Fitting the refurbished strut brace to ‘t Kreng

Shortly before the end of my holidays in September, I picked up a smallish batch of freshly powder coated parts. These were mostly for the ’76 car. But there was also a freshly coated strut brace for ‘t Kreng. But when I went over to the car to fit it, I was confronted with an unpleasant surprise. For no obvious reason the strut brace was now about 5 mm too long! Rather strange indeed, as the adjustable mounts on the bar had been very securely locked in position. At the time I managed to fit the bar. But that was only possible by moving the top of both struts outwards by a few millimetres. Time for a rethink!

Fast forward and last week the solution suddenly occurred to me. Due to the weight of the car the now unsupported strut towers had moved inwards. The fact that the almost 40 year old car’s body has had a tough life certainly has aided here. So the solution should be pretty simple: Get the weight of the wheels, and the strut towers should move apart. Thus enabling me to fit the strut brace in its original position. Sounds easy and it turned out to be just that.

First the two mounting rings (and strut tops) were put back in their original position (glad I marked out the original position). And the mounting nuts were tightened up properly so the strut tops couldn’t move anymore.

After that the brace bar was put into position, but with only one of the two mounting bolt loosely fitted in position. After which I slowly jacked up the front of the car, while keeping an eye on the other end of the bar. In the picture below the car had only been raised a small amount.

And with the front springs almost fully extended, the holes in the bar and the mounting ring were aligned correctly. Result!  Remained the easy task of tightening the two mounting bolts and lower the car. Hopefully I will be able to enjoy her within the next few days, before her mandatory hibernation starts on the 1^st of December.