This weekend my friend and i are going to be installing custom SFC's for our maximas. I'm a gxe on ksports/fstb, he's an se on stock suspension/fstb, so this should end up pretty educational for future SFC-ers. I'm going with a stage 2 plus some, and he's going with stage 1.

All parts besides a few minor details are already bought and ready to install, so this isnt a BS 'immago doit laterzzz' type of deal, this is actually being installed on saturday.

The tubing is 1 1/4 inch steel, round. It's going to be welded in 4 spots on each side on his car and on 5 spots on each side on my car.

One quick question i had....where are the optimal points that i HAVE TO weld the mounting plates to? I know i only really need 3 or so spots, but it doesnt cost me too much more in material to have 5, so might as well. It seems to me that the thin metal in the frame that the mounting plates will be welded to will just flex a bit when under heavy stress(true?), so i want to know where the strongest points are so it doesn't flex. The idea we had was to just weld the pipe to the floor in the back, after the rail ends, and pretty much same in the front.

Another thing. what else should i connect with metal tubing? I'll have some extra tubes, so could i use it anywhere? Ground clearance isn't an issue, my car is high.



EDIT: STAGE 1 PICS DOWN THE PAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Stole my 00vi and now you're doing SFCs. It's official, I hate you.

 

Ideally you would do what the name suggests, and connect the subframes. I know the old WS ones were welded to the rear, but I don't think they connected to the front. Besides that I think you just put weld a few spots on the frame rails.

 

haha yeah yeah...if you weren't all the way in cali, we would make you some too!



The tube is going to be welded to the subframe rails, but im wondering where exactly are the strongest points to weld to, and if it would be beneficial to to tie the main rails into something else.

This will basically look like sciff5's setup (http://forum.maxima.org/showthread.p...hlight=sfc%27s ) except the piping in the X braces will be thicker and won't have that one bar in the middle of the x

 

Any pics? How did the install go? what type of tubing was it?

 

The install went great on my friend's car, only did stage 1. We ran out of time so my car's stage 2+ will have to be done this weekend. We also welded on custom sway bars on our cars, and to my surprise they work great. Not too much oversteer like people here sometimes say, and the car's 'feel' is improved A TON. I'll have full pictures and full reviews of both our cars sometime on saturday or sunday.

Next after we finish teh SFC's, its custom LTB time, and tie it into the SFC's.

 

:

10char

 

I know i know, that'll come when everything is done this weekend. Be warned though, its not 'pretty' by ANY means, the welds aren't perfect, but it works EXACTLY like it should. We're not doing this to be pretty though, doing it so it works!

 

you mean you didn't chrome-dip the SFCs before install????


nevermind then, I have no interest in seeing them

 

What a "douche"..the guy is trying his best.

 

Come on now i didnt think i came off sounding THAT cheap yo...chrome dip is a must for underbody parts duhh


Tonight we welded the stage 1 on my car, its ALMOST complete, still have a few plates to mount up. Stage 2 might have to wait another week or so, but it'll come soon. I'll post some pics tomorrow night. And i do know that so far,

 

NICE man. Be sure to post impressions when it's done.

 

Here are the pictures, we only got stage 1 done on both cars, stage 2 will be sometime next weekend probably. Thats primer and rubber undercoating sprayed on the welds if it's hard to tell.

my car:

 

his car:





All these pics show the SFC's and the custom RSB. I'll have driving impressions written up tomorrow, its bed time now.

 

I think you will love the SFCs. But if you welded a solid brace into the rear beam and this a street car, then unless you like driving with 3 wheels on hard cornering.

 

This seriously scares me....am I seeing this wrong, or did you weld a solid bar into the beam axle??? That appears to me to be a huge mistake. huge....

 

Going to have to agree here, SFCs FTMFW, but I likes my rear suspension.

Hopefully you either like it or are able to undo it...

 

I don't know what you guys are talking about, the rear suspension still works like it should.....belive me, i have this on my car, not just talking 'in theory'. It still understeers a bit at the limit and the feel of the car is improved a ton. Can you explain why you think its a mistake? I'll undo it if there's a good arguement against it, but from what i FEEL, its a really good addition.

 

Ha you just fuxored your twist rear beam.

 

haven't you eliminated all of the travel of the rear suspension?

