white1991rs

Just had installed these and it wasn't as easy as I expected but definitely worth it. The car feels as solid as a Porsche or BMW.

TallTim

iTrader: (2)

Nice! I have the same ones to install
A few questions if I might...
1. Is that welded in the back too? And along the pinch seam?
2. Did they have to lift the carpet to keep it from burning?
3. Did they have to sand down the weld areas on the SFC and the frame prior to welding?
4. I gather that custom exhaust was far enough out of the way for the front pax side to go in without a problem? That's where I'm stuck on my stock exhaust :-(
5. What type of welder did they use?

Thx!

white1991rs

It bolts in in the back and welds in the front, we didnt lift the carpet, we did have to sand down all weld areas and paint from the SFC and we had to heat the pipe and bend it so it would clear and eventually we dropped the entire exhaust because we were having some trouble. Put in all new gaskets while I had it off but about the welder I'm not sure I could find out for you though.

cIaRmOaCrZo

i have the same sfc, and test fitted it but my exhaust stopped me. i seem to see these for sale everywhere lol, i think because of the similar reasons of trying to install them. im deffinatly going to install mine, its just now i have to wait to be able to afford some dyno don exhaust. i hate seeing these laying around in my garage and not on my car

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

do not install them on a 2 post, you could tweak the car since it arches from the front and rear weight and when you secure the SFCs that arch could stay, giving probs w/ doors locking and such. I see yours are welded, I hope they won't give you issues because of it.

white1991rs

I asked the guy who welded it if all four wheels should be level and he said it would be fine and I was worried at first but now that I've driven it I dont think there will be issues. If the frame were tweaked enough to cause problems down the line I think it would be noticeable now

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

...

Raise the car and support it on jack stands. Because the chassis needs to be under the same load as it is when sitting on the tires, place the stands under the rear axle and under the spring cup molded into the front lower control arms.Make sure the car is stable before working under it.

....

ignore the jackstands blabla but the bold is important

majobis

iTrader: (3)

I installed these on my car and did it on a 'drive on' lift because Camaro Performers magazine featured a Hotchkis install and the Hotchkis tech said: "make sure suspension is loaded". Hopefully no problems arise for the OP.

On my install, after bolting in rear, they were welded afterward. The only challenge was the pipe section. Heat til cherry red then apply pressure to bend it just enough for clearance but also enough to prevent vibration from pipe at idle banging against SFC.

Really, the best thing is to have and study the instructions which are available for viewing and printing on the Hotchkis site. As soon as I drove away from the garage, it felt like my car was now wearing a 'wonder bra'!

white1991rs

That frustrating because I told him the tires should be level which means the suspension would be loaded and he ignored it. Would it be fair to ask him for some kind of discount? I highly doubt he"ll want to take it apart and re-do it.

cIaRmOaCrZo

thats when you have to be picky when having someone else do a certain type of work to your car that you are not able to do, ex: when i took my car to the exhaust shop to get a new y-pipe made, he routed it under my damn control arm instead of under the starter and put the worst crimped looking bend i ever saw. (had to drop it off to go to work) so i had no power as to how it turns out until its done. good thing im a tech and dont let no one work on my cars but me.

grngryoutmyway

iTrader: (1)

That is when you take the car somewhere else. You might be fine, who knows, but that is not the proper way to do it. I would doubt he would give you any discount since he informed you what he was doing before he did the work.

I welded mine in the back as well. Did not do the pinch seams, but I intend to knock them a little closer and weld them eventually.

I used a grinder to clean up the welded areas, there is some kind of tough under coating that would not be good to weld through. Then some black undercoating to seal the welds up.

I pulled the carpet on the edges, but not all the way up. We were careful doing the welds further in on the car, and did not have any burning. This does not mean it won't happen though.

The y pipe is usually a problem, but it can be cut and re routed.

white1991rs

I was pretty pissed when I found out these were installed wrong but I haven't noticed any kind of negative impact. It seems like they're doing their job.

tom86iroc

iTrader: (1)

I have these installed but I welded the back to for alittle extra insurance and the ar should be on a drive up lift so it's level and at ride height and if you weld them it should take the rug up as a precaution for the front and I had to "massage" my exhaust to fit at the bend andd since our cars are unibody the car will flex on a post style lift no matter what kinda condition the cars in

TallTim

iTrader: (2)

+1

white1991rs

Mine were welded on the lift in the picture, we didn't pull the carpet and nothing bad came from it. Everyone's trying to tell me it wasn't done the right way and I understand but you cant feel anything wrong when your driving it so I don't care. It certainly made the car more rigid and better than it was to begin with.

91phoenix

iTrader: (5)

Not to argue with anyone on here because we all know that the suspension should have been loaded but with the car a hardtop it would seem it should have a little less flex than a TTop car. The other question is exactly where the lift pads were placed. if far enough to the front and back then the flex would be minimal. For this reason I will assume he will have no problems.

white1991rs

I actually have T-tops but the lift pads were just behind the front wheels and just in front of the back wheels its kind of hard to tell from the angle of the picture though

UnderCover89TBI

iTrader: (25)

nice job. i found some of these at the swap meet for 100 bucks for a friend since i already had the UMI ones. he got them installed.

white1991rs

nice! thats a pretty good deal

Pat Hall

iTrader: (31)

Yeah, the t-top cars do flex more than a hard top car, but honestly, SFC's are really a MUST-DO mod on ANY 3rd gen! Mine is a t-top car. I put the Alston brand SFC's on mine. Got them from Lon at TopDown Solutions. I put the car up on 4 jackstands, drilled the holes and bolted them in at home. Then I drove to a muffler shop and pulled it in on their rails that are over the pit below and had them welded in both the front and back. Luckily, the Alstons don't have any problem clearing the y-pipe or cat, so anyone who hasn't bought a set yet may want to consider the Alstons instead. And yeah, I totally agree with you guys, the car felt WAYYY more solid after installing SFC's! My t-tops used to creak and kinda pop whenever I'd pull into my driveway at an angle. Now it doesn't flex whatsoever.

white1991rs

Yeah I used to have the same creaking sound and the SFC's stopped it

Mailman818

Cant wait to get mine installed. got them for 100 off a friends brother in vegas after he sold his formula. now i just have to find a shop that has a decent welding job.

Pat Hall

iTrader: (31)

I had mine welded up at a local muffler shop. That worked out great because they have you drive onto rails with a pit underneath, so the chassis is loaded the same as if the car was sitting on regular pavement. Also, most muffler shops use MIG welders, which work out great for SFC's. Just make sure to use a wire wheel or small grinding stone to remove any powdercoating on the edge of the SFC's, and to also remove any paint on the subframe rails where the welding is taking place. You want it to be bare metal where the welds are gonna be. After mine were welded it took a can of spray-on undercoating and used that to protect the welded areas from rusting.

ringo234

Dyno Don welded mine in (Alston's) but did not have to lift the carpet, he just had a spray bottle of water and would weld a little then quench it weld some more quench it until finished and yes, he has a drive on lift.

formula forever

does anyone have a part number on this connectors. thanks

Pat Hall

iTrader: (31)

Yeah, with Alstons it really isn't necessary at all to have to lift the carpet out of the way. I didn't do any thing with my carpet at all when they welded them up, and had no problems with it getting burnt. Different story with Spohns though. Since they're stitch welded to the pinchweld areas, it's a VERY good idea to have the carpet pulled up and out of the way when those are being installed.