I was pondering making a custom strut bar for my s4 t2. I was looking for some ideas as well as advice on thickness of material and base plates. I some places selling 1" tubing, and I wasn't sure if .120"wall was overkill. What do you think about thickness on mild steel vs chromoly? What thickness should I make the base plate, .125"?

 

Mazda claims about a 3% difference in bending strength with their bar, and its aluminum. its a thin wall AL tube with some thicker stamped base plates. its under 2lbs, so its very light.

since the windshield is 5%, you can see why they went for a lighter weight part.

 

Do you know where I can get some aluminum to use to fabricate it? I've seem most strut bars are made with oval tubing.
I was thinking of making it also bolt to the firewall. I should ask my buddy for my fd uim back so I can make it clear that as well