Aspire swap vs. pipe in beam

[oxbrain]

I have been looking at doing an aspire brake swap for a while mostly because of the rear sway bar that comes with it. I have seen some people talking about just welding a pipe into the festiva beam to do the same job. Is that as good as the sway bar or would it be better to have the sway bar? How difficult is it to weld in the bar? I would probably have a welding shop do it for me since I don't know how to weld.

The bar was the only real reason for me to do the swap, I am fine with the festiva brakes.

[Silv3rBull3t]

Then I'd say just weld in a beam it will be stronger as long as it's diameter is greater than the Aspire sway's.. -Kyle

[aithanmier]

or you could probably get even better rigidity by just boxing in that crossmember with some plate steel, would be easier to weld too...

[Biglay5150]

Has anyone done this? Im about to do the rear axle swap and was thinking of boxing in the Aspire axle first. Would like to hear some pros and cons. Any feed back would be awsome or just some opinions.
Thanx

[F3BZ]

i know it sounds like it should work but wouldn't boxing the rear beam defeat the purpose of a TWIST beam suspension? i can't help but think that this could cause some serious handling problems.

[25Horseplay]

I want to say there was a member that did this and in a rain storm his car handled terrible and he ended up wrecking the car.

[FB71]

don't box the beam, makes it too rigid. We used to weld 1.5" angle iron inside of the Dodge Omni rear torsion beam for better handling in the dirt (quarry cars). A small diameter pipe, spanned from one leg to the other, welded inside each leg, but not to the crossbeam, would work well also. About a 1" od pipe.

[Biglay5150]

Ok so I wont box it in. I wasnt sure how this would work so I had to ask.
Thanx maybe ill just put the beam in as is.