E36 Front strut tower reinforcement
So as I will be installing a new aftermarket coil over suspension to my e36. I felt the need to make sure my towers would be as rigid and stiff as possible.
My approach to this is to have one 2mm thick plate stamped to fit the underside of the tower. This will be sandwiched between coil over top hat and under side of the tower. Then I will weld 3mm thick pre bent plates made from s355. These will be welded to the tower tops and to the front wing rail next to it. To finish it off I have nice thick aluminium strut bar to connect to whole front end together.
Before getting too far ahead. We will need to test fit re-enforcement plates to the towers and possibly make some slight adjustments to get them sit perfectly. Then we can take a sharpie and use it to mark from where to remove original paint. I tried to remove as little paint as possible in this stage as I wont be doing full re-spray quite yet. At this point it is also good to point out that you should have removed your strut so you won´t damage it while welding.
In the photo you can see I still have strut in place. This is to locate the re-enforcement plate correctly in place. I bolted it in place and tack welded it with strut in place, but I also had no intention to use these again. Other option would be to just have scrap top hat that you could torch with welding. Remember to clean surfaces well from paint and mil scale before welding.
One side fully welded and other side is ready to be started. When doing welding in engine bay with all components still in place. Take good care to shield everything against sparks. I used combination of fire blankets and wet towels soaked in cold water. Pointer for wet towels, they will still catch fire. Also remember to disconnect battery always when doing welding to a car.
As you might see from photo above. Plate is sitting quite well in place, but some parts of the re-enforcement are still too far off from strut tower. I managed this by starting to tack weld from places that had contact with the tower and then used hammer to form it to shape of tower and fully weld it.
Once both re-enforcements were fully welded. I let them cool down slowly. Removed all protection from engine bay and checked few times that no sparks had gotten past them. Once they were fully cooled down I gave them few coats of black paint. First coat was laid quite runny to make sure all possible little holes would be filled between chassis and re-enforcement plates to prevent rust from forming later.
After paint had enough time to dry. It was time to start test fitting the new strut brace. At this point I had already installed my new BC Racing coil over suspension so I had to just install the brace. This "Munich" edition brace constructed fully from aluminium was in 5 pieces, middle piece, two top hats and two connecting pieces. Easiest way to mount it was to loosely bolt everything together and then install it to it´s place. Then just tighten all screws. Finished result looks super good and for me is one of the best looking braces you can have for e36. Only thing I´m thinking is that do I want to powder coat it later or just leave it with raw finish.
