Some shocking stuff

Pictures of shock installation

The first step was to decide how to mount the shocks. The sheet metal in the area the mounts needed to go seemed inadequate to the task and as the annoying guardians of public safety have no idea about engineering it seemed prudent to attach them to the original chassis points. There could be no reasonable argument that those mounts were insufficient.
The chosen shocks needed to have sufficient length to allow full suspension travel.

The shock choice was to use a good set I already had. they were Gabriel gas shocks but the numbers no longer appear on any of the Gabriel web pages. They are very firm 😀If selecting from a catalogue specify the open and closed length, the fittings on each end and the weight of the vehicle. In the case of the Californian around 1100 kg. If the place selling shocks cannot help you just go to another supplier.
My preference was for mounting "eyes" at each end. To use stud mountings you would need to cut an access hole in the boot floor with a hole saw to access the top nuts and fit a suitable rubber grommet to block it off afterwards. A 2" hole should be adequate.
My first Californian had tube shocks fitted when I bought it in 1969 I do recall they were shorter than the ones I had and it crossed my mind that they may have limited the rebound travel of the suspension.
Not good for shocks.

So after measuring everything it seemed that the top of the shocks needed to be mounted higher than the under floor space would allow. I was reluctant to cut chunks out of the boot area to put them where they seemed to need to go. Measurements of my Minx and Vogue confirmed the need to the mounts to be higher than the clear space.

Pictures did not want to upload properly. Finally some cooperation from the evil box of electrons :-)

Step one was to make some templates to see exactly how much space is available around the existing mounts, so removed the lever shocks and cut some 13mm ply to size and shape. Wedged it where it should go and drilled through the mounting holes.

Now because the mounts are a little inboard of the bracket we need

to put a brace between them, so another piece of MDF scrap.

Drill some holes and attach shocks to see what we can see.
These are gas shocks so I threaded some welding wire through and pulled one fully closed and left one fully open to see the travel

Laid it all out full size on a ply work table

After convincing the computer I wanted the top at the top so we could read the numbers
here is a drawing of what is needed.
This shows the spacing between the top mounts along with bump and rebound travel and the normal ride height. The shock mounting angle pulling the bottom up slightly for better ground clearance

Some design change decisions that are not immediately apparent. The top mount had to be made in three pieces and joined after installation. There is some sheet metal bracing in the area that will be seen in a later picture that required the centre portion to be threaded through an opening before the two outer parts were attached to the car and bolted to the cross brace. As it worked out getting the four bolts in each side to join it all together was "moderately difficult".

EDIT In retrospect it may be easier to assemble the centre brace loosely before attaching the side pieces. This reduces the degree of "moderately difficult" at least as far as inserting the little bolts, leaving the last task to nip them up tight after the sides are in place.
I can't recall if I threaded the holes in the side pieces or welded nuts on the topside. Either will work.
The two inner bolts on each side that go through all of the cross brace have crush tubes inserted in the tube so they stay tight in service.

Right side mount under construction

Trial assembly on full size layout table

As they say, "It is only your's when you have bled on it" :-)

Final test fit before installation

Hard to see what this is.

Right hand side upwards from rear.

I turned the original picture so it lines up with what you would see looking up,

The four little bolts joining the centre brace can be seen and if you look closely the shock mount holes can also be seen.

Another view showing the side plates bolted to the original shock mount points.

The cross brace can be seen slid in behind the body brace.

For balanced reporting :-)
This is the left hand side, did not need to avoid the exhaust system this side.

From the left side the small aperture that the cross brace had to fit through can be seen.
The curved sheet metal on the right is the spare wheel well.

the opening gets smaller in the middle of the car.

Right side.
If I had done the shocks first the exhaust pipe would have

been slightly further towards the middle of the car at this point.

At this point it was too difficult to move it.
The hand brake linkage in the foreground with 55 years worth of dirt.

Who cleans under the car???

The next task was the bottom mounts to the axle which needed to be as low as we could put them.
However In removing the mount plates the rubber parts were in very poor condition.

These had come loose previously causing steering issues.
The difference to stability when driving after they were tightened up was amazing.