Body brace thickness

[64nailhead]

That brace is not going to make your car handle better or stiffen it much.

The feeling your describing of the 'swampy'/squishy' handling is a function of steering and suspension. Of course, the body mounts need to be in good order.

Quick story about handling on my son's car. Started out bone stock with a SBC and small turbo installed upfront. Wouldn't stop worth a crap, body roll was crazy bad in a corner -scary even, tire grip was awful - tires would squeak when corning even at very reasonable speeds. Brakes ended up being C5/6 fronts on S10 spindles and metric calipers on the rear. The tires turned into 17" 255 in front and 285's on rear, UMI 1" bar on rear and MC SS bar in front (1 1/16" I believe), all tie rods and ball joints replaced due to originals were worn enough to be loose. We never changed a spring and put on a set of stock mount Bilstein's front and back. With these changes the car handled and stopped like a modern car - not like a C7 Vette, but not even remotely close to what it was. The combination of brakes, sway bars and tires worked very well together.

I feel your pain with the handling because I have pretty fast go straight build that handles exactly the same way.

 

[403Olds]

You are correct about making your own, but just use 1/2" EMT. I noticed a significant improvement over the factory Cutlass rods, and the additional core to firewall braces. These cars really are flimsy and need extra support.

 

[565bbchevy]

You are correct about making your own, but just use 1/2" EMT. I noticed a significant improvement over the factory Cutlass rods, and the additional core to firewall braces. These cars really are flimsy and need extra support.

I am sure compared to those rods the 1/2" EMT made an improvement, my reason for using 3/4" EMT over 1/2" is the larger diameter and increased wall thickness make it more rigid and gives me more surface area after my crimp to use a larger fastener.

 

[565bbchevy]

Have you ever thought about making and selling the thicker braces you made

I did consider it back when I made these but most people want the GP bar and it is oversized so shipping gets more expensive but my lack of free time is what truly made me decide against making them.

Like the crimped ends. What does the home made crimper look like? Can you share, I would like to make my own GP Bar.

Thanks, I did not like the GM "crimp" so I designed my own crimper so it crimps both sides at the same time creating IMO a clean factory looking crimp and I made it strong enough to crimp thick wall tubing with ease but sorry as far as the design it is top secret.🤐

Or, even just the press dies.

I never really considered going that route, maybe after I get a patent🤔

 

[565bbchevy]

Also one thing I do even for factory jounce and GP bars is use 1/2" grade 8 bolts and I also drill a tap the frame for 1/2" on the lower jounce mounts since I think the factory uses kind of a tapered self tapping bolt that can create play when you R & R them a couple times.
Here is my factory jounce bars on my Regal mounted with 1/2" hardware.

 

[druggles85]

So what the hell diameter were these underhood braces from the factory? I know the driver's side rad support to cowl braces was curved to go around the air cleaner. But where they curved to go around the fender braces too?

I was thinking all the braces could be made from 3/4" conduit. For some reason. I upped the size of the rad to cowl braces to 1" conduit. Thinking that's only 1/8" difference each side.

Anyways I don't have enough clearance to slip a 1/8" piece of flat bar over top of the overflow tank without hitting my braces.

 

[melloelky]

they were a little bit smaller but you gotta understand these cars didn't come with more than one underhood brace.the style you made was usually found on 78-79 monte's.the GP's and everyone else had a variation of the fender to support bars only.no interference to be had.same thing with the gp bar/jounce bars.

 

[565bbchevy]

For me I decided 1' EMT would be too big and create unnecessary clearance issues and also note that EMT OD is larger than it's stated size so 3/4" is actually .922 " OD

 

[druggles85]

they were a little bit smaller but you gotta understand these cars didn't come with more than one underhood brace.the style you made was usually found on 78-79 monte's.the GP's and everyone else had a variation of the fender to support bars only.no interference to be had.same thing with the gp bar/jounce bars.

Oh. Didn't realize they only ever came with one variation or the other. That makes more sense

For me I decided 1' EMT would be too big and create unnecessary clearance issues and also note that EMT OD is larger than it's stated size so 3/4" is actually .922 " OD

It is and does, but standing there in the hardware store the 3/4" just looked to small for something that long. I feel like if I made them both out of 1/2" they might still rub.



I'm thinking of using 1/2" for the shorter braces and using an aftermarket overflow tank...

Possibly relocate my battery to the trunk, that would make it easier to change batteries, allow me to use a larger battery, and maybe I want to install an amplifier in the trunk so I'd need to run a wire there anyway.lol

 

[565bbchevy]

I'm thinking of using 1/2" for the shorter braces and using an aftermarket overflow tank...

Possibly relocate my battery to the trunk,

In my Monte I have my second aftermarket overflow tank and went with aluminum this time to better match everything and of coarse my battery is in the trunk also.
I also made my braces to mount under the core support instead of sitting on top.