I have a few aftermarket swaybars around the shop I would like to re-work to use with my $08 challenge Civic...
heating and re-bending bars... good idea , bad idea??? Im sure I will get comments on strength , but keep in mind the car weighs about 1800Lbs and it's a rear bar.
I can't afford to ford out the $175 for a Aftermarket bar, looking for cheap solutions
thanks!
Try it and see. What's the worst that will happen? It breaks?
I plan on making some for the Locost eventually. I want to try it without first. I would heat the metal, bend it, then let it cool very slowly. Or, weld a lever to the end of the bar and leave the bar straight.
My dwarf weights in with me at 1250 lbs My front bar is made of 5/8 bar stock with 1.5 x 3 inch flat stock welded on the ends. Theres 2 holes on the end plates that fit the hole spacing on pre holed angle iron. I can move the bar three steps (ie: move it closser or farther from the control arms) thus change its rate. I just rebolt on the arms at the porper spacing. For mounts at the chasis i used Eye bolts and welded the eye closed. on the frame i welded sections of tubbing for the eye bolts to fit in too. I have the 5/8 bar in now but made a 1/2 and a 3/4 too. Cheap and easy and adjustable.
44
that's an easier idea than what I had in mind.. thanks for sharing 
also, any reason not to run dual sways in the front or rear? IE, adding an extra in addition to the stocker?
bluej wrote: Any reason not to run dual sways in the front or rear? IE, adding an extra in addition to the stocker?
Volvo 240 guys do it all the time iirc, but they use dual stockers somehow.
I'm pretty sure if you heat up an existing bar you will lose most of its "spring". It's kinda' like how the old school hotrodders lowered their cars by heating the springs until they sagged. Regardless of the weight of the car I don't think the results would be what you're looking for.
The springy part of the roll bar is the long straight part, not where you'd bend it or between the bend and the suspension attachment point. And most of the springy part is in the very outer circumference of the long straight part. Someone did the math once and figgered out that the center contributed almost nothing but weight, and "rifled" ARBs were born.
I bent a 'custom' swaybar for my challenge car in a shop press. Worked great, although I ended up not using it.
you could do that, but i think you would have to send it out to get it heat treated properly afterwords..
Yup, bend but don't heat the part that twists or it will need to be re-heat treated.
I like 44's thoughts.
jack
Do you have to use a specific material, such as spring steel, or will anything work?
Both the front and rear bars on my locost are cold rolled mild steel I cold bent on a Hosfeld. They have survived two seasons of autocross on slicks, and 8000kms of driving. As long as the bar stays within it's elasticity range, it should work fine. Worst case - you bend it. CRMS is cheap, relatively speaking.
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