I wanted to experiment with a cheap alternative to aluminum or steel strut bars. I want to see if I can make a functioning strut bar out of wood compare to my current one and no bar as a control. what do you think?
Oh and If I make it out of bamboo and it works can we say its JDM?

 

WTF?

 

Adamantium

/thread

 

No.

 

What are your plans for the car? DD with some track duty? Need more info.

Try red oak. Very rigid, and gives a neat rustic look when stained.


x2 Although a bit expensive and can be tough to find locally.

 

u never listed titanium .. woot woot

 

Seconded. Troll.

 

How is wood space aged? haha just kidding, but on a serious not i think the fact that wood is not as rigid as metal would be your down fall. Think about it the tensil strength of wood is far less then any sort of metal hands down. Any wood will flex under pressure, the beautiful thing about aluminium is that is flexs far less and is a light alternitive to steel. A strut bar that flex's too much is useless, and i would even consider red oak to be too weak to solidly hold the struts together. That is just my 2 cents.

 

What about the issue of heat?

 

now a wood core carbon strut bar would be cool.

 

Yeah, wood is actually a space-age material in terms off specific stiffness.
Tensile strength is quite different from stiffness.
Stiffness is tied into density, so there isn't any free lunch really. Also, the larger the diameter, the stiffer it will be. That is why, when approached for a strut bar with creative license, I made this...

Please disregard the owner's pink molested intake...
That is 2.5" OD .063 aluminum with solid hats. Compare that to a 1" bar, or the goofy, space-limited oval designs.
The bars with bolts and pivots are a joke.

 

That woodn't be a good idea.

 

haha im just trying to have fun. lets say daily driver. what other info do we need... its a green civic. if this takes off ill send everyone who helped a free one.

 

dude come on adamantium is dumb cause in x men origins: wolverine remember after his surgery and he got on the motorcycle? he gained like 200 pounds!!

 

Like I thought. Troll.

 

havent you ever had dreams when you were a kid?!

 

You guys better hope this isn't another Joe Harmon. A wooden strut bar could be very functional if done properly.

http://www.google.com/m/url?ei=7SwiT...Wj1sK_xRdtorig

 

Yeah I'm sure the DOT loves that thing.

 

make your own bar out of metal and laminate it in wood .. looks like wood but as strong as metal .. problem solved

 

your mom will only drive you to home depot? they have metal too, not just wood

 

The problem with wood is it is only strong in compression. It also will expand and contract as moisture content and temperatures change, which happenes alot in an engine bay.

 

http://www.bikebamboo.com/

Here is another pro wood site, I guess people are making other versions of these in China to reduce carbon foot print on a large scale too. That bike in the link has a 4 lbs frame, and is referred to as a natural composite. Just a thought