BTW it looks like I've figured out everything about the SFCs I am having fabricated. My fabricator is finally free, he has the DOM tubing ordered and in the mail and we are just waiting for it to arrive to start the job. We are going to be using 3/4" x .120" DOM tubing for the stage 2 cross bracing, which will be welded together in the center and bolted to the tabs. The stage 1 bracing I wanted 1.5" X .120" DOM tubing but it wasnt really available for the next 3 weeks at least, but they do have 1.5" x .095" DOM in stock so I went with that. If I want it to be more stiff later on I can foam the tubing with some 8lb or 16lb density foam.

The guy was really straight forward with me. He even showed me what the tubing was going to cost him. The 3/4" tubing is running him like 3$ a foot and the 1.5" tubing is running about 5$ a foot. With about 14 feet needed for the stage 1 bracing and about 16-18 feet needed of the 3/4" tubing for the stage 2 thats around 120$ in material, and hes doing the job for 400$.

Total weight.. I couldent find the weight per foot of the 3/4" tubing but I would assume a little under 1lb/ft as the 1.5" x .095" DOM tubing is a little under 1.3lbs/ft. So thats around 35lbs for the tubing. Add in the 1/4" steel tabs which are around 9lbs per square foot and thats prob another 7lbs, add bolts and the end caps for the ends of the stage 1 tubing and your lookin at around 45-50lbs. BTW foam would add like 1 or 2 lbs tops using the most dense stuff.

 

Glad to hear it. Let us know when you get the job done and be sure to take lots of photos while it's still on the lift if possible!

 

come down to tampa/ st. pete. some ppl have told me its in the top 5 as far as car modding areas.

 

You know where to get custom SFC's? I will be moving to Gainesville in AUG.

 

Dude is getting some good prices on that steel. Up here it was like $7/foot for 1 5/8 .132". A bit thicker and bigger but not $2 thicker and bigger.

I can't believe you guys don't have shops to do this stuff. Madison is a small city(200,000) and there are four or five reputable fab shops in the area. Check the phone book.

 

I have around 10000-12000 people in my town

 

There should be a few places within a few hours drive. Check the yellow pages or search the intarweb. I am probably going to get the place that is doing h2kFrosty's roll cage to do a custom SFC for me unless someone makes a weld in prebuild SFC soon.

 

What were the Warspeeds going for back in the day? Both Stage I and II.

Florida isn't that spread out is it? Head to a nearby big city. Theres gotta be some car fab or tunning shops down there.

 

well in certain areas it is.. like I said in Orlando and in Tampa there's a ton of shops, welders that do roll-cages, SFC's and other such things. I'll try and look some up tomorow.

 

The old warpspeed kit went for 200 and it would usually be 100$ to install it.

Their original kit wasnt that bad from the pics I've seen. but whatever they are labeling as their new kit which has been different on every car I've seen its deff garbage and the price reflects that. Custom SFCs similar to the warpspeed design but with quality materials usually go for 400-500$ installed but depending on material and how much excess stuff you want SFCs can easily reach 1k+ especially if you wanted to use chromoly.

 

odd....Piper Motorsports around here, who do basically nothing but build roll cages for high-level track cars, told me "it would be about $30 in materials and maybe 2 hours labor" (@$80/hour) to build stage 1 SFC's similar to the WS ones. The guy flat out said "the tubing is the cheap part "

 

Can you get me some made

 

Well it dpends on what quality tubing they were going to use. I am using DOM tubing which is deff the strongest mild steel tubing you can buy. Its the strongest stuff that can easily be mig welded. It also depends on the diameter of tube and wall thickness. Cheap mild steel tubing goes for around 2.25$/ft for a seam welded tube (deff not stuff I would encourage anyone to use) and it looks like we will need about 14ft of tubing for the stage 1 bracing (7ft for each side) thus that 30$ material cost sounds right if thats the tubing they are using. But I am surprised anyone would use "cheap" and "steel tubing" in the same sentence as the price of steel is supposedly pretty damn high right now.

 

I dunno....Piper is well-known and supports several pro-level Spec Miata teams, as well as several pro-level Porsches. Last time I was there they had a brand-new 911 Turbo stripped down and were building a full cage in it. I seriously doubt they're the type of shop that would "go cheap" in terms of quality..

That said, I didn't have them made because they have a 3-4 month backlog of cars to do since they just changed to a new, larger shop....and Porsches getting $10K in work take precedence over maximas getting $200 in work, apparently

 

I also get the feeling that you're going a bit overboard worrying about "strength" perhaps. Remember, the Warpspeed SFC's were not very expensive (probably made from "cheap steel tubing"), and aside from a few fitament issues, they worked fine and nobody had any problems with them breaking, bending, etc. Remember, you're not reinforcing the keel of an aircraft carrier here...just supplementing the stiffness of the car's subframe. The SFC's are not really carrying any weight, per se - just providing torsional stiffness (which even cheap tubing will do just fine, assuming it is the correct thickness). It's like the guys who buy the Titanium FSTB's - not necessary, necessarily.....

