Technical Scratch built F1 shock mounts

80+ bucks seems like a lot for f1 shock mounts. Since I have more time than money or sense, I decided to make my own. The end price is roughly 3 bucks per side out of the cutoff and discard bin at the steel shop and took me about 1.5 hrs not counting tempering but thats pretty much passive time. I made a video showing my method so I will post that as well as a few stills. Happy to answer any questions

 

Nice try but I don't think it's going to work, F-1 shock mounts are forged steel, what you have there is mild steel.

 

What I have is heat treated and tempered, watch the video the heat treat and temper is the same thing done to knives and tool steel, should hold up just fine, if it doesnt I'll be the first to know but I have faith in it

 

Heat treating is also done in the forging process but here is a very basic explaination by someone with degrees in fancy smarty pants stuff

 

So, what were the characteristics of your steel, and what did you change the microstructure to with your heat treating?

 

Started with mild steel and heated it red hot, quenched in veg oil. Tempered in oven at 375 for 3 hours. Thats all in the video. Its hardened and the temper backs it down from being so brittle. I mean we can go back and forth all day about it but I am positive what I did wouldve been just fine in the 40's and 50's I have seen non heat treated steel used in High stress areas on cars that were built 70 yrs ago and DRAG RACED at high speeds! Do I believe in being safer than some of that bubblegum work? Sure, thats why I heat treated and tempered mine exactly as I have for many knives Ive forged with great success

 

Its a shock mount bud, not a king pin. Im not putting my life at risk here and based on past results from the exact same processes I have complete confidence in what Ive done here. Having worked as a contractor for years I am well aware anyone can pick anything apart for hours on end, what Ive built is solid with good welds and good hardening

 

How do any welds on frame mods, motor mounts, split bones or anything else hold up? Saying the welds are the weak point seems a little silly. If you go crawl under 50 cars and look at the various types of shock mounts made factory over the years you will see they vary widely and some of them arent all that beefy looking but they hold up just fine. Its kind of like the "right way to cut and weld a frame" with diagonal angles and stuff... take a look at s10 frames. The long bed and short bed variants are determined by a straight vertical cut...from the factory. Loads of rods roll around on cast i beams these days! Lots of ways to safely skin a cat and you learn more and more of em with experience. If you dont trust what Ive done here, by all means, buy forged f1 mounts.

 

You sure are a positive guy! I see you playing these gotcha games all over the hamb... go work on your rod man! You need more smiles in your life! Best to ya

 

I was just poking fun. I bet the mounts would work fine without the heat treat. As long as your welds are good and you have good geometry.

 

All good but being a technical thread and one I shared in the hopes others who want to save a few bucks may find useful I just wanted to be as clear as Im capable of being. No feathers ruffled on my end!

 

How about the guys who welded butt jointed lower shock mounts straight to their i beam and have run em for 20 yrs without an issue? I would agree, generally, any welded part is most likely to fail at the point of a poorly penetrated weld. One of the main welding 101 lessons that was done when I was in welding school is the instructor puts your butt weld in a press and breaks it. The goal being to get the weld penetration good enough that the steel around it breaks before the weld. The point being, a well prepped, good penetrating weld that hasnt overheated the surrounding metal or (in this case) has been heat treated and tempered, is extremely strong

 

You can't harden mild steel, it doesn't have enough carbon.

However I do disagree with the guys saying it won't survive. Maybe Gimpy will chime in but I am fairly certain mild steel is good enough for shock mounts as many production cars use formed mild steel sheet metal brackets.

 

Its definitely hardened and tempered. My file skates across it now, you can feel the difference between the hardening and the tempering although generally I agree, its foolish to hope to get big gains from mild steel and truthfully, I got these bits out of the cutoff bin so their original content isnt really known to me. I will say it throws showers of sparks when ground on so it likely has decent carbon content

 

I’m not a metallurgist, but will bet that something else fails before that mount. Heck, I wouldn’t have even attempted the temper process for it.
Anyways, those mounts look great too.

Tell ya what Oliver, if one fails, contact me and I’ll buy you a set out of the classifieds.
I think my $$ are going to stay with me.

 

Wheres my bfh..... haha thanks for the kind words!

 

I like em, they look the part. I would not have heated and quenched them however, that tends to make steel hard yes, but also brittle. Having them malleable so they bend instead of break would be good for something like a shock mount. Forged steel parts on car chassis are not heat treated like knives, if they were we couldn't heat and bend steering arms on spindles and the like. Just run them and see what happens, could always whip up another set later if needed.

 

People have been cutting and welding those shock mounts for 75 years, and the Chrysler ones before that.

I'd run them

 

I'm with Budget36, I'm sure that they will be just fine, most street rod and factory replacement shocks aren't that stiff anyway. Not planning on going road racing or off-road racing are you?

 

Heating and quenching alone you'd be absolutely correct! I would agree completely. However, I also tempered the steel which is a way of reducing that brittleness, same thing done when making tool steel. I was back and forth on it but I have had great results with all sorts of stuff over the years and I think these will do their part

 

well...I spose I could enter some car shows then enter it in the baja 500 just to see what itll do!

 

I know, most of the f1 shock mounts Ive seen on rods have been cut and welded! Great point

 

Nice, a guy builds some nice looking parts for his hot rod and gets jumped on…time for a “why is our hobby dying” thread.

Oliver my man, they look killer!

 

I appreciate the kind words! Some folks are like that, its a fair trade for all the awesome connections and info on this site! I love the hamb and nothings perfect. Ive definitely seen things and had the same thought as you in the past

 

I'm just going to say it will come down to your welding skills far sooner than it will be a material used issue. I've seen a lot of rods running around with shock brackets that were a lot lighter and mild steel or ?? than those will be.

 

Welds were prepped, clean, beveled, welder was cranked up but not too high. They looked like they sank just right, the important ones anyway, i threw some tacks and fillers on top to grind down and give the f1 look

 

They’ll be fine as long as you use shocks of the correct stroke and they don’t bottom out, which is why shock and coil over mounts fail.

 

Oliver, they look good to and I’m sure they will work well.e

It seems like the moment someone posts something they have made the “ negative Nellies” all rush to slag the work. Then after a few bashing posts the “ positive Petes” come on and post congratulatory comments. It seems to happen on a regular basis. At least those are my observations...

Oh oh, I hear Nellie coming! Wow Nellie...

 

I've noticed as well. Its okay. My goal was just to share in case it helps someone out! I love all of the stuff I've learned on the hamb and doing an occasional tech thread feels like I am giving something back! Folks who are unhappy spread unhappiness. I wish em all the best, its not personal, I didnt make em unhappy and they spout it on everyone equally, not just me. Personally I'm just happy to be here, building cars, making friends and rubbing elbows with a whole lotta folks I have a LOT of respect for. Shoot, I'm building hot rods with old fashioned methods out of old original parts in a shop thats 30 years older than my house and one of the oldest structures in town! I am livin the dream far as I am concerned

 

Damn fine!......folks been building stuff for these things since the beginning. I would never imply that all of that stuff was safe, but the fact is nothings 100% safe anyway( an argument that can and has historically gone both ways on here since the beginning). The guy built some shock brackets fer chrisssake.....good on him!....they look right cause they are. I check out this board infrequently, it's good to see hands on stuff is still alive and well, and as usual distressing that hand wringing still raises up out of the ashes.