ESIrType? Posted April 17, 2003 Report Share Posted April 17, 2003 Here's the deal......I'm a poor person and don't have alot of cash to blow on stuff to upgrade my car (which isn't on the road yet). Also I find it more gradifying to make something myself. I love putting my heart into something and having it turn out excellent. I take more pride in my work and am more proud to say I made something than bought it. Anyways, my brother (eftup-esir) and I have been working on strutbars for our cars. Right now the plates are a little rough and need the edges cleaned up and powdercoated. The bars are all aluminum too. I am excited to see what a difference the bars make on my brothers car (again, mine is no on the road). We had the single bar going from tower to tower and that made a noticable difference. I am excited to see what the rear tri-bar does. I actually made a strut bar set out of thin wall conduit. At first it went tower to tower and the difference was noticeable. The front bit and didn't push at all. It just handled better. I noticed the front didn't twist with the bar on. I didn't notice the front even twisting until we made the bars. Â Then I made it triangular and it stiffened it up even more. So now I have the triangular set made for my brother's car and it's down with a bad rod bearing. So now we have to wait till we get that taken care of to test the bars out. This triangular design is better than the one I did in thin wall conduit. Anyways, I thought I would share it with you all. I'm pretty excited about it. Now all we really need to do is make a bar for the rear and make a set for my car. Shawn Here's the aluminum bar from tower to tower. http://www.usachoice.net/bfrederick/brace/MVC-817F.JPG Here are a few of the tri-bar design. http://www.usachoice.net/bfrederick/brace/bar1.jpg http://www.usachoice.net/bfrederick/brace/bar2.jpg http://www.usachoice.net/bfrederick/brace/bar3.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Posted April 17, 2003 Report Share Posted April 17, 2003 If thats the bar you made it looks good. nice design. Do you think it will fit over the top of a MPI? If so i bet you could sell more than shifter boots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESIrType? Posted April 17, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 17, 2003 Yes, FNF, that is the design my brother and I came up with and made. I like the design better than the first triangular one. On the first one both bars attached to the same point, close to the inside nuts. This design is better, because it spreads the load out more. The load from the outside of the shock towers are now countering each other, rather than just the inside of the shock tower. As for the MPI's, I don't know. I don't have any measurements for MPI's. I'm sure they could be made to work with MPI's though. I don't know about selling more than shift boots, but the returns would be greater. I have sold around 40 shiftboots to date. Thanks for the reply....see ya at Carlise, Shawn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eftup-ESI-R Posted April 17, 2003 Report Share Posted April 17, 2003 If thats the bar you made it looks good.  nice design.  Do you think it will fit over the top of a MPI?  If so i bet you could sell more than shifter boots. Yup, that's the bar we made.... Thanks, I'm glad you like it. Yeah, it should clear a MPI settup. It will clear the Magna MPI settup. We designed it to clear everything and bolt up without having to fab or mod anything on the car. It would even clear the  EGR valve... I was surprise at the difference that it made. I didn't think that it would make much of a difference. It did. Like Shawn said, the front end doesn't push in hard corners anymore. The front tires just bite. It's nice. And into and out of the turns, the car feels solid and predictable. When I took it off I really noticed a difference. Without it, you can feel the twisting in the frame. And without it you can feel the car kind of snap or spring out of the turns. I'm anxious to get the final version made and to get the rear strut-bar made. I heard rear bars make a huge difference. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artinist Posted April 18, 2003 Report Share Posted April 18, 2003 are the pics working for anyone else? i cant see them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESIrType? Posted April 18, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2003 are the pics working for anyone else? i cant see them Hmmm, that's odd...the work for me. I uploaded them to another site...let me know if they still don't work, I have more sites I can upload to. Shawn http://mywebpage.netscape.com/TickleMeFuzzy/bar1.jpg http://mywebpage.netscape.com/TickleMeFuzzy/bar2.jpg http://mywebpage.netscape.com/TickleMeFuzzy/bar3.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turboquest21 Posted April 19, 2003 Report Share Posted April 19, 2003 now there's a tri-bar i would buy. how much (approx?) would you guys be selling those for if you decide to make a run of production on them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zactek Posted April 21, 2003 Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 I agree, that's a nice, functional, good-looking bar(s) I'd take one of those, I don't even care if it's raw and unfinished, if the price is right Would you be making any more, I'm definately interested! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artinist Posted April 21, 2003 Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 very nice. how much? could you also post some closer pics of the shock tower area and where it connect to the firewall. thanks, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESIrType? Posted April 21, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 Artinist...I can get some closer shoots for you. I am in the middle of making new brackets. They will attach at the same point, I just want to make them better. Those were made of scrap metal. I'll post them when I get a good set made up. Thanks, Shawn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Posted April 22, 2003 Report Share Posted April 22, 2003 Well need to get you some measurements to clear the Magna MPI!! Boosted, Chip, Lizzord? NE1 with it on thier car could you please get these measurements? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESIrType? Posted April 22, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2003 Well we tinkered a little more and got a back one done. It's rather nice if you ask me. We designed it so that the cutting of the stock panels are minimal. The only cuts needed are 2 small slits per side. I rather cut small slits than bigger holes. Slits are easier to hide if you would take the brackets off. Anyways we also made them to be more user friendly. If you want to haul stuff with your back seats down, for the extra room, you don't have to tear your interior pieces out to remove the bar. You can take the bolts out in like 30 seconds and have the bar removed with everything intacked (mounting brackets and interior pieces). Anywho heres 2 more pictures. http://www.usachoice.net/bfrederick/Brace/rear_inter1small.jpg http://www.usachoice.net/bfrederick/Brace/rear_no_intersmall.jpg Shawn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesR Posted April 25, 2003 Report Share Posted April 25, 2003 Here's my front tri-strut bar. http://home.fuse.net/remo/enginebay1a.jpg and the rear strut bar http://members.fortunecity.com/jremo1/046ad200.