I decided to document the replacement of my shock towers for anyone interested. So far it hasn't been too terribly bad of a job. I have a couple extra sets of shock towers that I had cut out when I scrapped a 79 and a 78. I went to harbor freight and bought a few spot weld drill bits. Since I'm going to get it ready for paint over the winter I got everything out of the engine bay and to make it possible to work on the shock towers, i removed everything from underneath.

here's a couple pics of my bad shock towers:





Here's a pic of the engine bay cleaned out:


Started cutting the spot welds out. a lot of them can be cut out from the engine side. the top and bottom spot welds need to be cut out from under the wheel well.


After all the spot welds are cut out you gently pry the old scock tower out. i found that a good way to start getting it separated is by using a punch and hammer. From the engine bay, use the punch and hammer within the circles left by the spot weld cutter. It will start pushing the side of the shock tower out. don't use too much force because you don't want to mess up the engine bay sheet metal. here's a couple pictures of one removed:



Look at that last image above. if you don't grind off the undercoating, it will leave a nice little outline of where the new one goes. It really helps in getting the new on in place. here's a pic of one sitting in place:


i'm not even close to welding it in yet. First thing i did once i got it lined up is drill some holes so i could run some sheet metal screws in. I did this for two reasons. first reason is so i will be able to line it back up once i clean everything up for welding. and the other reason is because the screws will pull the shock tower tight against the car for plug welding.

this is where i left off. the sheet metal screws i had on hand are too skinny to pull the metal together, so i have to go get some thicker, coarse screws to to the job. before i continue though and since i sold my blast cabinet, i'm going to buy another blast cabinet this weekend to clean up the replacement towers...

i'll update this thread once I get the replacement shock towers sand blasted and painted.

Thank you! I will (hopefully) be doing this same project in a few months. I have a pair of towers all ready to be installed. Just need the welder and the other new parts (I'm replacing the front suspension at the same time.)..

Thanks. So far it hasn't been as bad as research made it sound.... But..... I'm not done yet...

Thanks for sharing this, we love pics.

here's another picture that i forgot to add. The driver's side was so rusted it came out in two parts...

Based on your for-sale thread, this didn't work out for you? What happened?

lol... i took the rockers panels off and discovered that there was nothing left to the inner rocker or frame on both sides. This will be continued though. I cut that one in half and scrapped it, now i'm using my 71 parts car body. The floor pans are all ate up but i bought all four new ones. it needs the passenger shock tower replaced... so once i get to where i left off on this thread, i will update.