Topic: '67 Shock Tower Braces, strong enough?

[Bob Gaines]

The export braces that were put on export cars and Shelbys had an extra reinforcement plate spot welded to the cowl and the triangular brace was put on top of that plate. The reinforcement was extremely sloppily sealed and this was done before the car was painted. Without this extra reinforcement anything will look "not original".

For 65/66 and IMHO early 67, the mounting holes for the export brace at the cowl were evenly spaced and they do not fit any of the original holes. From thereon and for the aftermarket braces the mounting holes are spaced to fit the original pattern, two and two together.
Also the towers for the shoch absorbers that were used with export brace had a thick washer welded on top and UNC instead of UNF threads on the shock mounting bolts and nuts.

Wish I had some pictures to back this up, but not on the job computer ;-)

br
Claes

Not even spaced brace on any 67. The threads were not changed from regular Mustang on the reinforced upper shock bracket. That was something that changed between 65/66 and 67-70 regular Mustang.

[fast66]

You may be correct, but the reason i wrote "IMHO early 67" is because I have in my possesion two original export braces, both with evenly spaced holes. Both where removed from rusty cars (Mustangs, not Shelbys) on a wrecking yard in Sweden around 20 years ago... one was removed from a 67 and we marked it with tape and "67" because it was somewhat different from the 65/66 one. The outer edges were just a little bit lower. It could of course have been put there sometime by a PO but as I have never heard of any differences on the braces from the early (65/66) cars.
Just my observations - hopefully there is also other info in the posting that maybe interesting for someone?