DIY shock mounts/pan hard bar mounts

[sparks427]

OK so I have no problems buying what some have already made and sell but as I'm sure some of you know there's nothing like building your own stuff. So with that, has anybody built their own shock mounts and pan hard mounts? Pics and specs would be great! Thanks guys.

[dec010974]

I'll post pics tomorrow. I'm using my iPad. My suspension set up is different from others. I have bridge with, bags mounted on the axle. Pm me your number and I'll text you the pics.

[sparks427]

Will do. I'm looking for front shock mounts as well, if you or anybody else might have done something different there.

[SCOTI]

I built the front uppers for my dually & the rears are a combo of cut up original mounts relocated. The same truck has a fabbed Panhard bar mount for the axle side w/a Porterbuilt frame base (it came w/my step notches). I'll check & see if I took any decent pics...

Look @ my 'Recycle' project in the 66-66 builds. I built the fame mount for the Panhard bar from scrap steel & the front upper shock mounts (using Ride Techs universal shock mounts).

[Tx Firefighter]

I'm all about building your own and have tried to tool up over the years to further go that route.

That said, look at this website for some of your stuff. They sell little tabs, brackets, etc so cheap that it's not worth your time with a hole saw, drill press, etc.

http://www.welderseries.com/blog/onl...ry/frame-tabs/

You're still building your own, but spending an hour making a tab that you can buy for 3 bucks would be even too hard core for me. You can buy their stuff and do the final design and weld out yourself and still say you built it yourself.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

I'm all about building your own and have tried to tool up over the years to further go that route.

That said, look at this website for some of your stuff. They sell little tabs, brackets, etc so cheap that it's not worth your time with a hole saw, drill press, etc.

You're still building your own, but spending an hour making a tab that you can buy for 3 bucks would be even too hard core for me. You can buy their stuff and do the final design and weld out yourself and still say you built it yourself.

x2.

I spent several hours cutting, grinding, & drilling the front shock brackets for my 64. When it was all said & done, they weren't 100% exact matches (4 pieces/sides). Once the side + backs were all together, they didn't appear the same. I opted to use the Ride Tech units because my 'base' would be identical. I just modified them to work w/my set-up.

For my dually, I was going to use the Hotchkis front relocation brackets until I found out you have to buy the 'kit' (shocks + brackets). Aside from the sticker shock, I already had Bilstein shocks & didn't need another set. It was simple enough to create the brackets.

[sparks427]

Right on, definetly the kind of answers I was looking for. Thanks for that site! I might see what I can do to fab some up using those tabs. Worst case scenario is it doesn't work and I'm buying prefabed one anyhow but I can't do it with out thinking I tried. I like the motto built not bought but I can't use it if everything I have is bought... Well I suppose I could but I wouldn't feel right about it haha

[BossHogg69]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

I'm all about building your own and have tried to tool up over the years to further go that route.

That said, look at this website for some of your stuff. They sell little tabs, brackets, etc so cheap that it's not worth your time with a hole saw, drill press, etc.

http://www.welderseries.com/blog/onl...ry/frame-tabs/

You're still building your own, but spending an hour making a tab that you can buy for 3 bucks would be even too hard core for me. You can buy their stuff and do the final design and weld out yourself and still say you built it yourself.

I wish I would've known about this site 3 years ago

[Bhelton]

http://www.mudprometalworks.com/

I've got a buddy who does all my tabs and one off fab work, check his page out. Scott is more off road oriented but does great work.

[tinydb84]

For tabs you can go to AVS, Barnes4wd, ballistic fab, etc. I wouldn't bother making my own tabs.

[sparks427]

Right on, that's what I started to think.

[cableguy0]

As was said above its absolutely not worth attempting to make simple things like shock tabs. They are so ridiculously cheap even for 1/4 inch thick monsters from Barnes4wd. Its enough fab work in aligning them properly and welding them on. Also production made stuff is almost always going to look nicer,be straighter etc etc. Its just not worth the effort especially for the money this stuff costs. Its literally pennies in comparison to other parts of the build.

[earl84]

You might also look at a local racing supply store if you have one for tabs. There is a Smiley's Racing Products close to me, and they have quite a stock of tabs on hand. Sometimes nice to hold them in your hand. They also had premade shock relocators for $12, tough to beat that. Just cut to fit and install.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by cableguy0

As was said above its absolutely not worth attempting to make simple things like shock tabs. They are so ridiculously cheap even for 1/4 inch thick monsters from Barnes4wd. Its enough fab work in aligning them properly and welding them on. Also production made stuff is almost always going to look nicer,be straighter etc etc. Its just not worth the effort especially for the money this stuff costs. Its literally pennies in comparison to other parts of the build.

Depends..... I make some brackets because I don't want to wait a week or so just to get something that may/may not work. Now once I've used them and/or know that specific aftermarket bracket will work for the app, it might not be worth fabbing from scratch depending on lead times.

Originally Posted by earl84

You might also look at a local racing supply store if you have one for tabs. There is a Smiley's Racing Products close to me, and they have quite a stock of tabs on hand. Sometimes nice to hold them in your hand. They also had premade shock relocators for $12, tough to beat that. Just cut to fit and install.

I use some stuff from them just be careful as many of their brackets are on the thin side for a street car/truck. I use 3/16" typically (box/gusset w/1/8") & then 1/4" (3/16 box/gusset) where applicable.

[Mikeeal33]

I made my upper rear shock mounts following this thread:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=451200

From my experience the numbers don't match up with my '72 though, (lakeroadster's truck is a '65) if you look at the mounting hole locations, he has 5.63" listed on the print, my '72 was exactly 6.0". Also if you go that route be careful to leave yourself enough clearance for the outer portion of the shock, (the rear mounting bolt is VERY close to it) I just fudged the numbers where I needed to and also cut a lot more of the tube away but the basic design helped me achieve way better shock angle.

For a panhard bar, I used the stock mounting point on the drivers side, (frame mounted) and fabbed a new mount for the passenger side trailing arm. I used the same 2" x 2" 1/4" square tubing used on the shock mounts to do this:



Drilled a couple holes in the trailing arm:



Bolted up:



Then for the bar itself, I used 7/8" nickel bronze round stock, drilled, bored and threaded the ends to accept the 5/8"-18 heim joints. If I remember correctly the bar ended up being 32 1/4" long, closer to 35 1/2" from the center of each joint.





Hope this helps you get the wheels turning, have fun.