CPRstreetmachines 1969 Turbo'd Pro-Touring GT2 build

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Man, you do such awesome work--I always look forward to your posts in this thread!

Please tell me that the export brace you have IS NOT the one with the 16-gauge sheetmetal for the shock towers . . . the people who came up with that design just plain don't get it--it has to have STRENGTH there, or it won't keep the shock towers in place!

I have one of those, and I'm going to replace the sheetmetal parts with 1/4" steel plates and re-weld the tubes on. Same for the firewall part, though I'll probably use 1/8" thick angle iron there . . .

Anyway, awesome job to this point--post the pics of the other stuff you've been working on, you KNOW we all wanna see them . . .

:nice:
 
That looks like some pretty thin metal that is bolted to the shock towers--do you think it will be strong enough to do the job of keeping the towers in place?

I have an export brace from a no-name manufactuer that is almost identical to this one, but the plates at the rear and on the shock towers are probably either 18-ga or at best, 16-ga steel; I'm going to redo them with 1/4" flat stock so that they'll actually keep those shock towers where they're supposed to be before trying to install it onto mine . . .


Ohhh, god no. It's not that thin. If it was, It woulda been thrown away lol. When the engine comes back out it will get a little more bracing on that piece, and the underside of the pinch welds on that cowl.


he answered that already didn't he?
 
underside of cowl pinch weld bracing for export brace

=:nice::nice::nice:

"Originally Posted by 10secgoal
Ohhh, god no. It's not that thin. If it was, It woulda been thrown away lol. When the engine comes back out it will get a little more bracing on that piece, and the underside of the pinch welds on that cowl."


That bit is ridiculously thin. You could argue that the export brace keeps the shock towers a given distance from the cowl lip - it's unlikely that you'll be able to pull out those holes in that cowl lip - but it offers almost nothing in vertical hold. Those shock towers are free to move up and down with the stock setup.

I've seen SN65's "Fire and Ice" builds where it looked like he welded a 1x1 bar underneath the lip - are you planning on doing something like that? I would think a flat steel bar might be enough but the 1x1 bar would be stiffer vertically.
 
I think the plates on the towers where 3/16 ? And I want to say the tubing was about 16-14 ga. And that would be .065 and up. Tubing is pretty strong in it's thinnest form. I think its similar gauging is safe and legal for cages, it wouldn't be too thin for export bracing. But yeah, they aren't going to add much for vertical load. No 1x1 on this car. She's got all the mods she is getting.
 
Yeah, you've got to call it a day sometime . . .

and anything more than what you've already done is probably overkill. Part of me wishes there were more room to send a tube down from either midway through the "arm" of an export brace or at a point very close to the shock tower down to a point on the front subframe right at the firewall to really help control vertical movement of the shock tower, but then you're also just sending the load further down the frame and making the whole front subframe pivot up when there's a bump.

It's better to just move the engine to the backseat and run two braces diagonally down to the opposite subframe rail on each side. Then just find a wrecked Pantera and lift the drivetrain from that, lol. :D:rolleyes: Obviously, this bracing thing can get out of hand . . .
 
Yeh, gets to a point where the effect results in minimal gain. This car should be stiff enough to keep the car from killing itself, and ride smoothly. One of the best things I did was pout a cage in my car. Huge difference. Drove so much better, without any of the bracing this on has.
 
I've driven tube chassis cars incl. NASCARs (before SAMECAR took over!), fully welded & subframed historic racing Mustangs with full cages etc. They handle extremely predictable without any flex into the corners but they are racecars! My thinking is you'd get a jarring, rumbling and all around uncomfortable ride if we went all the way...
 
No worries there! After dialing in at local tracks it will get its debut on the Nurburgring in the spring. And I cant wait to kill some Porsches on the autobahn on the way down there. My only semi-regret in this build is that the paint is way too nice. It'll most likely see a gravel trap now and then so I guess I just need to take a lot of nice pictures of it before it gets too banged up! :D
 
Well Dustin, back when I asked you told me to use 1/8in. So off I went down to the metal mart. I asked for 1/8in mild steel 4x4. He loaded it up for me, I paid and off I went. When I got home and measured it, it was actually 10 gauge. I assume it's the closest they had. So that's .134 compared to .125. freakin heavy SOB to unload by myself! ha!
 
Get in trouble? Nah, only 200 have died at the Ring since it opened. You only need to remember 73 turns over 13 miles, avoid all the souped up compacts, rescue vehicles and deer, keep video cam and timing gear hidden and still try for a high 8 min. time. :rolleyes: