Project 2 from Jason: Strut Tower Fix.

[Jason]

Now I don't have many pics of this project and it was a fast repair that allowed the car to be safe to drive. The strut tower broke on top and rusted. After some time it started to tear the metal down the back side and then continued around the side to the front. There was only a section on the front that was held together still so it was time for some repair. After cutting the tower out, it appeared that there was rust inside behind the tower at the bottom of the rain tray. The car must have had a bad sealed spot or something for it to rust from the inside out like it did. Anyways a friend had a similar car that he was going to scrap the shell from and the towers were pretty much the same as my car. The main difference between the two is the outer skins.
The car without tower
Attachment 2065

Now the tower taken from the other car was stuffed in from the bottom and put into place where the old tower existed. There was about a 1inch bead welded at the top to the inner fender and then spot welded the rest of the way across the top to the inner fender. The bottom was spot welded inside the wheel-well and there was a spot in the wheel-well that needed a patch. After the tower was in, 3M brush-able seam sealer was used any place that two pieces of metal came together and then black primer was sprayed to cover any exposed metal.
Here is the new tower in
Attachment 2063
Attachment 2064
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All the surface rust was wire brushed off before the new tower was put in. This project also was done on 2 different days but at the same time as other projects. If I can find any other pictures, ill add them then.

[ScratchStart]

did you have any alignment issues? most cars with struts use the strut as the top link to the suspension, meaning you could cause caster/camber misalignment. Also if it was not the right height you could have lowered/raised that corner of the car.

Just wondering how hard/easy it was to line it all back up.

Stop making this stuff look so easy, if my wife sees she'll call me lazy again!

nice job!

[Jason]

There was no issue with the alignment done to the car. The top of the tower or the cup is almost exactly where it sat before. I took a measurement from the side to the inner fender and then from the back to the rain tray. This allowed me to position it right. You could see where it sat against the inner fender so it was placed in that spot. The top edge was welded to the inner fender and then the pressed/hammered up from the bottom to get it to the right measurements. I am pretty sure its the same height and if not its really close. For me however, it was a not huge concern because I have coilovers that have a separate adjustment for just height so I could easily fix it there. This generation of VW does have camber adjustment and it is done by two bolts that attach the bottom of the strut/coilover to the wheel bearing housing and then caster is toe is done at the tie rod. Toe, camber and caster were all within spec after an alignment. I did leave my coilover the same height as the other side and no issues so it must be pretty close to the right height if its not perfect.