J's SubFrame Connectors........PICS!

J

J

OCCUPY LoD :)
Ok, gonna make this quick because its almost 4am and I want to go to bed.

Took me about 6 hours of fab'n, and welding. I first installed the connectors, and then added smaller rocker panel supports due to the fact that on unibody cars, the rocker panels/pinch welds are a MAJOR body support for the car. On my 88 Notch(mustang) I installed 1 1/2" x 1/8" square steel tubing subframe connectors, but I didn't want to go as big on my Mark because I didn't have the room. I also made a rear subframe brace while I was at it, and plan on doing the K-member braces also(I did the connectors B4 installing my headers, so I didn't want to bother welding anything in front yet).

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NOW the body FLEX test..........so I jacked my car up from the passenger side SF connector to see how bad the door would be out of alignment....check it out :)

Almost 4' high...
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Shows the angle of the drivers side, lol! Notice how the entire front of the car slid over and bunched up the carpet :)
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This shows the door gap, the door open with little effort and is maybe 1/4" off. Not too shabby :)
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These help SOOO much with speed bumps and dips in the road because before it was my K-member that took the abuse and the little pinch weld on my drivers side cat that got shaved off flat.

This picture shows the clearance with my exhaust. The cutouts would scrape going over speed bumps, but the billet alluminum finally flattened out and now its just the steel flanges that scrape.
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Nice! :D

The place that did my exhaust plans on using rectangular 1-1/4" x 1-1/2" x 3/16"(I think) for the subframe connectors. We are going to make them bolt on. We were also looking at possibly doing jacking rails down the side at the unibody pinch weld. We'll see.

They must help a lot. I hope to shorten my 60 foot times with them and a couple other mods. Plus they'd make nice 'skid rails' for these WV trails they call roads around here. :laugh:
 
So, I don't mean to appear ignorant, but what is the need for bracing such as that? I mean, at a certain amount of HP is it pretty much needed, or can anyone benefit from this? Just curious.
 
Subframe bracing simply reduces flexure in the suspension and body of the car so that the HP is transferred into forward motion of the car rather than wasted in loading the suspension and flexing of the car's body.

There is literally a whole science in launch attitude control - competetive drag racers know what it takes to effectively "put the power to the ground". It takes longer to go the first 60 feet of the track and any gains to be had there are typically multiplied 1.5 to 1.8 in the resultant ET. A tenth in the 60 foot time can be almost 2 tenths off the 1/4 mile ET.
 
Sharon,

The MAIN reason I wanted to install these was for structural support and PROTECTION because my car is soooo low. Hard to see but look at the pictures, notice how flat my d-side cat is on the bottom, and notice the huge scrapes my K-member recieved from bottoming out on the freeway!? Also, look at the drivers side(right in pic) trans crossmember bolt...its bent back about an inch from where it should be. After almost 2 years of driving my car after cutting the springs, it dropped almost another inch. Now I've installed coil spring spacers to tide me over until I get some valves for the air bag system I'm going to install later. See the damage? Lol!

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The next most important reason is more for handling vs. racing for me. I like to be able to carve the on/off ramps if I want to, and with the car being soooo low, and being on coils I wanted some support. I also plan on installing a sort of floor pan support, which will consist of one stick of NHRA roll cage tubing bent to fit inside the car, right behind the front seats over the drive shaft hump and welded(or bolted) to the bottoms of the "b" pillars. It will provide a ton of support without having to install a gawdy roll cage in a luxury car. :)

Now when I go up a angled driveway, or if I jack the car up from one corner, I can titter totter it, lol! No more creaks/rattles from all the inside panels anymore though...bonus!
 
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J, thanks for the explanation! Yes, I have noticed how low your car is. Mine isn't nearly that low, but I bottom out somtimes on the freeway and it annoys me immensely.

I'll add this to the list of things I want for my car. ;)
 
Trixie said:
J, thanks for the explanation! Yes, I have noticed how low your car is. Mine isn't nearly that low, but I bottom out somtimes on the freeway and it annoys me immensely.

I'll add this to the list of things I want for my car. ;)
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Sharon, just get Ill. to fix their dang roads!!
 
Destroyer said:
Overkill, but I like that. Sweeeet!!!
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The car doesn't have a frame....how is it overkill? Let me see you out corner me in your coil conversion'd M8.............heck I'll even take on Astro's Mach I! :)

Matt...sure thing, but its going to cost you!
 
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