legacycentral bbs

i just saw these in another thread. i tried searching but i didn't find anything, so i figured i would just ask, and see if anyone has a straight answer. i was just wondering if anyone knows if they will fit, or at least be the correct bolt pattern on the brackets?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Strut-Ba ... 0167139882

Thanks,
Ted

will they fit? Yes.

would you be better off buying a case of beer with that $20? Probably.

well, i was thinking since they look really flimsy, i would weld a few re-enforcement pieces to make the bracket stronger, and get a thicker steel bar and make it fit like this

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n89/ ... brace5.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n89/ ... brace1.jpg

Also, i might just use the brackets for the bolt pattern, and make a brace like the one that i have in the back of my celica (although it would be a two point since i don't want it to cut off my trunk space if i need to fold down the seats.

http://www.celicatech.com/gallery/files ... brace1.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/ ... 0010-1.jpg

I donno, i figured it would be a cheap mod since i have a tig welder i can use at work if need be.

The thing is, the front strut towers are very close to the firewall, and the rear strut towers are part of the rear deck and cross bracing of the chassis that supports the seats.

Most bracing, short of seam welding the car and putting in a cage, doesn't do shit. And, for the record, I do have pretty much those exact strut tower braces. It seemed like my car squeaked slightly more when I took the rear one out.

The cusco floor and trunk braces really crack me up.

yeah, i never really understood putting a brace along the floor of the trunk. i think the idea is that it will strengthen the frame, preventing twisting, but i doubt it does much other than being a shinny paperweight.

Even though they are close to the firewall and other stock bracing, it will keep the strut towers aligned better under cornering, making turns better without really any downsides, and be cheap (under $50 if i have to buy new metal). on my alltrac, even though i had my whiteline RSB installed first, the three point brace in the back of my celica did wonders, een with the extra stock bracing the alltrac had over the 2wd variants, but that strut bar is solid 3/4" OD steel with no pivots

well, i won them for $35 shipped

lets see how they do when they get here

For $35 it's a good mod. The BC/BF chassis is flimsy. It will make a difference. Not gigantic, but it's not THAT much more bracing. If you triangulate then you'll be golden. And there's nothing wrong with adding a bar on the trunk or the floor. Just because it's sheet metal doesn't mean it's infinately strong. Bracing a steel panel does add rigidity, but it doesn't add a huge amount.

Of course everything we've all just said is conjecture, as I don't think anyone has done a FEA on the chassis, so there's no real way to tell how stiff it is and how much any brace helps. All you can go on is qualitative responses from the internet.

As far as the difference between stock, a cheap ebay bar, and a cusco aluminum bar. It felt to me as the difference between ebay and cusco was less than the difference between stock and ebay, so it may not be worth the time, money, and effort to design your own brace, especially if you're making it out of a higher quality steel, or out of a solid bar. Then again, I did go from steel to aluminum, so that may have been why it didn't feel that much more rigid.

+1 for the ebay braces. I had one that was a replica SYMS front brace, it made my car turn in like nobodys business. Never in that cars entire life with me, did it understeer. And I drove the *poo* outta my brighton.

well, i'll be looking into modifying them when i get a better look at them and after they are preliminarily fitted up. i will probably reinforce the bracket itself, since i can guaranty that they will have pretty bad stress points. i don't have an FEA program to run, but this is what im talking about.

http://www.aceengineering.ca/Temp/Andres/weak.jpg

a better bracket will actually make the whole strut bar stronger, and will deflect less under cornering. if it REALLY flimsy, i'll just leave it alone, and make myself a strut braket based off the design, and run a solid bar between the two with no pivots

probably based off this design, since its the best 2-point brace ive ever seen made.
http://www.aceengineering.ca/Temp/ACEEN ... design.jpg
http://www.aceengineering.ca/Temp/IMG_0917.jpg

That is actually exactly what I pictured when you first said you were gonna reinforce those. I'm really wondering why you needed to spend 50 bucks on something you could have obviously designed and created your self. You know metal, therefore you can make anything out of metal. I say, aftermarket is plug and play, but custom is tweaked forever. Any time you build something yourself, you tend to improve on it. Thats why for me, modding never gets worse.

because its so much easier to reverse engineer it, and then improve, especially since thats what im best at . i don't have the programs and the time to do it from scratch and the proper R&D

and i only spent $35, and i can probably resell them for that much if i ever design a completely new bar

well, i fitted the front one tonight, and it fit very well surprisingly. the bar and linkage is very solid, but the brackets on the front are iffy. i'm happy with it now, but when i fit my intercooler, i'll remake the bar to fit infront of the intercooler, over the throttle body.