Just a thought, since I don't want you ending up spending $1K on a full SFC setup when there's no reason to.....

 

Naww I wouldent spend 1k or anywhere close to it and I'm not trying to put piper motorsports down in any way. I know they do some quality builds but if they saw a maxima the might not feel the need to use the most high quality tubing as its not a roll cage or anything like that (aka you dont need to count on it to save your life) thus they might feel DOM tubing isn't nessecery but matt blehm and a couple other fabricators told me that DOM is really the way to go and after doing lots of research I have found it is quite a bit stronger while being marginally more expensive for the amount we are using.

I havent talked to this guy about potentially making a kit for the community but I will talk to him about it and see what he thinks about it. The way things go in New England is that all these racing shops get packed in the summer and usually have very little time to do anything like this (which is why its been so stupidly hard to find a shop to do the work) where as during the winter they are usually around twiddling their thumbs, so a simple job like bending tube and making SFCs could potentially be a good way to alleviate free time between larger jobs.

 

it's all good....just making sure.

btw, that reminds me that I saw one of Piper's built 944's at last weekend's autocross. ONE FAST B1TCH!

 

Aluminum subframe bushings are not that hard to live with no daily basis, I can't even tell they are there in my car. They do not transmit any odd noises or creaks through the chassis as far as I am concerned. It made my old sagging bushings vs aluminum VERY noticable in terms of steering response and overall "front end" tightness.

Maxima has 4 bushings holding the subframe to the chassis, I currently have 2 aluminum bushings on mine, and I am awaiting my SLOW AZZ fabricator to make a batch of like 20 sets of the front aluminum bushings- as I have the rears already. I think that even with just 2 the diff is quite big, I don't know if the extra 2 front ones are going to make any more difference than the rear ones have already made. I have some pics of mine on the car, but I need to upload them somewhere to post pics here.

 

Are the 4th and 5th gen ones the same bushings?

 

I'm not sure if they are the same. I don't have a 4th gen to try it out on.

 

I just checked the Energy Suspension part numbers and they are the same.


Edit, wrong bushings....

 

I'm deff interested in the aluminum bushings. Keep me updated. I would get all 4

 

ITS HAPPENING! Its FINALLY happening! I dropped the car off today to get the Custom SFCs fabricated. The fabricator said he should be done by friday but we are picking the car up on monday cause its a 2 hour drive and we are already headed up that way on Mon.

So unless something very bad happens (please keep fingers crossed on this one) I should have pics and a review up Mon night.

 

Awesome, I'm as excited as you are!

 

I'm guaging interest in the production of SFCs in another thread.

Check it out

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=479751

 

I am also going to have a local shop fab up some sub-frames for me.....i was going to use square tubing for the x part...but after readin this i dunno of thats a good idea...of DOM was always the plan for outside the rails connecting it all...any other sugguestions would be helpful

 

Isn't round tubing is stronger and stiffer than square tubing pound for pound?

 

Square tubing can be as strong as round tubing but it would have to be of greater diameter, thicker walls thickness, and generally heavier. So you can make square tubing just as strung but it will weigh more and it wont have the tortional ridgidity of round tubing.

Round tubing is generally considered better, but it is more expensive.

 

How are yours? Does your fabber want to make more?

 

He sounded interested, but I dont know how interested because the guys isnt exactly a high energy type guy. He speaks really slowly, but he said yes he would be interested. I think if he did a couple more local guys cars he would be able to get the exact mesasurements down and maybe he would start making kits.

The tubing used on my SFCs for stage 1 we used 1.5" X .095" DOM round tubing and for the stage 2 we used 3/4" X .120" DOM round tubing

 

oooooooook....i will use round tubing then

 

Sounds good. You said you didn't lose ground clearance so that is cool with me. This and chassis foam would make my car nice

 

BTW here is a link to pics and a review of the custom SFCs I just had fabricated for my car

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=480114

 

for the tabs at the end of the round tubing where it meets the plate....did u jus weld smaller tabs to the tubing....??

 

So I called Warpseed again today...
They haven't moved into the new shop and no SFC...

 

well I gotta say they brought it on themselves cause they cant get their act together.

 

I shoulda told them I was on my way there from Florida since they told me to come this week last month

 

Bumpage (no need for new thread)

 

Done by Wild Rides Race Cars. Car feels 'meatier' but bumps don't send a shockwave through the cabin.

 

Looks nice what was the fee on those, and did you carry those before the install what do you think the weight was...Thanks...