A Quiet Boom

Looks straight forward enough, anyone ever done this? I was thinking I'd build one out of 1" tubing.

911pcars

If you think about it, any product you see on the marketplace was at one time built by someone, then mass-produced. So yes, you can DIY a strut bar given the time, skill and the machine/hand tools to do it. If you have one to copy, it's relatively easy. Depending on the design you copy, materials might cost $50-75. However, due to economies of scale, you might end up spending more in time and materials than just buying one off the shelf.

Sherwood Lee
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Andy S2

Try this link:-

<a href="http://boerger.golden-tech.com/mods.htm" target="_blank">http://boerger.golden-tech.com/mods.htm</a>

This guy made up the templates for a strut brace for his 944S2 and then got a fab shop to make it , looks really good.

Andy

A Quiet Boom

Well I'm just gonna build it myself, after all I've built rollcages etc. From the pictures I've seen it's just two brackets and a bar with Heim joints on each end. Thanks for the opinions guys.

911pcars

You sound quite capable of doing this yourself. How about using better materials than what the kits provide? I'd suggest some thin-wall chrome-moly for the tube section. Titanium would be nice if you can find some surplus. Weld some ti nuts onto each end to accomodate the heim bearings. Some equally strong but lighter gauge chrome moly for the strut area mounts would make this overall piece lighter as well. Hey, you might have a spiffy product there.

Let us know how it's going,
Sherwood Lee
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A Quiet Boom

If you think about it a cable could be used since it's my understanding that during hard cornering the strut towers tend to pull apart from each other, what is needed here is something with high-tensile strength to weight ratio as well as relatively easy to work with, since I'll be doing all the work myself I will use roll cage quaility chrome-moly and some nice tig welds. More importantly I will design my brackets such that they take into account the pulling forces the bar will undergo.

911pcars

I think the jury's still out on whether the strut towers bend inward or outward. Some owners report the left/right trunk lid paint has been mashed by incoming struts. If you look at the factory race braces, they're shaped like an "X" which probably adds a bunch of structural stiffness to the front end (at the expense of street-driven trunk space). A single tube across the front should be sufficient for a street car - more if you're racing it. You'd be exploring new frontiers with a cable under tension. I think cro-moly is your best overall solution.

Sherwood

A Quiet Boom

LOL I was only kidding about using a cable, as far as titanium, well we all know 911's could use a little more weight over the front wheels I'd have to guess that the difference between ti and chrome moly would be less than a few pound given the relatively small size of these bars unless you used ti heim joints as well so I didn't feel it worth it. My main reason for wanting to do one myself is truthfully I enjoy fabing parts, to me metal and wood working are a welcome change from the daily grind of R&D. A side benefit is that for every part I make myself I'm potentially saving money for the parts I'd like but cannot make. My other reasoning was that the production bars are IMHO way over priced.

A Quiet Boom

Wow built up a simple bar tonight just to test out of 1" box tubing and a couple of brackets I shaped to the contours of the car. Since I was able to tack weld the brackets to the bar with it in the car I got a nice tight fit. Tommorrow I'm gonna make a nicer one out of chrom-moly round tubbing and plate then sand blast it and paint it to match the body. All I can say though is WOW, I never thought I'd feel such a difference or have such reduced noise from rattles. My advice, whether you build it or buy it every 911 ought to have one installed.

pig4bill

Even modern bodies benefit from them. Current production e46 M3's come with a front strut bar now.