fabbing a strut tower brace
#2
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Car: Base 91 'bird
Engine: 3.1 v6
Transmission: 4L60
Axle/Gears: 9-bolt 3.27 & PBR
Re: fabbing a strut tower brace
Aluminum, mild steel or chrome-moly steel. Depends on your equipment and skill level. I could do mild steel with my friend's mig welder but no way on Al or Chrome-moly. I'm thinking of using 1.25 inch square mild steel tube because it'll be the easiest to cut/weld etc. Not sure of the wall thickness to use. The bought stuff is usually 1.25 inch round chrome-moly with .065 or .095 thickness I think. But that much harder to work with without a bunch of special equipment.
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Car: 86 camaro sport coupe
Engine: 350 ci. alluminum headed sbc
Transmission: TH350 w/9" 3800 conv.
Axle/Gears: 31 spline strange /4.11
Re: fabbing a strut tower brace
If you have a tig welder, tubing bender and bandsaw , I would use 1.25" chromoly tubing and 0.190" chromoly plate.
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Car: '91-Z28/'03 Honda 919
Engine: L98
Transmission: 700R4
Axle/Gears: '99 Zexel 3.42
Re: fabbing a strut tower brace
Been a while but I used a UMI unit that I modified attached with 3/4 inch tube with a .125 thickness I believe. Definitely want to attach it to the firewall you will notice an improvement and I also fashioned a master cylinder brace which gets rid of all the firewall flex when braking.
#6
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Car: 1985 IROC
Engine: 305 for now
Transmission: 700-R4
Axle/Gears: 3.73 w/ auburn posi
Re: fabbing a strut tower brace
good idea twigger on the brake brace. Im gonna use that when i build mine.
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#8
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Car: 89 IROC
Engine: LSX 6.0 370, TU2 Cam, Fast intake
Transmission: T56 w/ lots of goodies
Axle/Gears: 8.8, Posi, 4.10, 31 Spline
Re: fabbing a strut tower brace
Im lookiing forward to seeing this as I was thinking of doing the same for my LS swap as I know how I want it to look but no one really makes a good one I really like. You can tell they where never ment for a LS motor as they are too high or just look out of place
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Car: 1985 IROC
Engine: 305 for now
Transmission: 700-R4
Axle/Gears: 3.73 w/ auburn posi
Re: fabbing a strut tower brace
Bends wont compromise the strength of the tubing as long as the tubing isnt kinked. A small gusset in corners will give it alot of support. Remeber that triangles are the strongest shape.
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Car: 89 IROC
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Transmission: T56 w/ lots of goodies
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Re: fabbing a strut tower brace
Wicked man I cant wait to see the finished product
#20
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Car: 1985 IROC
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Axle/Gears: 3.73 w/ auburn posi
Re: fabbing a strut tower brace
Gonna look way cool. Are you still gonna tie it into the firewall?
#22
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Car: 1983 Z28
Engine: Forged 355
Transmission: 700r4
Axle/Gears: 2.73
Re: fabbing a strut tower brace
Looks sweet, can't wait to see some pics of it. I am wanting to make one myself, but have no idea on how to go about doing it.
#23
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Car: 1989 Iroc Z 5.7L
Engine: 5.7L
Transmission: T56
Axle/Gears: built 4.10s
Re: fabbing a strut tower brace
Thanks for posting this. I purchased a UMI strut brace and was not 100% happy will it and was thinking the along the same lines to modify it.
#25
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Car: 82' Z28 Crossfire
Engine: 305
Transmission: Turbo 350
Axle/Gears: 3.42
Re: fabbing a strut tower brace
Been a while but I used a UMI unit that I modified attached with 3/4 inch tube with a .125 thickness I believe. Definitely want to attach it to the firewall you will notice an improvement and I also fashioned a master cylinder brace which gets rid of all the firewall flex when braking.
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