Well technically speaking its only half UMI. After reading a couple threads on here about the benfits of a three point strut bars over a 2 I decided that I needed to fix mine. It's a nicely fabricated bar so I figured I might as well just use it instead of getting a completely new one. We're not quite done but I wanted to post some pictures and see if anyone has any suggestions on anything that should be changed before I wrap it up. The welding is all done by my brother which all came out really well!

Old Setup



Modified mount





Firewall bar





Trial run




Brake master cylinder brace




There is definantly a noticable increase in the overall ridgity of the front end, I will never go with just a two point set up ever again. The cylinder brace also made a noticable difference in the pedal feel. Although the difference there was not as good as I wanted it still is better.

 

Looks very nice. Your cowl bracing looks very rigid too. That's one thing I disliked about most of the magazine DIY strut braces they use thin gauge steel there.

Just for future refrence what is the thread size of the bolt used to brace the brake master cylinder?

 

you've done a great job with this man, when its all painted it's going to look original.

I like the master cylinder brace as well, I might have to do that one.

 

Thanks for the compliments. The cylinder brace bolt is 3/8. I think we will weld the nut on the brace when I pull the bar off to paint it. I guess next up is going to be some good strut mounts to compliment the bar or vice versa.

 

Not sure I'd want the flexing forces that are imposed on the STB, to be pushing & pulling on my Master Cylinder.....


3-pts are nice, but that area of the cowl isn't exactly very strong.

I went from a 3-pt to the same UMI 2-pt you have (started with) & noticed no loss in chassis strength/handling/however you wanna describe it.

But I able to get my hood to shut, after some work. Something that never happened with the Edelbrock 3pt on, despite trying to make it work.

Looks like your modified the mounts too. Why?

 

Stephan, I would only be worried about the forces if it were a two point, but as it is it cant move much. I think I would have to take it to the track to see what effects it may occur on the brakes.

I have not tried the Edelbrock, but from what I have seen the flimsy little bolt on third point connections wont offer much resistant to the forces placed upon them, could be why you didnt notice a difference. Some sites state that you will have to trim some under hood structure for a proper fit for the Edelbrock, but this setup I believe only lightly touches some of the under hood padding. I drove around for a year or so with the two point setup and the difference here is night and day for me. Mostly day to day driving is smoother, it did the same as the subframe connectors did to under the car but in this case with the front.

The reasons I changed the mounts were the alignments were just a little more difficult to perform and it seemed as though the camber plates kept slipping slightly with mounts on top of them. And I didnt want to limit my possibilities of camber/caster plates due to design.

 

With the UMI piece, that is actually only an issue with the GTA hood. All the other 3rd gen hoods seem to fit just fine.

I was a guinea pig test subject for UMI, regarding that STB fit, so I knew there were very likely going to be fitment issues. Part of it was WHICH hoods hit & why?

The real problem with the Edelbrock piece is that is made of thin, flimsy tubing. The UMI piece is much thicker & stronger material.

Glad it seems to work for you. I've pondered many possibilities to make it even stronger, but that isn't one of them. That thin sheetmetal just doesn't seem to be strong enough to do very much good (IMHO).

 

Very beefy I like it! I didn't even know UMI even had one tell now and your extra support bracing looks like it would work well.

Not sure about the brake master cylinder brace though you probably could have done without it, but overall

 

I was trying to figure out a way to reinforce the fire wall in that area but everything I came up with seemed like way more work than its worth and a great possibility for a huge mess.

Whats the worst that can happen in a situation where you have a heavy load on that particular place of the firewall?

What ideas do you have?

Thanks for the compliment Tony89GTA!

 

That firewall brace you made won't add anymore strength then the "thin gauge" metal brace supplied with the Edelbrock brace. If you get any extra rigidity with your bracket over the Edelbrock it will be because you used 3 bolts vs Edelbrocks 2 and even then it won't add handling improvement you would ever notice.

Though I don't think the bolt on the master cylinder will damage it, I still think it is a very bad idea. Think of it this way, you just solidly mounted the master cylinder and brake booster to the strut towers and if you ever crash, there is a good chance the power booster will be shoved into and possibly through the firewall directly at you. And even if it doesn't make it to you, it will still bend re firewall in a way that the steering column will be pushed down into your legs making it harder to get out. Granted this is worst case scenario but you still need to consider it.

 

I'm gonna have to agree with racing geek I wouldn't have it bolted up to the master cylinder doesn't seem safe at all, plus really isn't necessary

 

What about welding on a reinforcement plate to the firewall, like you do for roll cages to the floor?

 

To reinforce the firewall mount why not cut a longer peice of thick metal and bolt the strut brace to that it would help spread the load out alittle. I can see it in my mind but I dont know how to describe it LOL.

 

Nicely done. Been lurking and reading a lot of the fab posts so we can teach my young Nephew how to fab and weld parts, rather than just buying bolt on's.

I'm not yet very familiar with the Aftermarket vendors for 3rd gens, what size/type of material is the UMI brace you modified?

Our plan is to make one from raw materials, I have benders, welders etc,, and have been Fabbing 4x4 projects for many years, so it will be fun to help the "Kid" with is 3rd gen.

 

Racing Geek and 92RS, the master cylinder is not bolted to the brace. Although that single bolt may press against the master cylinder I cant really imagine it in any case pushing the brake booster through the firewall. 92RS it makes a nice difference in pedal feel under hard braking, sure its not necessary but most of the car in general is not necessary.

Stephan thats probably the best option, I may have to look into that a little more.

J.Prock I know what you are saying but unfortunantly the firewall is not very flat. I made the bar as long as possible to spread the load but still isnt more than a foot in length.

uNkleStv UMI does not list the dimensions on this piece, I believe the bar is probably 1.25 inches in diameter with a wall thickness of .125. The cross braces I added are 1" diameter with a thickness of .095. Its really an easy piece to fabricate and well worth the time if you have the know how.

 

Thanks for the info twigger. When we do ours, I will add bungs to the bars from the strut brace to the fire wall for heims.

I'll have more details once we have the car in my shop to take measurements and design the bars.

We will also be building Sub Frame Connectors, and a Torque arm. I will not be surprised once we are looking at it, we end up making a few more tube parts for the rear, IE, pitman, maybe some adjustable lower arms,,, who knows, we will have to see how excited my Nephew gets when he realizes all the cool stuff he can make with the right tools and know how!

 

good looking Fab

(dont worry about a Crash, i mean, hey you have a 500lb's of eng to get pushed also..lol)

i would worry about a 18 wheeler running you over, cuss the camaro is so..Small, much smaller then a Tank.. and beer can weak when put nexed to a 18 wheeler...right?...fear the Big trucks drive SUV's...lol

 

I also agree with the brake brace. It's been done on road race cars for years now and from everything I've read most drivers do see small to noticable change. Some even say it's a noticable change for daily drivers. There are companies that even sell universal addon bracing just for it that connects from the strut tower to the master cylinder. Mostly only done for the road racing crowd or people with thin sheet metal firewall because it will distort when they start to stand on the pedal.

I would think it'd have to be hit extremely hard for it go through the firewall and that's only if the tab or bolt didn't bend first. As for the steering column moving that's always a concern when it's only bolted to the dash by 2 nuts/bolts. I know I've pulled mine sideways before as I have went to lay down to mess with wiring under the dash.

 

dont worry about the sky is falling post.
what you have done is a good looking fab, after all it's about having fun with your car right.