making strut braces

[lostforawhile]

hey i had a simple idea,when making your own strut braces,has anyone thought of simply removing the top hat from an old strut,removing the studs,then flipping it upside down for the round piece over the strut? it's a mirror image of the one on the car,and could be used an attachment point for the brace,with some pieces welded on. it's such a simple idea i dk why i didn't think of it before,i have four dead strut assemblies in my junk,i already have all the attachment points made up. i'll take them to the automotive tech class at school monday,and let them use the spring compressor to take the springs off. as far as the hatch,i was going to use flat wing spar aluminum for the brace itself, it would be a wide brace,but fit under the cover in the hatch,and being an aluminum I beam,it would be extremly strong. at the center i was going to attach two aluminum brackets, and a couple of aluminum braces from the center to the corners of the hatch,i was going to put quick disconnects on those braces, so i could pull them if something big needed to go in the hatch area.

[2drSE-i]

not a bad idea man. budget strut bar ftw haha

[AccordB20A]

sweet. now i no how to make the ends i might have a go with these metal things i got here with winders on them.

[Oldblueaccord]

The only problem I ever had had with strut bars is our cars are not a strut suspension. So what you are stiffening doesn't take and load right to left just up and down. The upper control arms (front) are where the forces are and were the stiffening should be. My 2 cents....



wp

[lostforawhile]

it stiffens up the car itself, it's one of the strongest points on the car so when you tie them together and use the other needed bracing,it really takes a lot of flex out of the body

[MessyHonda]

i still think the right tires make a diference...i had kumhos and it handled just as good...but yeah i do have front and rear sturt bars...and sway bars waiting to be installed.

[lostforawhile]

yea the best way to put it is that the strut bars are really body bracing.

[lostforawhile]

well monday i'll get those top hats removed from the junk struts,and i'll bolt them to the strut towers in the back of the car,then i can start taking measurements.

[2oodoor]

exactley ^^^
sway bars hold the suspension on weight shifting turns, balancing the transfer between both suspended mechanisms.
Ok, now the top of the suspended mech. are secured to the unibody, which is a lot more flexable than people realize. The unibody flexes with weight + inertia. Tie bars help solidify the unibody so that the suspension reacts consistantly <<<<being the keyword reason for this mod.

[Oldblueaccord]

Well since you two are my age group I'll give it to you this way.

If you took the shocks off and old pickup that had leaf springs what would happen? Would there be any more sway? Would you stiffen this area(shock mounts) thinking it would help handling?

Of course no, the shocks only control the spring oscillation they have nothing to do with controling the suspension alignment. Its the same with our cars. The shock/strut/spring only controls the suspension up and down.The upper and lower arms is what keeps the suspensoin aligned and thus all the stress on the body. Macperson strut car suspension the shock strut is the suspension and all the stress is on those towers up/down right left, back and fowards,

Sure anything that stiffens the body on a unibody car helps but I think your effort would be better in other areas.


wp

[cygnus x-1]

Well since you two are my age group I'll give it to you this way.

If you took the shocks off and old pickup that had leaf springs what would happen? Would there be any more sway? Would you stiffen this area(shock mounts) thinking it would help handling?

That's not a valid analogy because leaf spring suspension is a different design. With leaf springs the weight of the vehicle is supported by two points on the frame rail on each side. Compared to the rest of the vehicle the frame rails are fairly low to the ground (unless it's lifted, but that's even more irrelevant). Totally different from a control arm type suspension.

Of course no, the shocks only control the spring oscillation they have nothing to do with controling the suspension alignment.

Correct. So for this discussion take all spring damping out completely.

Its the same with our cars. The shock/strut/spring only controls the suspension up and down.The upper and lower arms is what keeps the suspensoin aligned and thus all the stress on the body. Macperson strut car suspension the shock strut is the suspension and all the stress is on those towers up/down right left, back and fowards,

Ok. The weight of the car is supported entirely by the springs where they contact the body. Where is this support point? The top of the 'strut' tower (it's not really a strut tower since we don't have actual struts, but I'll call it that just for convenience). You could think of the front of the car as a shallow U-shaped beam supported at both ends. When you put a load on the beam it bends. Here is a picture:




One thing that would be cool to try is to put a string across from strut tower to strut tower and watch it as you push and pull on various parts of the car. Even better would be to take the hood off and watch it while driving.

Sure anything that stiffens the body on a unibody car helps but I think your effort would be better in other areas.

wp

Well, that may be. But that's a different question and really outside the scope of the discussion. The assumption here is that we want strut bars because we think they might help reduce body flex.

C|

[b20a86lude]

how do u do a a rear stut brace

[phrenology]

Hey lost time to revive the thread. Anyone have a pipe bender? Seeing how DC's are rare and obnoxiously expensive anyone who has one want to give us the angles?