Lower Stress Bar Group Buy
 

LOWER STRESS BAR GROUP BUY

Details on the lower stress bar can be found here:

http://986forum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10817

This is a group buy for the following:

1) One main, adjustable lower stress bar made out of 3/4" steel tube that is yellow zinc chromate plated with heavy duty heim joints on each end. These heim joints are rated for over 9,000 lbs in static load. Included are installation instructions with photos and all necessary installation hardware. The main bar is adjustable to fit the 986 and 987 Boxster and probably also the Cayman, although I have not had the chance to test fit one on this car. Price is $65 plus $10 fixed shipping cost (continental U.S. only) for the main lower stress bar.

2) The complete kit (pictured below) includes the main lower stress bar, as described above, and also the two side lower stress bars. The side lower stress bars are made out of aluminum tubing and aluminum, heavy duty heim joints. These heim joints are rated for almost 8,000 lbs in static load. Included are installation instructions and all necessary hardware, including special conical spacers to make these large bars fit. Price is $160 total (for all three bars) plus $10 fixed shipping cost (continental U.S. only).

Note - There is a small tab on the end of the aluminum braces on each side of the car where the side bars mount in the forward position. This tab in the brace about 3/4" long X 1/8" thick needs to be removed (dremel works in seconds) to fit the heim joints of the side bars. Not a big deal at all, but something I thought I should note. More details with photos are in the instructions.

3) Pricing for side bars (a pair) only with mounting hardware (for those who already have a main bar) is $95 plus $10 shipping. The mounting hardware has longer bolts that should fit a Mantis bar with rod ends. I can't confirm whether or not the longer bolts will be long enough to fit a home-made solid bar. However, you can get the right length of bolts at almost any hardware store for under $2.

PayPal me (I accept credit cards) at kbristol@lycos.com. I will also accept personal checks, money orders, etc. PM or e-mail me for my mailing address. I need to get at least 15 orders for the main bar to get this pricing from the manufacturer.

The lead time for this group buy is about four to six weeks, so I plan to be ready to ship to folks by the end of February. The hold up is that the main bar is custom made for me and after being made needs to be shipped back out for plating. The main bar heim joints are also a special order item. I’m having a larger quantity of these main bars made up for this group buy so that I can get the low pricing quoted above.

Feel free to PM or e-mail me if you have any questions.

Kirk Bristol

Kirk,
It looks like you have your R&D completed and you have a fine finished product. I believe I will have one of the lower stress bars. Count me in. Since I am also in Calif. would you please arrange to have it delivered by your assistant :D . Many thanks.

To answer some questions and clarify a bit, let me give some more detail on the group buy.

You've got until January 25th (2 weeks) to put in your order by PayPal or check/money order. So far I see NO issue with getting enough orders for the 15 piece minimum. The question I need to answer is just how many to have made up (15, 20, 25 sets?). I want to limit my speculation as much as possible by getting advanced orders so nobody is slighted and I order enough. I'll order about three sets as extras though just in case someone misses the cutoff.

If I order by the 25th I should then be able to ship out finished kits to everyone (bars, mounting hardware, and instructions) by the end of February.

Kirk

Kirk,

I'm interested in getting a lower stress bar but i am afraid that my intercooler may be in the way.

Hopefully you can tell if it will fit by looking at the pictures.

I have attached a few pictures from beneath my car. See what you think and let me know.

Ditto what Gary said. I'll be adding the Turbowerx turbo and i/c this spring...clearance issues?

Gary, you and I have talked before over on 6speed about your need for bracing with that intercooler. Unfortunately though, looking at your pictures I don't think the main bar would fit with the intercooler there. I'm not 100% on that, but it's my best guess from the photos. I think the only option would be to use a spacer to drop the bar down lower, but then you might have ground clearance issues.

If you're ever up in Northern California (which I don't expect), I'd be happy to take a look and probably work something out for you...

Otherwise the side bars look like they should fit fine.

Kirk

kirk,

i need to fly you down to louisiana to do his project and the boost controlled muffler bypass!

i would like to do all 3 bars.
Tonight I measured and my intercooler is 5 inches from the ground and my rear sway bar is 4 1/2 inches from the earth.

If only the side bars will fit. will they make a difference?

What other measurements do you need from me to decide if we can make the bar fit?

