z28onTweenkies

Like the topic says, tomorrow i am finally bringing my car into the welding shop to have the spohn sfc's installed. The shop charges an hourly rate of 65 dollars and i hear they are a great welding shop, they make springs for the big firetrucks and stuff. Anyways, im going to remove all of my seats and wedge some wood between the carpet and the floorboards, thats not hard, but the part where it says to unbolt the lower control arm and let it hang scares me. How would i do that? How many bolts is it? Will the spring be prone to falling out? What if the shop doesnt want to do it, can i do it myself in a decent amount of time? Also, how many hours should this shop take to weld the sfc's? Im thinking no longer then 2 hours at the most. The instructions that came with the spohn sfc's were o.k., but those two smaller bars that come with the sfc's, what do they do exactly? I want to be able to tell the guy who is going to be welding exactly how to do it, but i need to know exactly how its done first. This will save me on labor costs. Thanks for any help in advance

grafx

droping the LCA's like the instructions say is no big deal, as long as you don't unbolt both at the same time, otherwise there's a chance of the diff shifting which would make reconnecting the LCA's difficult. He should have the car on a ramp or stands under the diff not the frame, so don't worry about the springs falling out. Your SFC's should have came with instructions on how to properly load the frame prior to installation, if not you can go to Steve's site and get them there are also several pics of how they fit.
All that's required to drop the LCA is the removal of one bolt that attaches it to the frame, and you don't actually have to let the LCA drop down all you have to do is pull the bolt out and bolt the SFC back up with it.

The most important thing make sure the guy has a drive on lift or at least ramps for the front end, stands are alright for the rear. Some of these guys may be good at welding but are idiots when it comes to following instructions. I stayed while I had mine done just to make sure it was done properly. The guy had a problem figuring out how to install the shorter metal piece that attachs the SFC to the frame on the driver side. The slanted end goes against the SFC and the flat against the frame. So he gets under there and starts welding it in and after he finishes I get down under there to see how it looks and the damn thing is the opposite of what I told him. It will still work but it's not the way it was meant to go. Fu*king assh*le pissed me off. So keep a good eye on the guy doing the work.

racereno

Good advice grafx. I'm gonna file this one.

LottaBallsCamaro

That is why you should go to a shop that has done them before.

grafx

He has installed them before. Just not Spohn SFC's. I called all over looking for an experienced welder who has installed SFC, and he was the only one I could find. I wasn't about to let an inexperienced person start welding these on my car, I thought I was getting someone who was experienced with this sort of thing but instead I get an idiot who can't follow simple instructions. I even had the instuctions there with a bunch of pics I printed out from Steves site of the installed SFC's. I knew how they went in also because I had trial fit them to my car prior to taking it in. I had done everything I could think of to make it a simple job for the guy, right down to scribing the marks on the rails where the seperate "Y" pieces go, and still Jello head couldn't understand. Then the guy has the nerve to tell me to recommend the shop to my friends, "Yeah Right Assh*le" I should have just done them myself, but I don't have enough experience MIG welding, at least not enough to feel comfortable welding on my car.

Steve89GTA

I had to cut my 89 LCA bolts both at the frame and rear end. It took me 2 hours to cut all four because of the rubber in there. Anyways, good luck.

92blue

iTrader: (1)

Are you guys talking about welding in a set of bolt-in subframe connectors, or the weld in style. I wasn't aware that you had to do anything with the lcas to get the spohn sfcs installed. What is the reason behind loosening the lcas?

z28onTweenkies

ok, everything is all done with the spohn sfc's, it took two hours to do, and the guys doing it couldnt understand the instructions, and neither could i really. they went to his site and found pics which was all they needed. in the instructions it says to unbolt the lca, cuz on each of the sfc's theres a hole that you have to re-run the lca bolt through, and becuase of this i would think it becomes a bolt-in, weld-in deal but i guess not. anyways, everything went in smoothly, and it made a noticeable difference. no longer does my car sway one way or another, or creak. however, my struts are way blown in the front so once i get those changed out i will totally be able to tell the difference. my exhaust pipe keeps banging up against the little bar running alongside the sfc and it is super annoying. im thinking of using header wrap on the sfc to reduce the noise, or just mount a bracket holding up the stupid exhaust pipe.

fireturd350

iTrader: (8)

I recently just had Spohn SFCs for dual cat cars, adjustable LCAs, and realocation brackets put on at a welding shop. I pulled up my carpet, seats, seat belt reels, and put boards under it (didn't bolt the driver seat back down that was a fun ride down the highway). I dropped the car off first thing in morning. They worked on it all day. I got a phone call next day I went and picked it up, 260 bucks. They said the passenger side piece that runs from the sfc to the center of the floor pan wouldn't fit cause cats were just to tight. They also said they had to cut a little on driver side to get bolt in (just like it says in instructions) and they had to notch the brackets a little bit to get them to fit. Anyways, my driver's side lca is same length as stock one, but the passenger side is all the way contracted. I was wondering if I should take this to an autobody/alignment shop to have them look at to see if anything shifted? I noticed my gas tank must have shifted cause I can barely get the cap off now. Oh, and a day later my rear u joint started to make noise... joy joy.