If only I could hire you. At this point, I am trying to figure out how to pay rent and bills, and am thinking of going to college to become and ME (the computer gig is getting old.)

 

A couple of questions if you don't mind Dean.

Car is daily driver right now so roll cage/bar is out. But I already have some bracing done and dont have a rear seat. What were your thoughts on the rear brace that you refered to above. Where would it mount?
And could you give a better description of the front tunnel brace. I cannot tell much from the photos.

Thanks DM

 

Best pic I have. This area of the car has no lateral support. The unibody is basically an upside down "U" shape from one side to the other. Under hard cornering, the points of the "U" will close gap and cause distortion of the unibody thus contributing to frontend camber change.

The same flexing appies to the rear of the car from the pressure of the panhard rod. The only braces in the back of the car trying to prevent the driveshaft to rear of the car upsidedown "U" void (area that allows for driveshaft, Tqarm, exhaust, and gas tank cavities) is the flimsy panhard rod brace and the rear bumper impact bar. There is no way (at least for me due to no ground clearance form car being lowered) to run a bar laterally under the driveshaft and Tqarm. A tube bender would be need to fab such a brace on the top side of the driveshaft arching in some sort of manner from the floor areas of each side of the unibody just above or next to the front mount on the rear LCA's (just under the rear seat in the cavity area. This bar could not be stright across because it would involve cutting out the driveshaft tunnel to do so, so it need to arch up over the tunnel but laying onto it close enough to be welded there also. Mtter of fact, I jsut thought of a design that I could possibly make that would allow the seat to stay intact and be completely hidden. I'll have to check this out further-I just may make and sell these

 

Thanks for the photo vsixtoy....I think I can see now how it attachs.

You welded plates on the front subframes to attach the rodends to?

On the rear braces what you decribed sounds like what I already had thought about.

Add an x-brace connected by all four corners to make a triangulated box over that area. This is just basicly the bottom half of a roll bar attached with door bars to the front and rear of the subframe connectors with bars running from the top corners at the seatback brace to the shock/coilspring area. Kind of like the harness bar/chassis braces sold for Vettes that I seen a thread about on here in the past.

You also got me thinking about the front brace inside the eng compartment. Hmm.......won't work with a V8 huh?

Later DM

 

I must appologize, after re-reading my post, yes it was a bit harsh. I did not in any way mean to "slam" you. I did feel that your first reply was not all that courtious either. I dont want to start any arguments or flaming. I do like your MS paint mockups, It is much easier to see your points. One correction about the SW race set and the torque arm. Quote from web site "The included crossmember features a mount for S&W's adjustable torque arm which can be purchased separately and installed along with the subframe connectors and crossmember, or you can retain you O.E.M. torque arm and mount."

 

As per your pic, sorry about my ignorance on autos as I have never owned one. Is that the stock routing of exaust on your car? As my exaust has always run behind the oil pan.

 

Dywynter, No hard feelings here, I don't take this personal. What I do hear is is try to keep to facts and try to always back what I believe and say. I come here strickly for fun and to keep myself sharp by using what knowledge I have gained over years.

I have a V6 of course, and this is the factory routing of the exhaust. I do not have ground clearance to run a y-pipe below the convertor shield or under the oilpan. I would wipe that out on the first road bump. The bolts of my brace barely clear the ground on driveways- if they were more rcentered rearward in the car they would scrap.

Please respect that I will always challange a statement on here that I feel is misinformation. I just know if I were looking for advice and ready to spend my hard earned money, I'd what factual info myself to base my decission- alot around is are partisan towards what they have on their own car. I will personally tell you something is crap, even if I own it (ex. Powerslot brake rotors)

Dean.

 

little servey that I thought might help further settle this...

post a reply to this message, and state if you would like to some how get rid of your excess money...

a hypothetical example: get a fistful of $10 bills and simply flushing them down your nearest local public toilets (they tend to flush much stronger than your average home toilets)

and just to fit this situation, lets hypothetically say that the unit "1 fistful" = 12 seperate bills.

