The Honda one is cack, and built for pennies

 

OK, made and fitted and after a long drive I'm pleased with the difference it makes.
It simply feels better. The rear is more solid and predictable.
A resonance that was present before when hitting undulations and bumps is improved.
The Greddy exhaust sounds good too There is drone but overall it is deep sounding and quiet, the car now sounds like a sports car.



Zinc primer & Satin black applied

Fitted. Sprayed the inside of the bar with wax before fitting. The tray is held on with s/steel socket head bolts.

I intended to replace the four bolts with stainless but I was informed by local supplier the M10 bolts have a fine 1.25 thread pitch which makes then non-standard and expensive, lowest price I found was around £10 for the 4 after a search on google.
Changed the design by cutting out the ends of the bar, cleaned up and re-used the old ones with copper grease.

 

Some, hopefully, constructive criticism?

I would leave the box intact right to the ends, and make larger holes on the lower side to allow fitting through of the bolts.
By shaving away the ends you have weakened the section considerably and made a stress-riser at the cut points.
Im sure it would be even more ridgid by keeping the whole thing a box section.
Looks nice though, and very discrete

My local charged no more for metric fine, they are not really 'non standard'.
I suspect they dont keep them hence the comment, my local does "Electro-SW".
And there are some cars that have regular pitch out there as we found when discussing in another thread.
HTH
Steve.

PS very clean car below for a 2005... Does it ever see road salt?

 

I agree with you Steve. I did intend to use cap head bolts through a hole in the bar but due to the fine thread pitch of the bolts I couldn't get hold of any today.
My biggest drill wasn't big enough to get clearance for a socket with the original bolt hence the change in design.
Still a lot stronger than the original though and I like an OE look.

Yes, it is used all year but not often. It also has a regular waxoyl.

 

Good to see others regularly dolloping on the waxoyl too!

Might have a go at doing this if i swap my exhaust out, what size box section did you use?

 

Yep square cuts at stress points will lead to failure, hence the liberty ships sinking!
Also I cant see it will be much stiffer than the OEM as a result of the cut away ends. But with just large holes for bolt access would be good.

I have got as far as the fixing plates for the front upper brace, And am just working out the shape of the cheek plates to pick up the ali bar across the car. Hopefully tomorrow will have it all tacked together and a trial fitting. These fabricated brackets are in 3mm MS plate and will be powder coated, the bar is 1 3/4 x 1/2 Ali bar, and if I am keen will be polished. The bar wil be fixed to the brackets with SS 6mm cap heads taped into the bar. Will be clear when pics taken. its all in me head at the moment. Cost so far £12 for the ali bar all the rest free non gratis

 

Sounds good, remember those bars need to move at the cheek plates.
Bars being to stop turrets spreading/compressing but alowing differential up/down moves.

Hell, im telling you to suck eggs aren't I?



Steve.

 

Lee, I used the 20 x 35 but you could move up to the 27 x 40.

B & Q

Chippo, it is considerably stronger than OEM.
The OEM can be twisted with one hand in a vice as I said above, this one doesn't move at all. I will let you know if it fails

I thought the front top brace was for looks only anyway. No struts in this car.

 

Well there is nothing like trying it for real and if it feels stiffer it is. but the bar as used by Chris and myself is very stiff in all axis.

We dont have Macpherson Struts, but our cars do have suspension units that mount in a similar way and impose loads into the structure in similar ways. its the manor in which the hub is controlled and suspended that differs, i.e. 2 wishbones in the case of an S

Now Chris, I was thinking about this very problem, and seen 2 very differing designs. Some are solid, and purely brace the cars body work, i.e. the inner wing turret that carries the upper part of the suspension unit. A bit like the triangulation braces used on many older cars like Jaguars for instance.

And there are some that as you say effectively have a flexible joint at either end. But again these all seem to be mounted directly to the structure and not the top of the suspension unit. And as we know the tops of the suspension is bushed in rubber.

If the bar was connected to the suspension unit I could see the point of a rotating joint, but not if you are bracing the body. The point being that you are adding stiffness to the structure accross the point midway between the front and rear of the engine bay, the worst point to have the suspension loads put into the body shell! Again its making a "square" of the area where the loads are imparted, like the rear end.

And then adding a lower brace completes the box and hence the stiffness!
Maybe!!!!!

I have just been to the fridge and got a box of half a dozen out ready to start sucking. Discuss ?

 

Fitted a Cusco rear lower today...I felt a bit more 'aware' of what the rear was doing...all in all, money well spent

Might get it powdercoated though, it's rusty appearance ruins the look of the underside