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Strut Tower Reinforcement


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I'm wondering if its worthwhile reinforcing the front shock towers to the bulkhead similar to the below photo although with thinner tubing. I intend to run a cage in the future however its only going to be a half cage in the rear so it will never be able to meet the tuning on the other side.

 

 

Will this still work and is it a good idea? I would obviously plan to strengthen the area where the tube would meet the bulkhead with a plate to spread the load. I was thinking of using thinner tubing, perhaps 1" OD.

 

 

 

RMG_7908.jpg

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I was always under the impression that itd be pretty redundant to do that like that without a cage on the otherside to support it.  Isnt it pretty thin/flimsy right there?  I think the general arguments I've seen is theres some merit to triangulating them together, but making a big, whats essentially a box, is pretty pointless (again, unless its actually tied to something structural- Like a cage on the other side going through the firewall :))

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Search "chassis stiffening" and read up for a while. Short answer is no, that's not a good idea without a cage to attach to, at least in my opinion. There are ways to do a triangulated strut tower bar to the firewall that would work reasonably well, and there are many pics of how to do it here. John Coffey (johnc) has posted pictures of his setup quite a few times and John Hines (bjhines) has an even better setup for a triangulated STB.

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Yeah, it seems this isn't a good idea. I'm just looking for ways to reinforce my front end while its going to be in bare metal anyway. Think seam welding and a decent strut brace will have to do.

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Have somebody push in your clutch or brake pedal while you watch the firewall from under the hood side of the firewall-it moves a lot. Pretty flimsy right there. Plus, are you ready to totally reconfigure your master cylinder locations? That guy has done that-where's his booster? It's a big project with little reward. I have done a bunch of "upgrades" on my car that wound up being a waste of time-as I get older and busier, I'm TRYING to limit that sort of thing.

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I won't be doing this, however if I were I could easily make it work even with my brake setup in the stock location.

 

 

I'll be doing some work around the front of the frame rails near where the tension rods bolt to.

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