triangle shaped strut bar

[AlligatorBling]

anyone know where i can find it? ive seen pics before, a rear bar with two more peaces making a V down to the center of the trunk that bolt down.

[SilviaDriver]

Ebizzay

[Stee Flo]

You can find those on Ebay all the time. I think cusco makes a more expensive piece.

[mandoz85]

Here it is.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33591&item=2430793877

[Eyescream]

Are these really noticeably better than the two-point strut tower braces?

[sykikchimp]

a regular 2 point stb doesn't really help in the rear as much as it would in the front. There is very little flex in the strut towers caused by the suspension compressing b/c of the multilink design. Strut tower bars that only connect the tops are designed to counteract Suspension geometry changes that can occur in a Mcphearson strut suspension as the strut tops actually see an inward forcing load. These loads cause the Strut tops to move closer together, and flex further apart during different loads. This of course screws will the roll center, and camber, toe angles, etc..

There is more flex caused by actual inertial forces twisting the body in the rear. With that in mind, you almost HAVE to triangulate the floor to see the most possible rigity gains from a rear STB. Or have some way to triangulate the trunk across say from the one stb to it's rear opposite corner kinda like an "x" brace across the trunk.

[oberkill]

Here is a picture of the Cusco one in my car. I think its a great piece though it is a little costly.

http://www.project240.com/pictures/240/reartri.jpg

Alan

[Eyescream]

Thanks for the information, sykikchimp.

BTW, I didn't get to meet you at Hyperfest at Lowes, did I?

The weekend's kind of a blur and I don't remember all the people I met. :)

[sykikchimp]

probably not.. I've heard about your baby eating escapades, but not in great detail.. just enough to make me wonder.. :eek: ;)

I was in the black fastback with the gray hatch.. I'm 6'4" 220lb, white guy, short but somewhat shaggy brown hair. was wearing a white shirt most the weekend with blue pants. I was the guy who "used a lug nut to fix his suspension"?

[Eyescream]

Yeah, I'll snack on a youngster on occasion. They're a good source of vitamins and all that, you know. :)

I heard about the suspension repair with the lug nut, but I don't think I ever met you.

I'm 6'1" bald with big holes in my earlobes and weighing about 280 right now. I was sporting a shiny new sunburn on my dome and a black shirt that day. My car was parked beside Brandon's S14, had 5 lug S14 wheels on it and stuff.

[sykikchimp]

lol.. I did see your car. don't think I saw you. oh well. we'll meet sooner or later I'm sure.

Did you see Tim's (wiseass) car? he had made a homemade type brace across the trunk like I'm talking about. (weak attempt to stay on topic)

[Eyescream]

I saw his car and hung out with him for most of the weekend with the Atlanta and NC guys and stuff, but never looked at that brace (cause I didn't know it was there). :)

Friend of mine can weld pretty well, so I'm considering just getting some measurements and having him fab me something up for cheap.

The bolts on the bottom of the triangle... what do they connect to? A nut on the other side of the sheet metal under the car or something?

[Wiisass]

Guys, I don't know if this is coincidence or fate or something like that, but I finally managed to take pictures of the brace a couple hours ago.

They're a little big, but here they are.
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/tjohnsru/hatch%20brace.JPG
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/tjohnsru/brace1.JPG
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/tjohnsru/brace2.JPG
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/tjohnsru/brace3.JPG
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/tjohnsru/brace4.JPG
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/tjohnsru/brace5.JPG

I know they still haven't been painted, but I just haven't gotten around to it with all this school stuff going on. And I'm still debating on whether to triangulate the whole thing now, or just wait until I can get it all welded together.

Oh and I have to give credit to Jon (planB) for the upper hatch cross brace, becuase I stole that idea from him.

Tim

[Eyescream]

I don't give a **** if they've been painted or not, I just wanna know if they work. :D

So do they work? :)

What material is that for the crossbracing, aluminum? What size?

Come and get those shocks whenever, man. I got no use for em. :)

[Wiisass]

Yes it works. The rear feels a lot more solid. Right now the bars are 1' square steel. I was gonna get aluminum but Jon said that his aluminum cross piece was giving when he tightened the bolts, so i just went with the steel.

IIRC, the two cross pieces are 4' pieces, while the other 2 are 36" each, I just bought a 6' piece and cut it in half.

Yeah Scream, I'm trying to find a free weekend to come down, but we have a football came this weekend, so if I don't go to the autox next weekend, then I'll come down. I'll talk to you later about it.

Tim

[Eyescream]

No hurry, I'm gonna be in Atlanta this coming weekend anyway. Might be in Kingsport next Saturday for a little while. I could bring the shocks up there and meet up. Save you a bit of a drive. We'll talk more about it later, though.

Thanks for the information on the bars, though. That helps me a lot.

[sykikchimp]

YES, Triangulate it! that would make it MUCH stronger. That, and welding it in, will make the car feel awesome!

DAMNIT.. I need a MIG welder!

[Eyescream]

By triangulate it, you mean that instead of having a "U" shape to the bars, you should end up with more of a delta shape, right? Cross the car at the rear strut towers and go back to meet in the middle at the back of the hatch area?

[Wiisass]

A welder would be so nice right now. I could whip up all kinds of stuff back there. Unless I can figure out someway to triangulate the whole thing without welding then I guess I'll have to wait until I get a welder, or borrow someone elses. I would love to have a big welded X, bolted on to what I have now. The reason I saw bolted is because I need the cargo space, you know it's a creature comfort type thing, well ok I would never be able to carry more than 2 extra wheels.

I came up with 2 possible ideas on how to change what i have.
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/tjohnsru/option1.jpg
This is just the triangulation idea. Tying together the front mounts to where the rear cross bar connects the 2 other bars.

http://filebox.vt.edu/users/tjohnsru/option2.jpg
I like this one a little better. I would relocate the 2 bars to connect to the upper hatch cross brace and then triangulate that. I would like to tie in the rear strut mounts too possibly, but i don't know if it's worth it. But then again, I don't know if i want to move the 2 bars up higher, because it might lessen the overall effect on the whole hatch.

I'll probably end up with going with the first option and just welding everything together with a bolt in X. But then again, that will probably get welded in there too.

Tim

[sykikchimp]

I think you will get the same effect from either spot.. visibility will be better with it lower as well.

First option is what I would go with too.

--can't wait to get my cage built.--

[Eyescream]

Oh, okay. Hell, I think I'll do that. A friend of mine's getting into welding and from what I can see so far he's not doing too bad. He's also got the material. I'll see if he can do it.

Thanks for the clarification, guys.