I'm currently installing a new brace, and need a little help.

* Do you install the firewall section first, or the shock towers? -Holes are not lining up.

* Is it true that if you lift the car while the shocks are un-bolted, the springs could pop off?

 

The shocks have notihing to do with the export brace. The brace is attached to the shock tower and the cowl. Not a real brainer. Get the brace on the bolts, then put the nuts on and tighten them down slightly until you get them all on, then tighten them all on.

 

Install it where ever you can first, if you can only get one, get the shock tower sides in.
Then jack up the car and let it sit on stands with the stands on the rear of the front frame rails so that the weight of the motor and the rest of the front end will re-aling the holes on the firewall. If after 24 hours the holes still don't line up, drill new ones in the firewall through the holes in the braces and bolt it in.

No the springs won't fall out if you jack the car up with the shock tower caps disconnected.

 

First you have to set it down on top of the studs coming off the shock towers, those 6 studs (3 each) should line up with the brace. Once those are in there wiggel the back to where the firewall bolts line up. Just put the bolts in one by one until you squeeze them all in. Some of the holes might be tight, but you can still get the bolt in. Put those firewall bolts on losely/snug then put on the bolts for the shocktower. Make sure it fits nice and good before tightening down for good.

This is how I did it I believe, and it seems like the most logical way.

Supposedly the shock towers can move/sag after 40+ years, but I didn't have this problem. People say to solve this put the front end on jackstands, on the farthest part of the frame rail extension, but make sure its still safe and will hold. Leave it up on jackstands over night or for a few days and the shocktowers should go back to the proper position and you can install the brace.

Good luck!

 

Drilling is another 'last resort'. After I got the shock tower ends attached, I used a couple of large tapered pins to twist and force the holes of the export brace to line up and dropped (or even partially threaded) in the bolts. Maybe the holes got enlarged a bit in the process, but again - drilling is a last resort.
Jim

 

1. How dare this noob ask two questions... start a new topic if you want to know about shocks/springs
2. How dare this noob ask a question thats "not a real brainer"

thats your moderator posting up for the new member.... helpful as always... damn but you can come across wrong at times

/done

 

Seems like I attached the shock towers first, then used a BASD (big *** screwdriver) to pry the firewall holes into alignment. Man that was a pain in the rear.

 

Yup, you reminded me of the ole' big mf screwdriver in the hole trick, the big Craftsman Phillips. Then I used the tapered pin.
Jim

 

Hey I like to work smarter, if there is a way that other pepz have done this a lot easier, why not ask? You didn't have to take the 5mins. that it took you to read my TWO questions. For rest that acutally helped, thank you. Yes I'am a "newb", but at some point all of us were.

 

i had to make some of the holes a bit bigger but jack up the car it helps....