these things require more work than money, really. you just need some good metal working tools. you will need a welder of some sort, i have an infamous $90 arc welder. it can run on 115 volts or 230 volts and run 70 and 140 amps respectively. a pipe cutter would be good, a sawzall with a bunch of spare metal blades, a disc grinder with a few spare cutting and grinding discs, some clamps to hold work, maybe a bench vise and a bench grinder too.
you could probably build up your frontend in a weekend, but it would be very labor intensive. plan on working on it for two weekends. keeping a good pace and having all necessary tools and parts, you could do all these procedures in two weekends.
these apply to a ball-joint frontend but most can be applied to king&link.
take your front end off your car!
detailed description of how to remove frontend here- shock tower bracing
two things need to be done. first, run a weld around the seam on the spot welded shock towers.
second, fabricate a triangular piece of steel plate (gusset) that fits between the top of the upper torsion tube and the inner part of the shock tower. it should be as big as will fit without interfering with the car body sheetmetal, or simply take your favorite hammer to beat that lip up so a bigger gusset will fit. make a template out of cardboard while the front end is still on the car to be sure of the fit. also, weld a 2" by 7" rectangle of 3/16" steel onto the inner part of the shock tower first. then weld the gusset to this so the shock load is distributed over an area stronger than just the thin shock tower metal.
an option here would be to also fabricate gussets that go between the lower part of the upper torsion tube to the shock tower and the upper part of the lower torsion tube to the shock tower. i have had the joint from the lower torsion tube to the shock tower break because the metal had become brittle. gussets strengthen the joints.
- tie rod strenghening
The stock tie rods are hollow tubes that can bend and leave you either stranded or with a really funky alignment.
The tie rods can be strengthened by putting a metal rod inside. The straight section from the original anti-sway bar can be used, you should remove the sway-bar anyway so you have independent front suspension. For the short rod a 5 inch length is about right. A 20 inch length is about right for the long tie rod.
With the rods off the car, unbolt the clamp at a tie rod end and unscrew the end counting the number of rotations the it takes to come off, so not to lose the alignment. Shove the piece that you cut from the sway bar into the tie rod and twist the end back on.
To go a step further, you could get a piece of steel tubing to slip over the tie rod and weld it on with plug welds (drill holes in the over tube and fill in when installed).
- steering box mount fix
i have had my steering box come loose. it usually happens when i hit a tree or stump with a wheel. the box comes loose because the tie rods are strengthened. if tie rods are left stock they will bend before the steering box comes loose.
look at your steering box, notice how it clamps on? you can weld a couple of bolts on each side in the gap between the box and the lower clamp. the bolts prevent the box from rotating or shifting from its original position. don't weld the bolts to the box or you won't be able to replace it when it wears out!
- spindle (steering arm) gussets
with your tie rods stronger and your steering box more secure, the next weakest thing is the tierod ends and the steering arms on the spindle (what the tie rod ends attach to). these can be strengthened by welding a gusset in the curve of the arm.
- lifting
the front end is easy to lift, all you need besides a welder is a way to cut the torsion tubes neatly. a hacksaw or sawzall is probably not the best way to do it. i found a pipe cutter lying around, so i used that. start by scribing a straight horizontal line through the center section of torsion tube. then cut out a 4" wide section of the tube and rotate it between 1/8" and 1/4" upwards so the torsion arms point down more (and will raise the car up). don't turn the center section over 1/2" this will be way too stiff. i turned 1/4". use the line you scribed as a reference to see how much you've turned. i like to leave the torsion arms installed so that the center section remains somewhat in the proper alignment while your rewelding. also, if your beam is bent at all it can be a real pain to reinstall the torsion arms. do one torsion tube at a time unless you are widening the beam as well. widening is something that i'm not doing because i don't feel like dealing with the extra hassle of making a jig and praying that it is straight when you are done.
you could turn the center section 3/8". that might be a little better than 1/4" depending on what shape your torsion springs are in. fresh stock shock absorbers (Gabriel) work well with a 1/4" turn but i'm definatly going to add an extra shock at each front wheel. i can't decide if i'll fabricate mounts for stock rear shocks (Gabriel) or for my long travel KYB's that i have lying around. a 3/8" turn should be accompanied by heavy duty shocks, like KYB's. my old front end was turned like over 1/2", this made it really stiff and took it's toll on the torsion springs. my new front end has fairly fresh torsion springs and the lift that i did keeps the suspension soft enough to absorb the bumps that bounced me around before. the softness has a few drawbacks....i've tagged the ground when in deep ruts. i'm going to make a stout skid plate so it won't matter though. i like the softness, cause i can't really feel bumps anymore and it's really nice for jumping. i got two feet of air last weekend, it went up smooth and came down smoother.
an option here, besides installing a beam adjuster instead of just cuting and turning, would be to make gussets that fit over the front portion of the welds to strengthen them further. i used some old anti-sway bar mounting brackets, the larger one. i cut it in half and hammered each piece so it was cresent shaped, to follow the curvature of the tube. i welded them onto the front part of the tube over each cut and turn weld. if they were on the back side of the tube as well, they might interfer with the mounting cradles that the beam bolts to on the car, so keep those gussets in the front. btw, i have had old cut and turn welds break.
