Strut Bar Developement thread

[2drSE-i]

Hey guys! I Emailed Explicit Speed Performance (explicitspeedperformance.net), they make quality Steel bars, brackets, mounts, etc for Hondas, and i contacted them a couple of weeks ago about possibly making some strut bars for us. Heres the emails:

This is after i asked him initially, told them about 3geez, let him know about what price range we were looking at.
This is for 3 point bars, mounting on the firewall and the two strut towers, They are powdercoated black, with an ESP sticker on it.

On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 12:09 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:

Hello, thanks for the inquire. I looked at your site to get an idea on the cars. I think the 3 pt would only be a possibly on the non carbed cars. That round cleaner just bulky and in the way. Please email with any other questions. Thanks-John

www.ExplicitSpeedPerformance.net

Me to ExplicitSpeed3.
show details Mar 27 Reply


Right, that was one of the things that was an issue. Most of the carbed guys on the site have come to accept this as well, haha. What would it take for us to get a group buy rolling for this? We do have a few members in WA that could come down and offer up their car to get one of these made, if you guys have the time.

[email protected] to me
show details Mar 27 Reply


Hello, thanks for the inquire. I would say hit us up in 3 weeks and see how we are doing. We are pretty busy at the moment. Thanks-John

www.ExplicitSpeedPerformance.net


so we are at two weeks, and i want to know how many people would actually be interested in getting this done. If we complete this successfully, it will be a possibility in the future to get some rear strut bars made as well. They make awesome products and i want to get the ball rolling on this. The price would be right around $200, which i know is a bit high, but these are for QUALITY. They are made from flat 3/16" and square 1" x .095" mild steel.

[Pico]

I'd be interested of this gets going.
Count me in for sure

[2drSE-i]

sweet glad to hear. That one guy will probly be pissed off because im using the same company that he wanted to have mounts made through....but i find it kinda fishy that when i emailed this guy he didnt say anything about it.

[MessyHonda]

il ditch my dc bar if the new bar can clear a b16 mani

[2drSE-i]

that was one of the few problems i wanted to work with this company on. im hoping ZackieDarko will chime in here, because we need someone in washington to give up a lil of their time to get this rolling. :-D

[ZackieDarko]

where is this place located?

[2drSE-i]

olympia. Thats pretty close to you right?

[86nlife2go]

dibs on messy's dc bar!!!!!

[lostforawhile]

for those of us who have stock carbs and don't need emissions, we can always get the bar and make a civic type air box or some kind of cold air intake to work around it. even if you have emissions you can always take the bar off for your emissions check and bolt up the stock air cleaner long enough to pass,then put it back on.

[ZackieDarko]

olympia is about an hour away

im down though

[Cheeseburger]

sweet!

[MessyHonda]

cool when can they set it up?

[ghettogeddy]

im def down as long as i have the money come time to order

[ZackieDarko]

i will take the hatch down when he gets it all roll'en

[ghettogeddy]

dude there mounts are cheap i wounder how much they would charge for a set of b swaps to be made if we had say cheese send his down to have them copied

[itzdave]

count me in as well. what about a rear strut tower bar?

[itzdave]

wait... would it for me cuz im carbd but i dont have an air filter like the oem, i just got a clip-on foam element with a metal cage thingy...

[2ndGenGuy]

Where the hell are they? Their phone number suggests that they're about 5 minutes away from me. Since my home number is 360-866-xxxx. If I had a 3gee, I'd totally do it. I could at least be a face to talk to them if you need, or I can go in there and pick the stuff up to distribute it to everybody on the forum. If anybody winds up doing this, at least lemme know. I'd like to go with whoever to talk to them.

[frantik]

hey i noticed justin has some bars in the market place..

[turabaka]

well I'm dirt poor right now, but I'll say that I'm definitely interested if the bar will clear a weber with ramflow flilter.

[87roach]

Count me in, it would be really nice if it would clear the b16 mani since I will be getting one down the line and dont want to shell out a couple hundred $ for something I wont be able to use.

[2drSE-i]

im emailing him next week. They said theyre crazy busy at the moment so nothing super immediate. Zackie ill hit you up personally to hammer out the details after i hear back from him.

[2drSE-i]

ok wanted to give an update on this since nothing has been said on this for most of a month. I did email him last week and we exchanged a few emails.

Me: Alright man just e-mailing to see how you guys are doing. I inquired about 86-89 Accord 3 Pt Strut bars, and you asked me to email you in 3 weeks to check up on ya. Just hit me back if you get a chance!

Them: Hello, thanks for the inquire. I remember looking at the 86-89 Accords not a lot of room especially on the carbed ones if it was FI it may be possible. -John

----this kinda threw me off since we had already talked about it...but whatever.

Me: Right, thats what was decided on as a group (3geez.com). How many committed buyers would you guys need to develop these?

Them: Hello, thanks for the inquire. If you could send me a picture of an 86-89 Accord Fuel Injected model engine bay so I can take a look at it again and I'll get back to you asap. Thanks-John

Me: As requested, a picture of an FI Engine bay. A big problem with our cars is how high the motor sits in relation to the strut mounts. DC Sports used to make a strut bar for us (in the picture actually) and they had to slop up to avoid hitting our intake plenum.

A solution for this is to slope out, so that the bar goes between the plenum and the fuel rail. There is plenty of room for this (if you use the same steel you use in the other cars models) and i think it would look pretty clean. This would also help ease some of the frustration with the DC Sports bar. A lot of members complain that when they swap to B16/B18 manifolds that the DC bar still isn't tall enough, and it smacks the bar. Anywho, just get back to me when you can, i know you guys are busy.
-----i did include a picture of someone's car with a DC bar on it.------


Them: Hello, thanks for the picture. I would like to see maybe a few more pictures and possibly some measurements of the actual objects or close areas that you are refering too. A couple side angles and level angle pictures would be nice. The highest point of the DC bar look like it would be okay to be that high on the ends of the bar? Also a picture of DC platform would be nice to get an idea of the shock layout. Thanks-John

Me:Ok i got a few more pics, this is my car, i have a custom fabricated strut bar on my car, it is a mock of the DC Bar..sorta.

The very last picture (if you cant tell, i couldnt by looking at it) is from behind.
I dont think that the strut bar will fit between the plenum and the fuel rail...oh well.

---i had a justin bar on my car at the time.-----

Them: Hello, thanks for the pictures. Boy you are right the engine does sit high :( hmm I can make one possibly send it to you and see how it fits but all I can do is get it as high as I can as we do will all our strut bars which is within 1/2" from hood and just maybe cross our fingers. If you could give me some measurements at your convience at the tallest point of your strut bar and how tall the intake manifold is. Measure from shock tower bolt, closes to front and up. It would be hard to come out forward towards front of the car to get in the area of the fuel rail it may look funky too. I would probably just get up as high as I could and hope it works upon fitment of engine. Thanks-John


----kinda bothered me that he wanted to throw one together....we will see how this goes together.----

me: We do have a member that lives pretty close to you guys who is willing to drive down and offer up his car for developement. I just cant see you guys making a prototype and having it way off. I don't want anybody to lose money here.

----sorry Zackie, im really not trying to put you in a tight spot. I caught myself after sending the e-mail, im kinda putting you in a position that we haven't really discussed in depth. Hit me up and we'll talk about it----

Them: Hello, thanks for the inquire. If you can get someone lined up some what close to come down that would be ideal that has a fuel injected model. But give me 2 weeks before that so I can get caught up. Hit me up in 2 weeks. Thanks-John




So this is where we stand on this. Comments welcome!