KDL Targa Brace

[7M-KDL]

While I have seen a few people offering targa braces they can be hard to come by. If you want to spend a pretty good amount of money the "weezl wings" can be found. Some people also offer bars. I guess the bars probably work well but I wanted something with a little more style. I decided to fab up my own targa brace with some design characteristics of the "weezl wing". I do like the weezl wing but I still wanted something a tad different. Anyone else making your own variants at home? Well, enough talk, here are pics. I do not have any "finished" pics, it will be filled, sanded and painted to match the car. All welds were tig welded and will not be blended or filled. I hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think.


Front and rear plates cut on a cnc plasma table and the tubes were bent by manual bender.



Front and rear plates bowed to match curve of roofline.



All tubes were hand coped and fit to be flush with the bottom of the front and rear plates and flow into the plates on top.



Integral threaded mounting pads to eliminate the need for extra nuts and washer.



Custom cnc turned locating dowels that use factory size allen head bolts so the factory targa tool can be used.



Final fit on the car before any finish work or primer



Final fit front view

 

[awsom-0]

That looks awesome man!

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[7M-KDL]

Thanks.I figure I've probably got about 20 hours in it including "r&d" and a couple design changes.

 

[BoostMonger]

Oh geez I love it



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[JDMMA70]

Should send me one for free after all we have the same colour car hahaha. looks nice though

 

[seoul4korea]

sweet, I need to learn how to weld so I can do shit like this.

 

[supra1jz]

Very nice now that on bar I wouldn't mind spending some money on.

 

[Another MkIII]

Soooo...when's the group buy?
-AM3

 

[BoostMonger]

Soooo...when's the group buy?
-AM3

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[IJ.]

Well done

 

[7M-KDL]

Unfortunately I am not a vendor and do not have the shop space to do a production run. This will likely be the only one. There is a possibility that I will sell this one and make myself a new one but that certainly won't be any time soon. There will never be more than five and I doubt I will make that many. I'm sure I will get tired of this one and have to make an updated one so at that point this one will be for sale, but not ON sale. The fact is that the price I would want for it with all of the work I put in would be ridiculous by most people's standards. WIthout machinery to stamp them out and having to hand make everything one off makes it kind of expensive(if i were to sell it). Thanks for all the interest and support though guys.

 

[IndigoMKII]

I'm kind of curious, what wall thickness did you go with? Have you tried to put the car in an unsettled state for a before and after?

 

[7M-KDL]

1/8 inch wall, 1/4 inch plate. By unsettled you mean load it like cornering? If so then yes, it feels like the top is still on. I had a lot of shimmy and vibration without it. I do not have any data to back up my findings, I do not have that technology. All I have is a (semi)calibrated ass in the seat.

 

[IndigoMKII]

1/8 inch wall, 1/4 inch plate. By unsettled you mean load it like cornering? If so then yes, it feels like the top is still on. I had a lot of shimmy and vibration without it. I do not have any data to back up my findings, I do not have that technology. All I have is a (semi)calibrated ass in the seat.

Haha, sometimes that is all that is needed. I don't like my targa being off on the back roads, the car wiggles too much for me.

 

[91Supra313]

What are the chances in case some of us, ie: me wanted to try and make one for ourselves, that you would be nice enough to put some measurements out there?

 

[gsxr141]

whoa. that's awesome.

 

[Silver MK3]

That looks great. It looks like you put a lot of time into it and it really shows.

 

[mcammarn]

Looks like the weezl wing. Looks nice. I've got one on my supra!
http://www.supramania.com/forums/showthread.php?160790-Weezl-wing

 

[7M-KDL]

Looks like the weezl wing. Looks nice. I've got one on my supra!
http://www.supramania.com/forums/showthread.php?160790-Weezl-wing

Yeh, I liked his overall design but I didnt want to use the big plate up front with holes cut out I wanted to use pipe for everything that I could.

 

[7M-KDL]

What are the chances in case some of us, ie: me wanted to try and make one for ourselves, that you would be nice enough to put some measurements out there?

I can get basic measurements but the locating dowels will be tricky. There is no way for me to give you the cut measurements for where the pipes meet the plate that you will have to just do by trial and error. The coping where the short pipes run into the long ones will also have to be fit by trial an error. Measurements will get you only so far then you have to just get it to where it looks right. When I started I took all the measurements and made plans but then when it was going together I had to make adjustments. I do not have a "cut list" per say or a how to. Honestly I didn't expect this much interest and didn't expect to make another one so I didn't document wel enough to make a how to or anything, I have some in progress pics and like I said, I can get the ballpark measurements. I will try to do that tonight.