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?

Richard, I performed this restoration a couple of years ago. I cut the reinforcement in half, left the outer portion attached, then installed the suspension ear and fabricated the inner portion.

Here's a link to my website showing how I did it. I hope this helps and good luck...

-- Rob

Richard,

I found your thread today. Thanks for posting your questions and observations. I am very interested in what you and other have to say about this procedure. I have to replace the passenger side suspension console on my car as well.

Brad Roberts and Brant McClung both recommended I review Rob Watsons site and I did just that yesterday. His detailed photographs and great instructions by the way, print out nicely. This will come in handy for those of us that don't have access to a computer in our shop.

I ordered a suspension console from Restoration Design on Monday but haven't heard from them as of yet. Have you ordered your console yet? Pelican shows this part as being temporarily unavailable.

I am looking forward to hearing what you have to say, and also seeing work in progress photographs of your project.

Thanks in advance for sharing.


Henry

By the way the following photograph shows why I am replacing the suspension console on my car.....

Click to view attachment

Rob,

Thanks for the help. I am curious for anyone else to jump in with their "how they did it" stories, but I am pretty much leaning toward doing it the way you did it. I hadn't thought about fabricating the halves I cut off. That might be more doable than trying to remove them from the old console.

I also wanted to thank you for your site. I have looked at it a number of times before and I have actually patterned my own web documentation on the look of your site (plenty of photos, large easy to view thumbnails, links to large images).

Richard

Henry,

I ordered mine end of last week online from Restoration Design. You probably noticed that when you order online that it mentions they will get back with you regarding shipping costs. I hadn't heard anything by Monday and with many stories about how tough it is to get stuff ordered from them, I figured I would give them a call. So I called Monday or Tuesday and talked to Bill. He was getting ready to drop something off at the post office and said he would call me back a bit later (which he promptly did).

End results is that he had not processed the orders. He found my order before he called me back, one of the items was being pressed that week and we talked about what to ship and when. The end result is that he was a great guy to talk to and hopefully my stuff will be showing up shortly. So in short, I would suggest that you give him a call to make sure he has your order, etc.

Richard

If we are sharing photos of our rusted, cracked and otherwise shot suspension consoles. Here are mine...

Click to view attachment

Before. Hell hole is not "that" bad, but I want it to look really nice before I put it all back together. What you see here is the worst spots on the car.


Click to view attachment

Look at all of that rust that was just laying inside.


Click to view attachment

I am removing the four cylinder engine mounts as I am going to do a six swap and I knew there was rust hiding behind this one anyhow. This section it double walled with a corrogated metal inner part and a smooth skin on the outside. I believe the inside party is pretty health. In the sections that are rust (traditional hell hole and area under the engine mount) I am going to replace the outer skin with all new metal. Hopefully when it is done, it will look nearly new.

Click to view attachment

Pile-o-rust and scrap metal.

I've found the Blair Roto-broach spot weld cutters to be the best. The most expensive, but they work the best.

Also, you want your welds to be a little flatter than those in the photos in the link posted. The welds need more penetration for better fusion.

I'm not real cool with the fuel lines right there either.

My dads console and the ever famous Michelko thread.



http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...pension+console

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...=16748&st=0

Perry, I have the Blair Roto-broach and generally like it so far. I am finding that is some tight places it is too wide to use as designed and I may need to pick up the regular drill bit style (which is more narrow) spot weld cutter bit.



Scotty, thanks for the link to your thread. I had not seen it before. I will be looking at the health of my outer console now after reading your thread! It is scary to think about how much rust might be hiding inside cavities in these cars. Regarding the Michelko thread. I know I am standing on the backs of giants who have jumped in and figured all of this stuff out before me. That is one of many threads that gives me the confidence to tackle this job.

Search for:

+suspension +console <- link

+suspension +console in thread titles only <- clicky

Mike, Thanks for the links. I generally do know how to search. And have looked at a bunch of thread, BUT it never hurts to look again. And I found one in your result set (Spoke's thread) that I had not seen before! It shows him cutting out and fabricating a replacement for that exact same reinforcement that I didn't know what to do with.

So I think the answer is to just cut it out in the easiest fastest way (at the expense of the reinforcement) and then refabricate whatever I need to put it back. Thanks everyone for the help!