chassis reinforcement kit
 

does any one have a copy of the diagram showing the placement of the oeices to be welded in. I ordered the kit from paragon a month ago and am still trying to get the diagram from them. does anyone have a copy that they could scan and e-mail to me, or know some place on the net where I can find it. any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,
Brian

I've got the diagram, but no scanner. I might be able to take a digital pic of it though. give me a few minutes.

You don't need no stinkin' diagram. The cresent piece goes way up in the wheel well at the top. The boomerang piece goes right below it. the little dogleg goes right behind the jack receptor and the bigger dogleg goes behind that and meets the boomerang. The crazy looking piece goes up under where the rear suspension trailing arm bolts at either end. It is formed by pounding and welding making it conform to the body as it runs back under the arch where the boomerang and the dogleg are. Kinda makes a box effect right there as it is still horizontal and meets the dogleg at right angles. You have to bend almost everything as you go except the cresent. Don't be afraid to tack it in there and beat hell out ot it. None of this is discussed in the directions I got. You'll have a bear of a time forming the crazy piece into the concave area that allows the rear suspension shaft to clear. We all did and I bet none of us got every inch of the metal all the way up in he concave. Don't heat it to bend it, beat it.

follow what milt said, it's a lot more informative than what's on my diagram. I can hardly read it due to a very poor copy job.

What do you notice after the chassis stiffening kit is installed? I'm about to go under the knife, errr, welding torch and have bee thinking about going ahead and doing a little chassis stiffening while I'm at it.

Thoughts on the Stiffening kit?

Anyone put in a version of the Brad Meyeur clam shells?

James

James, I haven't driven my car yet and when I do, I can't compare for you the difference because I haven't driven a 914 in some time. But, the car does flex due to its design (Targa). When one puts bigger torsion bars and hard shocks on the front, the back is, IMHO, the tail of the dog, wagging all over the place. This would produce unpredictable handeling and make suspension tuning difficult. For example, if you take the time to corner balance the car and set up sway bars for understeer/oversteer, you need the chassis to stay rigid so that the settings don't change under the varible load conditions of cornering. braking. etc. The chassis kit and/or a roll cage will aid in this. I think the clamshell is unecessary on a healthy (rust free) car as the kit undertakes the job of stablilizing the rear suspension console and shock mount area in relation to the longitudinals and floor pan. If the longs are damaged by rust, then the clamshell should be incorporated. Come to think of it, the clamshell eliminates the jack recptor (or you put it back on top of the clamshell) and would eliminate the forward most piece of the kit. The clam would tie into the rest of the kit nicely. Something to think about for V8 coversions anyway.

Shoot an email to Sam asking for pics of where the kit goes. He should still have the photos I took of the photocopied instructions I have.

--DD

i purchased a chassis stiffening kit from automotion a couple years ago. the directions were a total joke. they recomended using tig welding. the plates have holes in them where you fill in with weld. you have to weld the perimitter of all the plates also.it is almost impossible to weld the upper plate area unless you cut out the fender and weld back in. it is not a large area so i let that area go unwelded.this took me about 40 hrs prep. time and 11 hrs welding using mig. tig would have taken much longer. some rust repair was done also. before the kit was installed the car did not handle very well and the the rear wheels rubbed on the wheelwell. it made strange noises under hard cornering. i put #140 springs and poly bushings and new wheel bearings. it now handles very well and predictable and my girlfriend says that it is a very solid car.the car should last a long time and it just feels safer. the cost for this job was well over $1,ooo, with most of the work done by myself.

Milt,

Don't you have a cage in your car? Do you have the shock towers tied into it? If so, is the stiffening kit really required? I would think it offers superior stiffening compared to the weld in plates. The drawback is space lost in the cockpit and tubes through the dash and engine bay.

I have a street car and have also wondered about the value of the stiffening kit (weld in plates discussed above). A cage is not completely practical for a street car.

