J-money

Okay so I've decided to get a wonderbar for my camaro. From the searches Ive done it seems like alot of people say UMI has a really good fit and its $60 on summit. sphons regular is $55 but for the chrome oly material and hardware its close to $90.
Is the weight or strength difference for the chromeoly sphon bar worth the extra cash? Price wise the UMI is looking like my best bet plus I havent found a bad review for it yet.

hrspwr

iTrader: (3)

There will be a lot of different comments. My brother has the stock bar and I have a UMI. The difference it makes(in my eyes) is minimal unless you auto x the car. I think the UMI I have is ~5-10lbs at most. Not sure I would pay double to shave 2-3lbs..... For that weight savings, you're better off taking out the washer fluid container.

DonW

If you want to reduce weight in your car, let someone else drive! At least thats what they tell me...lol but I would keep the washer fluid ...you know...for a rainy day ;-)

I have experimented with wonder bars....save your money and get the cheapest. No handling performance would be felt between the two....and IMHO, there is also no difference in the two bolt and three bolt bars even if you WERE doing auto-cross. The bar braces one side to the other and keeps your steering box stabilized. The pressure on the bar itself, even under extreme driving is pretty mild to moderate and either bar will handle the job. Just my

J-money

Thats kinda along the lines I was thinking. I couldnt see there being more than a few pounds variance between any of them. Dont really use the washer fluid much cuz the car doesnt get driven in rain lol or rarely does.
Really the biggest thing Im concernd with is the fitment. Id be fine with stock if I ran across one for the right price. But ive seen on here a few people running into fitment issues with spohn and no problems with UMI.

DonW

Mine has a spohn on it. I didn't have any issues. It is the cheaper two bolt

Ron U.S.M.C.

The UMI is impressive.
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/afte...r-bar-1-a.html

JamesC

iTrader: (5)

Take note that the Wonderbar was never intended to be a performance piece (which it seems to have become), but rather a BandAid to help eliminate issues with cracking around the IROC's steering box. The original, of course, is stamped steel weak enough that it'll bend if you stand on it.

JamesC

J-money

Just ordered the UMI last night from summit. Hoping it will arrive soon enough that I can throw it on the car this week.

J-money

Yea I'm not really expecting a big difference in the car, Ill be content if it makes any difference at all. One thing I'm still curious about tho, if they used it on the Irocs with 16 inch wheels, why not on the Z28s or RS like mine that also have that same size rim.?

Im trying to really take care of the cars weak points more so now than throwing more power at it. But this questions bugged me for awhile about the wonderbar. Was there something else the iroc had that made it more prone to crack the steering box area.

Aaron_SK

iTrader: (1)

245mm wide front tires, and presumably an owner willing to use them.

J-money

I always assumed the iroc and 91-92 Z had the same size tire. So I guess as long as you dont go wider than that you technically dont need the bar then?

JamesC

iTrader: (5)

I'd suggest that the bar is good/cheap insurance.

JamesC

Ozz1967

iTrader: (4)

I got mine from Top Down Solutions, great fit and it took about 30 min to install.

J-money

Mine should be arriving within a day or so. Whats involved in the installation, just removing the innner two bolts on the swar bar and just lowering it down a bit?

SOCAL-Z

Two bolts on each side that hold the swaybar bushing mounts Bar mounts between the bushing mounts and the sub frame. I just cleaned and repainted the OG wonder bar on my IROC yesterday.

Ron U.S.M.C.

Don't forget that there are some really good photos of it installed in this link. They will help.
= https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/afte...r-bar-1-a.html

killer777

Had umi on mine and no issues. Good luck!

3rdgenmaro

iTrader: (9)

I bought the UMI first time since it was the cheapest aftermarket one.

The second one, I built out of some scrap plate and a short piece of tubing. Marked the holes, torched them out, bolted in place, tacked the tubing, took it off, welded it all up.

J-money

Just got mine in 2 hours ago and installed it. Wasnt to bad at all. Fitment was pretty good. Other than getting a rusty bolt out it didnt take long at all to install with having someone help hold the sway bar in place.

Thanks for everyone who answered all the questions I threw out. Overall I'm pretty happy with it. Looks great, fitment was also great aswell.

Ron U.S.M.C.

Regardless of the role a part plays, its "fun" to replace old parts with shiny , new, strong, parts and over the years I have done a lot of that.......

J-money

Agreed

FoundersPerf

We don't sell wonderbars and I'm not sure what the tubing and base plate material is. What I can say is if they are made from the same wall thickness tubing and the same plate thickness they will weigh the same. The only way to make a chrome-moly piece stronger is to use thinner material and post treat your welds. Chrome-moly and mild steel are the same weight (wall thickness and plate thickness) with the only difference being that once you weld mild steel you don't have welds that have a martensite crystalline structure which tends to crack. The only way to get a chrome-moly part that is lighter and stronger is to stress relieve, normalize, and then heat treat the part after welding. If you don't do the post weld treatment properly you have a very expensive part with brittle welds that tend to crack if stressed which isn't as strong as mild steel DOM 1018, 1020, or 1026 tubing. Bottom line if you are purchasing chrome-moly parts ask for the heat treat certifications. If they do the proper post weld treatment they will brag about it and show you but if they refuse my guess is they didn't do it.

J-money

awesome, thanks for the info.

greenyone

iTrader: (1)

I think I'm not alone here in wishing that Founders made more thirdgen chassis parts.