Can anyone give me a decent diagram or maybe some measurments for some subframe connectors? I will be making my own but havent done it before. Should i use round or square tubing? Square or rectangular would be easier to fit the angles.

 

i'm searching the forums on this same exact subject and this is what i've come up with:

1) bust out the tape-measure and decide (after a bit of research) where the best and most applicale locations are to connect

2) figure out what design you feel like making, i really like ede's double rail idea, which i'll use, connect it about every foot would be great

3) now i'd suggest finding the best possible way to attach it, front to rear in a straight line is a start, but i believe a bit of branching wouldn't hurt

4) making your own is the cheapest way to go, and you have to weld in store bought anyway, a bit of extra welding and some creativity goes a long way, and you might end up with a stronger design

5) personally, i'm going to do this when the time comes, and i will make a 3 or 5 point STC as well, and a homemade wonderbar also, possible connect that to the sfc, who knows it's endless!

6) definitely a thanks to all the people who have a heads up on this application. here are some links to help:

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=189705
http://www.spohn.net//index.cfm?acti...d&contentid=10

honestly the majority of the threads in this section is where you need to look. i have compiled a group of pictures to assist my research better, hell it ain't gonna hurt, only help

 

Picture of Southside Machine Works Subframe Connector Kit. May help.

 

Thanks a million guy, you helped alot! keep em coming!

 

barry, where does the cross brace go?,, i have the SSM SFC's so could i add that bar in?

 

The cross-brace goes under the back seat. The lift bars that weld to the rear axle bolt to the cross-brace. I don't know if the rest of the kit is available separately, but you could contact SSM and check. I bought the $449.99 kit, and it came with everything, including a bolt-in drive shaft loop!

 

couldn't find any info 'bout ede's idea; could you post some links or any other info? Thanks i. a. Mike

 

anyone got some good under car shots of their sfc's?

 

Here's a shot of my DS. My design was based on simplicty. They were easy to fab, easy to install, provide absolutely no interference to exhaust or ground clearance, and were remarkable effective. I had more pics, but I must have deleted them cause I could only find this one...

 

all i did was run a "main rail " like most all SFCs from the rear forward. then ran secondary rail from the pad inboard from the lca forward mounting point forward and tied in with the main rail. ran a brace across both and tied into the trans tunnel and added a drive shaft loop. i looked at several catalogs to get an idea of what was being done, got under the car and thought about it. steel cost me 30-35 dollars for enough to do 2 cars. steels went up so i'd suspect it'd cost close to 45-50 dollars now. wasn't hard to do, any dumbass, even me, can do it.

 

those ssm kits work wonders but are terrible for street cars. i had one on my 88 GTA and man what a horror... the bars that weld to the axel housing actually cracked my housing and ruined my rear end. they sit to close togeather under the car and have no flex like trailing arms do, they just move up and down. so if you hit a deep hole on one side of the car, the other side cant angle down and causes stress in the rear. hard to explain but if you picture it im sure youll get what im saying. DONT BUY THE KIT for your daily driver...PLEASE.


to answer the question on boxed or tubular for the frames, i would say go with the boxed design. more rigid design. they dont put up buildings with tubes ya know

 

First of all I am not trying to start anything, I just figured this would be good info for anyone reading this. "Tubing" or "tubular" does not mean it is necessarily round. Tubing is a stuctural type of material, could be round, square, rectangular, triangular, octagonal, whatever...

 

im talking about getting the BOXED ones or the ROUND ones, get the BOXED ones. all the frames ive seen, the tubular is round and the boxed is boxed...

 

mine is mint on the street.....and it nearly eliminates body roll.....of course its welded to a moser 12 bolt housing too, not a stock 10 bolt, which im sure makes a big difference.

and for the person that asked before, the lift bar setup is only available as a kit from SSM with the subframes.

the yellow arrows all point to lift bar components, and the red ones are the LCA's.....this pic is with my old 10 bolt before i blew it up and swapped over the bars to the 12 bolt (took major surgery and careful resizing of the cutouts in the flanges to maintain the axle centerline)

 

heres another.....wish i hadnt used undercoating on the subframes

 

oops sorry

 

by the way, this is SSM's new website

http://www.ssmliftbars.com/

 

good luck with it. its a poor design.

 

ya it sucks *****.......i could ONLY manage a 1.66 short time with stock factory original 120K mile struts, shocks, and springs......and its been driven on the street for 3 years now, with absolutely NO problems....and i live in new england where pot hole are a way of life....no bent suspension parts, no broken anything.

so ya, it sucks pretty bad

 

i also live in NE and mine broke right off. no need to get nasty about it.

 

I recently made some SFC's.. since it was too expensive to ship them..
I used 2"x1" Rec tubing, 1/8" wall

drive side is straight, its the easy one..
pass side you need a coat hanger to get the little whopp de doo and then use a torch to bend the angles.. not a big deal just have to do a little at a time, so you don't go to far.. then cool it and test it....
the 2x1 will fit between the pinch weld and the rear Lower control arm bracket.. then up to front following that groove..
on each side I went straight out to the front subframe.. and gusseded it for support.. I primed and painted top, then welded in 3 spots.. (all on the frame, not the body) and then primed and painted. if you want I can dig up a picture..

 

I was thinking (which was my first mistake) if a man had access to a press brake, he could bend any thickness and shape he wanted to. The weight has to be taken into consideration,right?

 

Well, they're goin on the car.

 

im just curious as to what makes it a poor design, seeing that it does exactly what its intended to do, and does it quite well

 

a little easier way to do that if you were using rectangular tubing, would be to cut the angles out of the sstock and then just fold them in, and weld the seams.......would be very strong as well

 

i considered that, cut a triangle out of rec tubing and fold and weld.. with the heat, it loks very professional.. (no one will know that I haven't the foggiest ) and it is still very strong, i mean 1/8" wall and 2 small bends.. If I had of cut the angles out, i probably would have totally screwed it up.. Though your right, would be better if you knew what you were doing..

 

nah its not that hard.....all you have to do is measure the angle, and then cut the opposite of the angle out of the stock in the first section, and then to do the same on the opposite side of the stock to make it back ot straight

 

listen, i explained this already. the 2 arms that weld to the housing are to close togeather. you dont get any flex if you hit a deep hole or large object. if the axel dips down to oneside the other end goes up. but it goes up in an angle. thats what broke my welds free.


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the stright line is the housing and the 2 bottom lines are the weld on arms. if the right arm goes down into a hole then the left arm goes stright up. the space between the housing and the arms is the weld. if the left arm is going stright up and welded to the housing, it doesnt give it enough flex if you hit a deep enough hole. youll break the weld or break the axel. im my case i broke the axel. like i said before, i had the kit years ago. it worked awesome untill i hit that pot hole and broke my housing.

 

just like ladder bars.......mine hasnt broken or show any signs of fatigue with the old rear it had maybe 10,000miles on it

the new rear has probably 5000, and its much stronger everyplace, including the welds as it was a brand new clean steel axle housing.......i see where your coming from with the stress argument, but i dont see it breaking........its possible you could bend one of the lift bars if you hit a big enough hole, but i try to avoid those in the first place

 

it is a nice kit and you do notice a big difference, im glad yours is working for you. i just had a bad experience with it. be cautious around thoese monster pot holes, alright?