The main lower stress bar sits about 1/2" higher than the lowest spot on the rear sway bar (when the car is raised up). But it mounts below the sway bar mounts... I've looked under my car three times now and looked at your pictures and I still can't say 100%, but to me it doesn't look like it will fit. Complicating matters is that I've got a 6 speed transmission which confuses things when looking at your 5 speed. What matters more than the height of your intercooler is how far forward from the sway bar it's mounted. The stress bar mounts just forward of the sway bar and it looks like it would interfere with the rear-facing pipe on your intercooler.

Again, with a spacer though you could mount the lower stress bar below the support braces that run along each side of the car, rather than on top of them, but you'd lose about an inch of clearance in the rear. On a lowered car that could be a big problem.

You could also grind out a section of the braces (they're aluminum) to make room for the lower stress bar heim joints to mount them from below without a spacer, but I would not recommend this.

In your case I think the side braces could make a big difference simply because you don't have your stress plate installed at all now!

Kirk

Kirk,
I would be interested in the complete set.. When will they be available for purchase?
Ie.. You knowing if you have enough orders.

-Eric

Group Buy Has Green Light
 

The group buy has the green light. I've got enough orders to make it happen.

I'm going to order about three extra sets too just in case someone misses the deadline of January 25th. If you want to make sure you're on the list to get a set just send payment before the 25th via PayPal to kbristol@lycos.com or PM me for my mailing address. That will get you locked in to receive a set at the group buy price.

Basically I'm looking for folks to commit to buying sets by paying up front. That reduces my personal risk and speculation. I don't mind getting stuck with the three extra sets I'm ordering as I'm sure I can always sell them on eBay. I'm sure some folks will miss the deadline and want these stress bars later.

Kirk

Thanks Kirk! Can't wait to try 'em out!! :cheers:

Fits 987 and Cayman Too!
 

Just some more info regarding the fit of the lower stress bars on the 987 and Cayman.

The guys at Niello Porsche in Sacramento, CA were very kind today and let me and my assistant crawl under their new 987's and Caymans, including the new 987 special edition and the Cayman S by Porsche Design. We were getting measurements and checking the fit on parts. Here's what I found:

A few things have changed from the 986, but the key dimensions between the mounting points for the bars has not changed. In fact the 987 and Cayman dimensions are exactly the same as my 986. The only things that I've seen different are:

1. The newer cars have a coating on the Porsche stress plate that the stress bars reinforce.

2. The newer 6 speed transmission gives a lot more room for installation.

3. The suspension point where the main bar mounts is a bit different, but dimensionally still the same.

4. The side braces are different, but still have the same kind of tab that needs to be removed to install the side braces. I took some photos for the instructions.

That's about it. I even tried fitting some side bars in place to see if there was enough room and there were no problems.

So spread the word. If you've got a 987 Boxster/Boxster S or a Cayman/Cayman S these lower stress bars will definitely fit.

Here's a photo of my assistant hard at work doing some measurements and test fitting.

Kirk

Kirk does it fit the Carrera GT they have on the showroom floor? :p

Kirk,

I looked forward to trying them out! The arrival should be just before I start de-winterizing my car.

:dance:

Sammy

I honestly would like to try these but really how much of a difference do these make? And what is the difference between the 1 bar and all 3 bars?

For daily driving I don't think you'd notice a difference, which probably is a good thing. The difference is with aggressive driving and track days. The lower stress bar was originally developed by Mantis Motorsports for their race Cayman. Insite on our board here picked one up, installed it on his 986, tracked it, and documented the improvements in the original post. Check out the first couple pages of the original post and you'll see some of these details.

Here's specifically what Mantis says about it on The Cayman Club:

"Designed to eliminate and reduce camber/toe change due to rear suspension mounting castings flexing. This caused by the fact that castings are only mounted to the chassis at the top. They are not connected at the bottom other than the aluminum transmission plate, now with a 1" bar between the two castings no more flexing. Also if you cannot adjust camber evenly, by twisting the stress bar heim ends , you can shift the castings side to side. The alignment guy will like that."

The side bars are just more of the same thing - strengthening and stiffening the suspension at the bottom. I don't have any track data though to quantify how much of a difference you get with the side bars.