Mike

Cage, yes. 8 point, no. POC rules for V classes discourage penetration of either buckhead. If you do that, you will run with the big dogs. I gotta run with the pupies unless I stuff my 2.7 six in there. And even at that, I'd have to make it a 2.9 with new high compression pistons, twin plugs and Webers. That and with the hardware to convert, I'd need another 10 grand. F...that. I'll buy a 911 before I put 10 large more in this car. I'll let you guys know soon what it costs to build a car from the ground up when you do ALL the work your self. I'm estimating I've got 4 grand in it and around 500 hours.

Let's do the math for fun. At Brad's shop rate, that's $47,500 in labor plus parts and a roller car ($500) Grand total=$52,000!! Now let's slap that six in. $62,000. I'll sell it for that if anyone wants it.

Didn't think so.

LOL, Milt, BTDT. I bet some of us are driving around in $200,000 old cars if we really did the math.

There is a reason that the factory Cup and GT cars are becoming quite popular in club racing lately...for $75-125K you get a relatively new, Porsche-built, sorted car, that will be worth about the same when you go to sell it (unless you blow it up or stuff it into the concrete).

BTW - my cage is 8-pt but inside the cabin. You're correct that anything beyond that sticks you with mod points. I am right on the line for V4 as it is, and may have to ballast the car; trying desperately to stay out of V3.

Chris, I'm in V3, Keep doing the mods and join us. The more the merrier!:D

Mine has clamshells and the GT kit and it was rusty. It is not yet on the road (almost) but when it is raised on the hoist it is clearly very stiff compared to a good, non reinforced car which flexes noticeably. I made the GT kit myself for free using templates made from a 'boughten' one. Regarding the bracing at the suspension console - it may help to cut that and weld pieces in place rather than trying to bend the entire thing.

another question?
 

first thanks for all the input. second, i just finished my trailing arms and was laying pieces for the chassis kit there are 20 pieces. (4 of each) i thought there were only 10? did they send two in the same box? if so any need a chassis kit.

BH:p

BH,

I'd be interested.

David

IMO, there are several places on the 914 that need stiffening.
The area that this kit reinforces is not at the top of my list.

I got a kit with the project I bought, looked it over, looked over where it went, then figured what it would take to do it right.....like cut away the quarter pannel for access (remember, this is an opinion). As I see it, some of those peices need to be butt welded to each other and not to the underlaying metal......the plug welds take care of that.

So, if done properly, you get an area from the suspension mounts to the trans mounts that is stiffer in verticle load, only. Do I need that?

In this area, the suspension consoles cry out for stifffenng, but the kit only does a partial job of that and doesn't get to the console areas that really need it.

I got 50 bucks for it (complete with "directions"....hah) at a swap meet.

Brad Mayheur's (sp?) clamshell kit looks like a better deal to me.

I did my own thang and crawl under the car after every AX to give "things" a thorogh inspection.

I did buy a cage, tho:D

JP - I agree with you.

I was a stress analyst on the F-16 in the past, so I think I have a feel for load paths. The chassis stiffening kit does not appear to address a critical area (and what it does is in the wrong direction as JP said).

The clamshell kit and some other reinforcement in front of the trailing arm console would be much more beneficial in my opinion. Of course if you are really that serious, you should probably have a cage, so the point is mostly moot.

Anyway, that's my $2 million (it would be 2 cents but I work for a government contractor ;) ).

What is the clamshell kit you guys are talking about? I'm going to do a complete rebuild of my rear suspension in the next two weeks and don't want a case of "shoulda,coulda" after I get done. I assume it reinforces the ear connections for the trailing arm which is one of #1 goals so I'd appreciate any info and where to get it.

I believe that they are talking about the longitudinal reinforcement/replacement kit. The aft end of this kit starts to get into the area where the longitudinal curves upward, which is one of the stress points. More of the kit reinforces the area under the rear corner of the door opening, which very definitely is a stress point.

--DD

From my understanding, the clamshell kit can be used ofr Long repair, but it would also benefit one with good longs, stiffening the chassis, since it is fairly weak in that area. I have had it in the back of my mind to do this for the 6 as something which will increase the longevity of my car.

I wish I had the money/time to get the peices here so I could combine this work with the rear console repairs. Parts are on the way!!!! Hopefully repaired before Thanksgiving.

And off topic - I got a note from DMV today. My new plates are in:

EIN 9146

James