MGF rear shocker turret failure

Just fitting cruise control to MGF Mk 2 when I noticed weld work around top of rear turret. Failure had continued beyond weld repair and was tearing away near the seam where the side panel joins the one above.
The unit has replaced Hydragas with Aussie springs in a can and Gaz adjustable so forces are now in two directions not one. My repair may work but time will tell.
I looked at the near side turret and there was no sign of failure.
Closer inspection of the drivers side turret where the shocker mounts showed early signs of failure. The drivers side turret base had five spot welds with four in a rough square around the centre and one on the front side towards where the shocker mounts.
The near side had eight spot welds. Six were neatly spaced in a rectangle along the centreline on the flat section and two were placed front and rear of the shocker mount hole very close to the hole itself.
I think the reason for this is to weld the turret from the rear a right handed person can do a great job on the left turret but I’d crack handed on the right turret and this job is not done as well on that side.
May not matter with Hydragas but could be a reason for replacement systems to fail.
Would appreciate your thoughts

If you can read a copy of Roger Parkers book on F/TF restoration apparently its a well known failure on F's converted to springs, it's full of tips and hints like this and you don't need to be a mechanical Einstein to understand (most of) it.

The added risk as the cars get older is rust on the underside of the turrets further weakening them.

My 'adjustable' dampers (Spax) are now all set at 2 all round, which I know undermines the reason for having them!

Attached is information about how the MGF Cup Cars reinforced the shock mounts. Mike Satur makes a kit for reinforcing the rear mounts https://www.mikesatur.co.uk/-MGF-Rear-Shock-Reinforcement-Bracket-Kit

Thanks for all that detailed info. I will follow up on the book as I think I know someone who has it. Prevention certainly seems better than cure. At least here in Australia rust is just not an issue. My underside looks “factree”

And what about the underside of your MG? 😄

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I have had the Mike Satur reinforcement plates since circa 2003 but still had a failure on the driver's rear side 2017. What failed was the steel immediately where the damper comes through the steel (ie punched a hole). My car is low mileage and garaged all its life. Never goes out in rain.

My failure occured after during a trip in Valais (S. Switzerland) along a semi Belgian pave type road surface and with the adjustable dampers set at 8. The Mike Satur strengtheners held up, however. Gut feel is that the combination of Belgian pave and too high a damper setting caused the failure.

I'll add something to this thread also. My 2000 MGF suffered similar problems to rear shock mounts. A relatively early canned spring conversion, customer lived in rural area, dirt roads etc. I assumed the rally crossing everyday to and from her property contributed to the issue. One failure was the entire rear DS inner panel parting company from the bodywork...and I mean the entire inner panel!! In due course I found that the supplied shock absorbers had an internal bump stop fitted up inside the shielding tube. As it turned out there was a mismatch in shocker travel to vehicle bump stop clearance and therefore the shocker bump stop was doing most of the work and of course transferring those shock loads to the bodywork. I removed the shock bump stop so allowing the factory subframe stop to start doing its job. So far so good. Something to check.

MGF approaching 300000km...if its not one thing its something else.