strengthening for rear coilovers

[bieransri]

could someone explain why and how the rear mountings are strengthened for rear coilovers? cheers:thumb:

[valver500]

Ive just seam welded the joints imediately around the shock mounts and around tyhe inner wheel arch if thats any help.

[bieransri]

is it desperately needed, will be keeping back seats in,

[craig green]

When you have coilovers, the rear spring is no longer there to support the weight of the car. As std the chassis leg & beam take the weight (force) between them. If you fit coilovers, the whole damper is now supporting the cars rear end weight, the inner arch & top mount(in the boot) isnt designed for this, so you either have to seam weld & or strengthen the material the arch is made up of or to do a better job, cut out the inner arch & turret through the chassis leg & inner arch to create a structural mamber to support the top of the coilover & weight of the car.

I'll dig oot some pics of mine.

[craig green]

is it desperately needed, will be keeping back seats in,

NO. But it is a better job & you will also need to create some room between the coilover & inner arch as they are much fatter than the std damper. Usually people just beat the area with a hammer. I dont find this acceptable + my car had rotten rear chassis legs.

Another must-do is to strengthen the lower shock mounting on the beam as again, this isnt meant to hold the cars weight.

[craig green]

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c323/turbocraig/NovaGSi-WIP_pics/Turret_1.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c323/turbocraig/NovaGSi-WIP_pics/Turret_7.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c323/turbocraig/NovaGSi-WIP_pics/Turret_4.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c323/turbocraig/NovaGSi-WIP_pics/Turret_8.jpg

Hope these give you an idea. By fitting the turrets you can move the coilover body inwards so it doesnt foul the wheel/tyre + the back end is now reinforced to bear the weight of the car. Looks trick too. I had these turrets made up from sheet steel but I would suggest you buy purpose made ones off the shelf for an Escort mk1/2 & mod them to fit (easier).

[Philsutton]

Ive never strengthened the rear turrets. Mine have always been stripped out and hence have no weight over the rear anyway, but they do all get abused. Quite frequently get some air on bridges lol, TBH ive never seen the rear turrets break or damaged in anyway due to coilovers. Only things that normally collapse on the novas/corsas are the spring platforms but thats will be irrelevant.

[craig green]

Ive seen overly dropped rears pop the rear inner arches to peices. I dont doubt that you can get away with not doing it but people ask in order to do a proper job... Ive just given my opinion on how not to do a 1/2 ar$ed job.

[bieransri]

hmm, may take the seam welding option as i need the car most days, and need the option that will take least time. which part exactly of the arch/mounting need strenghthening and which part of the beam as im a little unclear of the exact places

[draper]

Ive never strengthened the rear turrets. Mine have always been stripped out and hence have no weight over the rear anyway, but they do all get abused. Quite frequently get some air on bridges lol, TBH ive never seen the rear turrets break or damaged in anyway due to coilovers. Only things that normally collapse on the novas/corsas are the spring platforms but thats will be irrelevant.

so do you just bolt them in place of the shock then ??

[craig green]

The beam on the lower shock mounting. Its just a loop of tin with the bolt through it.
In the boot you should see the various skins the inner arch is made up of.

[Martin]

Craig were can i get a pair of those turrets?


is there anywere else that needs strengthing on the rear?

[craig green]

My turrets were made for me as a 1 off. You can buy them from Rally stockists for rwd Escorts, they fit with a bit of cutting. As I also said, reinforce or weld on stronger bottom shock mounts on the beam & if you have never seen the grpA plating kit, there are some reinforcement wedges that brace the beam mounts where it pivots on the chassis legs. Ive yet to weld mine in.

[simonmarsden]

which coil over kits offer rear coil overs on novas then? as all i have seen are front coil overs and rear lowerin springs and uprated shocks

[Stoo]

AVO EVO kits have coilovers all round!

Think im gonna turret my rears!

How much are the turrets craig?

[R1CH]

GAZ coilovers are spot on, not badly priced either, i've got them on mine.
Idealy you need to strengthen the mounts but you dont need to turret them, i thought the main reason for people turreting the mounts is so can move the shock inwards (toward the middle of the car) so you've got more tyre clearance & also so you can get it lower (make the shock mount higher) whlie still having a decent amount of suspension travel.
I just fitted mine in the origional position & seam welded around the mount, then added an L shaped plate from the top of the mount down to the floor, this was also to give somewhere to mount a strut brace. To be honest i would've liked to have turreted the mounts but this was one of the first jobs i done on my shell (about 2 1/2 year ago) and didn't fancy chopping it about again when other folk started turreting them.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y221/ricmetcalf/Nova%20build%20pics/Nova%20-%20Prep%20and%20Paint/DSC00370.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y221/ricmetcalf/Nova/DSC00921.jpg

I strengthened the beam by welding some plates either side of the origional mount.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y221/ricmetcalf/Nova%20build%20pics/DSC00283.jpg

What size wheels / tyres are you wanting to run ? I'm on 15 x 7 with 195 / 45s ET45 and theres about a 2 - 3 mm gap between the tyre & arch, tyre & spring.

Rich

[SRlew]

r1ch that looks a tp quality job!!

im doing mine. im just going to get some turrets out of 'retro ford mag' or somthing, always see a few sets in there from different companies etc.