Center Brace

great. I will be interested.

can you also make something like this ?

 

It will be like the one in the third picture. I will have to make spacing washers to get it spaced down from the bottom of the cavities. I need to know the depth of the circular depression with the threaded hole, and the widest "flat" area in the depression. Then, using a yardstick, I need to know the distance between the center of the two threaded holes. The distance is very very important for getting the fit right.

Since there is special lathe work in accurately making the round spacers, and I have to special order the tubing (meaning a small quantity), the price is expected to be $83 delivered by Priority Mail. Everything will be included including the mounting bolts.

I will need two pre-paid pre-orders to start ordering the parts to amking these, since there are so very few Prius "c's" like yours, and nearly ALL the new ones will have a center brace factory installed with four bolts.

The tubing needs to be 2 inches wide "structual" 6061-T6 with rounder corners for stress relief. The stuff sold in hardware stors is "architechual" and weaker. Under heavy load, it will develop cracks starting at the corners of the ends. The ends will need to be milled with special cut outs to accomodate the bolts, while still designed to eliminate stress on the bar to achieve a long life.

Hope this helps,

Rude person's

 

Rude person's, to me, it looks like a raised area rather than a cavity or depression around the bolt hole.

 

The bracket is raised, but there is a round cavity around the bolt hole that takes the formed end of a sheet steel brace. The brace is round, and the brace fits into the cavity.

For a '"form fitting" brace to work, a machined bushing turned on a lathe must be made to fit into the round cavity.

The design that I propose is the same one that I successfully applied to the "front" brace on the improvement made to the Tanabe "Sustec" on the Prius"v" and Gen III. Since there is enough "hang down" room foa a box beam, one will be used instead of the solid cross bar, arbeit a narrower 2 inch wide tube rather than the three inch used on the mid-chassis brace on the Prius"v" and the generation III.

 

An OEM version of the chassis brace for the early model Prius "c" is avalable. It was used in some of the 5 models.

 

you made one already?

 

No, I haven't, because I don't own this particular Prius "c." They were made for only a few months, until they switch out to the four bolt stiffer brace.

I have an idea for making them, but I need the distance between the center of the holes. No one seems to want to jack up their car to get under and measure it.


Mine would be a stronger design "box beam" with no weakening and brittle welds.

The Cusco brace "rises upward" toward the exhaust pipe. Mine would "hang down" with about the same thickness as the OEM brace. So, it would not affect road clearance.

The cusco's end "L" brackest are welded with the ends being "flat thin" plates bolting to the mounting holes.

Mine will use wide based "flat standoffs." This would make mine last many "lifetimes" of the car, since there are NO stress points that might lead to eventual metal fatigue related failure.

Aluminum welds are almost NEVER used for structual aircraft parts, since they weaken the "temper" of the metal and aneals the metal around the weld. Welds are high stress areas. My design is effectively a one piece "box beam" with an infinite life NO STRESS design.

I worked 35 years in the aerospace industry, before I retired 12 years, ago.