Making your own strut bar/brace? Options

[Box]

Versus paying around $300 for a TRD front brace, and around $150+ for an aftermarket 3 point rear brace. I had a thought, why not just make my own? Surely there's not much to this. Mounting plates and tubing welded in between those points mostly, just get all the measurements exact. My grandfather has a small workshop where everything could be made within real tight tolerances. Making my own I'd spend less than $50 in materials, so you can see why this is tempting. Just wondering if anyone else has done this, and is it as feasible as I think it is. Thanks.

[richee3]

I don't see any reason in the world why not. Most of us don't have access to the tools or the know-how, do we have to pay extra and buy the premade stuff. I have a friend who welds though and back when I started my blue project car, we decided to have him fab something up for me. I just haven't ever gotten started on it.

[Box]

I was thinking it should be doable. I was just wanting to make sure there's no secret science to these things. Never know with cars.

*looks at strut bar* "It's just a piece of metal, surely..." *some form of catastrophic failure*

[mkernz22]

As long as the welds are good, mounting points line up, and it's thick, it should be fine. don't make it too heavy though (even though that would help us fwd guys out with traction haha)

[kurt95gt]

I had a set of homemade strut tower braces on my old 240sx
an they worked great

[jordisonjr]

I'd love something likethe TRD strut brace, for less than 300 bucks haha

[azian_advanced]

95-99 Dodge Neon Strut Brace.

< $30 bucks




This post has been edited by azian_advanced: Apr 20, 2012 - 11:21 PM

[Box]

Alright cool beans. Will just ask grandfather if he'd be up for helping now before getting everything. I saw something about the Neon bars working for our cars, wasn't sure though. If I end up not being able to make my own, will definitely go that route. As of now plan on making them out of steel tubing due to availability and price. Even with using steel, based on specs of materials and my measurements, shouldn't add but 12 pounds to the car. Hardly worth worrying about in the grand scheme of things.

[BonzaiCelica]

there have been several attempted threads of American 6gc members making 3 point strut bars for the front and rear suspension. Pics were even taken of the already made strut bars, but Turns out they just disappeared or flaked out never to be spoken of again...

[Box]

That's never reassuring... Surely can't be that hard. Make mounts first, place on car, measure length out for tube, measure again, cut tube, put in position, spot weld, remove from car, finish welding, put back on car. Grandfather has been making things for as long as I can remember, so if anyone I know can help me do this right it'd be him.

[97lestyousay]

Jeff, aka defgeph made a one peice 3 pt rear, that was a very nice rigid unit. bolt together stuff is easier to make, but less rigid.
I have a fixture for making rear strut bar brackets. I made some for jeff back in the day, I'll see if I can find some pics.

A solid one piece 3pt front is going to be the most rigid but also the hardest to make.
You need a jig, basicly a clip with the mounting points still in the correct locations. Make the mounting brackets for the struts
measure and cut the tubes, weld the tubes to the brackets. ( top mount intercooler versions will also need a bent area for clearance)
Aluminum or steel, there are tradeoffs to both. Titainium would be the ultimate but these things are expensive enough already.

Edit: another thing to keep in mind is shipping, on something this size it is a real buzzkill. With the cost to build and to ship you are getting way up in price.
You would have to make something of excepional quality for enough interest to make it worthwile to try and market. TRD and Jspeed produce hundreds of units which makes a huge difference in cost. These cars are also getting old enough now that interest in new stuff is way down from what it used to be.

the bracket I made for some of jeff's bars, I have a set I will post up in fs tomorrow.



This post has been edited by 97lestyousay: Apr 21, 2012 - 4:11 AM

[jordisonjr]

Can the neon strut bar be used with the stock strut bar as well?
How does that compare to say, a TRD strut bar, cause theya re significantly smaller.

[Box]

A solid one piece 3pt front is going to be the most rigid but also the hardest to make.
You need a jig, basicly a clip with the mounting points still in the correct locations. Make the mounting brackets for the struts
measure and cut the tubes, weld the tubes to the brackets. ( top mount intercooler versions will also need a bent area for clearance)
Aluminum or steel, there are tradeoffs to both. Titainium would be the ultimate but these things are expensive enough already.

Edit: another thing to keep in mind is shipping, on something this size it is a real buzzkill. With the cost to build and to ship you are getting way up in price.
You would have to make something of excepional quality for enough interest to make it worthwile to try and market. TRD and Jspeed produce hundreds of units which makes a huge difference in cost. These cars are also getting old enough now that interest in new stuff is way down from what it used to be.

This is just going to be a one off thing for myself, I have no intentions of mass producing.

Can the neon strut bar be used with the stock strut bar as well?
How does that compare to say, a TRD strut bar, cause theya re significantly smaller.

I think RabidTRD has a similar setup. Not a Neon bar though, but has one bar that goes between the towers, and then the GT bar that goes to the firewall. Only thing I've seen with the Neon strut bar is that the bar connects to the brackets by bolts and isn't welded.

[mkernz22]

Can the neon strut bar be used with the stock strut bar as well?
How does that compare to say, a TRD strut bar, cause theya re significantly smaller.

It can be, but I would never do it. The amount of threads left to put the nuts back on would scare me haha

[jordisonjr]

There wouldn't be a lot of threads left?
I've seen it done, but not sure if it was a neon bar or something else

[97lestyousay]

you would have to add another plate on top or below where the stock bar is so yeah threads would be getting scarce at that point.

The stock GT bar is going to do more to reduce flex, than a single bar mounted between the towers. The one above, sorry, but that
looks useless to me unless you just want something to put stickers on.