Driving Impressions: Lower Stress Bar

[2000SoCalBoxsterS]

Easy for you to say & do. What kind of tools or power equipment is needed to take a 3/4 piece of aluminum and flatten the ends and drill the holes, and finish it off so nicely. Do you have the tools at home or did you do this at work?

[Franco]

Originally Posted by 2000SoCalBoxsterS

Easy for you to say & do. What kind of tools or power equipment is needed to take a 3/4 piece of aluminum and flatten the ends and drill the holes, and finish it off so nicely. Do you have the tools at home or did you do this at work?

SORRY never came back to check this thread, never too late


To fabricate the bar is a joke, i used a 3/4 diameter aluminum bar, used a file to make 2 flats at each end to facilitate drilling 7/16 holes and so that the 3/8 X 2 inch screws and lock washers sit on a flat surface, then i removed the existing metric screws on the triangular plate and installed the bar over it.

With all materials on hand this is a 45 minute job max.
If you have any other questions I'd be glad to help.

Franco
__________________

[Kirk]

Franco, thanks for the good feedback on how to DIY this mod. I followed your lead and made one of these bars. Just a couple notes on the basic mod:

1. I was able to fit in a 1" bar. Look for solid aluminum round stock. I had to go to a specialty metal supplier to get this as hardware stores and Home Depot won't have it.

2. I had to remove the metal plate and one anti-sway bar mount to get the 1" bar up in there.

3. I polished the aluminum first and then clear coated it. Sure you'll never see it, but at least I know it looks pretty...

After I got the basic lower stress bar in place I decided to take it the next step. I call these the Bristol Bars... :-P Basically I made two more bars out of 3/4" solid aluminum bar stock. At one end I threaded in some custom modified eye bolts to mount to the SAME bolt as the main lower stress bar. These eye bolts allowed for some adjustment when installing and also allowed me to slide into the slot in the support so that no permanent modifications were required. I then attached the Bristol bars at the rear-most mounting points of the metal plate. This further ties in the rear suspension to another support piece at the rear of the car. I think this kind of "triangulation" of the rear suspension will really help to stiffen it up. Basically it totally reinforces that flimsy metal plate that is otherwise supposed to tie everything together. Plus, with everything made out of aluminum there is a minimal weight penalty.

Here's a photo of my "assistant" showing off the pieces of the system, the Ernie Bar and two Bristol Bars, making up a complete lower stress bar system:

[Kirk]

Here are some more pictures to give you a better idea of how it all fits together.

Kirk Bristol

[Kirk]

Just two more photos to try to clarify things here. You should be able to see the Ernie Bar mounted up high, kind of behind the anti-sway bar. The eye bolt portion of the smaller, lower bars are mounted just below the Ernie Bar at the same mounting bolts that are used for the Ernie Bar.

BTW, these eye bolts make it MUCH easier to mount the bars as there is some adjustment then allowed. I know Franco didn't have much trouble with making his Ernie Bar, but I followed my classic rule of measure three times and still cut (or in this case, drill the holes) WRONG. It was a bit of a PITA to make this stuff. The Mantis Sport bar should be a LOT easier to mount, or I guess you could just drill the damn holes in the right spot to start with.... Either way, a big thanks to Mantis and especially insite for bringing this mod to everyone's attention!

Kirk B.

[chaudanova]

hey Kirk, great work!! Can you post your driving impressions?

[986rgt]

More pics of the "helper"!!!