Strut Tower Braces, or"strut bars" (for short), are designed and built to help stabilize the upper section of the chassis by reducing flex. The addition of a strut tower brace can increase handling, braking, and even traction during many points of your driving experience. While there are thousands to choose from off the shelf, it is relatively easy to build and offers up a few more unique benefits to the average off the shelf product.
Strut tower braces are definitely one of the chassis components I have been building the longest. I built my first one back in 2002 out of necessity when I couldn't find a model available for my car. The design I build has remained relatively unchanged over the years, but I have never shown anyone how I build them until now.
Basic Function of a Strut Tower Brace
Tons of very detailed posts exist to explain the purpose and function of a strut tower brace. I often have success explaining the purpose and function of a strut tower brace in two simple pics.
The load (yellow arrow) is applied to one side or both. The sheet metal and chassis structure will flex in any one of the directions between the red arrows depending on the direction of the applied load. When the metal flexes, control, cornering ability, and even braking power are reduced under load. The idea is to reduce the amount of flex to increase control. The method of reducing the amount of flex is to tie the two strut towers together to distribute the load, or cancel itself when the same load is applied from the opposite side.
The full explanation is much more complicated, but the bare minimum usually does the trick in helping people understand. If you need further explanation, please drop a comment in the box below or send an email.
Benefits to Custom Design
Custom designs are near limitless as long as you adhere to the basic function principals. There are three huge benefits to a custom designed and built strut tower brace.
Ability to have what nobody else has - To many people, the custom world is a giant statement. That belief revolves around the fact that no matter how many pieces you bolt on to your car, you will only be as good as the next car that has the same product. While the principal is very simple, obtaining a custom piece is not always as easy as the belief. If you have the means to procure a custom piece that will better suit your need, and your belief is sided with the "custom is better" concept, building a custom strut tower brace is just for you. You can quite literally have whatever your brain can dream up and your hands can make.
Ability to custom tailor to your needs - Imagine for a moment that only ONE strut tower brace exists off the shelf for your vehicle. What if it does not serve your needs? Suppose you need a non adjustable (rigid) round tube style which encompasses multiple tie or mounting points, but the only one available only ties the two towers together and is adjustable. What do you do? Well, your only options are to wait, use what is available, or have one purposely built to suit your needs. The latter will be better in the long run since nothing off the shelf can meet specific needs unless your needs are built around that product. That's not to say that any other product is inferior to a custom engineered piece, but the ability to achieve exactly what your build needs is typically better if you have the means.
Ability to trust your product - Who knows the ins and outs of your design better than you? There are many people in this world that can pick apart and reverse engineer a product in their heads within 5 seconds of looking at it, but they likely do not understand why you chose the design you chose, or built the way you did. So, at the end of the day, who knows your work better than you? Who can justify your work better than you? You should absolutely be trained in whatever task you are attempting to make an educated decision, but you should know you best. A product off the shelf may not know you and you will have to trust that someone was behind the product with correct and proper intentions.
Recommend video for notching
This video references "the tube notching video" which demonstrates how to notch tubes without a tube notcher. If you are not familiar with this method, check out the video here.
Additional Examples of Custom Strut Tower Braces
It can be a little difficult to pick a design from scratch sometimes without similar examples, so below are some of my favorite strut tower braces and systems from over the years.
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