I found a brand new one from GM that I can get for $25 or $30. I've never seen one though. Is it boxed, tubular, or just cheaped, stamped steel? Is the GM one good enough, or should I pay more to get the Spohn or Global West part?

Eric

 

i.ve had both the gm and the globel west and can tell you that the globel west piece is higher quality (built stronger)but there is nothing wrong with the factory gm piece,as for spohn i'm guessing that his piece is top notch and i would have one but he dident offer them when i bought mine.as for his adjustible part i really dont see the need to preload the frame rails but if you have money to burn why not. it may also ease installition as mine fit very tight
pete

 

The factory bar is decent, but if you wanna get the best get either the Spohn or GW piece.

 

yea the stock one is good enough. But like I always say If your not gonna buy the best...then just dont buy anything at all

 

If you can get a factory part for that price, I'd go for it. I paid $50 for a wonder bar at a junkyard. The last time I checked the price at Global West it was closer to $50.00. I don't know how much Spohn is charging. I doubt you will notice a difference between the cheapest and the most expensive wonder bar.

 

i would get an aftermarket one..

 

yeah, I bought a BMR wonderbar from Thunder racing. Then spohn came out with his about a month later. If I had known I would have bought his. I've been really impressed with all the spohn products I've installed on my car (Boxed SFCS, brackets, Adj. LCAS). Oh well I still haven't got around to putting it on yet... I hope there's a decent improvement though in handling.

 

So why did we buy thirdgens and not save up for a corvette?
I bought the GW bar when it was still cheap. I think they went up in price a couple years back. I like the quality of the GW bar but I was forced to bend the little locating tab on the sway bar bushing house so it would mount correctly. I tried everything getting it to fit without modification but the hole was just off like an 1/8". Not to mention the stock bolts are pretty short and the GW bar is thick (not stamped like GM) so that was another hassle. All in all it didn't take long, just used a jack to hold up the sway bar while I got one hole started, then the next, etc.
I'd buy the spohn non adjustable. I don't see any reason to adjust the preload on the front overhang and it could mess up your alignment. Here is why I think the adjuster isn't worth it....when was the last time you heard good things about an adjustable STB?

 

boneyard WB = $6

 

boneyard WB = nearly impossible to find

 

I have the Global West bar and people are paying more for the GM bar than I paid for the GW($46 shipped).

 

i havnt heard much about the wb. what exactly is the advantage of having one? is it just a piece to strengthen the frame in the front?

 

Stiffens the area between the two front most frame rails. Prevents the steering box from tearing itself from the frame on cars with big sticky tires and quick ratio boxes. I noticed the steering is much less floppy with the brace and solid tie rod sleeves.

 

just installed mine this weekend and WOW i was suprised at how much a difference it made. i do ALOT less steering compensating when the road is crappy. EASY mod.

 

For $30 buy the thing. If you don't want it I'll buy it from you. Let me know....

Ed

 

Thanks guys, I ordered it already for $27. Finding any F-body cars in junkyards around here is almost impossible!

Eric

 

Eric's85TA:

Are you getting this from gmpartsdirect.com? Or from your dealer? Can you give me a part number?

 

No, it's been discontinued from GM. I ordered a set of sway bar bushings and a panhard bar from Guldstrand Motorsports and I asked the guy if they made an aftermarket one. He said they don't make one, but they had a brand new GM part still in original packing from long ago, so he sold it to me.

Eric

 

boneyard WB = $3.50

 

If you want it cheap from a junkyard, call it a steering box brace and not a wonderbar. fancy term = price x 2

 

my car has the stock piece and it looks pretty sturdy. it's not stamped. it's a bar with plates on each end almost like the aftermarket ones.

 

Hey screw you buddy.
GO BLUE............................................Just Wait 'Till Next Year

 

Ah yes....the typical Michigan fan. Funny things happen when your team wasn't expected to be good until NEXT year, things like going undefeated, kicking Michigan's butt, etc.
Be happy your basketball team is doing good. What am I saying, basketball, BLAH, football is the reason you get up in the morning not some indoor sissy sport where if you touch a guy it's a foul .
I didn't know Global West discontinued their "wonder bar". It's not like it's all that difficult to make. If you can weld you can make one. Just cut out the plates, drill the holes/slots, bolt it up, cut a length of bar, clamp it, weld it, remove and do some cleaning up of the welds. There ya go, for a few hours you've got yourself a bar. I didn't notice any difference when I installed mine. It's probably because I also installed 36/24 sway bars, eibach springs, and blistien shocks. Just like how I can't tell if the STB did anything when I installed it along with my Alston SFCs.

