GolfClapperX
Member
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2009
- Location
- TX, not by choice
I hope this isn't the wrong section for this post. I just thought I'd share what screwing around I've done in the last 45 minutes or so. I am flipping a '95 Buick Lesabre, and decided to satisfy a curiosity I've had for a long time concerning how difficult it would be to fit a random vehicle's strut brace to a Volvo.
This was free, other than the cost of how ever much welding wire and cutting disc I used. I just threw it together, but it should be obvious that it could be done more cleanly quite easily. I will pull it back off and improve on it some more later.
Here's how the brace lines up on the 240 before any modifying. Notice the brake fluid cap is blocked. My quick solution was to just flip the reservoir around. My system was already full of air anyway.
Then I removed the bolts on the driver side of the strut brace and adjusted the length until the bracket reached the same strut mount stud as the other side. I clamped it like this and welded it.
Next I chopped one eyelet off of the bracket on each end of the brace, made the eyelet sit on the desired strut mount stud, and tacked it back to the bracket.
Last, I pulled it back off and welded it all together firmly, ground the edges of the brackets where I chopped them to clean them up a bit, touched it up with a little Krylon Fusion plastic paint since that's the only black paint I had, and then I plopped it back on the car and bolted it down with wet paint.
The next thing I'll do whenever I feel like it, is add tabs to the brackets to allow them to bolt to all three strut mount studs on each side instead of just two. I'll put some more effort into it later, but for now I'm happy enough with it. This didn't take long, didn't cost anything, and I enjoyed it. I don't expect much positive reception, but I'm curious what you guys think about it anyway.
This was free, other than the cost of how ever much welding wire and cutting disc I used. I just threw it together, but it should be obvious that it could be done more cleanly quite easily. I will pull it back off and improve on it some more later.
Here's how the brace lines up on the 240 before any modifying. Notice the brake fluid cap is blocked. My quick solution was to just flip the reservoir around. My system was already full of air anyway.
Then I removed the bolts on the driver side of the strut brace and adjusted the length until the bracket reached the same strut mount stud as the other side. I clamped it like this and welded it.
Next I chopped one eyelet off of the bracket on each end of the brace, made the eyelet sit on the desired strut mount stud, and tacked it back to the bracket.
Last, I pulled it back off and welded it all together firmly, ground the edges of the brackets where I chopped them to clean them up a bit, touched it up with a little Krylon Fusion plastic paint since that's the only black paint I had, and then I plopped it back on the car and bolted it down with wet paint.
The next thing I'll do whenever I feel like it, is add tabs to the brackets to allow them to bolt to all three strut mount studs on each side instead of just two. I'll put some more effort into it later, but for now I'm happy enough with it. This didn't take long, didn't cost anything, and I enjoyed it. I don't expect much positive reception, but I'm curious what you guys think about it anyway.
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