Quote:
Originally Posted by M Fifty
No to cutting the fenders. The holes are already there for the rivnuts, and BMW will sell you them. Setting them can be done with either a specialist tool, or a suitable sized bolt, a couple of nuts and a few washers.
But yes - it's a project to fit, and has an extensive (and expensive) parts list - further details can be found in one of the threads that cover the ins and outs of doing it. Broadly, you have to want to do it (or be prepared to pay someone else). Having done it, it was fun, and I like the result.
HTH.
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That's what I'm worried about, the riv nuts, and yes I'm very familiar with them as I use aluminum ones for my front lip. Stainless has good strength, some don't, some have a low spin strength.
Quote:
Originally Posted by M Fifty
Okay, so noting the video shows an S55 car rather than an N55 car retrofitted with the brace, he has removed the centre bolts before he starts pulling on the rest of the brace - perhaps if you could give a timestamp for the bit you're looking at?
A one peice brace between the strut towers and the firewall, with as many different mounting points as the one in the video has, is going to be stiffer for the weight in all directions than two of the braces you mention above. The corner braces aren't there to brace the strut towers, but to help tie the structures in front of the strut towers and the bolt on centre section together. The BMW Boomerang does that by tying the (now reinforced) strut towers directly to the bolt in centre section.
Not sure if this is helping your understanding or not, but I'll keep trying.  |
If you tie one structure to another you're bracing it whether you like it or not. The corner braces absolutely braces the strut tower by securing it with a rigid object to the front frame (wheel house), if the strut tower tries to move it has to move the brace which is fixed. Obviously it's not as efficient as a multi point attached brace (or a strut tower brace where the forces again are in the direction of bracing) as the strut tower can try to rotate around the sole mounting point, but it'll be brace forward and back were the force is in the direction of bracing.
Watch the engineering explained video I linked, he talks about strut tower movements.