If you want to really stiffen the car, then I'd suggest a set of Subframe connectors to tie the front of the unibody to the rear across the door opening. http://stranoparts.com/partdetails.p...215&ModelID=35

The rear brace, looks cool and can't hurt but I agree it's of limited (to no) help. Mostly because the car doesn't use struts, but shocks in the rear, which are not a stressed suspension member which means the tops of the shock towers aren't seeing suspension loads like the front towers are. I agree that if anything that a brace like comes in a Laguna that adds strength to the rear seat opening would be better.

 

I'm glad you like it Doug, as always let me know if I can help you out anymore.

 

I was already looking into those.......but have questions:
are you able to jack the car up using these as well, I already bent a rocker by jacking it up using the stock jack on a pinch weld per fords instruction. I was debating on jacking rails but saw these and thought maybe they could serve two purposes....subframe & jacking rails.

 

That's an interesting idea...using the subframe connectors as jack points.

If one is never going to use the rear seat pass through, then ditching the giant hole in favor of...well, anything!...has got to be better. I'd think that if you want to keep the hole, the strut tower brace makes sense.

 

I used the subframe connectors as jacking points on my 67 all the time with no issue

 

Don't jack up the front by the rear most ends of the K member. The middle of the K member under the engine is probably the only safe place. The K member is designed to break away in case of a frontal accident. So they make the connection points to the body really weak these will tear and allow the K member to go down pushing the engine under the car in a serious accident instead of into the passenger compartment.

The only way to add any noticeable strength to the s196 chassis is with a roll cage. Everything else is pretty useless. Laying a sheet of paper on another sheet of paper doesn't do much to make the paper harder to bend. Fold a sheet of paper into a rectangular tube and the paper is very hard to bend. The zigzag sub-frames do no noticeable good like adding another sheet of flat paper. You need to add depth like a cage to really add any strength to the chassis.

The z sub-frame Ford added to the front of the boss strengthens the radiator support which is also where the roll bar is bolted. The z frame adds a lower layer almost a foot away from the main frame to the radiator sub-frame this is stressed through the sway bar so it works and Whiteline has one that probably works even better.

I made my own sway bar mounts and sub-frame stiffener. Farther back on the ends of my K member you can see the K member attachment braces. I made these after noticing that the floor had bent when jacking up the car.

 

Bringing an old thread from the dead,

908SSP, please tell me you will make more of these and sell?

 

908 hasn't been around these parts in about four years and his own site seems to be MIA. You might want to try emailing him directly (from a drop-down menu off of his username).


Norm

 

Ok, thank you.