Remember that stamped ends on custom bars are going to be expensive. For one-off or low number production, it'* better to buy pre-fabbed rod ends and weld them to the pipe.

I have a book too (if ya can call it that) but it'* got ideas and projects for all kinds of vehicles (mostly chevy'*, jeep/AMC, Ma Mopar, ford and a few newer ones (94 Olds 442) steel is cheap? man it'* fluctuating even now, steel is quite a bit more now than just 1-2 yrs ago-have ya seen the price on scrap!?!? 32+ cent a pound! it used to be like 6 cents! evidently china and Korea etc are buying all of america'* scrap steel they can get their hands on (and taking our great made in america iron!), price it out, call around-lately i've found that some places are a few more cents cheaper by the foot (i do buy in a fair quantity through my friends welding buisness)

I love CAD, lol but remember the steel places have to charge labor... and the angles shouldnt be too much that you couldnt use a bench grinder and some trial and error. I wish i had a CNC plasma cutter...but you can do good with one by hand lol (you hear "close enough" alot! LOL)

oh yeah they flex, it'* just not heavy enough we just used the stock trofeo strut brace to tack the strut buckets in the right spot (with an aditional 3* of - camber (with the alignment adjusted right now (-0.5) we gained almost an inch and a 1/4 of extra tire width outa her)) now the rear strut brace in the 442 is 2x2x3/16! (the stock one we just left on)
as it was before any work the 442 could be jacked up at the RR tire and you could see the ripples in the roof panel/quarter and fender and the other three tires would be touching the ground.
now, after we did the cage/ outriggers to bolt in the toronado'* front subframe and put the engine, tranny in (rear engine/tranny/subframe is rolled under the 442 and the car lowered onto it) we used the same jack to lift in the same spot and now the car is rock solid (it will teeter on the LF) you should feel her around corners!
I wouldnt doubt that your guy'* B'villes could benifit fron a well designed 6 pointcage (gotta fit the pasengers) with aditional bracing.
your factory brace could be better if you welded a piece of angle on the back/bottom of your brace (hide it as well as keeping it from bowing up or down) and then do your plate and angle braces which will tie if your front
not a bad idea man, ya got till race season lol
i need a tubing bender then i could do more cages.
it'* great to hash *cough, sorry* out idea'* with people you might never know what might work better,faster,stronger.
schlim

here you can see the factory strut brace on the strut towers from a trofeo in the rear of the 442


here you can see it from the drivers side door, that the 2x2 strut brace it and the cage tie into the strut buckets with 3/8 inch plates and more 2x2 they will be even stronger when the inner wheel wells get done (gotta get the 255 or 275 rubber first (dep on backspacing and flaring the fenders (al la 70 442))


here is the front of the rear engine compartment, at the bottom 3 inch round tube the outriggers (4x4x1/4) that bolt solid to the toronado'* subframe attached to the outriggers are two 2x3 inchx3/16 subframe connectors that run to the mounting points of the front subframe-next are downtubes that cross the door openings and tie into the top of the front subframe mounts at the Drivers/passengers feet, and a top rollbar and halo with legs through the dash to the floor as well as modify the dash for a crossbar from the L&R A pillar base.


Redneck engineering but she sure is fun to drive!, but there'* always more power, besides his wife requires the cage-she'd kill me if he killed himself! no life insurance LOL
cant wait till raceday!
CORDOVA RACE TRACK IS OPEN:
Saturday, February 12th, 2005

So really all that needs to be done is to weld the two extra rods/tubes onto the current STB right? I would think that'd work...the triangle shape will stiffen the entire structure greatly since the triangle is the strongest geometric shape.

Well, the sphere is the strongest geo shape, but I'll give you that it'll be alot stronger. Withoug the strut bar, the strut towers and lower sway bar on most cars make a "U" in two dimensions. The STB closes the top of the U to become a square. But still only two dimensional. These two bars turn the whole engine bay into a suspension brace in 3D. Perhaps not the strongest way possible, but still an improvement without being too heavy, cumbersome to work around, and still be easily removable if need be.

Willwren you think I could get some more details on this like some measurements and such, I'd be willing to make one for my car for testing purposes. I don't know how long it'd take, not too long I hope, and I could post some results.