Hey all! This thread pertains really to all wagons and involves upgrading the strength of our wagons near the rear. Im curious if there are any benefits to installing sort of like strut bars. not my wagon but my daily driver, 2004 aveo, has an aftermarket bar (IMAGE BELOW) that does not connect to any suspension components but just bolt onto the body of the car. This modification which due to a friend selling his car was a free one for me, gave minor yet noticeable reduced body vibrations and increased the cars rigidity. Of course my DD is a new fiberglass car and most of our wagons are stronger steel. But from a standpoint concerning improved cruising and mobility in our wagons, could these types of braces be possible and just as usefull. Of course if I were to make a bar for my caprice, I wouldnt have it smack-dab in the middle of the car like in the picture, I was think more on the ceiling covered by the headliner or under the carpet on the floor. Just curious since as I start getting into welding when I do some body work, I could grab some extra metal and weld up some sort of 'brace bar' let me know what yall think!
I know strut bracing for cars built to be stuffed into turns and the towers like to flex, like Camaros/Firebirds, Stangs and the new lil eco sh*tboxes. But I never seen a body braced like that. It is made to reduce body flex for sure, but wht in the middle of the hatch area?. Looks like something I would pull out, That thing would annoy the hell out of me.
LOL i understand guys. The car in the pic isnt mine, but I do have one in my car, and like i said it does help with vibrations and tightens up the body a bit, and even though my aveo is almost half as short as a caprice or any other wagon, it is still a 5door and I would think the benefits of a body brace where the 'weak' points in our body style cars would be similar. of course, as you pointed out, it wouldnt be in the middle area of the trunk, good thing is it is attached by two bolts (one on each side) and it can be removed. and these are used by alot of drivers with the same car like my friend who gave it to me when they do autocross racing. thanks guys
My friend had a 74 Mustang II/Super Pinto Coupe, and the rear window was smashed out in a burglary of his rear speakers. He drove it for a week like that, and was astounded at how much more floppy the rear body was without that back glass. Fast forward many years, I had the rear window reinstalled into my 70 El Camino, it was put in with urethane instead of the butyl tape. Stiff chassis and suspension on this car, and I sometimes thrash it, and the rear window popped loose from the gluing due to what little chassis flex the car has. What I am trying to say is that any little thing will help (or detract from) chassis stiffness. If you can add it and try it, go for it. If it works, hooray, if not, try something else. I add all of the body bushings that can be added when I redo the chassis' on my cars, and factory style boxed chassis' when I can, just to try to stiffen things up. This is for G-body cars, but shows what stiffening was added by the factory for "performance" cars: http://www.monte-list.com/tech/rsb.shtml http://www.montecarloss.com/communi...ain=86798&Words=braces&Search=true#Post874959 Good luck, Tom
