[teddisnoke]

For the past few month's, Bryan Fargo (NOGO) and I have been trying to come up with a new chassis/suspension part to try to help cure our early Novas side-to-side movement with these cars whimsy front ends. Well, yesterday, we had both first and second generation cars at the shop, and built the first prototype strut bar brace!! Light,and strong was the order we had to fill, along with ease of installation, and fitment for 62-67 models,along with working around old style oil filler tubes, and air cleaner diameters. I think we hit it outta the ballpark! It turned out bitchin!! Bryans gonna put it through its paces for a bit, with his newly finished rack and pinion set-up and see if we need to do some more tweaking with it, and I'm going to make the duplicate for my wagon, get it powder coated, and see how it works in conjunction with my Church Boys rack and pinion system, with CPP four wheel disc brakes. Stay tuned!

http://public.fotki.com/teddisnoke/bmw-2002/042.html

http://public.fotki.com/teddisnoke/bmw-2002/074.html

http://public.fotki.com/teddisnoke/bmw-2002/082.html

Hey Bryan- waddya doing wearing that t-shirt? You are all mixed up! My cars the one with a CBR front end!!!!!

 

[NOGO]

Hey Bryan- waddya doing wearing that t-shirt? You are all mixed up! My cars the one with a CBR front end!!!!!

I knew that would come back and bite me in the rear!!!!

 

[3DTim]

Looks sweet.:yes:

 

[67 church]

Very interesting guys:yes::yes: When will I get to see the finished and installed product?

Bryan do you always dress up to work on the Nova?????????

 

[teddisnoke]

we're gonna send send you one for "Mid-West" testing. See if it'll help your dads car in those 80-plus mph sweepers with the front skinnies!!!!

 

[NOGO]

I got it on today- it took about 15 minutes. Pretty cool how it fit Dale's 1st gen wagon AND my 2nd gen coupe. I guess the GM tooling wasnt that far off!

 

[3DTim]

Boy that looks great. Now how in the --- am I going to make that work.:devil:

Great job guys!!!

 

[NOGO]

Boy that looks great. Now how in the --- am I going to make that work.:devil:

Bring it over to Dale's shope and we'll make you one!:yes:

I just went on a test drive and to my suprise the brace actually stiffens the chassis up quite a bit. I no longer hear a slight creaking sound going in and out of the driveway at an angle (I thought it was my poly swaybar bushings). I went downtown where they are setting up the Grand Prix for next month and tried some high speed maneuvering. The car felt SUPER stable taking relatively easy turns at 80+ mph. This of course is paired with many other steering and suspension mods. Low speed driveability felt about the same as before- its hard to tell a difference until you load up the chassis.

 

[klean63]

Where do I sign up for one?

Ya know, for High Desert testing

 

[3DTim]

NoGo you and Chuck keep going and you two will be ready for some road racing. Anyone with a nice road car will just have to have one.

 

[ragtopjohnnie]

No, Really, where do you sign up for one? Ya know for "Down South testing"........ John

 

[Ryan V64SS]

Ever since i bought my 68 Cougar i have been wondering why nobody makes one for the Novas. Have you thought about triangulating it to the firewall?

 

[klean63]

Have you thought about triangulating it to the firewall?

That's a great idea, but I think the distributor poses a little bit of an issue.

 

[1qwikss]

hey will that thing fit my car?

 

[Smittys62]

Ya,, hook it up. Is there a sign up list going? Ill test it over west in the twistys of PV:yes:

 

[teddisnoke]

Jim, when you get your car back up and running, bring it over for a day. Morgans will be out for awhile longer, with a new firewall being installed.

There really is no reason to triangulate the bar. The Novas quite a bit of steel for front -to-back rigidity, just needed side to side stiffening. I've only seen one other Nova triagulated, once at Super Chevy many years ago. It seemed to create more issues than it solved.

 

[Ryan V64SS]

Jim, when you get your car back up and running, bring it over for a day. Morgans will be out for awhile longer, with a new firewall being installed.

There really is no reason to triangulate the bar. The Novas quite a bit of steel for front -to-back rigidity, just needed side to side stiffening. I've only seen one other Nova triagulated, once at Super Chevy many years ago. It seemed to create more issues than it solved.

I didn't mean for front to back ridgitity, I just thought a triangulated structure is more strong and it would tie in to a solid part of the car. I am amazed at how much more solid feeling and squeak free my Cougar is over the Nova, but it also has a welded on subframe, triangulated braces from the shock tower to the firewall pinch-weld, more beefy frame rails and what ford calls "torque boxes" at all 4 corners as stock equipment.

Don't get me wrong though, If I still had the stock front end on my car I would for sure want on of your pieces.

 

[62civa]

Nice work Dale and Brian! Looks like you have your first 5 customers lined up allready.

Ron

 

[chuckha62]

Okay Dale, I gotta ask... Does that "strut" tower bar really lend any stiffening to the chassis? I'm not trying to be negative here, but the top of the "tower" really supports the spring and the top of the shock. It's not really a strut tower as used by cars with a McPherson Strut front suspension, ya know? The mounting point for the upper control arms on the Nova are well below that point and I could see bracing between the mounts for them, but there's a huge chunk of cast iron and aluminum in the way.

The only reason I ask is that I had thought about making a brace like this awhile back but then decided I wasn't going to buy anything by doing it and talked myself out of it. What's the real world experience telling you? It sounds like Brian likes it, so that's good.

Too bad I can't put a whole car on a vibe table and do a swept sine, random vibration from 0 to 60Hz on it! That would show me the resonant frequency, before and after!

 

[Smittys62]

Okay Dale, I gotta ask... Does that "strut" tower bar really lend any stiffening to the chassis? I'm not trying to be negative here, but the top of the "tower" really supports the spring and the top of the shock. It's not really a strut tower as used by cars with a McPherson Strut front suspension, ya know? The mounting point for the upper control arms on the Nova are well below that point and I could see bracing between the mounts for them, but there's a huge chunk of cast iron and aluminum in the way.

The only reason I ask is that I had thought about making a brace like this awhile back but then decided I wasn't going to buy anything by doing it and talked myself out of it. What's the real world experience telling you? It sounds like Brian likes it, so that's good.

Too bad I can't put a whole car on a vibe table and do a swept sine, random vibration from 0 to 60Hz on it! That would show me the resonant frequency, before and after!

Good point ya got there:yes:. I was actually thinking the same thing. Maybe a G Load brace would make more sence? Doesnt that tie it together from the bottom?

Nah, never mind my last, Im pretty sure the crossmember down there does that part><><