Kirk

Going... going... almost gone
 

I'm going to close the group buy tomorrow (Friday) at noon and get the parts on order. If you have not sent payment or received a personal message/e-mail from me directly stating that I received your payment and have added you to the list, then you're not included in the group buy. To get on board, simply send me a PayPal payment at kbristol@lycos.com

Kirk

I placed the order for parts today. I'll follow up with everyone who has an order in by e-mail. The group buy was split exactly 50/50 between main bars only and complete sets. So I've also ordered 3 extra main bars and 3 extra complete sets.

Thanks for the update! :cheers:

Hey Kirk,

How is your lower stress bar production coming? My first AutoX is next weekend and I am curious if it will be with my all new tighter rear end.... :o Somehow that didn't sound right!

Do you have a planned ship date?

Stress Bar Update
 

The lower stress bars should be going out the first week of March (next week). They're in transit to me now, I've got shipping tubes, mounting hardware, and instructions also all ready to go. Unless something got screwed up with the order (specs or plating), then everyone who ordered them should have them in their hands shortly. I just sent out an update about a week ago to all those who had confirmed orders for bars.

Good news!

Stress Bars Shipped
 

The bars came in as expected. My assistant and I were up past midnight getting everything ready to ship! The main bars are plated and should hold up fine, but it also can't hurt to paint them for extra protection. Please be careful with the aluminum side bars. They're all aluminum - bars, heim joints, and jam nuts. That's great for weight savings, but be careful when threading the heim joints into the bars. You don't want to screw up the threads. Otherwise, there's six pages of instructions (mostly pretty pictures, it's not a hard install) to help you guys along the way. Please contact me though if you need any help. I'll be on vacation next week, but I will still stay plugged into this site and my e-mail if there are any questions or problems.

I've sent e-mails with tracking numbers to everyone in the group buy. Harvey - your e-mail bounced though. Hit me up with a PM and I'll give you your tracking number.

Kirk Bristol

Well...here we are a few months later...
the main bar fit...and it makes a LARGE improvment.

I could not fit the bar on top of the mounts as per the directions, mainly becasue of some intercooler that someone stuck on my car :rolleyes:

But the bar fit below the intercooler with no problems.

The car feels more planted now than before. Thats the only way I can think of describing it. This was a worth while mod for me.

Thanks Kirk you did good.

Gary

Is there any chance I can still get one of these, or did I miss the boat? I asked about them a while back, but never actually paypaled money to anyone. I'm VERY interested.

-Eric

I've had half a dozen other people asking me the same question. I had ordered six extra sets, but they all sold out before I even received them! Sorry, I thought those extra sets would cover any stragglers.

Since there are still some people interested I'll put in another order, but it will take about 5 weeks until the bars are made and I won't be able to match the group buy pricing I had before because of the lower volume... sorry again. I'll keep you updated.

More Bars Ordered
 

Okay, since some people missed out on the group buy I’m willing to put together a few more sets for them. These will be sold on a first come – first served basis. You can wait until I get them in, or to assure one is reserved for you PayPal (kbristol@lycos.com) me now or PM me for my address for sending payment. I’m putting together 6 complete sets and 6 main bars. I’ve put in orders for the parts I need and expect to have everything by May 30th. I can’t hold the group buy pricing though because of the lower volume, higher costs, and a hardware change noted below. Plus the original $10 fixed shipping charge was too low. What I can do now is $75 plus $12 shipping on the main bar and $175 plus $12 shipping on the complete set. Add $5 more for shipping to Canada.

I asked for some feedback from the folks that got the group buy bars and overall it was very positive. One clear area for improvement though is with the mounting hardware (nuts and bolts). I went with zinc plated grade 5 bolts. Compared to the high quality bars, these came across as functional but kind of cheap. I will upgrade the mounting hardware this time around, probably to stainless steel. Here is some of the feedback I received by folks in the group buy:

“I am very happy with the quality of the materials and workmanship.”

“Very pleased with parts quality, first class. Installed them the first day I got them, great instructions for the install. I think I could feel the difference right away on hard cornering and going over sharp bumps, rear end seems tighter. I would recommend the kit to all boxster owners”

“Although I haven't tried to install them yet, the stress bars appear to be very well made and the fittings are substantial enough to take whatever stress may be put on them. My one minor concern is about whether the nuts and bolts will rust and whether it would have added a lot to the cost of the bars to have the nuts and bolts made of stainless steel. I have read the instructions and they seem very straightforward and complete. Overall, the stress bars are excellent and a great value. Couldn't be happier and can't wait to get them installed.”

