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We got a problem. Completed awd rear swap and upper control arms hit the frame when car is sitting on just the tires. We used all 1G awd struts and springs. We even changed to colt top mounts to see if there was a difference..none. Do we need to use colt struts since they are about 2" longer? Searching posts we have seen that a few have just notched the 2" tubing for the rear mount and it looks okay, and others have added extra spacers/tubing to get the clearance. Any suggestions?

Colt struts aren't longer, the spring perch is just in a different place. You can try doing something like this, but it's kinda ghetto...

These were struts meant for a Colt, btw...

Thanks for the info guys. We must of missed the posts on possibly needing spacers (did find that all important post). We are going to put the 1g springs on the colt struts mount them and see how they do. Then we can figure out how much of a spacer we need to make.

I know this looks like crap, but it works very well, i went this route so that later on i can replace my struts easily. That and i didn't really want to weld on new ones.

Man I need to get my pics up... I added 3.5" of tubing to the bottom of a set of KYB AGX struts. With a set of Ground Control coil overs I at the top of the coil perch. I should have added 4-4.5" of tubing.

I cut the mount off the bottom of the struts then welded the tubing in place then welded the mount back onto the bottom of the tubing. Looks good. Works good. Just should have made them longer or acquired a longer coil spring. If the Ground Control coils prove too stiff then I am going to try a set of AWD TEL springs in the rear. If that does not work I will be going Tonus' route and buying Summitt coils. Good luck.

Cool, more ideas. We are probably going to do something like Mr. Hyde had pics of. It looks to be the safest of the solutions so far.

Maybe safer. Definitely more complicated. Extending the strut body is fine as long as your welding technique is decent and you don't blow the strut up. MR HYDE's creation is way cooler looking though....

First off the subframe is in the wrong location. Secondly, use CSM struts in the rear with a decent length spring and coilover sleeve. You will not need any fabrication like you see in the pics above except for maybe the lower sleeves where they slide onto the hub..

Update..swapped the 1g springs onto the old colt struts and now have 1 1/2" clearance between the upper arm and the frame with the colt on the ground. We are going to make a spacer to give us the extra clearance for the arm and tires (205/215 40/45 16) not sure on size yet.

My track tires are 225/45 16 and they take up a lot of the wheel arch. I have not been able to drive it yet and do not know if they are going to rub or hit...

We are going with those tire sizes (approx 23" dia.) right now it gives 1" space to the wheel arch. We are thinking of making stackable spacer using 1/4" steel plates, grade 8 longer bolts. Plates would have holes in the middle and of course holes for the bolts. Tack weld bolt heads to spring bracket plate, then stack plates as needed for clearance for street and track tires. We could angle cut or grind the top 2 plates and weld so it would sit flush up top.

Sorry, I cant take the credit for someone elses work. I saved the pics cause I figured someone else might benefit from the idea.

what I don't understand is what about using a FWD DSM rear struts seeing that they are much longer than AWD springs?

Huh? All the struts are the same length, it's the location of the spring perch that's different.