Well i was bored, so i fab'ed a rear strut bar. I'm also going to add either screws or bolts : to where all pieces of metal that form the rear shock towers, there's a bunch of pieces that are just tacked together. by doing this i've learned just how thin the metal is that form the body, of a uni-body jap car. this **** IS THIN !!

 

I guess this would help a bit. I know,,,i need a better camera...

 

Dude I cant see that pic, its all washed out! And one word for your bolting together idea.......seamwelding!

 

Hi, Mark.
I've been thinking about doing the same thing, I like the way you have the bar coming out of rather small holes in the plastic that covers the shock towers, very nice.
You can hand weld the seams up solid and that will give more strength. My RX3 is completely seam-welded throughout. The guy I got it from had started building it for SCCA Pro Rally. Definitely solid! -Mike

 

Thats cool Mark..I'll have to swing by to check it out..been wanting one myself for a long time now, to attach some harnesses mainly, but a roll bar may be my answer. Seam welding isnt legal in CSP but who cares How about some of that spray in foam?

~Mel

 

looks nice man. need a better pic though.

 

lack of rear strut makes a rear upper strut bar seam kind of pointless, is this area lacking rigity.

 

Foam ? Mel,,i don't think foam would cut-it. i mean once you see just how it is, and start drilling or fab'ing in that area to reinforce the rear, seam welding is in order.
I don't own a welder to do the job, thats why i'm talking
screws/bolts. where the bar mounts is to a bracket on each tower, and where those mount i reinforced and brace'd them. My bar,everything is cold machined and bolted together.of coarse i know welding is the best bet
but i did with what i've got to use. and using stainless steel like i did, is a mother ******.just the connecting bar is stainless. the brace's are plate steel. i guess they
could be called backing plates.

 

Ok i have a few questions about this...

Strut tower braces are designed to keep the struts aligned and in there proper place in the corners.
The Rx-7 has a solid axel. There shouldent be any flex at the shock towers.

Also these are for STRUT towers. These are shock, very different.

If I am wrong and there is a little bit of performance in this please correct me. I love the idea, but it seems completly pointless to me.

 

Thats what I was thinking also, seems like the only load that would be there is the up/down force from the dampening of the shock.
If I am worng, please say so...I have a welder and will do any mod that is free

Later
Randy

 

Any time a suspention is connected on a uni-body car
there will be a performance gain,the fronts are more
noticable.it couldn't hurt to weld up the rear if you can.
after driving with the rear bar now,the car has settled
some and i tightend up the bar, my moonroof doesn't
rattle at all now. A car with no sunroof would be better
for ,,say a roadrace car , because the body is more rigid
(more metal) holding it together. I agree, look under your 7,, that rearend isn't going anywhere. but the bodies flex some.got too, because that **** is thin.IMO

 

My moon roof rattles like a *****, lol. It would be worth it for me to make one just to get rid of that damn rattle, lol. Actually, I need a new screw mechanisim. If I put the moonroof all they way up, by then end of the day it will have ratteled itself down to half way...Rather annoying...Does it with the metal sunroof too.

~T.J.

 

From a handling standpoint, adding a rear SHOCK TOWER bar may not have much effect, but generally anything you do to stiffen up these cars is a plus. That is, it couldn't hurt. Also, as a harness mount I think it would work great. I was originally building my RX3 for CSP, but as someone mentioned, it isn't legal since it is seam-welded. Here is my quandry: I could run it in CSP at the local autocrosses and nobody would say a thing about it, or I could run it basically gutted as it is now in OSP, which is a pretty darn fast class locally. Some choice, do I *ahem* CHEAT, or do I get me **** kicked? -Mike

 

Looks good Mark from what I can see and I thought I was the only one with a home-made rear shock tower bar.

here is a picture of mine.. I made it out of a Empi Volkswagen traction bar



laters
Matt

 

Personally, I'm going with installing a tri-link and panhard rod.... In my opinion, those two things will make much more of a difference than a tower brace

Dan