yesterday i bought a set of ladder bar type lca replacements.the guy said they were competition engineering made,but i cant find any evidence to support that which leads me to these questions...
any ideas on how this will affect high speed travel & intense cornering?they mount about 6" forward of the stock location.

there is a pretty decent crack on one part,which stupidly i missed while checking them out.what sort of weld should be used for repair & will this be safe?i'm worried that the structural integrity may be shot from fatigue even if welded properly.

is anyone familiar with these bars?i'd like to find out the actual brand/model & get some of the papers that came with them.i searched for anymaker marks/brand names/parts numbers but there is nothing on them.

 

they would be a drag setup, and would be horrible for high speeed cornering.

the cracks would have to be repaired.

and those can't possibly be for a 3rd gen, and will require a lot of modification to the floor and chassis to use.

 

they are definitely off a 3rd gen,i checked out the car they were on & saw pics from when they were installed on it.i'm thinking the axis point going 6" forward might cause alot of squat.they fit w/o mods less the new holes that had to be drilled out.

 

What he meant by "not for a 3rd gen" is.....

Those are generic fit ladder bars & your chassis will require a lot of custom fab work, to make them fit.

You'll basically need to back-half your car to run them.

 

back half?you mean like new rear sub-frame?honestly all i saw under the guys car was the forward holes he added.i didnt see any other mods.i think thats why there are such deep angles on em.the odd thing is these are heavy bastards,feels more like wrought iron than steel.definitely well built except where the crack is.

 

I have seen ladder bars of similar design. I think the only company that still makes ladder bars that look like that is Lakewood. They don't make a set for third gens and their design is considered a bolt on.

If you do manage to find some way to adapt them onto your car, they're a street item only. That old design doesn't have a front safety loop so it will never pass a tech inspection. From the condition of those ladder bars, I wouldn't have paid more than $10 for them.

Installing ladder bars on a third gen means removing the LCA and the torque arm. The ladder bar design had better be strong enough to handle the forces applied to it so you can't have some lightweight wimpy component.

 

Quite honestly, I'd toss those in the trash. Unless you have some fab skills and if you do, you would have recognized those as a complete POS. Scrap your idea and buy some stock replacement bolt in pieces. You will be a lot happier. Our suspensions do not require a lot to get them to work. If you plan on using them you will need to add a crossmember to mount those.

 

IIRC in CEs catalog, they do make those bars, but, they are not recommended on anything quicker than 13.99.

 

well i made the #1 mistake that gearheads are sposed to,buying at night.otherwise i woulda saw that crack... since i was up there for a a/c delete & subframe connectors that was a impulse kinda thing.honestly with the way those things are made i dunno how the hell he cracked one.the welds are good & the metal for a lack of a better word is brutal.i'm pretty good at fabricating repair pieces & what not so i'm gonna weld it up,powder coat then try & swap for something else.seemed like a good idea at the time but thinking about squat & the axis location will be bad news for my kinda driving which is mostly high speed & heavy cornering.thres no drag strips here & all the back area straight aways where i used to drag are filled with idiots in hondas who cant drive,not too mention all those morons drink heavily.

 

it wasnt a lack of knowledge or skill,just bad judgment.hey sometimes we all make stupid mistakes,i guess with the good deals ive been getting lately i was bound for a bad one eventually.

 

Yes, we all have done it before.

I will check reviews on almost anything I buy anymore, as there is alot of junk out there. Whether it be an automotive part, or a patio grill, you gotta watch out for the bad ones.

 

you can give them a quick clean up, some spray paint, and they will be an interesting part to hang on the garage wall

 

yea ive really done that alot lately myself after trial & error.i've bought many computer parts for custom builds without knowing the brand & had em meltdown fast.then afterwords i'd check reviews only too see the same feedback 100 times.i think its a safe assumption next time i'll bring my laptop just in case of a similar situation happens where i get offered something last minute.
what would be great though is more honesty when it comes to sellers.if i'm selling something that has serious chances of a big problem if a failure occurs,i make sure that its clear to the buyer of any issues even though its a as-is sale.maybe thats why business isnt so well for me lol