front crossmember brace

[treed2@u.washington.edu (T. Reed)]

I'm not waiting around for the cracks (yes, there are two now) in my front
crossmember to get any worse! And, I don't have the money to hire someone
to make me a bar..

So it has come to this -- I'm building my own bar. I spent some time out
under the car looking at how things are laid out in the engine bay and
I've designed a bolt-on bar that will support the front motor mount. So
far, only the horn will need to be relocated. Power steering hoses and
some wiring is also in the way but can be moved easily.

I'm operating off of my dismal savings here, and since any welding is
probably going to cost me money.. I've created a design that involves the
least welding possible (in fact, my latest revision is completely
bolt-together, with no welds at all.. but I'm still examining how
feasible it is)

One advantage of this is that the bar can be shimmed, either in or out,
to fit an individual chassis which may have warped or bent over time. I
know this was a problem when fitting my upper and lower stress bars.

A disadvantage is that the hollow steel tube I'm planning on using will no
longer be sealed from moisture by the welding, so I will probably spray a
wax or anti-rust coating on the inside or something like that.

I'm not concerned about rigidity from choosing not to weld because the
bolts will be for the most part unstressed in my design. The brackets will
be roughly 1/4" steel and will have a vertical edge on them so they should
stay rigid and also help reduce chassis flex. I'm not a mechanical
engineer but I have taken engineering classes and I am considering the
physics involved here.

Bolting a bracket to the bumper bolts will be a bit of a headache because
of the little ridge between the two bolts. I think that on one side I can
get away with using thick spacers to move the bracket far enough out to
clear the ridge, but on the other side, I am going to need to bend the
bracket because otherwise it won't clear the radiator. Given the thickness
of steel I'm planning on using, it will most likely take a hydraulic press
or similar machinery to do this.. that's a hurdle I haven't overcome yet.

Bumper bolts will likely be replaced to accomodate the extra thickness of
the bracket and spacers, and replacements will likely be grade 8 stainless
because I'm an overkill kind of guy..

Anyway, I have purchased some metal to work with. The next step is to mock
up my design in wood and figure out where to drill the holes, then test
fit (leaving the weight of the engine on the jack, of course) and start
cutting the side brackets out of metal.

Once I get the whole thing built, I will put it in and drive it for a
while to make sure its solid. Then theres a /possibility/ that I could
obtain more raw materials and produce additional bars from the same wooden
prototype.

I already know there is a market for these bars because it seems like
everybody I talk to wants one. Cost would depend on how much materials and
hardware cost me, as well as labor time, bandsaw blades, etc.

Either way this would be a very limited production run, probably a
-maximum- of 20 bars. I'm not out to screw anybody here, just trying to
help out people who are in a similar situation here but lacking in the
necessary tools or skill to make their own, and maybe recoup the costs of
my bar in the process.

Like I said, I don't think I'll have any difficulty getting rid of them,
but if I do I'll just put them up on eBay or something. (and since they're
bolt-together, they'll also be smaller/cheaper to ship)

Again, this whole building-them-for-other-people thing is just a
possiblity, and is in no way a done deal!

Just wanted to let you all know that yet another person has forked off and
is began trying to build these things on their own!

-Toby