Strut bar fabrication gone wrong, Need advice Options

[UVZ164]

So made a strut bar today all fits perfectly, is beefy as all hell but then I decide to try and shut the bonnet.....
When I was measuring it, I didnt notice the support bars running along the underside of the bonnet and of course with my luck they hit the strut bar preventing me from closing the bonnet

So now I need some ideas from you guys on how to modify the strut bar without starting again.

My favourite idea is cutting the bar in the middle and bashing the bends at either end down a little but and then re-welding it in the middle. My concern is strength when it is re-welded.
OR
I can grind off the welds at each end and make the bends a slightly lesser angle. Prefer not to do this one but if its the best option I guess I have no choice.

If theres any other ideas you guys/gals can think of let me know or please critique mine just above.
It is going to become a 3-pt bar just trying to sort two out first.

Here are the pics:

[UVZ164]

Have you used Abaqus before?

Is that the simulation environment inside Solidworks? if so only once, I mainly use ANSYS

interesting, i would run it again with a straight bar, I think the bend would cause more deflection than a shorter straight bar.
Just a guess, I have no software to test this, but I have been making parts on cnc mills for 20 years, so understanding rigidity is
something I have tried a time or 2. afaik the bend seen in some bars is a clearance thing for top mount IC, I doubt it is adding any rigidity.
Bicycle frames and forks are a good example of rigidity in action, the materials used have a lot to do with it also. Chrome moly should be
a great strut bar material imo.

A straight bar will withstand ALOT more force than a bent bar of any sort. This is due to a buckling situation that we encounter as both sides are in compression and fixed. Doing the calculation for the flat bar I used I found that it will take a compression force of 8909.29 N at each end to cause the bar to begin to bend.

The other reason that a bend is necessary is due to things getting in the way like, air intake piping, bonnet supports, throttle cable. So really it becomes impractical unfortunately.

flat should be fine...



i would add the little triangles at the end of mine

If that's the J-speed one, that's what modeled mine off, I just couldn't be bothered to make the triangles haha


If my thesis supervisor is feeling nice after Christmas i might even try to persuade him to let me hook some strain gauges up to it and then we can get a pretty good idea of what kind of forces are being put on the bar.