08/01/08

I busted my passenger side shock, so I figured it was time for an upgrade!

I decided to make a taller shock tower, this allows me to fit a longer shock in the same place.

I built it with a few things in mind:

    I wanted to have the ability to run different shocks, this design should allow me to run multiple kinds of shocks

    I had to make it tall enough to run an upper shock tower brace.

    I still plan to move my axle forward another two inches, so the towers have to work with the new placement

Prep the engine bay:

Here is a photo of my stock 1985 Shock Tower:

I started to cut off the shock towers:

I continued to cut off more steel and clean up the frame rail:

    pieces that were removed

Design stage, lots of measurements.  I actually had to rebuild one of the towers because of clearance problems:

Here are the shock towers welded to the frame.  I plated the frame on the top and side to add strength:

welded

primer paint

black paint applied

I figured this would be a good time to clean up the axle, so I sandblasted it.

  before the sandblasting

during the blasting

primer applied

axle looks much better

I had to build a shock tower brace to keep it strong:

towers built, truck sitting on all 4s

a little bit of testing at night: