heavy85 Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 John, I remember you once saying your front strut tower bars on the ROD were design using FEA plus I just like your design from a structural standpoint so would like to steal it for my car if you dont mind. Do you have any details other than the one pic on your sight? Maybe any close-up photo's, material thicknesses, etc. I'm most interested in exactly how you re-inforce and tied into the firewall and strut tower. Thanks Cameron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heavy85 Posted August 28, 2006 Author Share Posted August 28, 2006 Bump - John you out there? Thanks Cameron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 I'm here. I have more pictures that I will load into the gallery on this site, once I figure out how to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 Figured it out. There's an album in my member gallery called Fabrication. Pictures are there. FYI... I cannot take credit for creating those strut mounts. Bill Savage did the work back in 2000. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seth Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 For those too lazy to find the album http://album.hybridz.org/showgallery.php?cat=702 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 One suggestion I would make to Cameron is to box the ends of the structure. I had mine open like John's, and then when I added bars down to the sway bar mount I closed the open ends off. Made the brackets a lot stiffer. Mine also stick out higher and farther than John's which meant that I could run a straight bar instead of having to bend it over the valve cover, but you can see where mine had to be shaped differently for air filter clearance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heavy85 Posted August 30, 2006 Author Share Posted August 30, 2006 Figured it out. There's an album in my member gallery called Fabrication. Pictures are there. Thanks John - just what I was looking for. Two more Q's though. First do you remember what thickness plate you used - I'm thinking somewhere about 12 to 16 gauge but hard to tell. Also did you re-inforce the back side of the firewall at all? Thanks again Cameron PS: I see you ended up re-doing the strut tower plate to better transition the stress between the raw pics and the painted one. PPS to Jon: Yeah I already thought about that based on some FEA I've seen at work on a similar type of system Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nazar Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 For those too lazy to find the album http://album.hybridz.org/showgallery.php?cat=702 damn someone sure as hell knows how to weld, very nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heavy85 Posted August 30, 2006 Author Share Posted August 30, 2006 PS: I see you ended up re-doing the strut tower plate to better transition the stress between the raw pics and the painted one. Sorry, I was looking at one of the pics backwards. Was referring to how the front side transitions to a point where the back side is squared off. Not saying there is anything wrong with the back but the front being tapered down to a point should help transition the stress into the tower nicely. Cameron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 I think the plating was .083" 4130. There was no need to reinforce the back side of the firewall because the firewall mount spans the bottom (see the line of spot welds on the firewall) and the top cowl panels. The firewall mount is basically the base of a triangle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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