FC strut tower/firewall bar and engine torque brace
 

This will be the THIRD strut tower brace to go on my car and the second one I've built...... sad. This one is by far the sexiest in my eyes. All aluminum, oval tubing, fits soooooo tight everything needs just a wee bit of prying to fit.

Anywho - the first was a standard Greedy that just never fit right. I used the base from that strut bar to add onto so it would sit further forward clearing the alternator, that was the 2nd iteration. Since that base was what a few other things were built around - the expansion tank and the intercooler pipes mainly, I decided just to copy that footprint and go from there for the 3rd version - so here's what we started with

Before I sold my other bar I traced the outline and went from there. I like to use a scrap piece of cardboard with two holes through it to make circles with. This marks the diameter of the shock mounting holes as well as the lip that needs to be cut out

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199129583

With the base cut out I can start templating the pieces needed to mount the bar itself too. This got changed around a bunch, you'll see what happens.

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199129583

With the pieces pretty much squared away I cut a piece of stock slightly long just so I can make sure everything fits, the bar is level, it clears the alt and the intercooler pipes etc etc. It does hit the hood slighty but a little massaging will clear that easily enough. The twins have the outlet pipe set far forward and even with my best efforts to keep the bends as tight as possibly, it still required the hood to be massaged. Mothing big, just about an 1/8" on a few of the supportst. No biggie at all.

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199129583

With the templates made I cut out all the pieces that I would need. I then doubled them up in the vise and filed them down until each piece was an identical match of the other. The car herself is dead level so every thing that needs to be built on her needs to be dead level as well.

You can see where I heated and bent one piece. I wasn't confident I would be able to get a full 90* bend out of the other piece so the plan changed slightly

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199129910

With the two mounts more or less welded into place I drilled a hole though the center of the bar and mounted it loosely to to check to make sure everything still fit properly.

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199129910

After I was confident everything was as it should be I cut out another piece to run perpendicular and finished welding everything up

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199129910

Using the previously drilled hole as a guide I busted out The Ole' Joint Jigger. Absolutely invaluable tool for certain things. I took my time setting it up and knocked out a fishmounth. The tube that I got for the ends is some really stuout stuff. 1" OD 1/2" ID.

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199130250

Perfectly square and true.

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199130250

Welded a section of tube on for the mounts and made another test fit.

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199130250

With one side mounted and a level on the bar we can check for clearances and man oh man is it tight! From the front

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199130510

And from the back. ~3/16" clearance! Better hope that 400+BHP motor doesn't rock. It does, but we'll address that later on ;)

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199130510

Now that I'm sure everything clears as it should I can finish the other side as a perfect copy and mount it up.

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199130510

With one side of the bar inplace we can pull a measurement and add slightly too it - 1/8" just for pre-load if you will . Not to mention I've only once been the guy saying, "I cut it twice and it's still to short!!"
Again, taking time to set stuff up pays off in the end.

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199130722

After I checked everything for fit I welded everything up. The heat into the bar caused it to lengthen so much that I couldn't get it to fit. It took a while for it to cool before I could get it in. The time I spent scratching my head as to how that extra 1/8" appeared allowed it to cool enough.

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199130722

And from the front. Now it's starting to look like something

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199130722

I had a few holes on the firewal lip already from the previous bar so I used those as a starting point to build the mounting feet out of more 1/4" aluminum. The passenger side was in a great place. The drivers side I made the first time slightly off square to accomodate the brake lines. Becuase I'm replacing the brakelines due to rot, I said screw it and made everything perfectly square. Regardless we started with the feet.

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199131044

Then cut a length of stock, and trimmed it, and filed, & trimmed and filed and checked for fitness.

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199131044

Then checked for level and trimmed it, and filed, & trimmed and filed, & trimmed it, and filed, & trimmed and filed until 'twas perfect.

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199131044

After literally hours of fitting a bunch of weird and compound angles and making sure I could contract 1" tubing to a 1/4" plate I was finally happy and then proceeded to burn myself and the paint welding everything up. That's okay though, the engine bay is getting a repsray soon

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199131373

I pulled the mount off and welded this side solid as well. Just becuase I'm anal about it I trimmed the mount to follow the arc of the tube.... yup - I'm that guy.

