Home depot rear strut bar, and hatch cross bar.

[BUSTIVA]

Heres a pic of my Home depot rear strut bar, and hatch cross bar. Will be pullin them back off and painting them black. Pics are of the test fit.

I bought a 10' section of 1" thick stainless conduit piping, cost 8 bucks.

Cut them both down to around 4ft. Then put the ends in a vise to press flat. Marked my holes and drilled them. Bolted them in. They are very solid, I can pick up the rear of the car using them.

Just as I finished these, some guys from NASA showed up and asked for help with this new mission they're working on....

[TheresGabe]

I freaking love the rear strut bar idea! Totally going to be copying this idea. What exactly does the hatch bar do though?

[Christ]

Can you diagonally tie the strut towers into the rear seat sections as well? Or tie them back to the rear floor area... that'll do a whole lot more to stiffen the rear chassis than the hatch bar does.

[BUSTIVA]

I freaking love the rear strut bar idea! Totally going to be copying this idea. What exactly does the hatch bar do though?

Well apparently it gets in the way of the hatch strut lol, I need to flip it to where its bending into the car insted of outwards.

Can you tie the upper strut bar into the mounting point of the upper body bar as well?

I'm going to try that out...Was scheming up something along these lines.



OR

[DriverOne]

Just as I finished these, some guys from NASA showed up and asked for help with this new mission they're working on...

I didn't know you worked for Home Depot!

[Advancedynamix]

Be careful with that. Those shocks flex in and out as your suspension articulates through it's travel. This is a great way to bind your shocks or possibly bend a shock rod. I'm not hating I did the same mod years ago on a VW scirocco and I bent both my shocks.

Also, the rear of the car needs to have flex in a fwd car. Years of track testing on various chassis have proven that a lose chassis may be less confidence inspiring but gets better traction.

If your still dead set on a stiff backside, bolt a bar between the seat hook mounts. That boxed section is actually very rigid.

[BUSTIVA]

Be careful with that. Those shocks flex in and out as your suspension articulates through it's travel. This is a great way to bind your shocks or possibly bend a shock rod.

My suspension is very stiff and porportionally dampened, I really only have about 1 1/2-2in of suspension travel. I have metal tophats, and the bar is sandwhiched between a first nut that holds the strut to the tophats, and a second nut that tightens the bar down, and acts as a lock nut. I doubt there is any signicant movement with the way everything is mounted. But duely noted sir.

The rear feels alot stiffer, no squeaks, or rattles at all.

I plan to do the thread rod mod as well, I want the car to rotate a little more willingly. There is a hint of push/understeer. And I want a more nuetral/slightly rotational feel.

Car feels amazing in long sweepers, but meh in tighter autox situations.

[Christ]

Note my edit BUSTIVA. I made a mistake at first and corrected it. You should be tying the strut towers forward to the seat section, not rearward to the C pillars.

I'm guessing your motive is to get rid of chassis articulation. As high up as the C pillar bar is, I don't see it doing much, especially because it's mounted in such a way that the mounted area can rotate with stress instead of holding it/transferring it.

A good place to brace is across the lower seatbelt mounts for the front seats. A piece of 1" .060" or better wall with 3" flanges to set it back away from the seat travel. you can also add a plate flange welded to it to bolt to the 2 bolts that hold the seat belt receivers, which keeps it from rotating under stress, and will eliminate most of the chassis articulation with a single piece. If the center can't rotate, the rear of the chassis can't lift as easily.

Also, because of the way our rear ends are mounted, a single 1/4" plate across the two mounting points of the swing arm on the rear interior can stiffen up the chassis a lot as well. Instead of using the stock bolts, get something longer with a few extra threads on it, and drill the flanges on the stiffening piece to slide over the Tee nuts in the floor at the mount points. Use a lock washer on the flange, then put a nut on the extra threads and tighten vigorously.

Another thing you can do to stop suspension flex without anyone noticing you've done anything is trim down the shock bushings about 2mm on each side, then slide a piece of 3mm flat stock in and bolt it between the shock and the hub side, square up the rear and weld in a piece of tube between the two flanges. That'll stop rear beam articulation and make it want to break much sooner than the front end wants to give up.

[Grey Vw]

Nice HDR strut bar. HomeDepotRacing

[BigElCat]

Just as I finished these, some guys from NASA showed up and asked for help with this new mission they're working on....

Dude....

I bet they're going to drop a Festiva, just like they dropped a Corvette in the opening scene of the movie Heavy Metal.

[Aaronbrook37]

Nice HDR strut bar. HomeDepotRacing

HDR has amazing naturally aspirated intakes and earth grounding kits as well that are definitely worth looking into if you like cheap and pack-a-punch mods! I've also used roofing repair product as soundproofing before in wheel wells, and the same for polyester blanket stuffing in body panels. Lawn edging seems popular for lips and such, but that ain't quite my speed. There's definitely a ton of fun to be had if you know where to look and what to build!

[Advancedynamix]

My suspension is very stiff and porportionally dampened, I really only have about 1 1/2-2in of suspension travel. I have metal tophats, and the bar is sandwhiched between a first nut that holds the strut to the tophats, and a second nut that tightens the bar down, and acts as a lock nut. I doubt there is any signicant movement with the way everything is mounted. But duely noted sir.

The rear feels alot stiffer, no squeaks, or rattles at all.

I plan to do the thread rod mod as well, I want the car to rotate a little more willingly. There is a hint of push/understeer. And I want a more nuetral/slightly rotational feel.

Car feels amazing in long sweepers, but meh in tighter autox situations.

Yeah, these cars love high speed corners (go figure?). You can always learn to left foot brake, it will allow you to rotate on command without sacrificing high speed stability (personally I'd rather push a little on the parking lot track than spin off at 100+).
The shocks pivot more drastically as the car gets lower, so even 1.5" of travel will equate to several degrees per side of shock angle change. I keep a close eye on all of this. The binding will help you rotate, but it's very hard on shocks. Give that setup a few thousand hard miles and you'll see what I mean. The conduit may have enough flex though to save your shocks though.
What are you running for toe? These cars love toe out in the front, but it'll be hell with your wheels (low offset wheels feel "grabby" with toe out). I run 3/16" toe out on tight tracks. If you run your rear about 1/8" toe out you'll also notice the car will rotate easier, but without sacrificing traction. Hope this helps. Properly set up, a festiva will out handle just about any Miata.

[BUSTIVA]

I learned to left foot brake years ago with my wrx on dirt roads. And have been using it in the festiva as well, really works great in the festiva for tighter corners. I need to recheck my toe though, its been a while. Thanks for the tips!

[Grey Vw]

HDR has amazing naturally aspirated intakes and earth grounding kits as well that are definitely worth looking into if you like cheap and pack-a-punch mods! I've also used roofing repair product as soundproofing before in wheel wells, and the same for polyester blanket stuffing in body panels. Lawn edging seems popular for lips and such, but that ain't quite my speed. There's definitely a ton of fun to be had if you know where to look and what to build!

I didn't know about the sound proofing. Thanks

[Advancedynamix]

The insulation that they sell at HD that looks like bubble wrap with tin foil on it works good as an ultra light weight sound deadener for under carpet and above headliner. I think it's made to go around ducts and water heaters.