Chassis Reinforcement

[M5W]

Has anyone ever come across any type of chassis Reinforcement for e34's ? I see them all the time for jap cars , which are unibodys like e34. Just curious if anyone ever saw something cause I think it would be neat.

[garethashenden]

a strut tower brace? or something else?

[IAmCman]

I think he's talking more underbody stuff.

[stoney85]

other than front and rear strut braces, all i have seen has been custom roll cages for the more extreme poeple out there

My assumption is that although we love our E34's, there probably isn't enough demand out there to be making other braces, unlike say for example the market for drifters in the Nissan S13 (my S13 had all the fruit)

Just looking at the E34 compared to the S13 for example, says to me the strength build quality is much higher, and i'd say the car is a much stiffer chassis, so the benefits of the added braces would probably be less beneficial

[eightynine535]

The E34 chassis is plenty sturdy. BMW themselves did not have to "beef up" anything on it for the M5.

[janders211]

The E34 chassis is plenty sturdy. BMW themselves did not have to "beef up" anything on it for the M5.

For street driving-maybe. For track driving- I think it can benefit quite a bit from bracing.

To the OP- unfortunately- There aren't 1/20th as many track-oriented off the shelf parts as compared to the s13 and its parts availability.

[M5W]

I was actually looking into that structural foam , HandiFoam application for a few places on the chassis and then adding some bracing inside the fender along the lines of this



and some underbody bracing like this

[stoney85]

theres no reason why it cant be done

But pretty much all these braces are deemed useless once a proper roll cage is fitted to a car

There is a catch to the chassis foam and that is the fact that it can hold water and lead to premature rusting, it can be overcome by prepping the rails before adding the foam

[M5W]

theres no reason why it cant be done

But pretty much all these braces are deemed useless once a proper roll cage is fitted to a car

There is a catch to the chassis foam and that is the fact that it can hold water and lead to premature rusting, it can be overcome by prepping the rails before adding the foam

In my reading from the manufacturer they claim that the foam does not absorb water , unless you are referring to the possibility that there could be holes or pockets in the foam to retain water. The foam is expanding , so you just have to plan where you inject it so there arent any empty spots in the frame rails.

Check out the foam filling portion of the article.

http://www.modified.com/projectcars/...t_5/index.html

http://www.autofoam.com.my/FAQs/FAQs.htm

Another great source of info on foam filling

http://www.sr20-forum.com/suspension...chassis-6.html

[paanta]

Any car can get some benefit from being stiffer, but the _amount_ of benefit depends on other things. It doesn't seem like stiffening is the low hanging fruit on the path to better performance. Jacking the car up on one side, I don't see nearly the flex I see on most other cars of that era. Doors open and close normally, no creaking as its raise, etc. I've driven plenty of other cars that were wet noodles in comparison.

Without super stiff springs and _very_ solid bushings, it seems like you wouldn't see much benefit from stiffening the body. I'd not be surprised if there's way more slop built into the stock (or even M5) bushings than into the body itself.

That said, do it and report back.