Just an update on the SFCs. I talked to the guy at the shop thats making my custom SFCs and he said he could get me in there May 10th and supposedly they shouldent need my car more than a week. So I'm keepin my fingers crossed

 

remember picture and comments after that, alot of us are waiting long enough for this.
keep up the good work, man.

 

I will be posting pics and comments dont worry about that. I have full faith in this shops ability to fill my demands and create a great product but I am still nervous. Anytime welding is going on under your car you'de be crazy not to be nervous, but its mainly because I am the first one (that I know of) to get custom made SFCs for the maxima so theres a lot of room for error, but I have had a lot of time to think about all the mods I want to do in the future and have had a lot of time to think about all the possible isssues and ways to address them. Like I have been collecting pics from the underside of cars with aftermarket exhaust and headers so that I can give those to the fabricator to give him an idea of how much clearence from the underbody to leave for possible future mods, while keeping it close enough to the underbody to not loose any more ground clearence than the warpspeed design. I have also heard of the exhaust system hitting the SFCs when people go over bumps and it making noise, I am not too worried about this as it seems to be a pretty easy fix if that were to happen, I think I would just pack asbestos type insulator in the space where the exhaust is hitting the SFC or fabricate another small exhaust hanger in that area to hold the exhaust piping more stable so it doesnt flex as much going over bumps. I have also been hearing that the bolts in 2nd stage have had problems with the bolt holes expanding over time and the fitment becoming loose so around the areas where stage 2 bolts to stage 1 there will be high carbon (or forged steel) with high carbon steel bolts and some really heavy duty welds. Also because I am in New England and live a stone throw away from the ocean rust is a huge issue for me. So the stage 1 tubes will have a cap welded to them and then the capped end will be sealed with an automotive sealent, (he said the stuff hes using is a permenant metal sealent used on collision bodywork to make sure his welds are completly sealed so no water gets into the SFCs and rusts them from the inside out) and than the capped ends will be welded to the body where those welds will be sealed with the same sealent and sprayed with underbody coating. I also think I will be spraying the tubes with rustoleum paint as its tough as nails and is very good at preventing rust. Its the stuff they spray tractors and farm equipment with to keep it from rusting and than on top of that the whole underside will be sprayed with the 3M underbody coating. Also if space permits I will be adding 2 additional lateral bars that would run perpendicular to the frame rails.

I havent talked to him about this yet but it says on his website that he does aluminum welding as well, so I am sure its possible that if you really wanted he could make this entire setup out of aluminum if you wanted a racing setup. but I am sure the cost would be prohibitive for most everyone. Even with standard tubing this shouldent weigh anymore than the Warpspeed setup which was about 35-40lbs

I have said this before but I think this post really exemplifies it.. when it comes to my car I am WAY too much of a perfectionist, if this mod isnt rugged enough to outlast the car and add pretty much nothing but benefits (minus the extra 35-40lbs and the 1" loss of ground clearence) than I wont be happy and I will keep redesigning it untill its right.

 

You are welding the SFC's to the car? I think I would just do a little more work and make it a bolt on modification. You going to remove your carpet before welding to the underside of your car?

Look forward to seeing/hearing your reactions to this though. I will be trying to fab some of my own this summer.

 

the stage 1 SFCs are going to be welded in at the same spots where the old Warpspeed design was welded in. You dont need to remove the carpets and there are no wires or other flamable material in this area so its just a matter of remiving the factory rust protection coating in those areas and welding to them. In addition to be welded in, in the front and back they will be welded to the subframe rails in 3 spots, of course you have to scrape the rust protection off these spots too but because the frame rails dont contain anything flammable, no wires, and are far enough from your floorboards that you dont need to remove the carpeting. Bolt on solutions.... are usually considered less desireable. I know that flying miata makes bolt on SFCs for the miata and Irish likes that setup a lot and I am sure with a company that produces quality product like flying miata they are a good setup but there are many bolt on SFC setups like those found in the mustangs that are absolute junk. The problem with bolt on solutions is usually there is too much play in the bolts. Even when you tighten them down as much as possible usually what happens is that the metal on both parts being held together by the bolts starts to stretch as they experience contracting and expanding forces for many years, making the fit looser and looser with time. This possibly can create noise, as well as not doing its job which is to stay ridgid so that more force is transferred to the suspension rather than the flex in the chassis which would be exaserbated (sorry bad spelling) by weak connections between connecting parts of the SFCs. Also because you'de be bolting into the bottom of the car you'de be bolting into metal which is not that thick and has not been reinforced in that area for the additional stresses it will encounter. When you weld to the chassis the same amount of force is spread over a larger area, Aka a weld connects to the chassis over a larger area than the bolt thus the force is more spread out, and the weld is permenant basically having no give.

This is why I am trying to reduce the number of bolts in this setup as much as possible. that is why the center section where all the cross support tubes come together will be welded together, which even warpspeed knows is a better soultion based on performance but they were forced to use bolts so that when they shipped out the kit it could be shipped in pieces, because if it was welded together from Warpspeed than it would be required to be shipped in a box the size of a small car, which would make the whole product cost restrictive for most.

The only reason I am using bolts to connect the stage 2 to the stage 1 at the 3 tabs on the subframe rails is so that the stage 2 can be removed to access the exhaust. And I feel better about using bolts because I controll how thick the tabs are and what metal they are made of meening I can engineer them more resistent to stretching and deforming under stress. As well as being able to control the thickness and strength of the steel tube on the stage 2 thats being bolted to the tabs. Not to mention I will be putting a forged steel liner around the bolt holes in the tabs and the bolt holes of the tubes on stage 2. One liner will be convex in shape and the other will be concave so they naturally fit together and stay in place and spread the force the bolt is experiencing over a greater surface area. The bolt going through these liners will also be forged steel or a high carbon steel of some sort.

I have thought about this a lot.. lol prob too much. I am in college for a business degree but I have been bouncing these ideas off my friends here who are majoring in mechanical engineering and are in the car club with me and plan to spend their lives creating automotive suspension parts.

heres some ASCII art to demonstate what my bolt in section should look like compared to the warpspeed stage 2

warpspeed stage 2 looks like this :
>I<

What I am thinking about doing (as you can see theres 2 addition lateral supports) :
I>I<I

If you have no clue what I'm talking about just look at some pics of the warpspeed stage 2 SFCs and the stupid ASCII art should make sense

 

I can see no problem welding to the bottom of the framerails. I was playing with the idea of mounting to the insides of the framerails though. I want to make three or so crossmembers betweent the two (then tie them into the subframes) and would need to make them bolt on for access to the exhaust system. Have to take some measurments to see what effects this will have on ground clearance though.

Not too worried about movement with the bolts because I would have the brackets cup around the framerails and bolt through sideways. This way there wont be much stress on the bolts themselves, just a nice tight brace between the rails.

Definitely take lots of pics of your set-up when completed.

 

Sounds cool I would still rather bolt into tabs welded to the sub frame rails than the frame rails themselves. But I like how that idea takes lateral stress off the bolts.