- ball joint rebound stops
lifting a balljoint front end creates some problems, there are no rebound stops. lifting makes the joints be in a fully extended position, the stiffness is always putting pressure on the joints so they will extend more than they are designed for. the joints succum to the pressure, the cages that hold the ball part elongate and become weaker, eventually the joints will come apart and you will be stranded if you don't have a spare torsion arm. the easy fix is to get a new joint each time one breaks. but if you fabricate rebound stops your joints won't be forced beyond their designed travel limits and, thus, last one hell of a lot longer. i've broken two joints that were each less than three months old, that's how fast they can get fucked. (oops, i don't swear much) needless to say,
THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!!!
i've seen the shock tower part be simply a section of L - shaped steel about 2" long sticking out from the shock tower, with the flat side pointing down toward the torsion arm piece. the torsion arm piece has a flat top that comes in contact with the flat part of the tower piece. the torsion arm pieces should be roughly 2"x 2"x 3/16" and have a cresent ground into one side, the side that goes onto the torsion arm , it's going to take some serious grinding to get it to follow the contours of the torsion arm, make sure it doesn't interfer with those lock nuts that keep the torsion arms on! the tower gets a 2"x2.5" piece of 3/16" steel welded on first and the angled piece welded onto that, because it's stronger than just welding it to the thin shock tower metal.
weld the tower part on last. have the torsion arm part on and install a stock shock absorber without the lower bushing of the upper mount on. when you tighten the upper nut, the shock will pull the torsion arm up so the joints aren't fully extended. with the torsion arms in this position, weld on the tower piece. when the shock is removed , the torsion arm remains in a non-balljoint stressing position. make sure both sides are at about the same level, otherwise your car won't sit even.
- bracing torsion tubes to body (front-end supports)
in the larger vw accessory and general off-road stores, there are these torsion tube support kits. i got a kit at a popular off-road supply chain in southern california when i was down on my trip to mexico. i got a lower tube support kit, the upper tube kit can't be used with a stock gas tank. you could probably just fabricate these pieces but the kit was only $25. the kit has two tubes with brackets that attach to the lower torsion tube and to the pan. support tubes prevent the beam from bending if you hit something hard with it.
the piece of metal on the beam that has the adjustable steering limiters is in the way, the lower 1.5 inches must be cut out. this can then be tied over to the vertical part of the beam with a piece of metal, to give it the rigidity it had before.
the flat piece of metal below the master cylinder must be notched at the corners, so the support tubes will fit and bolt into the body mount bolts. the support tubes can also be welded in for extra strength.
- front clip bracing
all you need to do is scrape off all the undercoating and putty on the seams and weld over the spot welds. there are a number of seams on the front clip. consider boxing in the frame head or welding extra 1/8" thick strips over the origional welds. also, you could run 1" steel tubing from the frame head to the front end supports, triangulating, to provide more structural integrity.
- shocks, dual and otherwise
KYB Gas-a-just. thats what you need. make sure you get the proper length because if they are too long they will bottom out and limit your upward suspension travel - not a good thing.
i tried to visualize dual shocks up front, i think it is possible, but you would have to have a very strong shock tower or a full cage to attach the extra mounts to. just something to think about.
UPDATE:"clamp on" coil over's (COCO'S), coil springs that fit over existing shocks are interesting. actually they are pretty nifty if you find that turning your torsion tubes 1/4" is not quite enough stiffness (turn 3/8", it's better). i now have a pair over my gabriel's. they give me just the right amount of extra spring rate. i wouldn't use COCO'S on any expensive shocks, because they tend to warp the shock housings. DO NOT attempt to just use COCO'S for lifting instead of cutting and turning. the clamps would have to be so tight that the shock housing would warp so much that the shock would not function properly and be completely destroyed. so, COCO'S are useful for getting a little higher spring rate and suspension stiffness. some folks i know have COCO'S on each shock, that's 6 in some cases.
Sandlizrd's baja page has a section about welding. have a look over there too.
