Intend to have a go at making a strut brace. Could someone help by measuring the diameter of the Sparco one, ie the one thats standard on the LE's.

Its about 25mm - not sure about the wall thickness though

Just make sure you don't try this material for your strut brace

that might be one of the funniest car threads i've ever read, thanks nigel...

i second that, nearly wet myself, made my weekend

Best thread ever, thanks Nigel.. Will feel obliged to copy that to the swedish forum..

ha ha, thats class

Give that guy a job on Blue Peter

Did this ever turn out be a hoax? I mean he's got roofing nuts and bolts holding the thing together. Surely it's a joke?

Getting back on topic, I am wondering just how difficult a custom built strut brace would be to design/make? I am guessing the mark-up is pretty high as they don't look particularly complicated.

I designed and prototyped a lower subframe brace. My design is much simpler than a strut brace. However, it still costs quite a lot in materials (painted mild steel tube is pointless under a car, so I used solid stainless bar)

The hard bit is the mountings (needs careful welding) and the adjuster (needs left and right hand threads for the adjuster and in the brace itself - cutting an internal left hand thread is not easy)

I'd be surprised if you could do it for less than £100

That is if there's a risk of grounding it..
(sorry, couldn't resist)

the costs involved are high but years ago there was a GB on PSC for custom strut braces and i belive the mark up price was £55 per strut, the raw materials are not that expensive to get hold of especially if you know somebody in the trade the real cost comes from the guy who is dping the welding and spraying/powder coating

if its a plain, non-adjustable brace, the cost will be greatly reduced, as it doesn't require any signifcant machining - just forming and welding, followed by powder coating

the adjuster is the fiddly bit, as mentioned above

Is the adjuster just for accommodating slight differences between cars?

yes

Here's the finished item, decided not to make it from wood
[IMG]http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm311/12crab/S5030317.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm311/12crab/S5030319.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm311/12crab/S5030321.jpg[/IMG]

have you got the plans/drawings for the brace you made ?
Looks pretty good.
Paul

looks ok

Sorry no drawings, made a template in wire, then used a friends pipe bender to shape the tube

What did you use for the part the bolts go through and what size/gauge pipe did you use if you don't mind me asking
Looks like it would be pretty easy to fabricate and weld.
I will have to have a word with some of our welders me thinks.
Very good idea BTW.

The tube is 1 1/4" (32mm) with a 1/8" (3mm) wall thickness. The ends are the same tube welded in place, with a suitable thick washer welded to the bottom.