“The quality of the parts appears to be good. I appreciated that every piece was protected, and when it arrived the shipping tube was intact. Your instructions appear to be well written.”

“The quality of the bars and rod ends is excellent, I really like the look of the parts.”

“I have not installed the lower stress bar yet, but if your products is anything like your communications during this transaction, I'm sure it is top notch. I have been impressed with every part of this group buy.”

Bars Are Here
 

BUMP... I'm moving this thread back up to the top since I FINALLY have received the lower stress bars. There was a huge hold up in the plating process, so it took some time. I have a few main bars and a few sets with the side bars. These are for all of those folks that missed the group buy and still wanted bars. Pricing and all of the details are in my last post, but basically it's $87 for a main bar and $187 for all three - shipped. I'm using stainless steel hardware now and it looks great.

For those who pre-ordered bars thanks again for your patience. I shipped the bars out today and have already sent out individual e-mails with your tracking numbers.

Still Some Bars Left
 

Bump to the top again.

As of July 9th I still have a few sets of main bars and complete sets (main bar plus two side bars) left. Speak now or forever hold your peace... once these are gone, they're gone. I don't think there's really enough interest to warrant doing the group buy again, which is okay by me. :dance:

PM me or e-mail me if interested - $87 for the main bar or $187 for the complete kit, shipping to the U.S., stainless steel hardware, and instructions included. I take PayPal at kbristol@lycos.com or e-mail me at that address for my snail mail address.

Kirk

Kirk do you have pics of the main bar installed?

Kirk how about some pics por favor.

I'll have to dig to see what pictures I've got on the main bar. It's kind of hard to see once it's on the car, so it's definitely not something to show off. The side bars you can show off a bit though. This picture shows the latest iteration of side bars and the main bar is there too, it's just kind of hidden behind the rear anti-sway bar.

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l1.../StessBar2.jpg

I've got some decent pics of the main bar installed and it looks like I haven't posted those before. When I had the rear bumper and exhaust off to install the Gemballa pieces I was able to get in there and get some good pictures. I don't have them on my camera or PC at home though. I'll check my work PC tomorrow and post a few once I find them.

Okay, here's the main lower stress bar actually mounted in my car. The main bar is the one on the top, above the rear anti-sway bar. Now keep in mind that this is the prototype installed on my test car, so it's untreated bare metal. I've since painted it bright red, as you can see in one of the earlier pictures in this thread where my assistant is test fitting it to a 987 Boxster. The bars I had made up are yellow zinc chromate plated for corrosion resistance. You can paint them too of course if you want to make it look cool. :cool:

Here's where the main lower stress bar mounts to the car. Again this is the prototype on my test car, so the main bar is unplated and the mounting hardware is clear zinc chromate plated. For the bars I have now I've replaced the mounting hardware with stainless steel. Also, the washer that's on top of the heim joint as shown in this picture actually should not go there, as detailed in the instructions I send with the bars.

kirk sign me up for the main bar please

Cayman S Tiptronic Fitment
 

One note here - I had a fella with a tiptronic Cayman S where fitment of the main lower stress bar was a real issue. There just wasn't enough room there for it. He managed to work something out, but I thought I should make you guys aware of this if someone was looking to do this mod on an automatic Cayman S, whether you're using my bars or someone else's. I don't have a tiptronic Cayman at my disposal right now, but I will look into this the next time I'm at my Porsche dealer. Also, if you want me to look at your specific vehicle, feel free to send me a photo of the area where the bar installs. It's pretty intuitively evident whether or not the bar will fit because it's not just tight, but impossible with the Cayman S tiptronic. The side bars do fit though.

Polished Bars
 

Did something cool and thought I'd pass it along.... The side bars that come in the complete lower stress bar kit are made out of aluminum. It turns out that they polish up pretty good and very easily. I like shinny stuff, so here are some pictures of my now polished bars. I've still got three complete sets for $187 shipped. :D

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l1.../CIMG4486a.jpg
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l1...6/CIMG4501.jpg

Kirk

Still Available
 

I've still got three complete sets of lower stress bars (main bar, two side bars, stainless mounting hardware, and instructions) for $187, including shipping. I've been meaning to get them up on eBay but just have been too busy lately. If anyone still hasn't got a set, drop me a line and I'll hook you up.

Kirk

Hope they are still availiable
 

I need a post Christmas present for myself.

Thanks,

CW