A&Q about 350Z
Q:
and i want it cheap. im convinced that it will change my life for the better, but cannot bring myself to spend £50 on one.
my old man has just got a welder of some sort.
can i just weld in a couple bars the struts? if i am going to do a DIY job, im going to aim for a cross brace design.
A:
would probably be better welded in (use a plate also for strength).
A:
why? strut braces really dont do that much.as long as you have a good suspension set up, you dont need struts.fair enough if you can DIY but otherwise there is far better things you could spend yer cash on.
A:
my car has done 154k miles. the body is highly likely to have weakened somewhat
A:
If he is doing it himself it won't cost hardly anything TurboT.
& if they don't do much why do they have them in motorsport?
A:
I have owned 2 cars with strut braces (one was a MK3 golf with over 170k) and know a few folk with them and the only noticeable gain I see is a harsher ride as energy from one tower is transfered to the other. I have seen very good braces that tie into the firewall or a rollcage, triangulating for better body rigidity (motorsport).but just for the street, a good spring/shock combo, good sways, great tires and camber plates is more than adequate. if your gonna do it yourself, go for it man, im just sayin dont expect that much of a difference.
A:
If you weld a bar across the struts it would be more like the extra bar when fitting a cage which is much better that the one i use as it only connects the tops together:
A:
I have owned 2 cars with strut braces (one was a MK3 golf with over 170k) and know a few folk with them and the only noticeable gain I see is a harsher ride as energy from one tower is transfered to the other. I have seen very good braces that tie into the firewall or a rollcage, triangulating for better body rigidity (motorsport).but just for the street, a good spring/shock combo, good sways, great tires and camber plates is more than adequate. if your gonna do it yourself, go for it man, im just sayin dont expect that much of a difference.
were they front or rear braces? i can see why the front brace would make a minimal difference as the struts are so close to the a-posts/firewall.
as for the rear, there is not a lot there giving rigidity, hence id try the rear first.
if there was minimal difference with the rear, then ill forget about welding anything in as that will make resale harder on an already old/hard car to sell lol
A:
I know it's a different model but I've got a rear brace in my mk2 and you can notice the difference - it feels more stable through corners. I've also got a lower front one which sharpened up the turn in quite a bit.
Only thing is that when it's really wet if you turn too tight on a roundabout you end up with the back end drifting out slightly...
A:
fantastic!! i need one for rear end fun.
A:
Here's some pics of my rear strut brace welded in, there's a 3" plate to strengthen the shell where the brace is welded, i then went on to build the roll cage from there. I also welded in a front upper strut brace, which i welded straight to the strut tops after again stengthening the area with plate.
A:
well i`ve owner both golf and jetta 16v gtis, and i`ll be honest, the jetta was a much better handling car than the golf, and i put this down to the fact that there was a bloody great bulkhead between the rear struts. this obviously stiffens the whole back end of the car up, rather than having an open box ( which is what a golf is if you strip one down).
so tbh, i think if you were to make some sort of triangulated rear strut brace, rather than one of those that just joins the strut tops together, then i think you`ll notice it.
A:
i have a trimsport one which sits between the turret tops which does make a difference as i had a weichers sport one before which just sat between the insides of the arches and did naff all