I have to drive on 5 miles of gravel roads to get to my farm from the highway. Especially with the top down there is a lot of flexibility and rattling in the body
Now, should I get a strut bar from front shock tower to shock tower or just let her rattle. I seem to remember someone on this board saying no to front and rear strut bars, better to let the vert body flex.
Your opinions, please, folks,
Mike

 

The flex is mainly in the middle of the car not at the ends. There is 5 layers of metal on the chassis from the door piller to the strut perch, the coupe has 3. The rear has that whole extra beam behind the seats between the door openings. Cowl shake is found on any convertible if driven on a bad road, the FC isn't too bad when compared to many cars of its vintage. I don't think a strut bar would do much unless you have a really high mileage chassis.

 

Yes, cowling shake, a an English owner of MGBs and early Lotus convertibles in the 60s, I know what that is! So I'll go slow and keep on shakin'
Thanks for the help. As a past, thank God, owner of a 83 Porsche 944 money pit, and as a member of the Porshe Owners Club of the USA, they had a raffle for a Club Special 911, so I entered the draw, my wife said where would you keep it if you won it?
I said I'd have to rent a garage in town, by the highway, so as not to drive it on the gravel road. I did not win it, thank heavens, if I did I would have taken the money and looked for a turbo vert. About right for me.
Mike

 

As I recall in the 2nd Gen archives there is a thread on Icemark's experiments with putting expanding foam in the frame rails of the vert to stiffen it. You might check em out.

 

I have seen chassis reinforcements for fox body mustangs that go underneath the passenger compartment. I bet you could do something similar. Say for instance, putting 2 stiff rails and bolting them antiparallel to the frame rails, underneath the passenger compartment.

 

You might want to consider using adjustable shocks. You would have to cut an access hole to get to the adjustment on the rear shocks. Before getting on the gravel road, set them all to 1. It takes less than 20 seconds per shock. Once off the gravel, you could set them to whatever setting makes you happy.

When Rick Potter and I drove the One Lap of America, we would set his shocks soft for the highway transit portions and hard for smooth tracks. Rough tracks, like Heartland Raceway, we found settings that would give the best handling.

 

my adjustable shocks on my vert have the adjuster at the bottom, easily reached without jacking the car up but you do have to get on the ground

 

What brand and model of shocks are you using?

 

KYB AGXs, easily adjusted with your fingers too- no tools needed

 

Thanks.

 

It's not so easy for me. I have the jack the car up to get the the dial. Or maybe only my car sits this low? Either way, my chassis has 260k and stiffening the chassis would be nice.

 

you have to feel for mine, once you know where they are and what direction they need to go your good.

To not be able to reach them your car would have to be lower then your arm