L-body camber plate install

[sy2206]

Hey guys,
I been working on this camber plate project for a little while, and finally got it finished up last night. I'm running Rich Bryant's camber plates, which are awesome, but we all know the stock L-body strut towers really provide us with some limitations. The large "lip" in the center really makes it tough to get in there adjust, and also limits the travel/adjustment of the plate.



Here's the setup I'm going to be running, I think you guys will like it. I prototyped this all on a set of junkyard Omni strut towers, so I can practice the process on something else, before cutting a 5" hole in my car.

Step one. I made a "locating ring". This lays over the stock strut tower, and allows me to accurately mark the extra bolt hole locations, and also the center hole. The new center hole is 5". I can just bolt this in place, and scribe the center hole in the paint, so I know where that needs to be. This could be done without the ring, just by measuring, but I feel as though this is more accurate. It's tough to lay this all out of the strut tower with that big lip in the center.


Step two. Cut out the center hole to 5". I did this by using a cut-off wheel to get most of it out of there, then used a die-grinder to finished it up. Once this is all opened up, the strut tower is now flat.


Step three. I know some may disagree, but in my opinion, if I'm going to remove some material from there(which may remove some structural rigity), something needs to go back in it's place. I made this part at work, we'll call it the "bottom ring". The bottom ring is 5" OD, 4.25" ID, and is .125" thick. This will sit right in the new 5" holt in the strut tower, and will be flush with the strut tower on the top and bottom. The strut tower is .125" thick, and is made up of two layers on steel.


Step four. Weld the bottom ring in. You can see I put a .080" chamfer(angle) on the top outside edge of the part. This allows for easy welding, as it gives the weld a place to go, and also allows better weld penetration down into both layers of strut tower steel. Once this is welded all the way around, grind the weld flush. (No pict).

Step five. Grab the ring that came with your camber plates from Rich. We'll call this the "top ring". You can now lay the top ring down, and it will lay flat on the strut tower. I'm going to weld this piece on also. Thats the strongest way of doing it, without a doubt. This will sandwhich everything together, provide the most strength, and give it a nice clean finished look. I will be welding this in around the inside and outside diameters. If you look, you'll see the bottom ring and top ring have the same ID, 4.25", so they're flush to each other. This makes it difficult to weld, so I opened up the ID on just the top ring by .25". This will create a .125" ledge or shoulder all the way around the ID, and give a nice easy spot to weld, without decreasing the ID of the 5" hole. These first two picts are before this mod, second two are after. In the second two picts, you can see with the "top ring" opened up from 4.25" to 4.5", it gives a nice little area to weld, all the way around, between the bottom ring and top ring.




Step six(optional). Weld on strut tower bar tabs. If you're planning on running a strut tower bar, you might as well weld the tabs on now, seeing as you're going to have to repaint this area anyway. You could also run a bolt-on style bar(or no strut tower bar at all), so I would not say this step is necessary.


Step seven. Repaint the strut towers.

Finished. Here's a side by side with a stock one.




UPDATE!!

Here's a pict of this setup installed on Mike Wah's '86 GLHS #168. Looks great Mike!!

["Top Fuel" Bender]

looks good !
I talked to Rich about the strut brace idea when we made the one batch
great idea

[Keito]

I thought you bought a hole saw?

[black86glhs]

Maybe it was a little too big? Either way, it looks great.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk

[sy2206]

I thought you bought a hole saw?

