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Rear shock relocation

24K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  Bruce Compton 
#1 · (Edited)
The rear disc brake set up I am using necessitated the drivers side shock be moved from its stock location. I had two options, move both shocks inboard and behind the axle or move the drivers side forward of the axle. Moving inboard was my first choice but that location interferes with the running of the exhaust over and behind the axle. So with only one option left the design process was started.

To move the lower mount I ordered spring plates for a 67 Camaro from Detroit Speed and Engineering. The 67 - 69 Camaro and 68 - 79 Nova share the same rear end design, but the 67 Camaro was the only model that had non staggered shocks. The 67 plates were just right for moving the lower mount forward of the axle.

This is a photo comparing the stock plates with the ones from DSE. Besides relocating the shock position they are a much heavier construction. I also made the switch from 1 u-bolt and 2 t-bolts per side to 2 u-bolts per side.



The upper mounting area wasn't going to be as easy. The stock mounting location isn't all that impressive as far the amount of metal the factory used to anchor the top of the shock. It is two pieces of thin sheetmetal and an 1/8" thick mount plate all welded together. I was using 1/4" x 2" steel strap for the bracket which is not quite twice as thick. The second factor was to modify the body as little as possible and it ended up only one 7/16" hole was going to be necessary.
I thought that using the existing mounting area for the main attaching point would eliminate the needed for major modifications to the body. This is the first design that was made from a cardboard template, it would have worked fine but I did not care for the way it hung below the contour of the sheetmetal, plus it would have required long bolts and spacers. I also realized it did not need the second plate originally part of the design.



A week passed as I thought there just has to be something better looking I could do to mount this shock. I realized with the tire on it wouldn't be visible but it just wasn't what I wanted. The first thing was to remove the extra plate that was intended to reinforce the area that shock bolted to and then to contour the bracket to match the shape of the body. There was also going to be some type of fastener to secure the forward end. This is what ended up being the best design for the needed strength and shape I was happy with.



It fit the body well and mounted the shock at the same angle and installed height as the passenger side.

A new hole location for the forward mounting point was marked and drilled to install a blind nut. The blind nut is a threaded insert that is installed like a rivet. It provides a threaded hole when there is no way to get a nut on the end of a bolt. This is the tool used and a photo of the installation.

The blind nut is on the left side of the photo and the stock mount area on the right.





The following photos are of the install of the shock to the bracket using the hardware supplied by QA1, the spacers used to position the bracket where it was needed and the install into the car.









It will be a few months before I can road test the car but I am confidant it will be fine.
 
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