Long stiffening kits Options

[ahdoman]

Does any body make a stiffening kit that can be welded to the outside of the long?

[marksteinhilber]

The longitudinal is designed as a box section beam with thin walls, doubled where reinforcement is needed. The firewall and the floor pan add sides to make another type box to make the car stiffer from a torsion standpoint. All of this connects the various suspension mounts, engine mounts, and shock towers together where primary loads get applied. If you weaken critical areas where the firewall ties in, and weaken 1,2,3 or 4 sides of your box longitudinal with rust, you get our standard sagging 914.

How to repair: Fix all rust weakened or holed areas with new steel. Try to make structure at least 90% as strong as original.

How to then strengthen for track or AX: Add Engman kit inside cabin and add overlay or additional layers of steel to the box on the outer longitudinal. Consider the additional kits from Maddog, Patrick, and others to add these layers between the structural attachment points for suspension and engine. Even the inner and outer firewall are important for torsional stiffness. Don't add more weight than needed! If you add weight low, remove some weight higher up.

Kits are easy, but I got a quartered car. It died so that mine can live!

Mine had big holes in both sides and bottom of longitudinals, both sides. Cali car. Hell holes were not rusted out.

Rusted out sections were surgically cut out one or two at a time while car was supported at six points including rear of trans, door gaps were checked continually. Each hole was then inserted with new steel with full MIG butt welds. Then overlayments were added on outside and inside of longs, and inner lower firewalls got an extra overlayment. Layers are added with fillet welds along the edges and rosette or plug welds to tie the layers together to carry the load evenly between them. Inside the box, I added flat bar that ties the suspension console, engine mount, firewall, and almost three feet of the longitudinal box together on the bottom of the box longitudinal. This flat bar is tied to the bottom of the longitudinal with continuous edge welds and rosettes. Car is taking some time, but it needs to be done right while it's stripped down. I'm 230 lbs. I can jump up and down on door sill and door gap doesn't change. I'm also a Mechanical Engineer with degrees from MIT, and I specialize in the design of welded steel ships and tankers....