Removal of factory suspension console reinforcements, Easy way to do this? Options

[Richard Casto]

I am replacing the passenger side inner suspension console with the piece from Restoration Design. The inner and outer consoles are spot welded to the box section and each console doesn’t actually touch the other. It appears that Porsche decided to manually weld in two thicker gauge reinforcements that bridge the inner and outer consoles together. These are on the bottom of each console and one of the two butts right up against the three holes on the outer console. Because these are on top of the spot welded consoles, I really need to remove them so that I can put the replacement inner console in place.

Options as I see them…

1. Surgically remove both reinforcements via time consuming grinding, etc. While at the same time, being careful to not damage good outer console or the good box section.
2. Cut the bridges in half and then remove the halves from the inner console once it is off the box section. Put new inner console on, put on the two halves that cover the inner console and weld the bridges back together again.
3. Remove the reinforcements but don’t have to be as careful and save them in the process. Replace with new ones that I have to fabricate.


The first option seems the cleanest as it keeps the original reinforcements in one piece. That is how I am doing it at the moment. But it is a total pain in the ass to remove these. I don’t like the third option idea of trying to fabricate new ones as these are pretty custom pieces (lots of curves, etc.). And I still have to remove the old ones and that seems to be the hard work. The second option may be the easiest as I only have to surgically remove ½ of the reinforcements. And it looks to be particularly hard to surgically remove these from the outer console (such as the area around the three holes) But it does mean cutting the reinforcement in half (destroying the purpose?). The “little welder” on my shoulder is whispering in my ear that I can weld those two halves back together just as strong as they were originally and I want to believe him. But the other little guy on my other shoulder is saying that I should not cut the two reinforcements.

So for anyone who has replaced a suspension console, what did you do? What tools did you use?