Shine rear swaybar dimension & metallurgical advice needed + (ATTN: Ron P.

[vwtype53 at yahoo.com (Ben)]

Handling characteristics?  Well, it's a bit subjective and totally depends on the rest of the
car's suspension setup... but I love that bar.  Ron and I made several bars... I put one on my
Black mk2 (now Don's car) and one on my Mk1... this bar was added to the rear axle in addition to
the stock 16v rear bar, so needless to say the rear axle has been made much more rigid.  Just like
the Shine bar, the Ron and Ben bar reduces the tendancy of the rear axle to twist.  I can't say
for certain, but Ron and I were thinking that our bar is, in theory, doing practically the same
thing as the Shine bar.  Obviously, our bar isn't quite as pretty, but it was much less expensive!
 And staying true to the Cheapass Ron (R) mentality... function comes first!  ;)

I have been racing my Mk1 for several years now, and combined with coilovers and other goodies
this rear bar has made my car amazingly neutral handling (for a FWD car that is).  On the street I
can dive into a corner and lift off the throttle and the back end will gently start to come around
(if I get back onto the throttle of course!).  My biggest goal was to reduce understeer and not
end up with terrifying snap oversteer.  On the track my mk1 is very well behaved.  I have been
told from outside observers that my car rarely lifts the inside rear wheel and looks very flat in
the corners.  When I do push it around corners I tend to feel the car slide all 4 wheels, not just
understeer like it used to.

Suspension is so difficult to dial in, and everyone seems to have different results... so take my
experience for what it's worth.  But without any doubt I noticed a difference with the homemade
rear bar.

Ben




--- Jason <verboten@michiganvw.org> wrote:

> this is bolted to the front of teh trailing arm?
> 
> what handling characteristics does it give the car?
> 
> On 8/5/06, Don Walter <dswalterwi@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I think I have one of those on the Black Scirocco I bought from Ben
> > Harder.
> > If anyone needs pictures let me know and I'll take some.
> >
> > On 8/5/06, Ron Pieper <rapieper@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > 2.5" U channel, 5/8" depth, 5/16" thick.
> > >
> > > Can't upload to my corner of Al's space...so here's what I had written:
> > >
> > > -qty. (4) 3/8-16 bolts, 1" long, with nuts, washers, lockwashers, all
> > SAE
> > > Grade 8 (forgive us for
> > > not using Metric-sized fasteners)
> > > -We drilled two 3/8" dia. holes in each end, 1" in from the end
> > (therefore
> > > 39" apart), 0.75" in
> > > from the sides (therefore 1" apart, centered in the channel).
> > > -For protection, I like Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer (even though the
> > > metal was not rusty), then
> > > some Rustoleum Hammer Finish paint.  I chose gray.  You go nuts.
> > > -The bar was positioned as shown on the leading edge of the trailing
> > arm,
> > > centered fore/aft and
> > > side/side. It was clamped in place with C-clamps and the hole locations
> > in
> > > the bar were
> > > transferred to the trailing arm.
> > > -The material in the trailing arm is not as nasty as we'd been led to
> > > believe.  You can go through
> > > with the 3/8" drill without pilot drilling; however pilot drilling will
> > > increase accuracy as the
> > > 3/8" drill may want to wander a bit, even if the location has been
> > > centerpunched or centerdrilled.
> > >
> > > -We then bolted the rearmost  hole first, then the forwardmost, for each
> > > side.
> > > -Done.
> > >
> > > The cool thing about this bar is that it takes no welding or other
> > > fabricating, just hacksawing
> > > and drilling.  Ben and I wanted to make sure that anyone could build one
> > > of these, and we've met
> > > that goal.  Also, differing rates of torsional stiffness can be acheived
> > > simply by changing the
> > > spec of the bar...use a different size piece of channel.  We decided on
> > > the bolt pattern so that
> > > we could go to different sizes easily, and swap bars between our cars.
> > >
> > > HTH
> > >
> > > Ron
> > >
> > > --- Allyn <amalventano1@tds.net> wrote:
> > >
> > > > IIRC, it was either 2" or 2.5" 'u' channel.
> > > > Al
> > > >


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