I bought a 64 biscayne, that has some problems. the major problem is, some guy installed a crude air bag side up. he drilled the shock mounting holes out way to big,made them egg shaped. I bought a set of shockwaves and tubular arms to set up air bags right. here lies the problem, the holes are about a inch and eggshaped, they need to be 3/4. Is there any way to fix this without changing shock towers.
I am worried a washer will break. the orinal metal is about 3/8 thick. and since the shockwaves are spring and shock the would be alot of stress on this area.
Talk to airride technologies. They sell a lot of misc. pieces and brackets. And by "talk" I mean call. Their tech support is awesome, and they won't b.s. you. Their brackets for shock mounting is not online, and not that good in their catalog. If you talk to a tech, he will help you out. Don't weld your broken stuff. It will fail again, especially with a shockwave. Do it right and forget it. Most shock mnt. brackets are from 15-45 bucks. But who knows...a pic would help determine if you are truly screwed or not. ***o
You can make a shoulder bushing on a lathe that will fit in whatever size hole once you get it round again. Bolt it together with a large washer on the back side and it won't break. No welding necessary.
Weld in a washer, but make that washer from 3/16, or even 1/4, plate if it makes you feel better. Make it as big as you can fit. It would be best installed from the bottom, if possible, Clean up the hole you have now so that there is no gap between the original metal and the new plate. Weld the perimiter in short sections to keep the heat saturation down. That should be bulletproof. The original car will be the weak link at that point. If that's a concern, you have plans way bigger than the stock configuration would handle anyway.
I agree, best way to fix the problem is to either weld the hole and redrill it or weld in a large washer. You can make your own washer by holesawing a bit of 3/16" or 1/4" plate.
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