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmendeol Posted April 29, 2003 Report Share Posted April 29, 2003 Nice bars guys. Please say that you'll start a GP on them...I would really like a set of front and rear bars! Thanks for your efforts to help out the community!!! -Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fast89 Posted May 1, 2003 Report Share Posted May 1, 2003 I would definately buy a front. I would get the rear only if you can make it clear my sub box! I would never give up my babies. Seriously the front tri bar looks great. Pics of the strut towers and where they attach to the firewall would be great. Let us know some prices, I would shell out the cash today if it were priced right. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alspos Posted May 1, 2003 Report Share Posted May 1, 2003 Don't mean to sound picky here, but the firewall where the braces are attached is quite flexible. How can mounting to it strengthen it much without a plate or brace behind it? Or at least it is quite flexible on my '82 I was asked if I could design my strut braces to do the same thing, checked it out and found that out. Also not a lot to mount to without drilling extra holes etc. i personally don't think the gain would be that much. Again, please don't take offence to my comments, they're meant constructively. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FontanaTSI Posted May 1, 2003 Report Share Posted May 1, 2003 Wow, Shawn and Mike, you guys did an awesome job with those bars! Tell me you plan on doing a GP for them...or maybe even made to order. Would be cool. Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESIrType? Posted May 1, 2003 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2003 Don't mean to sound picky here, but the firewall where the braces are attached is quite flexible. How can mounting to it strengthen it much without a plate or brace behind it? Or at least it is quite flexible on my '82 I was asked if I could design my strut braces to do the same thing, checked it out and found that out. Also not a lot to mount to without drilling extra holes etc. i personally don't think the gain would be that much. Alspos, no offence take, I understand where you are coming form. Actually we haven't had any problems with the firewall flexing Alspos. We have taken this into consideration when designing them. It all depends on where you mount them. Like I said before the first set I made was tower to tower and was made of conduit. My brother drove the car for 1-2 weeks and got used to the feel of the bar. I then added the rear bar to the firewall and he said that made more of a difference. The conduit set was not adjustable, so you really couldn't tighten it up on the car. I have really cranked on bar to the fire and it hasn't budged at all. These are structural! We used an existing bolt hole to mount these with and it is at a high point on the firewall. This keeps the firewall from flexing. We are limited to what we can do for the bar to the firewall, Alspos. There are brackerts, the ABS, heatshields, the TBI and the secondary aircleaner to clear. We went out of out way to make these fit right, without hacking the car up. Nothing has to be cut for these to make them fit either. I wanted them to clear everything, even the secondary air cleaner tube, because my car is stock and has of the emission stuff on. I also don't like to cut me car up. Fast89 and others waiting for close ups of the mounting brackets... I can get pictures of the plates, but this is as far as I got. The mounting brackets in the picture were only mock brackets. I've been working on getting a few sets cut with a local steel shop, that has a computer controlled plasma table. I've been there everyday since Friday. I got everything on CAD finalized for them on Tuesday and got the brackets Wednesday. I was very dissapointed they were not what I wanted. They were the right shaped, but a little to big. Â :-[ Â :'( The front brackets are actually usable with a little redrilling. Â > Â I will try to get a more final bracket down today for pictures. I'll do my best, but cannot promise anything though. It might be after Carlise till I can get this stuff done. I am not even prepared for Carlise and my brother and I are leaving tomorrow. Fast89, I hear you on the sub box thing! I'm not giving up my boxes either. I am going to design my rear bar to work with my subs (my bros car in the picture). That's when my car is on the road. Thanks guys, Shawn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emc Posted May 2, 2003 Report Share Posted May 2, 2003 the bars are great. a few months ago i posted in the gp about making some but ended up on the road and dont have time to put it together. i agree with alspos about the firewall i had two bends about a foot apart with a plate to attach to the firewall. not to down yours only props. a childhood friend has a tool shop and has already made a set of full round plates for the front and rear like jamesR. the single price was high but they dropped quickly the more that were made. id like to see someone finish what i couldnt. keep up the good work and pm me if you need another route for the plates or anything. i may be able to help knock down a gp price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusky Posted May 2, 2003 Report Share Posted May 2, 2003 All I can say, is damn!!! ;D You guys did an awesome job on those puppies. Good work and it's great to see some initiative on the site for stuff like that. Still got the leather shift boots going? May get one in the near future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superfro Posted May 2, 2003 Report Share Posted May 2, 2003 goddamnit, how much? pleeeeeease Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fast89 Posted May 3, 2003 Report Share Posted May 3, 2003 You dont yet man? I really want one, err make that two I have 2 quests. err make it 3 make me a set for my blazer too. Let everyone know when you are ready to sell them. Let me know if you need anything that can speed up the process. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Low White N Boosted Posted July 6, 2003 Report Share Posted July 6, 2003 BUMP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESIrType? Posted July 10, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2003 I thought I would give a little update since this was bumped. I had the front and rear mounting brackets cut about 6 weeks ago. They were not quite right, though. They also cost a arm and a leg. The problem was not in our design, but the welding shops CAD person. We have everything we need to get these rolling, except for time. We will get them going hopefully before the end of the summer. We do have a mack set on my brothers car and have been running it for awhile. We have some im provements over that set though. Shawn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
importwarrior Posted July 11, 2003 Report Share Posted July 11, 2003 thanks for the update Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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