Home Depot Strut tower bars! (With Pics)
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Well since the topic of strut bars have come up... I noticed on my dads' saab that his STOCK strut tower bar, ties into the two shock towers, and bolts up to the back of the firewall... is that a better design to cut down on flex vs. this guys way of just throwing some bent pipe at it? just wondering...
Thanks.
Thanks.
These so-called strut bars are doing nothing but looking terrible. There is no structural integrity, and there is NO way you can feel the difference with the bars installed-vs-not. Even the super-high-dollar strut bars make little difference on a car that has flexy worn out 20 year old rubber bushings and is running on street rubber. Not to mention the 16ga. TEMS rings that they're bolted to with one little 8mm bolt...
As stated by IJ. you'd have to spend WAY more time and money to engineer something that would actually provide some additional stiffening to the chassis on a mkIII supra. Think rally-car style spot welds every 3/4" and triangulated braces with dimple-die holes punched in them.
Don't mean to be negative or anything, but something like that isn't where fab skills should be learned.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as they say...
Ryan
As stated by IJ. you'd have to spend WAY more time and money to engineer something that would actually provide some additional stiffening to the chassis on a mkIII supra. Think rally-car style spot welds every 3/4" and triangulated braces with dimple-die holes punched in them.
Don't mean to be negative or anything, but something like that isn't where fab skills should be learned.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as they say...
Ryan
IJ. said:
so you'd need a full cage to get any real benefit from bracing the strut towers?
What about something like this:
http://www.ultraracing.com.my/Image/Model/Toyota AE101 front.JPG
I forgot which company makes one for the supra.
Yep that's heading in the right direction but where it falls down in our cars is that panel where it bolts to the firewall is a sheet of .9mm steel so not exactly structural.Yellow 13 said:
yes i think that is what IJ is talking about, that should make a differnece. its trianlated. am i correct?
IJ. said:
So where would be a good place to triangulate back to? I've been thinking about this myself, as I don't see any available that work correctly.
Lol. The "pipe" in question is called EMT, for Electrical Metallic Tubing. Known among electricians as "thinwall" because it's strength is so much less than rigid conduit which is real pipe. While EMT is normally bent using a lightweight type aluminum bender different from the steel one used for rigid it can also be bent by hand. Other than that I'm at a loss for words.
This thread is going nowhere fast.
1. It doesn't look all that great, but it doesn't look aesthetically BAD, in the sense most "Home Depot" mods do.
2. In a Double-A arm suspension setup like the Supra, the best point to brace is NOT where you have braced, it would be lower down and could not be done reasonably with the engine in the way. Any bracing does help, but in that location it needs to be reasonably strong to do so.
3. Your tubing is not reasonably strong, and is mounted in such a way that it cannot stay rigid enough to hold anything in place, let alone a car which if it was able to flex enough across that axis, would simply bend your piping as easily as you were able to.
4. You noticing an effect: placebo, look it up.
In any case, I'm closing this thread because it will eventually spiral downward, and cause more bad blood than it's worth. In the end, it's up to you whether you keep these "braces" on the car or not, but I would suggest looking into some type of strong metal to use, and not something you can bend and shape easily with a hammer. Anything worth mentioning will require some sort of welding, and will probably be made out of steel.
Good luck in your future DIY endeavors, and be sure to post them in the "Build-Up" section if you're going to be posting pictures of your car's progress.
Take care.
Jeff
1. It doesn't look all that great, but it doesn't look aesthetically BAD, in the sense most "Home Depot" mods do.
2. In a Double-A arm suspension setup like the Supra, the best point to brace is NOT where you have braced, it would be lower down and could not be done reasonably with the engine in the way. Any bracing does help, but in that location it needs to be reasonably strong to do so.
3. Your tubing is not reasonably strong, and is mounted in such a way that it cannot stay rigid enough to hold anything in place, let alone a car which if it was able to flex enough across that axis, would simply bend your piping as easily as you were able to.
4. You noticing an effect: placebo, look it up.
In any case, I'm closing this thread because it will eventually spiral downward, and cause more bad blood than it's worth. In the end, it's up to you whether you keep these "braces" on the car or not, but I would suggest looking into some type of strong metal to use, and not something you can bend and shape easily with a hammer. Anything worth mentioning will require some sort of welding, and will probably be made out of steel.
Good luck in your future DIY endeavors, and be sure to post them in the "Build-Up" section if you're going to be posting pictures of your car's progress.
Take care.
Jeff
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