>>>>>NEED INPUT IN REGARDS TO STRUCTURAL DESIGN<<<<<

I've been on the wall with whether i should buy a rear strut bar, or just have one made. The main things that i feel are problems on the current rear strut bars that are out are: lateral offset to the rear strut mount, lateral flex joints, and something else that i cant think of at the moment.

So im thinking about having a one piece rear strut bar made out of roll cage tubing, either having it just welded in or having plates welded in on the tubing ends which have holes for bolts which i can then use bolts to hold in place. Of course if i opt for it to just be welded in, Ill have steel plates welded on the ends for structural support and to help spread the tension load during hard turns.

here's some example pix of what im thinking about getting made

 

The picture of the trunk without the trim pieces illustrates actual placement of tubing ends. The picture with the trunk with the trim pieces in may be a little off vertically. These are just example pix

 

Here are the 2 options for the ends:
With bolts [not welded in]


Without bolts [welded in]

 

Helpful comments will be appreciated.
Please DO NOT POST a comment saying, "Just go with the blah blah blah strut bar"
Thats not HELPFUL

 

Looks like it could work pretty well, obviously welded will give you better results than bolted

 

looks good. nice rendering as well

 

Looks good. Would you be making this yourself?

 

i say if thats what you want then go for it. Obviously welded will be better, but if you ever want to fully use your trunk or resell the car you'd be better off with a bolt-in setup.

 

Thanks for the helpful/positive comments guys.

 

Im not too concerned about using the trunk. The car isnt my daily driver and the most i have ever used the trunk for was to store my gym bag and a cd holder

As far as resell... when the time comes for me to sell my car, i could always just cut it out. The trunk trim pieces would cover up everything leftover, and no one would ever know [well besides for the side holes in the trim pieces, but i can get new ones ]

 

No. I came up on a roll cage guy that does mandrel bent tubing and what not, for real cheap. Plus his shop is like 2 blocks from my house

If all works out well, I may have him make me a custom exhaust as well

 

iteresting, ill like to see this done

 

welding would definitely be more stable. but i like the options of bolt ons for removal purposes.

 

does anyone know if this should be put together pre or post load? I can either have the car raised for pre-load or have the car on the ground for post-load. I know the differences will be minimal, but im sure there should be right way and a wrong way to build this.

 

bump