Yeah, my original plan was to cut the 5" hole with a carbide tipped holesaw, but that didn't work out so great. It chattered and broke off all the carbide in the first 20 seconds, lol. A high speed steel hole saw would have worked better then the carbide tipped one. Either way, even with the centering plate for the holesaw(to keep it located properly), it's too tough to keep it steady and make an accurate hole. In the fifth pict, the first one of step 2, you can see four small pieces of metal. Those are the bottom layer of the strut tower, and the big lip that gets cut out is the top layer. There really isn't a whole lot of material that needs to get removed. It took me a lot less time then I was expecting to just go in there with a diegrinder and clean the hole it up. So I'm pretty well convinced at this point it's faster to just clean it up with a nice sharp diegrinder bit then screw around with the hole saw. If there was an inch of material that had to get removed, that would be one thing, but seeing as there's not much there to remove, it's just quicker and easier to grind it out. You could do like I did on this test piece, and cut the majority of the material out with something else, then just go back in and clean it up with the diegrinder. You could probably take the majority out with a plasma cutter, cut-off wheel, or maybe something else.

Maybe it was a little too big? Either way, it looks great.

No, I had a nice 5" Starrett holesaw. I thought it was a good idea, until I tried it. See above. ^ LOL.

["Top Fuel" Bender]

next time , drill thru a block of wood first (2x8") then bolt that down, using it as a guide
works good for drilling holes without a pilot

[sy2206]

next time , drill thru a block of wood first (2x8") then bolt that down, using it as a guide
works good for drilling holes without a pilot

I had a setup better then that. I had a steel plate with the same 4 hole bolt pattern in it, and a .250" hole in the center. I bolted that up from the bottom, and that gave me a centering or locating hole for the pilot drill of the hole saw. The problem is that the strut tower isn't 100% flat, so when you start to drill, the hole saw is only cutting on one side, not all the way around, and it kept wanting to walk all over the place and wobbling. When you're cutting a large diameter like that, with a hand held tool, it's tough to keep it very sturdy. With a high speed steel holesaw, you might be able to get away with that, but when it wobbled and walked around, it tore the carbide tips right off the holesaw, so it was all over for me.

I then took that plate, and milled the center hole from .250" to 5", and that is now my locating ring shown in my first post.

[168glhs1986]

I hope to be the first to install this setup. You don't know how bad the stock camber plate install looks until you put your method side by side for a comparison. Nice work Mark.

[black86glhs]

Yeah, my original plan was to cut the 5" hole with a carbide tipped holesaw, but that didn't work out so great. It chattered and broke off all the carbide in the first 20 seconds, lol. A high speed steel hole saw would have worked better then the carbide tipped one. Either way, even with the centering plate for the holesaw(to keep it located properly), it's too tough to keep it steady and make an accurate hole. In the fifth pict, the first one of step 2, you can see four small pieces of metal. Those are the bottom layer of the strut tower, and the big lip that gets cut out is the top layer. There really isn't a whole lot of material that needs to get removed. It took me a lot less time then I was expecting to just go in there with a diegrinder and clean the hole it up. So I'm pretty well convinced at this point it's faster to just clean it up with a nice sharp diegrinder bit then screw around with the hole saw. If there was an inch of material that had to get removed, that would be one thing, but seeing as there's not much there to remove, it's just quicker and easier to grind it out. You could do like I did on this test piece, and cut the majority of the material out with something else, then just go back in and clean it up with the diegrinder. You could probably take the majority out with a plasma cutter, cut-off wheel, or maybe something else.



No, I had a nice 5" Starrett holesaw. I thought it was a good idea, until I tried it. See above. ^ LOL.

Damn. I thought it would have done better. Either way, looks awesome. I started to cut mine then stopped. I want to get the plates trimmed to fit around the existing strut tower brackets in the car. plus, I didn't have gas for the welder when I was putting Rich's coilovers on earlier this year.

[sy2206]

Damn. I thought it would have done better. Either way, looks awesome. I started to cut mine then stopped. I want to get the plates trimmed to fit around the existing strut tower brackets in the car. Plus, I didn't have gas for the welder when I was putting Rich's coilovers on earlier this year.

I was originally thinking the same thing for my dads car, which already has the strut tower bar tabs welded to the towers. Then I figured, why not just trim off the existing tabs. That way I can get all the camber plate stuff in without having to work around those stupids tabs. Once the plates and all the other stuff is welded in, then weld the tabs back on the top(like what is shown in my original post). I think it would be easier to remove the tabs, then put them back on, then try and work around them.

