Building my own strut tower brace....tips?
 

I'm building my own triangulated strut tower brace does anyone who has done this before or installed one have any tips. I am going to make a mount similar to the Weltmeister but it will have the center section cut out entirely. Bars will be made out of 1in. DOM with Heim joints on the ends. I'm using steel as I don't know how to weld Al. Not quite sure how to do the bottom mount yet any advice/tips would be appreciated. Thanks, Sam

Start with the standard bar, and if possible weld the whole thing because hinges will create a place where the struts can push up unevenly a bar with pivots will stop pulling apart of the struts which is the primary form of flex but it wont help with secondary forms of flexing like hieght flex.

Once you nail that figure out how to add triangluators.

Along the same lines, I was going to just weld in a piece of tubing between my shock towers to replace my WM strut bar, and then weld in a 2nd tube to be the x-brace.

Any suggestions there (Chuck, I know you're reading this!)

Hey, let me answer that for Chuck. WWW.ElephantRacing.com has already figured it out.
Tom

My $.02.

Weld appropriately shaped brackets onto each strut tower or use the existing strut holes and bolts to attach, then I'd connect the brackets with a strut tube with threaded rod ends (heim joints) on each end to provide some length adjustment (pull/push) between the strut towers; one end has a male thread, the other is a female thread - just as you plan to.

Weld or attach another set of brackets for the triangle tube; one on the strut tower as an anchor point for the triangle tube; the other on the flat sheet metal area in the trunk near the base of the opposite strut tower. I'd weld this mount to flat steel stock which can be bolted to the sheet metal. This helps spread the load to the chassis . Install heim joints on both ends of the triangle bar down to the chassis so you can preload it. A clevis can suffice on the other end if you can find one with male/female threads.

You'll have to choose the correct rod ends (if you use them) and figure out the optimum tube OD and wall thickness to do the job without this also being considered ballest - figure another 10 lbs or so? Duplicating the WM tube dimensions is pretty safe, but I'm sure this could be further optimized with lighter, but stronger chrome moly.

Sherwood
http://members.rennlist.org/911pcars

Sammyygon, that sounds great, be sure to post some pics when you are done. I want to do the same thing, but first I got to get my girl running again =(

mustang
 

I have seen on older mustangs a V-style brace that conects at each strut to creat a triangle to the back of the egnie bay dont know if it would work but its incredibly effective in those cars.