Thread: Thoughts on stich welding strut towers etc..

i noticed now that gaps in areas on the body panels are growing as the car gets older coupled with stiff ass suspension, im sure it will only get worse as time goes on. So ive Been doing some research on this, and seems to have pretty good results on unibody cars, my main concern was stiching the shock towers. and some areas around the rear. to help out with everything. Any thoughts experience on this? TIA

On the top of the towers other places underneath

Did you by any chance replace your struts with stiffer struts? What you have as gaps are stress fractures. I worked 31 yrs designing stationary and off shore oil rigs. The metals used in todays cars is not designed to carry the stress these stiffer struts load on to them thus, the metal fails or cracks. You can weld the gaps to close them but other spots will crack. If it were me I would weld the gaps, then weld a piece of steel to cover the inside area of the tower COMPLETELY no less than an 1/8th thick. By welding this piece inside the tower it will disperse the load down the tower rather than all the pressure pushing against the top of the tower. Every vibration that is absorbed by your tires goes right up the strut to the top of the tower. Look at the tower. You can bend the metal with a pair of channel locks. I'm new here,new GP owner and not as knowledgeable about cars as these guys are but I know metal structuring.

if you have gaps that get bigger you have other problems to look at. factory spot welds are super strong.

Originally Posted by lewis1952

Did you by any chance replace your struts with stiffer struts? What you have as gaps are stress fractures. I worked 31 yrs designing stationary and off shore oil rigs. The metals used in todays cars is not designed to carry the stress these stiffer struts load on to them thus, the metal fails or cracks. You can weld the gaps to close them but other spots will crack. If it were me I would weld the gaps, then weld a piece of steel to cover the inside area of the tower COMPLETELY no less than an 1/8th thick. By welding this piece inside the tower it will disperse the load down the tower rather than all the pressure pushing against the top of the tower. Every vibration that is absorbed by your tires goes right up the strut to the top of the tower. Look at the tower. You can bend the metal with a pair of channel locks. I'm new here,new GP owner and not as knowledgeable about cars as these guys are but I know metal structuring.

Excellent, I've been reading a couple of articles about it and what people have done about it. These are OEM struts BTW just on a coilover setup. Looking back in pictures it appears there's always been random gaps, guess I just now paid attention.once I get around to it I'll be stitch welding and adding some bracing around the towers. I'll post some pics up later on today

you cant bend the strut tower plate with channel locks, with a bfh yes

I dont know why your bothering with doing this, why not just weld in a 12 pt roll cage and call any flex a day.

Cause its my daily driver and welding cost me nothing but time plus my local metal shops have barrels of metal scraps from huge projects they do for free to take.

once again..... there is no point.