Well i work in a machine shop adn plan on making my own strut tower brace. that will go back to firewall and then have a cross brace. i have to move it back like that to clear my custom intake i made.



here is a 3d model i drew and plan to use 3/16 or 1/4 inch plate and 1.0 tubing. you think it wil be rigid enough. thanks robert

 

Having it that further back will not help as much as having it upfront like the traditional style... Custom intake? Care to share the pictures?

 

Hey! Get back to work!

 

^^^^

 

heres my intake and i cant even fit 1 inch between it and the hood. so back behind has to work for me LOL sucks but you have to sacrifice some things to gain others here is my intake.

 

wow that thing is sick looking

 

try pushing it forward a little bit that should clear it with a 1/4 inch spacer on top of the strut towers thats what I did to myne.

 

well im going to try and see how far forward i must go to clear. the straighter it is the better i know. even if i have to cut a little of the hood structure out.. i can cut it out and just weld a flat bar instead of the raised sheetmetal. im going to try and make the tower caps anyways and then worry about arranging the pipes.

i know the intake still has machine and grind marks but i should soon have cleaned up and polised then i will clear coat it to prevent oxidizing.

 

now thats a sweet looking intake!!! goodsh*t

 

well i just got off the phone with sam (bad83) and talked to him about it and i ended up taking his advice some what. i cut the pipe that is welded to the intake and cut oppisite angles on the two pieces. i then found another nohub rubber connector and ducked it down a bit more. i have not check clearance yet but i think i might be able to make the brace right over the alternator or forward no more then a inch. the intake even is better it is moved closer to the headlight adn more direct in line with the headlight for better flow all around good call sam. right now its a little rough around the sawed edges but the rubber connectors cover that. i will check later for clearance but i think im good to go and straight across.
robert

 

My internet is f...ing up today as I posted a reply earlier.

Form looks good in your design, however function is lacking. The purpose of a strut brace is to keep the tops of the strut towers from flexing in/outward. Your design does not meets that requirement. Take a look at the the strut bar I have in my wb build thread. This is the type of configuration you need.

Very nice work on the rendering btw.

https://www.rx7club.com/build-threads-293/unvieling-12a-bp-widebody-462184/

 

Trochiod, i plan on redesigning it a bit tonight to make it go straight across to prevent and lateral movement. is it a must to have it tie back to the fire wall or is that just a plus. if i was to make one just straight across would i be lacking anything.

thanks for the pics of yours looks very nice.

Yeah the rendering is off a software called rhino, i use solidworks and surfcam at work but to expensive for to get it at home. i will redesign and repost tonght thanks
robert

 

That intake looks sweet, I should make a carb hat like that for my car....

Here's the strut tower brace I made for my car, still need to sandblast and paint it, but it works. You might want bigger plates where it bolts to the firewall, the metal is thin and flexes easy. I used one plate, uses the 4 hood latch bolts and 1 big bolt with fender washers on each end.

 

When I installed the RE brace, I had to add reinforcing plates on the firewall also. Way to much flex there for the triangulated braces to be effective.

 

Well after adjusting the inlet on my intake i think i can clear if i move in front of the center of the strut tower abotu 6 inches, it should go right across and over the alternator. i drew up two more concepts one which will also brace off on the firewall and the other that is just a single tower brace. not sure which i will do but if i build the single bar it would be very simple to add the firewall brace at a later date. it will take a couple weeks to build complete but i will post photos once its built. thanks for the input everybody.

robert

here is the actuall model and wire frame of the combo


here is the render with just a steel finsih of the combo


here is the single version

 

Would bolting a long piece of metel to the backside of the firewal that connected both points work. Or would you need to weld something on?

 

triangles kick ***!!

 

yeah after posting that last one i started looking at some other designs and i might add a bar right where you are pointing, idrew it in with the others but have not uploaded it yeah.

 

Go back an take another look at the RE one on mine. Instead of adding a return angle to the main bar, you can extend the bracket on the strut top for clearance around the alt. No need to add a full width plate on the firewall and there is too much other crap in the way to work around. The mounting plates I made were 2-3X4X1/8" and tack welded to the firewall, along with bolt through the end of the brace, plate and firewall.

You may wish to consider adding adjustability to the firewall braces too.

 

Those are a must. Since the front tube will need to be bent all the loads will simply tweak the bends more. The triangle gussets will carry the load from the main tube to the strut tower plate eliminating the weak point of the bend.

The other thing I wold like to see you work on is the termination of the tubes at the strut tower plates. I really like that you notched the ends where they meet up with the plates. Maybe play in that area a bit.

Looks good! keep it going.

-billy

 

bwaits not sure what you mean by this ??

"The other thing I wold like to see you work on is the termination of the tubes at the strut tower plates"

the tubes have to be there??

maybe im just confused

 

CP Racing would just weld a small bit of the bottom of the tube to the plate - a solution that was at once both ugly and weak. He's cautioning you to be mindful of how the tubes connect to the base plates.

 

The Rotary Engineering bar is good because it's straight. If you must put a bend in it, at least put a gusset in the bend. If your doing this to a rule set, make sure you're allowed to triangulate the strut bar to the firewall. In SCCA street prepared rules you are not allowed to do so.

 

This is a CP racing strut bar.


If the welding gives way, it wasn't welded worth a crap to begin with, or you just hade a major accident. What you have come up with on your revised version is on the money. You really only have two options for going from tower to tower, and not having hood clearance issues. 1- right in front of the alt, or 2- right behind the alt. Hey, Rob. Why you always got to blame me for your habits? HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!