Better perches for the Koni/ GC

svxhunter · #1 05-08-2004, 04:51 AM

There has been a little debate- Ground Control's instructions suggest grinding off the factory perches and welding on the new perch ring they supply. This could lead to warping of the strut tubes from the welding.

Some (including me) have successfully used the factory perches. They offer a "stealth" look, no risk of ruining the strut cores, and the future option of returning to factory springs (yeah, right!). Unfortunately, the adjustment is nearly impossible, and all your hard work is hidden behind the ugly oversized factory perch.

I came up with a better option. I tack welded the GC perch ring to the factory perch on the OUTSIDE edge of the ring. This kept the heat away from the strut tubes. I then carefully cut and ground the factory perch down to the outside diameter of the GC perch ring. So basically, I am counting on the factory welds to the strut tube, while adding some small tack welds to hold the new perch to the remains of the old perch. After grinding, I touched up the tack welds, painted, and voila!

They look drop-dead gorgeous, and the adjustment is amazingly easy. Plus I had virtually no risk of warping the tube, even with my grossly amatuer welding ability.

svxhunter · #2 05-08-2004, 04:53 AM

Here's a close-up.

svxhunter · #3 05-08-2004, 04:55 AM

And here they are in the car!!

SVXRide · #4 05-08-2004, 05:59 AM

Very nice! Now go out there and put your handiwork to the test!

(you might want to lightly spray the stock weld white to support a visual inspection of the weld over time - i.e. to see if it starts to give under the load of the GC springs). My guess is that the weld has at least a factor of safety of 2-3 for the load of the stock springs - my only "top of my head" concern is that the heat of the weld you did could have partially stress relieved the tube in the area of the stock weld.
-Bill

svxhunter · #5 05-08-2004, 06:12 AM

That is not a bad idea. The other factor is that the inherent strength of the bowl shape of the stock perches has been lost.

The factory welds are extremely good, and the new perch ring would have to shear the entire 360* weld off the strut tube to fail, so I am not very concerned, but I will keep an eye on it.

The road testing will have to wait a little. I have to finish my 5-speed install!

Subafreak · #6 05-08-2004, 08:09 AM

Looks good, I was wondering how the hell using the stock perches worked, it just dosn't look like the spring coller would sit very well. My tubes are out being powder coated right now.

Is that wire tieing the spring to the spring top an old installers trick you picked up from Porter?

svxhunter · #7 05-08-2004, 08:39 AM

Actually, the stock perches will work just fine. The spring collar will sit in the stock perches perfectly (after the crud is cleaned out). It's the setup the SVreX uses. The adjustments after installation, however, are very tough.

Yeah, the zip ties on the spring top is a Porter trick. My son did the assembly (heaven forbid he do ANYTHING different than Porter did it!!)

I think they will wear to the point of breaking fairly quickly after putting the weight of the car on them, but they hold things together while installing. They shouldn't be needed after the install is complete.

-Paul

AFBeefcake · #8 05-08-2004, 10:28 AM

Those look great. I can't wait to get mine, but I still waiting on porter to get back to me.

Subafreak - Have you gotten your parts from porter yet?

Subafreak · #9 05-08-2004, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by AFBeefcake
Those look great. I can't wait to get mine, but I still waiting on porter to get back to me.

Subafreak - Have you gotten your parts from porter yet?

Yeah, I got them the week after Reading, like he said I would when I called him. It all looks good.

I'm surprized you still havn't heard from him. Last I knew he couldn't do them at his work anymore, but it still shouldn't be taking this long to get them together for you.

GreenMarine · #10 05-08-2004, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by svxhunter
Some (including me) have successfully used the factory perches. They offer a "stealth" look, no risk of ruining the strut cores, and the future option of returning to factory springs (yeah, right!). Unfortunately, the adjustment is nearly impossible, and all your hard work is hidden behind the ugly oversized factory perch.

I will agree 100% with this.. I'll never return to factory springs... I love the GC's... I do wish that those perches would go away too... Mine are still there... Might have to get it done sometime....