I'll bring all this stuff to the meeting on the 15th so you can check it out.

[black86glhs]

I see what you are saying. The main reason for doing it on mine is that they have a bottom plate that is welded to the tower. If it was just the two uprights, it would be easier.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk

[BadAssPerformance]

Nice work!

[minigts]

Well that is pretty impressive and nice engineering. I personally just adjust the lip with a dremel to remove an area where the top adjuster sits could be cambered in all the way and I can access all 4 bolts holding that in place. Nonetheless, that looks really good and would be something I would do to my other Charger when I start working on it.

[Keito]

Darn, when you showed me the saw, I thought I really want to see him chuck that in a hand drill and try to
hold on to it.
I should of told you to get me a vid.

[rbryant]

I had a setup better then that. I had a steel plate with the same 4 hole bolt pattern in it, and a .250" hole in the center. I bolted that up from the bottom, and that gave me a centering or locating hole for the pilot drill of the hole saw. The problem is that the strut tower isn't 100% flat, so when you start to drill, the hole saw is only cutting on one side, not all the way around, and it kept wanting to walk all over the place and wobbling. When you're cutting a large diameter like that, with a hand held tool, it's tough to keep it very sturdy. With a high speed steel holesaw, you might be able to get away with that, but when it wobbled and walked around, it tore the carbide tips right off the holesaw, so it was all over for me.

I then took that plate, and milled the center hole from .250" to 5", and that is now my locating ring shown in my first post.

Nice writeup.

I did mine with a 4.5" holesaw and just a 3 hole piece of 1/2"x.125" aluminum scrap. I started with two holes in the strip for the stock holes and then just found the center of that for the mandrel. I pre-drilled the mandrel hole and then used an extra long mandrel on the holesaw so that it was past the cutting part of the bit. That way it never enlarged the stock hole and all worked well with a simple hand drill.

I used a 4.5" hole saw from lowes on the body of the car so that the surface wasn't even with the 4.25" plate so there is a place to weld to. So my setup is similar except I didn't do as good of a job by welding in a new bottom ring. I also still need to weld the top rings to the body (along with welding the seams on bottom side of the tower tops).

BTW my newer design for the BC coilovers actually solves most of the adjustment problems by recessing the bolt holes below the plate top. The rings are still available for people that want them with the recessed bolt tops and they are still recommended for people that are pushing the cars hard.

IMO cutting the lip off from the towers makes the car both looks better and makes the car stronger once you weld in the rings. These cars weren't made for higher rate coilover type spring rates so the towers should be reinforced when using them just to be safe.

-Rich

---------- Post added at 12:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:05 AM ----------

looks good !
I talked to Rich about the strut brace idea when we made the one batch
great idea

It is definitely a good addition.

For the strut tower bar to work best it should have a double bolt connection so that it can't flex.

The strut bar from a side view should be 00======00 with two bolts on each side. that way it can't "hinge." That means the tabs should also be doubled. The problem is that you can't use a simple thread in end on the bar and do that without something custom. But if people are making custom bars they should just bolt on to to the tops of the towers without the hinges.

It is kind of nit picky but it will make for a slightly better strut bar.

-Rich

[Skibbe]

Has anyone tried removing the folded over lip of the shock tower top piece (Outside of the shock tower now) and put a weld bead on it? Seems like that would also help cleanup the look of the towers on an L body, but I haven't bit the bullet yet.

[zin]

Nice... I'll have to re-read it when I have more time!

Mike

[sy2206]

Thanks for the comments guys. I added a couple picts to step five. These two new picts show the top ring opened up to 4.5" which provides a nice area to weld around between the two rings.

[sy2206]

Updated. I added some strut tower bar picts/info to step 6, and added a "installed" pict from Mike Wah's car at the bottom of the post.

[Keito]

Where did you get the parts for the strut brace?