Heartbreak-broken rear shock mount

Hello all,

I can offer 4 more of these dome replacement parts. They are from another production run.

Price is EUR 45 for one pice.

Please PM if interested.

Ulrich
 
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Stevehose said:
You bet!!



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Wow, does the coupe on the left have a molding on the trunk edge (a continuation of the body side moldings) that has seemed to fall off everyone else’s coupe including mine ??? ~ John Buchtenkirch
 
No, just a light reflection, it seems they all fell off at the factory!

John Buchtenkirch said:
Wow, does the coupe on the left have a molding on the trunk edge (a continuation of the body side moldings) that has seemed to fall off everyone else’s coupe including mine ??? ~ John Buchtenkirch
Click to expand...
 
Dome replacements from Ulrich

pm sent.

In the proces currently to redo the whole rear axle refurb & sill replacement. I am going to switch to Bilsteins as well.
So this thread had me wondering already if i need to someting to the tops.

To me it seems that the failure seems to be linked to the billsteins, either their compressed length being to long ('punching out' the tops), or perhaps due to an increased acceleration of the top of the dome, being to much for the metal. ( i am thinking; stiffer damper means more acceleration; hence the dome has to cope with the same amount of energy in a shorter amount of time = increased pushing force)

Although they look fine now, I don't want to wait for them to fail and get any collateral damage !

As I have the boot stripped bare already, do it right all the way i'd say.
Erik.
 
Shock Tower Repair

Just finished with the replacement of the tops of the shock towers - similar to what Sven did so I won't dwell on the details but have one hint to pass on.

If using a hole saw (pretty much have to) replace the pilot twist bit with smooth rod of the same diameter or you risk an out of round hole that requires lots of work to fit your nice round washer. Also drill out the tower first then measure and make your cap plates to fit.

Existing repair of failing top to shock tower (f ***ugly with multiple plates/washers stacked below)
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New cap plate
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Repaired passenger shock tower
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Repaired driver shock tower
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Doug - simple, nice work. That is a good idea with the rod substitution. The P.O. had quite the welding skills.
 
Yikes, I will be glad when this thread has more posts so I can follow along and not be shocked seeing those welds at the top of this thread. and calling them welds is using the e term extremely generously. please title those with a warning, like. Graphic content, some viewers may be offended.:-o
You must have been very surprised when you pulled yur elephant skins!
 
Thread-link :)

Gosh, Vince, I'm really not a jerk (ask my wife) but I thought that the picture of the welds below is a fair example of why we pull these things apart on the forum. That one picture "could" be worth ten thousand words- or $10,000.00
On the other hand there is allot of praise when the cars show proper work done :)
 
Scary welding

I bought the car in 2004 after a great deal of time and money was spent by the last PO. Who knows when this "repair" was done. If you look carefully at the right side of the picture http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g1...psbdfc80ec.jpg you can see the MIG wires sticking out like hair from the gun while jabbing the cap to try an put enough metal on it to hold together.

I think the real story here is not the hack job of trying to get by with gobs of metal but how the cap itself has fractured around the hole where the shock bolts through http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ps9abe0aba.jpg before thing whole thing started to peel off. That tells you how much force is placed on this part so caveat emptor and have a look on your shock towers.

Doug
 
True that- even if the welds were done nine n' pretty the cracks still would have been there so for sure this reinforcement should be as common as removing the front shock spacers :)
 
John Buchtenkirch said:
Wow, does the coupe on the left have a molding on the trunk edge (a continuation of the body side moldings) that has seemed to fall off everyone else’s coupe including mine ??? ~ John Buchtenkirch
Click to expand...

This side bar ? About the "missing" rear molding -- someone finally spelled it out! I always liked how the Roundies had this full circumference trim. Anyone ever tried customizing their coupe by adding this? Or are we all too stock to try...
I just read all 11 or 12 pages of this thread, and went out and checked my towers. Elephant skins looked pretty cracked up -- like they'd been removed before,.. I finished destroying them and found my towers had been ... sort of repaired. Not trusting their previous work. See if you can tell:
 

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Hopefully Ulrich has some more reinforcement caps to sell you. I think you will need them.
 
Yes, I agree. But I really liked Stevehose's slide-in 98/98.5 mm version - especially how he filled in the (additional ?) holes in the body of the cylinder. Maybe Stevehose could show us how he prettied them up after paint? But I'm already sold on his version; I want to stay away from stressing solely around the top in my repaired version. Actually, I liked the solution the guy came up with way back on page 9 or something; the coming up from under with the flanged cylinder -- "non-welded" version. The surprise I had with the obvious flaw of needing it locked-in disappointed me, but rethinking his solution? Just pilot holing around the existing tower 3/4 inch holes, maybe two rows spaced a few inches apart, and welding them up like Stevehose's welder did his (in addition to the full bead around the top).
And as long as I'm over-killing it all, maybe I'll see how to incorporate an underside bar joining the two new slide-in repair cylinders? Have to see what's in the way...
I bought one of those battery tray rear strut braces from Carl Bennett at Korman (gave me a great deal on front and rear package). Then I read this thread this morning and again laughed at what a great consumer I am; always buying before making a thorough investigation... I still like the battery back there and the looks of strut bracing front and rear. So I'm not disappointed with the purchase. I would, however, really like it if Korman/Carl would produce a kit or chime in about a "Best Solution/Design". Or Sfdon? Sure Sfdon has seen his share of towers repaired and not repaired.
Btw: right before I bought my coupe, in January, I had a '99 Z3 MCoupe -- freekin rocket ship. Loved driving that around our wine country and coast. It handled better than my 911sc! But when the rear differential ripped away from the body hangars, with my 14 year old son in the passenger seat, it scared the sh_t out of me; sounded like an IED went off behind our heads. I was grateful we were only accelerating and at twenty mph when it happened. I had no idea how common the problem was before this happened, and discovered all the problems in forums like this. I found a Randy Forbes kit; a $500 package of reinforcement hardware to weld in, that was apparently the best solution for repair. If we could have one of our vendors create something similar? Maybe I'll PM Randy and provide him this thread link...
Anyway -- I share this history, because I keep thinking about what would've happened to my son and I if it occurred while accelerating through a turn on Highway 1 north of Jenner?! Damn...
 
I just primed and painted them with some silver - nothing fancy, once covered with the elephant skin you can't see them anymore.

I like the peace of mind of the side plug welds along with the top weld.

12doplumbing said:
Yes, I agree. But I really liked Stevehose's slide-in 98/98.5 mm version - especially how he filled in the (additional ?) holes in the body of the cylinder. Maybe Stevehose could show us how he prettied them up after paint?
Click to expand...
 
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