Tim,

Heres a couple of shots of my setup





The bottom mount has been strengthened further by adding a fillet between the stud and the plate and possibly another one incorporating the balljoint nut.

Andy

Dont mean to be rude but the mounts will not be strong enough, trust me,

the bending moment on both shock mounts is huge, the std gtm top mounts are marginal for uprated dampers especially if you start to wind them up a little stiffer, let alone a coil over, you need no bending moments. Have a look at a mini coilover set up such as the minispares setup the brakets put the bolts for the shocks in double shear, and there are no bending moments.

WEST

This is to give me something to work from as regards measurements etc the mount is 15mm nearer to the balljoint and 30mm higher than the original damper mount.

The Minispares bracket kit for front coil overs is





The brackets circled bolt onto the top arm to provide proper double shear mountings for the lower damper pin.

I've never been really happy about mounting even just the damper in single shear so I definitely wouldn't put spring loads through it too.

That is something to work on, i may use both bolts and a plate on the outsidside of the shock mount too. I'm pretty sure one of the reasons the Minispares kit moves the bottom mount so far is to try and lose some of the terrible angles the original setup was blessed with Mounting the coilover in line with the balljoint nut is not really practical as it will stop me from leaning the unit inwards. The welding rods i have are for welding disimialar materials and sprung steel. They are stainless based and the weld is quite elastic. How did you mount your pushrod on the top arm

Just like this.



The mount is indeed single shear but the bolt is an aircraft spec NAS 7/16" bolt and the Rose Joint ball is only 14mm deep and mounted solidly against the top arm with no spacers or washers.

GTMDriver,

I note your concerns but I have taken a lot of consideration into this setup especially with single sheer etc including advise and revision from a leading single seater manufacturer. The bolts used are the imperial equilvent to 12.9 HT 1/2" (can't remember the number), the top mount is not the original one on the coupe but a much more beefed up version using 5mm steel plate, its been seem welded to the body and the original mounting position braced and triangulated. The bottom mount again is equlivent 12.9 HT and has been modified further from the photo by filleting the shaft back to the plate. Becasue both the top and bottom mounts have been triangulated the bending moment is only over the bolt length and this is well capable of supporting this setup and car weight. Your comment on the mini coilover setup is right but have you seen the amount of reviews on those units breaking, they are just rubbish and the steel is Toffee also. I wouldn't have those on a mini using shocks. Its great to see though the level of comment and knowledge on this site and its members and is much appreciated. I would like to see more of your drop link setup though.

This is the front end.



and this is the rear.



In both pictures the red coloured strut is where the coil over dampers fitted. The struts were used to set the ride heights during the build.

Very nice setup, I like it alot however with standard frames this is not possible for mine, thanks for your input