i was gonna buy a TA girdle cover, but they are like 200 bucks!!! i was looking at them, and it looks like all they do is brace the rearend more than the stock stamped steel one, am i right? i was wondering, would it be effective if i took my stock one and went to town with some flat stock in my welding class and brace the whole cover, then maybe make it so it holds a bit more fluid....would this be worth it? is the aftermarket ones worth it? i just bought 700 dollars worht of rearend parts, i dont' want it to flex and potentially brake any of it...

 

With enough time and energy you could fabricate anything but it would probably cost more than a proper cover and might not work as well.

When I was running a 10 bolt I had a LPW cover. It had the bearing cap supports plus also had mounts for extra bracing which I didn't use. The bracing ran from the cover out to the ends of the axles. I'm not sure if it would even work on a third gen because of the panhard bar.

 

yea i was wondering about cleareance too...because the sway bar is there also on the bottom....but what do you mean by it might not work as well? wouldn't it be better than stock, and add a little bit extra support..

 

Anything is better than stock but it might not work as well as a good aftermarket product.

How where you planning on putting the bolts through the rear cover? The aftermarket covers with the bearing cap supports are not just bolts or at least the one I had wasn't. They have a swivel pad at the end of the bolt that rests against the bearing caps. They're only torqued to about 5 foot pounds. Just enough to keep everything in place and not enough to distort the caps.

 

well i don't really have the complete design in mind..it was just an idea....do you know of any good covers that are around the 100 dollar area, or are they all pretty high into the 100s....

 

I think summit seels them for about $130.00 I have one on my car with a rear swaybar/panhard bar and lowerred, it all fits.
http://store.summitracing.com/defaul...h.asp&N=400304

 

It was my understanding that the only real difference was the supports/bolts for the bearing caps. The rest of the cover is beefier to support the cap supports. Without those, the rest of the cover really only holds in the fluid, meaning there's no point in strengthening it.