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199131373

And then spend a few hours repeating on the other side.

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199131373

Time to solve the clearance problem posed when the engine rocks. Taking a few notes from Graco about removing the hoist mount for the 13B-REW's and a few ideas I had my own I came up with this piece that bolts to the back of the motor.

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199131650

Bolted it to the back of the motor, I then cut out it's couter part to be welded to the rear bracing and tacked it on. I used temporaily the sway bar hiem joints for the rear. The thinking is if it does transmit too many vibrations, I can use a stock rear sway bar link with the energy suspension bushings in there. In the mean time this will work just great until I order a few more from QA1

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199131650

Checking to make sure it's on an even plane with the motor side

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199131650

Welded in place for life

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199131650

And finally mounted

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199131650

And thats a weekends work. Best strut bar I've built yet. I absolutely love the material too. Outside the marine world it's very unique. Now I just need to take all the anodizing off and powdercoat it

http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199131991



http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...1&d=1199131991

Great job, good writeup.

Sir, I bow to your skills! :bowdown:

Very nice welds too!

Looking good. I need to learn how to weld.

Very nice! :icon_tup: I hope to see quite a few more threads like this one in this section...

Looks clean :icon_tup:

That's a fine looking strut bar.

The torque brace has me a bit concerned though. It looks as if it would fatigue very quickly and tear the top off of the tubing. Is the engine solid mounted or on rubber?

Thank you. My welds have gotten better. The old power source I had only had 30Amps and the welder requires 60. I couldn't go past 115A without popping the fuse. Doing the 1/4" was tricky. Now with a full 60A heading to the welder I can weld a little faster and much cleaner

Thanks

I have a few more on the other forum that I'll bring over as time permits

ugh.

Thanks

I'm not. The brace is 1/4" thick and the oval tubing is structural. It's used all the time in tuna towers and T-tops and a bunch of other places that see ALOT more load than what I'll be throwing at it.

Very nice, this is very similar to what I want to do. Question, where did you get that oval tubing. I've been searching for sometime now can can't find a source for that oval tubing. Much appreciated if your willing to share that info.

Another question, any issues with the engine torque brace? You might see some cracks forming around the welds at those tabs after driving it. The bar you attached it to is strong enough, but the welds on the tab may not be. Unless you have solid aluminum lower engine mounts, then it's probably a mute point.

I plan on using a engine dampener with a rubber isolator attached to the right shock tower mount and the engine ear that the REW airpump used to be mounted to.

Nice tool tray :)

Great 3-Point, I've thought of doing something similar
MANY times. Good to know it's deffinetly a doable feat.

I think you have many free weekend to come:
build a new one and sell me this one!
Looks goooooood!

Car still has yet to fire so I can't report anything accurate yet. I did swap out the hiem joints for a stock S4 rear sway bar link with Energy Suspension bushings though so that will definately take some strain off the welds. Worse comes to worst I can cut that tab off andbuild another one that drops through the tubing. That will take most of if not all of the torque off the welds.

Thanks, I'll never do business with that tool tray co again though.

Anything is doable with enough $$$$ and brainpower. I have yet to see a really nice GOOD fitting bar on the market for the FC that's cheap. I spent ~$100 in materials and then my time.

If you're serious I'll sell you that one for $750 and build myself a new one. If I could sell 5-10 I'd drop the price to ~$5-600. I don't see (m)any FC guys shelling out that kinda bread for a strut bar unless it gave them a reach around though.

Well, this is half the price of my S4... ;)

Some quick searching on google yielded this:

http://www.easternmetal.com/products...e-tube-bar.pdf

Yeah, I've seen tubing like that, but the height of the tubing is too large. Ti TT Strut bar is made of what looks like 3/4 or 1/2 inch by 1 1/2 inch stuff.

http://www.tacomarine.com/item--Oval...-A42-0054.html

I may just buy round tubing, put sand inside the tube and put it to a hydraulic press too get the oval shape I want. I may do this with Titanium though. Marterials aren't going to be cheap.

:bowdown: