here's some fun damage from NNR....I kind of wish the top plate just gave out instead....













Ordering some plate metal today, will have it tomorrow. Just planning on cutting away most of the rear deck and reconstructing the top mount w/the steel plate.

Any other suggestions?

Looks grim Jon. Think thru watcher gonna do. I find around 090 oe 13 gauge is decent thickness for adding substantial strength, maybe 080 will be fine too..

What you see right there is why I go on and on and on about putting a tube around top plates then bringing the back stays and X and a little tube from bottom of main hoop all up to the tube around the upper mount..
Now any force originating in the shock/strut is "resolved" and dispersed into the cage, and the tore-dup sheetmetal you have is avoided. The metal doesn't have to resolve the load, the force just passes thru into the cage..

It all come from seeing how Ford did their rear half of cage a long time ago.. it hit me like "BONG!!!" The cage may never save your life, but in the mean time while waiting for that day, the cage oughtter be able to save the shell's life..

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

^^yeah, I knew it was a week point. I've already done the fronts. That strength improvement project was slated for later this year, guess it got bumped up a bit. Probably keeping me out of mendocino, but we'll see how it all goes this weekend...I'll be doing both sides at once.

I think 13gu is what I was planning on using, and i'll be sure to tie it all into where the cage comes down at that point.

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Jon Burke
^^yeah, I knew it was a week point. I've already done the fronts. That strength improvement project was slated for later this year, guess it got bumped up a bit. Probably keeping me out of mendocino, but we'll see how it all goes this weekend...I'll be doing both sides at once.

I think 13gu is what I was planning on using, and i'll be sure to tie it all into where the cage comes down at that point.

Make an effort to get it done for Mendocino. There are really fun roads up there---did some enduro stuff up there like 35 years ago, good twisty challenge---worth making an effort to run twisty roads.

Its not as bad as it may seem now.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

the shop I ordered from didn't have 13 gauge in stock, just 12ga, or .108"....so I went with that, since I always do things to excess I'm going to rebuild the shit out of those corners.

Uber shitty.. wonder if the rear of my cage would save such a problem (dought it)

that's just a tricky corner of the rally ...

Someone put Subaru badges on a Sentra?

Wow John, didn't know your damage was quite that bad. It should be easy enough to force back into place, reinforce and get it stronger then new. 12Ga should be fine, just a little bit harder to shape. Like JVL said, more cage tubing around the suspension towers.

-Jon

Seen this happen locally, but i feel it was a rust induced issue.

Just out of interest, how are you planning on fixing that? Are you going to cut everything out and just have at it?

or are you going to have someone (bodyshop), hammer/pull/pry the OEM bit back into the correct spot with chassis diagrams/measurements? Then tack weld the OEM bits back into place, and then reinforce.

Fabbing up reinforcing plates, welding, etc is pretty easy.

But getting the holes where they need to be is tougher, and could make the car handle like shit if it's not right.

Quote
Do It Sidewayz
Seen this happen locally, but i feel it was a rust induced issue.

Just out of interest, how are you planning on fixing that? Are you going to cut everything out and just have at it?

or are you going to have someone (bodyshop), hammer/pull/pry the OEM bit back into the correct spot with chassis diagrams/measurements? Then tack weld the OEM bits back into place, and then reinforce.

Fabbing up reinforcing plates, welding, etc is pretty easy.

But getting the holes where they need to be is tougher, and could make the car handle like shit if it's not right.

As usual youse a smrat boy...The only thing bout that is pulling wehn the cage tube are nearby...

There IS some sort of tolerance and cars +- something, so I don't know how down to the 0,5mm it has to be for top mounting position.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

If it is multi link suspension, then not too critical. If it is Macpherson strut, then critical...

Quote
Do It Sidewayz
Seen this happen locally, but i feel it was a rust induced issue.

Just out of interest, how are you planning on fixing that? Are you going to cut everything out and just have at it?

or are you going to have someone (bodyshop), hammer/pull/pry the OEM bit back into the correct spot with chassis diagrams/measurements? Then tack weld the OEM bits back into place, and then reinforce.

Fabbing up reinforcing plates, welding, etc is pretty easy.

But getting the holes where they need to be is tougher, and could make the car handle like shit if it's not right.

yeah....that part I'm going to have to get creative. Here's the plan....

1) jack car up, remove suspension (hopfully the strut/insert isn't borked, still to be determined)
2) remove MOST of the surrounding OEM sheet metal, but leave the critical pieces in tact (so I don't have to mess with holes, etc).
3) try to bang the OEM sheet metal back into place, trying to recreate exactly where everything was...use the undamaged right side to double check key measurements. The biggest 'potential' issue I see is getting the deck height correct, since that's what's mostly displaced.

(I'm really hoping its just a matter of banging the top of it back down into place where it should have been. It doesn't appear anything else was torqued out of place or pushed significantly in any horizontal direction).

4) stitch weld oem sheet metal back into place.
5) cover everything in 12gau sheet metal, and weld into place...making sure significant contact w/current cage plate.
6) add permanent rear strut tower bar between left and right side using 1.75" cage tubing.
7) Any other additional tubes to add? i don't have a bender, but can get access to one.

Here's what it looks like undamaged:



all the sheet metal up front (with the crappy practice welds from 2 years ago) will be gone.

The gusset-like piece in the back (with all the spot welds) will also be removed. Will drop a large plate on top of everything, tie it into the plate up front, build up the back corner (where the gusset will be removed) and will add another large plate on the side (can't see it) where the strut tower brace bar will go.

That's the plan, subject to RallyAnarchy approval, of course.

eeks that like my exact rear cage/ strut tower setup. big plate on that front plan, and nothing at all for the strut top ...

are you going to make top pieces to weld in? maybe i should get a rear strut tower brace (found one for the front that we welded in) for the strut tower support / strengthening

A friend's Subaru rally car had a plate that covered the top of the strut tower and wrapped around the front and the cage tied into that. He punched the strut right through the strut top with no deformation of the shell.
I bet William could cut out some ready to weld and bend parts for Suby stuff pretty easy. Weld along the top then hit with a hammer to get it to bend around where needed.

Quote
A1337STI


are you going to make top pieces to weld in?

yes, I'll do the same thing I did for the front....make a template out of cardboard that I should be able to simply 'flip' over for the otherside since it should be symmetrical.


Grant....yeah, I've seen that damage first hand before as well in a car at Gorman back in 2007. Gnarly damage, but its better than destroying the chassis for sure.