# Rear shock mounts in need of repair - How?



## bkellis1 (Jun 30, 2009)

I'm in the process of swapping out my old air shocks for regular shocks, but when I removed the old shocks, I find that the upper shock mounts in the frame are worn out. On both sides the holes show stress fractures, the holes are elongated or some of the metal is already missing. Anybody ever have to repair something like this and how did you go about doing it?


----------



## Goat Roper (Oct 28, 2014)

Man that area is hard to access to grind clean and weld it up.
I would probably grind some washers to fit the top and JB weld them in and then one on the bottom holes and sandwich the metal between them when I bolted in the new shocks.
The shock perches on most cars are not engineered to carry the load of the car and air shocks are notorious for tearing them up. 
That is all I got, maybe someone else will chime in with an easier fix.


----------



## ALKYGTO (Mar 29, 2010)

With the stress fractures there is no easy fix here. I would say someone good with a TIG or MIG welder could reinforce this with steel washers or better yet a fabricated plate you can bolt the top of the shock to.


----------



## bobagto (12 mo ago)

those bolts are a pain because there is another layer of sheet metal just above. assuming it's a similar thickness/strength and is attached to similar parts of the car - have you considered just drilling the holes further up into the sheet metal above, getting some longer bolts, and using some cylinder spacers (metal bushings) to keep the shock mount in the original location?

please see my assumption above - it may be a big one. i have no idea why the designers didn't do this to begin with (access through inside body or trunk) and that top piece of sheet metal may not be preferred for some reason.


----------



## GTOJUNIOR (Aug 7, 2011)

I once had a similar issue where we couldn't get the bolts out on a '67.
While not the ideal solution for purest we cut clean access holes just above the upper shock to access from the trunk.
When done we used a pan plug to cover them when done. These are not seen with the upper matt in place which makes any future access a breeze. 
This may make your issue a little easier?


----------