 

I don't see what the fuss is about. The "RSB" appears to be welded from one "trailing arms" to the rear beam, repeated on the other side, and then parallel with the beam. No where does it cross any true articulating joints. Therefore, it does not eliminate suspension travel. In stock form, these surfaces are not completely rigid (i.e. there is a certain amount of twist built into the interfaces). By adding the extra reinforcements, that amount of twist is reduced, and in fact does end up doing exactly the same thing as the Stillen or any other RSB. My only concern is that aftermarket RSBs are "U-shaped" and not so massive, so they conform closely to the suspension components and avoid any potential interference. Your design is bulkier, so it would run a greater chance of interference at full compression if you haven't planned carefully. I presume you have.

 

The rear beam is designed to twist. Yes RSB's decrease the amount, but not to this extent...Get on a wet road and take a turn and see what happens....It's not really safe or stable at all...

 

This is also on my friend's stock spring/strut 4th gen and there's no apparent loss of travel, or any negative side effects for that matter. Reduced roll, tighter rear end, still SLIGHT understeer at limit.....

 

Tried it, sorry......no 'crazy rear end sliding everywhere'.....

 

clarification:

since that pic isn't really far out enough to see, answer me this:

the bar welded to the beam....where does the other end attach?

If it attaches to the trailing arms...then forget what i said earlier. In the photo, it looks like you have it attached to the SFC side rails, which would make the beam entirely immobile (up and down). But if you just attached it to the trailing arms then I can see what you're doing (basically a beefed-up RSB).

Take a pic from farther away so we can see where the other end attaches. Those close-up views make it difficult to tell...

 

Here, i drew a pic, haha i haven't connected any part of the beam to the SFC's, that woudl be completely retarded.


the spraypainted part is what we made.

 

ah ok....that makes more sense

I had this picture in my head of you having a completely solid rear end with the braces going from the beam directly to the SFC side rails

Hence why a few people have commented that you are crazy.

So what you really have is a super-stiff RSB - reminds me of the B14(?) guy who had two RSBs on his car - one was forward of the beam and one was behind it.

Question: did you ever use a regular RSB on your car?

 

Nope, we made this so i dont have to spend $100+ on a regular RSB, and we figured this would work better anyway.

 

Yeah, I was hoping that's the design you used instead of just a welded suspension.

It will most likely be a bit heavier than a $100 RSB, but will work the same way. Not a bad deal.

 

I give it a month before the welds break on the rear axle braces..

 

K i'll let you know what happens in a month.

 

Kudo's for trying something new! I too am a little worried about the welds especially if you've got a lot of rear travel in your suspension up & down. I'm guessing it might be the stiffest design yet and when you hit a bump or pothole on just one side it'll transmit that very evenly to the other side and you'll wind up feeling it rather hard.

You've joined an elite group incl Addco style RSB, Stillen's style RSB, dual RSB including the NISMO on the Sentra, and Stillen's boxing of the beam on the A33.

 

Thanks man! I guess sucks if the welds break, but hey...i can just fix them in 5 minutes and make them stronger. I dont think they're gonna break though. I have Ksports, and they're REALLY stiff. With this RSB and the SFC's, the ride quality is exactly what i wanted. Nice and stiff, but not floppy stiff like it used to be, its very 'composed' stiff. It doesn't bounce away from me on bumpy corners like it may seem. Feels like a high end sports car.

Stage 2 SFC with some custom one-of-a-kind 'additions' coming in a week or two...if i'm getting this type of critisism for this simple design RSB, i can't wait to see what some of you guys are gonna say about what i have planned

custom LTB coming soon also, and this will be quite interesting as well.

 

try to integrate bumper overriders into the new LTB

 

I'd like to know what type of tubing you used..i.e size & material.

Thx

 

1.25 inch steel

 

you don't read much, do you?

 

I don't know how thick it is from the top of my head, actually i dont think i ever knew. Just go to home depot and buy some tubing, and bring it to whatever shop. I checked the strength by putting one end on a solid surface, forming an angle, and hopping on the tube. It didn't bend at all, so thats how i knew it's good enough.

 

Seriously? Do you weigh 3000lbs or something? I guess that's fine if you're doing all the work yourself, but for people who have to pay for fabrication and installation, randomly picking out tubing at Home Depot is probably not the best way to go.

For a more quantitative answer, here's what sciff5 used http://forum.maxima.org/showpost.php...9&postcount=19

 

Considering that the mounting plates are less than a foot apart, and not even close to 3k lbs of force is on those one foot sections because the load obviously spreads, and that the 3,000lbs car ALREADY has a frame and everything else that supports it, i think i'm ok.