done Spohn SFCs before, I'd love to know.

Thanks

 

When I used to live in Houston a few year back Mike's Muffler told me a $100 to weld them in. I don't know if they have shops in Dallas though. I had good luck with them when I was in Houston and they did good work.

 

$150- $200 sounds like a good price for an SFC install. The job can be done by someone with experience in about 2 hours. It depends on how they prep the car for the welding.

 

Cool, two hours was about what I thought too. In that case, I'd be best off going with the guy who charges the hourly rate; hopefully get it done for less than (or around) $100.00 . From what I can tell, the only prep work that needs to be done is just pulling up the carpet.

87IROC350: Checked YellowPages.Com and there's no Mike's Mufflers here. (But there's like six of them in Houston!)

 

Drive up here and I'll put them in for $150!!!


If you want to save a bit more money, you need to do a little more prep work than just pulling up the carpet. If you have the time, test fit them under the car and mark where the welds will go, take a rotary sander and remove paint in those areas If your SFCs are powdercoated, remove the coating in the weld areas also. It'll make it that much easier and will be less time for the shop to charge you for. To ease in the lifting of the carpet, remove your passenger seat. Here's a prep pic during my install. You can see the "stitch" weld areas that Steve recommends and you can also see the area where the driver's side brace welds onto the front subframe toward the lower center of the pic:

 

Here's the area at the LCAs:

 

Finished product:


Good luck!!!

Ed

 

I'm getting some Spohns soon, but taking them to a shop for installation. Do they come with specific instructions?

-Anthony Helton

 

yes they came with pretty good instructions. from the way of jacking the car up to ensure proper suspension loading, to welding each side up. took me and my grandfather a few hours to get it done. we gave up on his mig welder (it was on its last leg) and used his stick one instead.

 

ebmiller88: Thanks for the pictures!

I've got another question: the instructions say to bolt one end to the LCA bracket and then support the other end with a jack. Well, I would imagine that somebody who works on cars for a living and undoubtedly has a lift would want to use the lift as oppossed to crouching underneath a car on jackstands. How would they go about supporting the SFC with a jack if it's on a lift?

I know, it's probably the worker's problem and not mine. I just want to know in advance, because that could have an effect on labor time.

Thanks!

 

Some shops, especially muffler shops, have these really tall "tranny" style jacks that extend to hold the pipes under the car while they weld them up. Maybe you've seen them before.

Ed

 

Here's more pics of my install including the braces I made to fill the gap between the floorboards and the SFC tubing.

Ed

 

Driver's side bracing:

 

Welds of Y brace.

 

Welding the LCA area:

 

Passenger side. I'm pointing to where the passenger tube butts up against the front of the subframe. Weld the hell out of it here. I also added bracing to both the upper and side areas. Also pictured are my new SLPs ( ) and my cracked lower GFX ( ) :

 

Finished passenger side cat area:

 

Great pictures; thanks.

In fact, just yesterday, I went to about five shops locally just to price what it would cost to get these things installed, and I took your pictures with me (as well as those from the Spohn site) to show them what they should look like installed.

One of the places I visited just blew me away. This guy builds race cars from the bottom-up and, in showing me how he would weld the SFCs on, he took me to a Porsche that he installed a roll cage in. He uses a different method of welding--forgot what it was called (it wasn't MIG or TIG)--that produces higher quality welds. I did notice that the welds on his roll cage were a lot "cleaner" than most that I've seen.

Anyway, when I showed him the pictures of the installed Spohn SFCs, he seemed a little suspicious about the one small SFC that connects between the transmission crossmember area and the larger SFC. One of them said specifically to weld the smaller piece on top of the larger one. He didn't seem too satisfied with that and said that he would probably want to bend the bar to make contact with the floor board for extra support. I didn't really understand why it needed to be on top myself, but I guess that it would probably start to "gel" once everything got put in.

Does welding the smaller SFC on top of the other provide for better contact between the floor board?

Also, when I visited one of the other guys, I asked him about pulling up the carpet (knowing that I needed to do it anyway--I was just going to make sure he was going to as well). To my surprise, he didn't really think that it needed to be pulled up because he said that he wasn't going to weld to the floor pan anyway--he was only going to weld to the pinch weld along the ground effects. Personally, I thought that you had to weld to the floor boards.

Are you not supposed to weld to the floor boards when installing these things?

Sorry for all of the questions--I just haven't met with too many people who sound confident with this installation (most are like, "yeah, I guess we can install SFCs"). And the one guy who definately would have been confident was going to be too expensive.

Thanks again for the help!

 

I had Steve weld in my SFC's and he didn't pull the carpet up. No burns or anything. A good welder can do it with no problems...

 

Steve welded in the SFC's on the my formula too. His dad held the carpet up with a screwdriver just to be on the safe side.

To address the qeustion on the passenger side Y-brace that goes from the top of the passenger side SFC to the transmission crossmember area. It is on top of the SFC so you can have room for your cat convertors. If the guy wants to bend stuff to make it work, more power to him. Just so you know, most SFC's on the market do not include those Y-braces. They do help though. The Formula is a lot stiffer than my Z28 which as SSM SFC's which were not installed properly and I am in the process of cutting them off so I can regain my door gaps at the bottom fronts of the doors.

Go with the guy that builds roll cages. I used a shop similar to that when I had my Sphon SFC's installed in my dads 92 Vert.

-Snowyz28

 

I would love to go with the guy who builds the roll cages. I have no doubt that he would do an excellent job. All of the other guys looked like "shade tree" mechanics after seeing this guy.

The thing is, I think he might actually do *too* good of a job--he quoted me 4 to 5 hours of labor which, at his rate (good as it seemed), would just be too expensive for me. I could tell that he really didn't do any work on street cars (based on the pictures of his work that he showed me and the cars in his shop), so I think that using him would be like using a big hammer to hit a small nail. Plus, he said that he wouldn't be able to get me in for another month.

I think the guy I choose will do a decent job. I don't question his workmanship that much--just his knowledge of how to install *these* SFCs. He said that he's done the installation on Mustangs before, but I want to make sure that he knows what he's doing with my SFCs. Hopefully, he'll just read the instructions and be fine.

Although, after talking with him for a while, I brought up the fact that I have a gas tank leak, at which point he told me that he wouldn't install the SFCs until I got that fixed. Of course, I understand why--I just didn't think going into it that he'd be welding close enough to the tank that it would be an issue.

So, it looks like whatever I do, I'll need to be dropping my gas tank first.

 

Pull up that carpet if you DIY. You can easilly set the car on fire if you're not careful. Don't ask me how I know!!

 

LOL, its happened to me too,LOL! but i was removing a cat. with torches, i guess that heat sheild doesn't reflect alot of heat! it didn't catch on fire just started smoking, threw a big bowl of water on it.

 

Hey guys, is there any exhaust clearance issures on a single cat. car? From the pics it doesn look like it. -89IRO

 

No clearance issues on a single cat car.

As for the car, I finally got it on the road....and what a difference! My experience may not be as drastic as others may have been since I have a totally new suspension, but all of the door rattles and creaks are gone. It really feels like a solid car and you can feel the springs and shocks doing their job for a change. I wish I would have done this mod earlier.

Anyone in the area needing them installed, let me know

Ed