Adjustable Export Brace and Monte Carlo Bar Build

[Deviousfred]

WARNING: No super light weight billet aluminum or CNC machined parts here.


I'm sure there is a much much better method, but I made these template out of posterboard almost completely free hand. It took about 2 or 3 revisions before I was finally happy with the design and fit. Once they were done, I dropped them off with a friend who has a plasma cutter.


I designed the firewall mount with two tabs with sufficient space to mount 5/8" heims with misalignment spacers for the export brace portion.


Same thing on the shock towers mounts, but also two additional tabs for the monte carlo bar portion.



My friend had 1/4" steel laying around so I told him to have at it. Definitely not the lightest material but very strong and cheap.


I used the templates to mark the first mounting hole using a transfer punch and a mallet.


Started the hole with a step drill, followed by a 3/8" drill and used the same process for the export bracket.





Mounted using RH and LH 5/8" rod ends and RH and LH tube adapters for 3/4" ID 1" OD tubing.



I drilled the holes for the export brace and mocked up some links. Used some scrap tubing I had laying around to mock stuff up before I cut up some perfectly good mild steel. First I used some spare hardware I had laying around to mock up the first link


Then I switched over to 5/8" hardware after rounding off the sharp corners on the firewall bracket.


Then the other side


Both




Then I mocked up the center piece but have not drilled any holes yet. Need to drop in the motor to make sure I will clear the distributor when I decided where to mount this link.





Can be very easily recreated in aluminum to save on weight and would not be too expensive. I plan on reinforcing the firewall mount with angle iron so that I can also brace it into the vertical firewall.

Fred

[sticks905.0]

nice tower brace.

[Red 91 Coupe]

Looks good man, Love how your doin it yourself, keep the build info coming.

[12second5.0]

Looks good. Why didn't you get rid of the shock towers all together and go with a mustang 2 type suspension?

[2k4mk1]

I like the DIY way of doing it. I am going to fab one for my 85 soon.
Looks like some nice work you did

[Sonic Blue 85]

Nice work. So what are the other projects in the garage? The engine on the stand looks intresting, the truck is easy to figure out what that is, the other white car car looks like it has Pontiac wheels on it.

[BigJnSA]

besides you and jay leno in the new 5.0 video, ive never heard it called a monte carlo bar. he must have been right about thats what the grey hairs call it! ive only known them to be called a strut tower brace.

cool buildup.

[Sonic Blue 85]

besides you and jay leno in the new 5.0 video, ive never heard it called a monte carlo bar. he must have been right about thats what the grey hairs call it! ive only known them to be called a strut tower brace.

cool buildup.

On a fox, SN95, ect they are called strut tower braces. Long before the the foxes were ever made and before Mustangs ever had struts on them. When Mustangs had shock towers, those were called Monte Carlo bars. The other braces were called export braces, because supposively at one time they were install on cars that were exported. I don't know where the Monte Carlo bar name came from, I have probably read the story long ago and long forgot it.

[Mustang_68_Coup]

"Mustang Monte Carlo bars were originally developed by Carroll Shelby to stop shock tower flex and maintain proper wheel alignment during cornering. This extra support provided by Monte Carlo bars help prevent shock tower stress cracks. Keep your Mustang turning smooth with a new Monte Carlo bar from ..."

[Deviousfred]

Looks good. Why didn't you get rid of the shock towers all together and go with a mustang 2 type suspension?

IMO, the Mustangs original suspension can be made to out handle most MII suspensions. I instead chose to go with Global West tubular upper control arms that have been relocated and have modified geometry to provide more negative camber during suspension travel.

Nice work. So what are the other projects in the garage? The engine on the stand looks intresting, the truck is easy to figure out what that is, the other white car car looks like it has Pontiac wheels on it.

The engine on the stand will be for this car. No details on the build yet, but it will look a lot like a dirt track motor with gold zinc anodized valve covers and Canton t-sump oil pan. This is merely a mock up. The white truck is my ranger offroad truck project that is in its early stages. You can see 1-1/4" rod ends for the 4 link suspension in one of the bench top pictures. The old Pontiac is an old GTO that belongs to a customer.

Motor


Virgin 1984 Ranger

besides you and jay leno in the new 5.0 video, ive never heard it called a monte carlo bar. he must have been right about thats what the grey hairs call it! ive only known them to be called a strut tower brace.

cool buildup.

On a fox, SN95, ect they are called strut tower braces. Long before the the foxes were ever made and before Mustangs ever had struts on them. When Mustangs had shock towers, those were called Monte Carlo bars. The other braces were called export braces, because supposively at one time they were install on cars that were exported. I don't know where the Monte Carlo bar name came from, I have probably read the story long ago and long forgot it.

Pretty much nailed it on the head Sonic Blue. These older cars do not have struts in the way later model cars have struts. So the name would really not fit. Instead they can be outfitted with an export brace that connect firewall to shock towers, and monte carlo bar with connects shock tower to shock tower.

"Mustang Monte Carlo bars were originally developed by Carroll Shelby to stop shock tower flex and maintain proper wheel alignment during cornering. This extra support provided by Monte Carlo bars help prevent shock tower stress cracks. Keep your Mustang turning smooth with a new Monte Carlo bar from ..."

Fred

[Sonic Blue 85]

So you race in the off road series that they run out there, Mexico and Arizona? I used to work on a Ranger that raced out there, I went to one of the races they had outside of El Paso. It was a lot of fun, if it was not such a long drive I would like to build a truck to run in that series. There were a couple of guys out of Austin that had Rangers that raced out there. I worked on one of those trucks at one point, the guy that owned the truck I worked on stepped up to a SCORE 2 or 3 truck, don't remember. I remember John was the guy who built both of those trucks, I don't remember the name of the guy who owned the truck I worked on.

[Deviousfred]

So you race in the off road series that they run out there, Mexico and Arizona? I used to work on a Ranger that raced out there, I went to one of the races they had outside of El Paso. It was a lot of fun, if it was not such a long drive I would like to build a truck to run in that series. There were a couple of guys out of Austin that had Rangers that raced out there. I worked on one of those trucks at one point, the guy that owned the truck I worked on stepped up to a SCORE 2 or 3 truck, don't remember. I remember John was the guy who built both of those trucks, I don't remember the name of the guy who owned the truck I worked on.

No, my days of competitive racing are long over. I mostly do stuff for fun now its much less expensive that way. Never really raced anything offroad so this is something that is somewhat new to me. Should be fun. I'm holding off until I hear back from the local dirt track because they may let me run in the pony stock class in which case, this truck would become a dirt track vehicle.