can anyone suggest a good way to reinforce the rear top shock mounts on the mustang. its thin sheet metal that is contoured in an odd shape. my driver side is starting to "push" the metal up about 1/4 inch into the car and id like to fix it before it gets worse.

i was thinking about welding a flat piece of metal plate that would spread the load to a wider area but like i said the shape is not perfectly flat. hmmmm what to do?

 

I would weld the cracks and take some wide washers, contour them to the metal and weld them on as well to reinforce. IMO that should be plenty strong enough to handle whatever.

 

luckily there are no cracks. its just pushing the metal upwards. so the washer idea is similar to what i was thinking. i can also weld some flat metal plate on the otherside of the chassis. (like from inside the cars cabin)

 

with this it's whatever works really. The more metal you slap on there the better.

 

You don't have air shocks or coil assisted shocks on the car do you? Those can really cause trouble, as can a bad shock that's seized up.

Fwiw I have one of the reproduced upper shock mounts leftover from another project and it's not exactly thin so I can't imagine a normal shock causing deflecti or damage to the original? Perhaps a previous owner did the air shocks bit and that caused the crack?

 

my first thought was air shocks... in high school my 72 fastback had them. the shock on the right hand side busted through the floor

 

it just got tired of spending all it's time under the car and decided to ride in style inside the car for a change

 

no air shocks on it. and im pretty sure its not seized up. i just think its metal fatigue over the years. ill be at the car today, so ill take some pics for you to see.

 

a piece of 1/8 or 3/16 sheetmetal will work great. I have a cardboard template cut out in my tool box for when a customer car comes in with that. Also check out the leaf spring plate if they're stock because those will crack and end up breaking too.

 

If it was mine, and otherwise looked "ok" besides being pushed up about a 1/4", I might leave it alone, or if it bothered me I might try "moving" it back into place with a big hammer...

If it was cracked, even a little, I would cut it out and replace the metal. Cracks here mean metal fatigue. Fatigued metal can be welded, but in my experience it doesn't weld very well, and even if you can get a bead to lay down, it will probably break again next to the weld.

BOXWRENCHESARESLOW,,, Welcome to the forum! and... I am addicted to the box side of the wrench....