evening Alistair
thank you very much for your reply, I really appreciate the input.
I spent the weekend under the car with several rules and squares etc. and have also realised that "beefing up" the front inner wings isn't an option, not least because the surface above the front Hydragas unit isn't flat anyway so my idea of plating it isn't going to work
reality is also dawning on me regarding replacing the hydragas units direct for springs, the issues are mainly cost, I've had a quote last week to machine the necessary components to mount the springs in place of the Hydragas units (similar to the Aussie setup) of £650, add to that 4 dampers at £200 and 4 custom springs 4200lb @ £80 + vat and postage
each and its getting pretty expensive, not only that but I would still need to fabricate damper mounts at the rear so many obstacles to overcome.
with this shelved I'm left with my original wish to replace with coilovers acting direct on the wheel centre so no ridiculous 4000lb springs required,
I've worked out I can fit a 9" coilover between the boot floor / subframe to hub if I make an offset lower mount to the hub, or better still make 2 spring seats between the 2 and have a remote damper.
regarding the front I did consider a setup very similar to that on the red car you have pictured when I first bought the car 3 years ago, but I discounted it on the basis that I didn't think 4 8mm bolts would be enough to take the upward load acting on the spring nor did I think the remaining half of the Hydragas clamp (attached to the subframe) would be strong enough to resist upward and inevitably sideways load in use.
does anyone know if the car in the picture has additional support behind the damper mount or is it literally just a plate bolted to the 4 Hydragas 8mm bolts?
while on this subject, as I understand it the other Midas models - mk3s etc had rear coilovers from build and a custom bracket that bolted to the rear hub to take the mount? does anyone have a pair assuming they fit the rover metro trailing arms? this would save me a job as a starting point
cash waiting
many thanks for the help