Busy Weekend

[Russellb]

Had a busy weekend making new under body brace's for the 2001 MX5
the Photo shows the brace on the Race car It's not finished but its starting to look the part

[Russellb]

AAARRR you are the smart one
This is the proto type. And will build a jig next to make life easyer (welding upside down is a bitch)
What you see there is 9Hr work (mind you lots of beer was drunk thinking about how to do it )

[rodent]

That looks pretty hardc0re. I like!

jonno.

[Garry]

Looks good. Does it do anything?

I want some more bracing. My car feels like a piece of limp spagetti after I take the hardtop off.

[Russellb]

with the work I'm putting in to it I hope it works better than the STD
bracing. Will have this one finished next week and then I'll take it for a
Drive to see the improvment
Then I will need some one else to test it and give me an Idea if it works Well

[Dave]

Looks great Russell!
Question re-design... why didn't you continue the parallel bars all the way to the back? This looks to me like there will be opportunity for twist at the point of the cross at the rear, which is what I imagine your principal aim was to elliminate...? (Note that I am not a \"ginger beer\", and this is a question and definitely not a criticism! )
Rgds,
Dave

[Russellb]

Dave the photo was taken after a long day and we hadn't got around to
making the rear bars the new design will use a single bar from front to
back will make the building easyer
building the Jig today and will have the prototype on a car tomorrow for testing

[Dave]

Ahhh, thanks Russell - definitely interested in outcomes (both photos and drive tests...). I think this will be a great improvement on the stock bracing - and a lot of the aftermarket stuff that seems to be too thick (read hanging low) and too many components as individual bolt-ons rather than one complete ladder such as yours.
Great work!

[Dave]

Any updates Russellb?

[Benny]

What Dave said.
My SP could really do with that item.
Powdercoated in black, you'd hardly even know it was there.

[Garry]

What Dave and Benny said

[Russellb]

After spending many hours making the jig to build them on
and making one I went to fit it and It dont fit DAMN DAMN DAMN
after re check measurement now need to make a jig that fits
but I hope to have more News after the Weekend ( if the world dosn't blow up in my face again

[Dave]

Bummer with the jig Russell... gotta hate that! Hope the work since has gone OK!

Have you road tested the original fabricated mule?

Cheers,
Dave

[JSE]

So when will you be selling the mass productions on Ebay to us!!!???

[Russellb]

With family problems I have had very little time to work on these
When things get better I will get back on to them
The proto type has not been tested on a car yet.
I Hope they work better than the STD bracing all factors point to yes
When I have a new brace spare I would like to test them on a couple of differant cars ( Garry's SP is differant in a lot of areas so his Exhaust might be in a differant position too )
So next time your around canberra Garry Call me and drop buy so I can test fit on your car