So your shooting down the crapper, in total: $120
Would anyone here like to attempt this?


I was doing a search on Subframe Connectors (specifically Spohn's). I saw this thread and I was emediately caught at attention when I read that spohn's SFC might not be good. I read the thread through and came to this conclusion:

Regardless of which brand wins (although I think its clear that Spohn makes the better SFC) S&W's SFC cost an additional $120 (counting spohn's powder coating).

Say we gave S&W's "unoffical sales guy" the benefit of the doubt and said his SFC were just a lil lil bit bettah. (now, with me make a small tiny space between your thumb and index fingers)

look at that tiny space long and hard... doesn't it command you to just whip out your bill fold and hand over $120?

my guess would be noooo...
but at this point if your thinking, "hell yeah! that 120 is as good as gone!" I want to know if your really gonna flush it, and I wanna know who you are because maybe I could have it instead.
just maybe that $120 dollars could be put to a bit better use... shocks, LCA, panhard rod, generally anything chassis or suspension whise that might help your 3rdgens handling. Maybe even a new dash pad to replace the present cracked and busted one you have now.

but then again... thats just my 12,000 cents

This is just what I was thinking while reading this thread since nobody mentioned the issue of $.

 

Some of us don't like to think about it anymore. It is depressing when you start adding everything up. I just buy what I find to be the best. Which in this case is the Spohn SFCs. Again, like Dean has done, I also added a few weld points, that are not in spohns directions to help the twisting strength. If you doubt the stregth of the spohn set, I will try to go get pictures of my car, Every once in a while, i will park somewhere, and have 1 tire off the ground. it keeps the car that stiff.

 

I will try to go get pictures of my car, Every once in a while, i will park somewhere, and have 1 tire off the ground. it keeps the car that stiff.



i for one would like to see that ... it would be impressive indeed ... tao

 

Next day of I get off and pull her out to wash, I'll set the RR tire on the curb and take a shot of the car as I teeter-totter it back and forth from the RF off to the LR off.

 

I'll try to borrow a camera and get pics.

 

Those would be some cool pic's. My car is just as stiff. and I have hotchkic sfc's and lca's

I bought em befor sphon was around and big as he is now...

now that I added a roll bar Its even stiffer. even with the targa top out.

 

I have sphons on my car. What I did notice is that the doors closed easier, rear hatch rattled less. Going thru my storage unit, the right rear will chirp now going over the bumps, where before it wouldnt. That shows the chassis is twisting less!

As for the orginal question. Shocks, I do occasional auto-x, and I have kybs on my car. They are tad stiffer then stock, and IMO do just fine for daily use.

 

Do you remember the length of the bar you used? I am probably going to make one similar to yours, I'd like to have a length to compare with what I come up with when measuring. I'd PM you but since its turned off...

 

They are Coleman aluminum tierods- they come pre-threaded. I used a 19.5" for the rear brace and 5/8" rodends.
Yoou need to order part # RP-127-195 (The 195 is 19.5")
http://www.colemanracing.com/section/index.htp?id=12

 

Thanks. I was thinking about using coleman's trailing arm tubing for 3/4" solid rods.

 

It did need just a little persuation of my neighbor lightly holding the RF fender down to lift it enough to see it off the ground 2" for the picture. When he lets it go, the back is off only about 1"(hard to see unless i sit the camera on the ground) and the front is just barely touching(enough off the ground to be able to spin the wheel by hand, but with resistence from rubbing the ground. The sway bushings are getting worn, it used to do it much more about 1 1/2 years ago when the bushings were new.

Sorry about the bad angle of the sun, bad time of day to do this.

 

nice work man... hopefully my car will do that too when I get my spohn SFCs put in.

your next goal should be to get all four wheels off the ground

 

I've done that trying to get out of a radio shack parking lot.

 

ouch!

officer I swear... I didn't see the ramp...