Focus skid plate questions

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john vanlandingham

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Andrew_Frick
John, I like the design of your aluminum cut outs and I actually went down the road of trying to build some for the focus, but changed course because the fabrication was going to be a night mare. Here are the focus short comings to this approach.

1. The frame rails are not straight, once you get in front of the strut towers they pinch in to help make room for the tire at full lock and then flatten out, kinda. You would end up having to make some oddly shaped spacers to match the aluminum bracket.

2. The outer wall of the frame rail is where the crumple zone is so the metal is rather weak and is stamped with an uneven pattern to allow it to deform in an impact. The inner side is a little better but you would have very little clearance on the passenger side because of the accessory drive belts for the engine.

3. The openings in the bumper cover would not line up where the tow hook part would be coming through. This might be a minor issue but may matter to some.

Chris I forgot to take pictures this weekend. I will see if I can get out there this evening.

Know whatcher mean. I did have a LOT of time with that black car to look at things and was sorta stumped--with the time we had.

Maybe a nice flat strip of say 1/8" x 1.5" or 1.75" could be welded in to help stiffen the crumple zone AND provide a base for anchoring the plates...

I dunno, don't have a Fuck-us here to stare at. But Chris is just a few miles away and after his last visit he said he'll drop by and show me the cage and we can work on a Triage List on what to do....
Be good to get "Service Nazi" aka Robert RallyMech over since he's just about 2 miles away and second set of eyes is always a good thing..

One question while you're here: can you say what "transgression" that 01 has in it? IB5? MTX75? the poor boy is stuck with the ZZZzzzzzzze-tec which is appropriately name zzzzzzz but I have a sneaky feeling that a MkIII Ex-squirt turbo box might just bolt right up, and I've seen them for as low as 75 English Squids....they come with 4.2 ratio and a decent VC LSD. 75 squids is nothing.

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slidewayswrx
Addressing the zip ties failing. It was probably on here that I heard of this but I can't be sure. Instead of zip ties use romex wire, cheap to free, quick and easy. Just use them like giant twist ties. They are much stronger than zip ties and reusable.

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Andrew_Frick
Chris and John,

Let me know if you want help coming up with a Junk yard list of parts if you are looking to build a good brake system.

Andrew

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Broncoboy80
I might need some tips on building myself some skip plates as well.

Now, why was the pinch welds re-enforced? Is this needed? Or was this just to strengthen a jacking point?