JMortensen

This is an idea of Cary's (tube80z) that I've wanted to implement for a long time. Steve Parmley (zlalomz) has a similar set up in his red car. I wanted this to be lightweight so I used 1.625 x .065 tubing which is roughly 1lb per foot, and there are rougly 7' in there so figure about 7 lbs. This is attached to the roll bar tubing which is 1.75 x .120. I plan on using this same lightweight tubing for strut braces in the front as well. I think this X brace is a really really good idea because it braces the strut tower to the strongest part of the cage, which is attached to the strongest part of the unibody. I had to cut holes in the fenderwells to get the bottom of the tubes welded, so that is in the pictures. Took me quite a few hours to get all the tubes notched and ready to weld. I'm not very good at welding where tubes come together at shallow angles, so that part came out a little messy, although I know it's attached plenty good. When I modded the control arms I was considering somehow attaching the control arm reinforcing plates in the last picture into this X structure somehow. I'm still not set on what to do there. I need to get a bit more 1" square tube, and that will be welded into the top corner of the deck and notched to fit the top of the X. Pics:

I agree that the trans tunnel isn't the smartest place to brace to and I too don't really understand why the drag racers put bars there as a general statement, but in a Z the trans tunnel right above the diff crossmember is pretty heavily reinforced. There is a layer of heavier steel where the strap bolts into and this continues laterally through the control arm bushing mounts, a reinforcing plate on the underside of the trans tunnel, and the cargo deck area has a vertical reinforcing plate right on top of the trans tunnel inside the car.

Here's a racing type of solution. I don't know that I'd trust my welds for 100,000 street miles, but maybe if you got a professional welder to weld them up... http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=111435

I'm partial to Toyotas. While I don't have any pictures, I went with one of my best friends through the Rubicon trail a few years back in his 87 Toy with a solid axle conversion and dual transfer cases. Pretty amazing what you can get a 4x4 to do. I can't tell you how many times I looked and said "There's NO F'ing way!" and then the truck just crawled right up and over... http://www.rubicon-trail.com/

Don't know what I was thinking there. I can see how sectioning the rear strut to fit the cartridge would cause this problem.

I say we all just send him $50. It's still a bargain, and a couple bucks to thank him from everyone is a good thing...

One more thing for you Pop. I was considering trying to find some rubber plugs for the heater hose holes rather than try to weld. haven't gotten too far with that yet, but that's another option vs welding.

I'm pretty sure they are.

Right, Bad Dog does the rails under the floor, but not the ones in the engine compartment.

If you grind it down completely flush you're going to find pinholes. That's been my experience. You said "running a bead" and that is a mistake. What you should do is a hundred little spot welds around until you've welded the whole thing. Then leave it alone. Grind from the side that you want to look nice, and leave the welded side ugly, or if you do grind the welded side just smooth out the bumps but don't try to make it flush on both sides. That's what I'm doing.

Aren't they the same thing? For stronger, Bad Dog makes them out of material that is 3x as thick. I'd go with the Zedd Findings floor pans and Bad Dog frame rails if you're needing to fix up that part of the car. http://www.baddogparts.com

I know I criticized your camber plate ideas a year or more back and offended you, and that is not the intent here. I'm trying to tread lightly Mike. The rear end of your car doesn't look low to me at all, in fact it looks high to me. Have you measured from the rockers to the ground? Looks like you have about 8 or 9 inches of height there. It sounds like the bellhousing and the headers are a problem, coupled with too large a tire diameter. Have you considered a low pro bellhousing with a 2 or 3 plate clutch setup? They do have some clutch materials that you can run on the street. You could run something like that and maybe get some more clearance, and it would shift bitchin. Then you could get some different headers to put on the engine, and finally you could run some wide 16's like Coffey used to run. You could probably lower the spring perches another inch or two if you did all of that and not have any clearance issues at all, and the body of the car might come down more like 4-5 inches. It's AN answer. Maybe not THE answer. But it is what I would look at doing...

Can you say that the other guy doesn't have hundreds of runs to back up his work? I think until the other guy shows up to defend himself this thread is not worth too much. I'm inclined to close it if nothing meaningful comes out of it very soon.

I thought he was running 8610s. I also thought that the 8610s have 6" of strut travel, and a length that is roughly the same as the 240 front insert. Maybe I'm wrong. I just can't see how it's possible to run out of rebound with that strut. I guess I only have my own experience with my 240 inserts in the rear to go on...

Taller springs???