Has anyone built a tubular front end for their 924/944/968?

My recently acquired 944 project has some significant damage to the right front frame rail. I'm not certain if the front subframe mounting points have been tweaked, but the damage appears to go almost that far into the rail.

If people have done it, I'd love to see some pics, and details of how you did it.

 

Maybe you can find a 944 with the rear crushed and the front in good shape. Then cutoff the good front, remove the bad front, and reweld with reinforcing plates.

 

You need to look at this approach...maybe?

 

Speak to Motor Werks Racing iirc they cut most of the front end off their conversions and add in custom pieces.

 

Well I've cut the front end off and ordered some metal... let's see how this turns out.

 

Just leave it like that and put the engine in the rear

 

cut off crushed sections up to strut towers
make new tube sections to mate up to existing good metal
weld together
weld captive nuts and tap lots of holes for misc stuff

 

Progress. It's not pretty, but it's better than it was.

 

WOWZERS! Whatever you ( or someone) hit with that car you did a pretty good job of it!..But with the tube front end, you can now make the entire nose swivel down for easy engine access! I saw (somewhere) a car with a strut tower brace, that also had an additional leg on it that went down close to the frame rail and was bolted into the tower on two points per leg..Might be there for some additional stiffness on the shock towers., Or perhaps a second leg (tubular?) that went down to the frame rail aft of the shock tower..Will the brake booster go back to it's original position? Is this going to be a track car? I notice that it's an early model from the A-arms on the floor.

 

You've lost some lateral stiffness without the sheet-metal in front of the wheels. A strut-tower brace would probably be in order.

 

I basically saved the car from the scrap yard. I still need to add more bracing, but I want to get the 07K swap started first to see how everything fits first. The plan is to use the GT Racing 1-piece fibreglass front end. It's going to be a track-only car, and I'll be running manual brakes with a Wilwood floor mount pedal set.

 

There is significantly more structural rigidity using round tubing instead of Square tubing. See MotorWerks design

 

Well it depends.
Square tube is always stiffer than round tube of equivalent diameter if the load is in the same direction.
However square tube can't take much load on the corners...round tube can take load from any direction and is easier to bend.

If you really know the forces in the structure you can use square tube and it would be stiffer, but most just use larger round because its easier.

 

Not sure about all the references to Motorwerks. I've seen the pictures and am not convinced the modifications are stronger, more reliable, or more crash-worthy than the stock. Have they done crashtests on that design? Have they put it on a chassis jig?

My best recommendation would be to consult with an engineer versed in this kind of design work.

 

I like how you bolted large flanges to the rails. Note: I would highly recommend keeping the rad square (not "V-mount").