F41 and aftermarket bracing diagrams (MORE pics added)

shotgun

Royal Smart Person

Nov 12, 2007

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Nort o Philly

www.casualrestorationsinc.com

• Jan 21, 2009

• #1

All this bracing talk got me to thinking.

A few hours later this is what I made up.

Frame with "stock" and aftermarket bracing:

GM body braces, forgot to make a legend on this one:

Now the tuff one to do, overlay:

Hope you enjoy.

 

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Reactions: 78Delta88, Sweet_Johnny and 78Malibu

2

2000.malibu.ls

Royal Smart Person

May 11, 2008

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Lake City, Florida

• Jan 21, 2009

• #2

Is this all a good idea? I wanna make my car handel well. is this the route i need to go?

 

D

dan2286

Royal Smart Person

Mar 25, 2008

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Cleveland, Ohio

• Jan 21, 2009

• #3

2000.malibu.ls said:

Is this all a good idea? I wanna make my car handel well. is this the route i need to go?

Click to expand...

Every little bit helps. Dont forget about boxing in the frame also.

 

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Longroof79

Rocket Powered Basset Hound

Oct 14, 2008

12,264

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Gainesville, Fl

• Jan 21, 2009

• #4

Nice job on the diagrams, Shotgun!

These braces were fairly easy to find in the boneyards. But not the case anymore.
I was fortunate to find the ones I have on the car and had some extras that I later sold off.
The braces do make a world of difference in handling and stability. Between that, a good set of gas shocks and replacing all the body mount bushings it's like a different car. I also have GN swaybars and close ratio steering box.

The only ones I don't have are the core support to firewall braces. Those are much harder to find. But I'm satisfied with what I had currently.
I will eventually add a HD hitch or cross brace in the rear.

Jack

 

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2000.malibu.ls

Royal Smart Person

May 11, 2008

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Lake City, Florida

• Jan 21, 2009

• #5

dan2286 said:

2000.malibu.ls said:

Is this all a good idea? I wanna make my car handel well. is this the route i need to go?

Click to expand...

Every little bit helps. Dont forget about boxing in the frame also.

Click to expand...

I'm chasis illiterate, can you tell me how that works? Ive got a freind who told me "tell me where to weld and ill weld it" so any visual/dimensional cues you can give me helps!

 

shotgun

Royal Smart Person

Nov 12, 2007

1,067

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Nort o Philly

www.casualrestorationsinc.com

• Jan 21, 2009

• #6

2000.malibu.ls, Like Longroof says, do as many as you can. They make a huge difference in the overall handling and ride of the car.

My wagon, can't use the seat braces, but has or will be getting the rest.

The Jounce bars really helped steering, no more flex where the box mounts.

The second best was the hitch. Do a search here. I posted a shot of both the hitch and a brace I made on the Cutlass.

I have not found boxing the frame needed, yet. Between all the bracing and poly body mounts, the cars gets plenty stiff.

I drag race the Cutlass so it has a rollbar, so the frame is braced fine.

The Wagon is my driver so it will never come apart enough to box the frame.

Longroof79, Thanks.

Get that hitch ASAP, made a world of difference on my 83 wagon.

 

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Reactions: Sweet_Johnny

supercrackerbox

Master Mechanic

Dec 29, 2008

385

2

18

Lincoln NE

• Jan 21, 2009

• #7

I am so copying these to my hard drive.

 

S

supreme_eighty5

Greasemonkey

Jun 5, 2008

109

2

0

Upstate, NY

• Jan 21, 2009

• #8

nice diagrams! 😀

i saw a guy on turbobuick made a custom brace that attached to the rear bumper mounts to tie the rear together.

 

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Phoenyx

Royal Smart Person

Jun 27, 2007

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Alberta, Canada

• Jan 21, 2009

• #9

Freaking sweet! It's nice to be able to see them like this. There's even a few I didn't know about.

What's up with the GN body bushings? Were they solid or something? And I never heard of the LCA mount brace, does that help a lot?

But I think you forgot one. The GN bracing behind the seat. Not the X bars but this:

http://home.att.net/~buickGNX/GNX/media/brace.jpg

 

7

79_GBody

Not-quite-so-new-guy

May 31, 2007

33

3

8

Columbus, OH

• Jan 22, 2009

• #10

Phoenyx said:

Freaking sweet! It's nice to be able to see them like this. There's even a few I didn't know about.

What's up with the GN body bushings? Were they solid or something? And I never heard of the LCA mount brace, does that help a lot?

But I think you forgot one. The GN bracing behind the seat. Not the X bars but this:

http://home.att.net/~buickGNX/GNX/media/brace.jpg

Click to expand...

I think he's talking about these type of weld in LCA mount braces...basically just gussets for the LCA mount http://www.buickgn.com/hrframebraces.htm Also on the bracing behing the seat some other g-body's had the bracing built in too. My 79 GP has that bracing and on some other g-body's that space is wide open. I'll try to take a pic of it and post it tomorrow.