compressed the rear bumper mounts....

[wolf66]

.......on my '77, think it looks alot better and still gives more protection then no bumper.

[wolf66]

Also got my strut cross bar on, ebay about $23 delv, its for a honda civic

[TomoHawk]

If the bumper shocks don't have any spring action, then your bumpers are totally useless. Before, the shocks allowed the bumper to take a light bump (5 MPH) without damage. So now, if your bumper shocks have no spring, then the force of an impace goes straight into the body/frame, or the shocks themselves will get squashed like a pop can.

A better option would be to get shorter bumper shocks, but then you still run the risk of bending the sheetmetal if you get bumped because the bumpers are too close with no room to move.

[wolf66]

Well it was this or take em off....and the shocks action won't do diddly in a high speed rear ending, it was only in the Fed 5 mph

crash test that it was useful, and i don't back into stuff.

[TomoHawk]

Uh Oh, you got one of those bars with the pivotting ends...

Those bars don't help you much, because the pivots still allow the suspension to flex, like a wobbly rectangle-- it just keeps the geometry the same. One with rigid ends is better.

[wolf66]

Well i cranked down on all the nuts, its pretty tight and seems to be fairly rigid, bet its worth all of $23!

[TomoHawk]

No mater how hard you tighten the nuts, they're still too lose when you flex the 2400 lb. car ( did you put 2000 ft-lbs of torque on the bolts?) Really... Maybe later on you could weld in a gusset to your properly-adjusted bar to permanently set the ends, then chrome/paint everything.

Then again, for $8 you could buy a steel pipe and make one that's just as functional.

Actually, the best way to make it really rigid would be to run a bar from the frame rail on one side to the top of the strut on the other (diagonally), then the other way. That way there's no way things could flex. The hubs would have to break off!

Isn't the engine in the way?

[wolf66]

dang motor, always in the way...

[TomoHawk]

Originally posted by wolf66

Well it was this or take em off....and the shocks action won't do diddly in a high speed rear ending, it was only in the Fed 5 mph

crash test that it was useful, and i don't back into stuff.

I assume you drained them to get them to collapse. Maybe you could cut them a little shorter and stick a spring (motorcycle shock?) in there for some some minimal protection.

Does look much better tho.

[TomoHawk]

Can you describe the process you did to get it to go in? Did you hsave to remove the stuff?

thx.

[sblake01]

Originally posted by TomoHawk

Uh Oh, you got one of those bars with the pivotting ends...

Those bars don't help you much, because the pivots still allow the suspension to flex, like a wobbly rectangle-- it just keeps the geometry the same. One with rigid ends is better.

You get what you pay for. Remember, those bars that Megan Racing or whatever ebay name they use are for a Honda Civic, they're cheap and they are basically for looks.

[wolf66]

well if you take the bumper off there is a screw there to release the pressure, mine was all rusted so i just drilled through it.