 

Can't see that it would make much difference, the actual stress on the part is pretty low.... I'd say go with the lightest thing that works. IMHO the factory part is entirely enough material, overkill really; I would avoid putting any more weight on the nose of the car than absolutely necessary to perform the function at hand.

 

I have never really seen a WB. Can someone post some more pics so i can get the basic idea of how one works? Thanks

 

picture the front sway bar. now picture the bushings where the sway bar is held onto the car. connect those bushings with a bar that sticks out towards the front of the car. voila, wonderbar.

it's meant to give more support to the steering box

 

This came from WonderBar Install on SEThirdGen.Org

here's the pictures from that page.

 

cool...thanks

guess its time for me to save some more money to get one

 

I just got done installing a BMR wonderbar and I found out that driver rear hole wasn't big enough cause the bolt hit on the corner so I had to cut it out a little bigger with die grinder. Also with the BMR bar I had to cut the tabs on top of my sway bar mounts due to the fact that there isn't a slot for them to fit in with the BMR design.

 

which brand is that in the pic?

 

That is one of 3 versions of GM's bar. It is long since discontinued.

Lon

 

Thanks Lon, I just ordered one of yours about an hour ago, lol. I think your design is by far the best available.

 

Funny how this post came back from the dead. Perfect timing, OSU vs Michigan this weekend .

 

was just gonna say that.

go bucks.

 

wonderbar made by myself= 0.0$
I guess the preload wb is ment to be like this: First preload framerails and then check alignment. When frame is preloaded it can not flex, and alignment stays perfect all the time. Unpreloaded part allows fron to flex a little bit. This is my guess and if im right i think that difference between preloaded and not preloaded wb is so minor that only reason to get preloaded part is 20000000$ 1st price in racing tracks. for normal street normal wb is just fine. Hope that im right, correct me!

 

all this time i couldnt figure out what a wonder bar is. i thought it was just a fancy term you guys were useing for the front sway bar, or some kind of name brand. now i know, and knowing is half the battle

 

i made this one this past weekend.

 

I remember reading racers wouldn't want one because it adds weight. But would they still want one because of the chassis stiffness?

 

It only weighs 3.7 pounds. Not much to worry about if you ask me.

 

is this something any f-body can make use of, or is it just for convertables? is there any difference bettween a TDS wonderbar and a spohn/global west one? also, lonsal, if your still reading this... would it be possible to add a canadian currency option to your site? come on, canadians have money too

 

True, you do have your own currency. The US treasury is in the process of adding pretty colors to ours. That way in the near future when the Canadian Government decides to save the printing cost and drops the CAD in favor of the USD you'll be more accepting of the change. Oops, maybe I shouldn't have let this out of the bag yet?

Lon

 

hey, sounds like a good idea to me. but in the mean time it makes it a little difficult to estimate the costs of your products

 

lol.....just take whatever you used to pay for it, and cut it in half

 

All street-driven and road-racing/auto-x f-bodies should have one, in my opinion. The sheet metal that the steering box sits on is weak, and has torn on some people's cars (then rusting and g0d knows what else). It helps support the steering box, preventing damage and reducing understeer. Drag cars really don't need them.

 

ok, I bought the Spohn adjustable bar. I read the directions but it doesn't say whether to bring the framerails in or push them out to preload it. My guess would be in. Does anyone know?

 

To "preload" it you would push them outward i believe. Still don't see how that would help anything though.

 

That couldnt be more true! I dont even drive my car to the junkyard cause they charge me more. Nice looking car=higher price! They practically gave me a distributor when I showed up in my friends cavalier ;-)

 

Preload? I thought you just bolted the damn thing on!

 

there are 2 kinds, one's adjustable one isn't