K-Member / Rack & Pinion Steering Suggestions
welding to the cowl / vent area for anything is not in my playbook, the windshield area is the last place on the car I want any kind of additional stress pushing or pulling. JMHO But hey, as long as you like it....go for it.
Wait, so, you said before you "don't think they are really doing anything of significance". Which makes sense considering you don't offer any way to reinforce that area. Now you're implying that the added stress they're going to carry to the "windshield area" is somehow going to be a problem?
C'mon man.
The "windshield area" is supported and made up from the A-pillars, which are one of the strongest points on the car. They do a lot more than just hold the windshield, they're one of the major structural components of the chassis. And tying J bars or inner fender supports into the cowl and firewall and therefore into the structures that support the A-pillars doesn't just add stress, it disperses load. The chassis reinforcement doesn't have a one way switch, they may share some load from the forward part of the frame rails and chassis but they will also disperse load from that area forward as well. Chassis reinforcement spreads the load over more area, which reduces the impact on any single component. That's true
always, but it's especially important on a unibody.
And again, it's not just a matter of "liking them". I've driven my Duster with and without them and I can tell you that they make a tangible difference. Especially with 1.12" torsion bars and 275/35/18's up front and 295/40/18's out back. Are they necessary for a street cruiser? Probably not. But that's not nearly the same as saying they're not significant.
There's absolutely no way I'd run any coil over conversion without additional chassis reinforcement to compensate for the change in how the chassis is loaded. That's my bottom line. You can't say the coil over suspension doesn't load the chassis differently, clearly it does. It's just a fact of how the different suspension designs disperse load into the chassis.
True, but it does solve a problem with 50 years of corrosion on a uni-body chassis. The Speedtec solution may cost just as much as a Art Morrison chassis. But with all the benefits of those 50 years of corrosion.
There is no simple solution to this perceived problem. And everybody has there preferences.
It doesn't solve the problem of 50 years of corrosion on the unibody chassis, it just ties a unibody chassis with 50 years of corrosion to a frame. That frame doesn't work independently of the body you attach it to, it has to work
with it.
It comes back to "what does it get you". C6 suspension. Maybe IRS if you spring for the big bucks, otherwise a 3 or 4 link you can add without a full chassis replacement.
The Red Brick was able to hang with a C6 vette, just torsion bars and leaf springs. The Art Morrison chassis sure is a fancy gig, but it's just another way people that don't know anything about suspension or chassis spend a lot of money so they don't have to learn anything about suspension or chassis. They do not provide some unobtainable level of performance, they just make it easy to write a big check to a shop to build you a fancy show car.
