Rear Shock tower broken

[Zippy]

Saw this on facebook and wanted to share.
This is pretty nuts.
I'll be upping my time table and making a rear shock tower brace !

21270

[1986stangfan]

Wow!!!

[Old Fart]

So was the car raced or is it from everyday driving?

[ZR]

Seen it happen on a never abused Fox. Upon inspection, only couple or three poor spot welds, bulk of em no where to be seen.

[Zippy]

So was the car raced or is it from everyday driving?
He's on coilovers & drags the car/drives it on the street.

[RedSN]

He's on coilovers & drags the car/drives it on the street.
Pulling the front wheels, the entire weight of the car would be on those rear shock towers.
Been thinking a rear coil over setup for the road course ....assuming the forces aren’t as much, but still pretty high. Any reinforcement kits out there?

[ZR]

Brad has a brace we built for him some years back. Initial install was based around it breaking the rear seat X braces off at the parcel tray plus appearance of a slight kink in the roof above the rear window. In spite of some feeling it was a waste / just added weight, results say the exact opposite.
Richard also has one, installed after his shock tower had broken free and was rattling over bumps. Since Richard did his mods one at a time and evaluated, was easy to feel how much difference that single mod made.

[bbriann]

That is caused by air shocks or coil overs...I had air shocks on mine till recently but I live on boonies where very few bumps and dips in roads.

[Zippy]

Pulling the front wheels, the entire weight of the car would be on those rear shock towers.
Been thinking a rear coil over setup for the road course ....assuming the forces aren’t as much, but still pretty high. Any reinforcement kits out there?

Zippy Motorsports coming out with a brace. Stay tuned. In production.

[ZR]

That is caused by air shocks or coil overs...I had air shocks on mine till recently but I live on boonies where very few bumps and dips in roads.

Couple or three we've seen, no coil overs or air shocks etc, standard stuff but one of the cars does see a bunch of on track action from time to time.

[bbriann]

15 years X 30 to 40 passes per year...including a few lots nitrous passes...maybe I should look at mine....but not a fox body and only running 10s

[92redragtop]

That happened to mine years ago before I did any mods (only mod on the car at the time was aftermarket shocks, was either KYB or Tokico blue-don't remember, and Eibach Pro Kit springs) - manifested as a squeak for months before I saw what the problem was. Had folks on GTAMC joking about mice in the car, Joe riding around in the trunk of my vert on Kingston Rd at the old shop and we couldn't figure it out.

I had removed all the covers behind the rear seat to repair the vert roof pump and that's when I saw it moving/squeaking while I was driving. There wasn't much there in terms of welds. Car has never been down the drag strip.

Rick repaired it and welded in a "ZR special" rear brace between the shock towers which tightened up that area which really needs it in a fox vert. No issues since then even though suspension since converted to stiffer MM Road & Track suspension, upgraded drivetrain and diff, and moving up to 430+ rwhp/torque.

[RedSN]

....but not a fox body and only running 10s
SN95 pretty much the same as a fox.

[1BAD92LX]

Brad has a brace we built for him some years back. Initial install was based around it breaking the rear seat X braces off at the parcel tray plus appearance of a slight kink in the roof above the rear window. In spite of some feeling it was a waste / just added weight, results say the exact opposite.
Install was 8+ years ago and can guarantee it has prevented any more damage from twisting on my Sunday drives to church. 😁

[Zippy]

Install was 8+ years ago and can guarantee it has prevented any more damage from twisting on my Sunday drives to church. 
It's been 8 years? Damn.

[88 hatchback]

It happened on my 83 V6 body (was never raced or launched)- it's just crappy spot welds

Many of these cars left the factory not being welded up properly at all. :(

[IanGTCS]

It happened on my 83 V6 body (was never raced or launched)- it's just crappy spot welds

Many of these cars left the factory not being welded up properly at all. :(

Wait, are you saying quality wasn't really job 1?

[ZR]

Not a good job of welding but one hell of a job hiding it with tons of seam sealer.