General Replacing Shock Towers resources

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General Replacing Shock Towers resources

Moose0214

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Dec 22, 2020
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Hello everyone,

New member/first post here. I have a 1977 Spider that I'm needing to either repair or replace my front shock towers. I'm leaning towards replacing them but, cannot find any videos or written instructions on what the process is. If it's a really intensive process, I'll consider doing a more thorough assessment of the damage to determine if repair is an option. There's about 1/2 inch of undercoating etc. on/around the shock towers and I don't really want to remove all of that mess, if I'm replacing them. But, if it's a huge process, I'll consider cleaning the mess up to determine repairability.

Are there any videos/photos/step by step instructions out there anywhere?

Many thanks!
 
It seems that most folks draw the line at either shock towers or body channels as far as when to say “enough is enough” and pitch the body. So, you’re in for a challenge there. Depending on the extent of the damage, I would say repair if at all possible. If you really need to replace, that seems like it would be quite challenging, for 2 reasons. Firstly the access to the entire tower, especially toward the rear looks insanely tight. Also the alignment must be maintained, and if you replace them, you have to devise a way to re-establish those mount points. Aside from building a jig that attaches to the frame and can guide you in re-installation, I don’t see how you’d do it. Once you remove that tower, that mount point is gone. I’m not trying to scare you away here, just offering a penny’s worth of my rather worthless opinion. I would recommend repair if it’s at all possible.
 
Update- since this is a family owned car since it was 2 years old, and it holds sentimental value, we decided to replace the shock towers. I bought the new towers (about $310/each shipped), and we found a good bodysuit that does a lot of old car restoration as well as collision repair. They had the car for 3 days and charged $2300 for all the work (removing all steering and suspension components, remove the old and replace with the new towers, then reassembled the front end). It was definitely a chunk to spend but, the car will be in the family through at least one more generation so, it was worth it.

Just wanted to share it experience/ cost so folks have an idea of what it might cost to "pay it done".
 
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