Air Ride/PCW Fender Braces

[Steve Chryssos]

Tried to stay out of this, but I just can't stand it any more.

Core support bars are designed to keep the fenders from bowing outward at the center of the fender (i.e. bowing away from the hood). The issue is caused by the length of the fenders (i.e. longer than a Nova) combined with the car's unitized platform. The issue is exacerbated by the weight of the wheelhouse. The wheelhouse design is practically free-standing.

-Core support bars are NOT designed to maintain angularity of the nose sheetmetal to cowl/core support. Benefits here are practically non-existent--especially with solid body mounts.
-They are NOT designed to resist chassis flex like a Monte Carlo bar on a Mustang. Here, the Monte bar ties the cowl to the spring towers. F-body core support bars essentially do nothing for handling or torque management.

By resisting the bowing forces, core support bars ARE designed to oppose the weak link in the nose sheetmetal. They work to reinforce secondary mounting points that are sheetmetal to sheetmetal including the lower rear fender bolts and wheelhouse mounting points. You would never actually SEE the bowing forces. Instead, a lack of support would cause lower rear fender hardware to move / loosen causing door to fender gaps to move out of alignment. Funny thing is, the lack of bars (or improper bars) never get the blame.



So: As long as the bars are perfectly straight and in tension, they are effective. Bret's bars satisfy both requirements. End of story.