Chassis Stiffening Kit

[Germain]

Hay all,

914 Chassis Stiffening Kit CH-STF-001

I was looking into this. I currently have the entire underside of my car ripped out. Doing rust repair (or maybe I should say I've done the rust repair). Anyway, I was wondering what this will do for me, how it goes on, and if I really need it. Since the underside is not painted right now, does this kit go on before painting?

What about the boxed trailing arm kit? Same questions.

Thanks.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

The kit goes in the rear wheel well area. It is extra metal that you weld on, adding thickness to that area.

Do you need it? I don't really know. Some cars have had problems with this area, but they are usually raacers or very high-powered street cars with sticky tires and such.

The boxed trailing arms are also metal that you weld on. They go around the arm part of the trailing arm, not the pivot. I wouldn't bother with them, as I don't think they do a whole lot. (The pivot would seem to me to be where a lot of the flexing takes place...) More unsprung weight is not really a great thing.

--DD

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Pelican Parts 914 Tech Support

A few pics of my car: http://www.pelicanparts.com/gallery/Dave_Darling

[DDS]

There may be some pics of the GT kit if you follow the link on my signature. If not, I can send you someething or post it here. I did the six (?) chassis parts, but not the trailiing arms. I made the parts out of 11 ga scrap offcuts from a local fab shop, it cost $0, and took about 2 hours.
I researched the boxed trailing arm thing, and elected not to add that costly weight. You can always do the trailing arms later anyway. NOBODY I corresponded with said that they'd ever had a problem with the stock arms and nobody who had boxed them said they'd do it again. Not scientific, but good enough for me! Mikez (he had done it) also mentioned that the arms can warp from the heat of welding, and should be installed in a rigid jig of some sort to prevent this.


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-- Dave
Pics of my '73 project here: http://members.tripod.com/mike4g/dds73_b4pics.htm

[This message has been edited by DDS (edited 10-19-2001).]

[DDS]

Here's a pic. Not pretty, is it?