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RP RSTB kit

rollinstylee said:
So what are your thoughts Mike?
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I have to say I'm surprised. The bar was sized based on a few cars that these were tested in. As tested the cars all fit fine with the same size bar. Based on that the dimension in the rear was repeatable. So the same size bar should work for all of the cars with the little adjust-ability that was built in with the over sized holes and slots. The intent was that it would be a somewhat tight fit. If you could take a measurement from the inside of the plates and let me know what it comes out to be that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and sorry for any trouble. If anyone else has this problem please let me know.

EDIT: If you could also measure the end to end distance on the cross brace I'd appreciate it too. Just to check to see if your brace some how was on the high end or out of tolerance on the length.
 
I checked mine tonight and it seems fine...the bar slips in easily between the strut towers even with the carpet still installed.
 
TUFTOUR said:
I checked mine tonight and it seems fine...the bar slips in easily between the strut towers even with the carpet still installed.
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Well just to make sure I'd install the brackets and then check as they will add to the overall width, but I'm pretty confident with the dimensions on the final design.
 
One issue is the length of the bar depends on where I measure it. It varies from about 39-1/16" to 39-1/8" around the circumference by tape measure. At precisely 2" OD measured with calipers, that's approaching 2 degrees perpendicularity tolerance on the cut. Unless they were cut with a hacksaw by hand, that's pretty loose. The measurement between my end plates is a bit difficult to take without something adjustable and rigid with sufficient length handy, but by string measurement it seems to be 39" at most, perhaps less if I was stretching the string. This would probably also vary depending where on the plates I measure if I could do so accurately.

If the bar was designed to be tight fit as you say for only a few tested cars, naturally many cars will fall on the smaller side of that range and be too tight. Therefore something like this must be designed for worst case min with tolerance for a larger span. I don't know what Ford's datum scheme was for this area of the whitebody, but I can imagine 3mm (~1/8" as I estimated) tower-to-tower after upwards of thirteen years of fatigue could be possible.
 
rollinstylee said:
One issue is the length of the bar depends on where I measure it. It varies from about 39-1/16" to 39-1/8" around the circumference by tape measure. At precisely 2" OD measured with calipers, that's approaching 2 degrees perpendicularity tolerance on the cut. Unless they were cut with a hacksaw by hand, that's pretty loose. The measurement between my end plates is a bit difficult to take without something adjustable and rigid with sufficient length handy, but by string measurement it seems to be 39" at most, perhaps less if I was stretching the string. This would probably also vary depending where on the plates I measure if I could do so accurately.

If the bar was designed to be tight fit as you say for only a few tested cars, naturally many cars will fall on the smaller side of that range and be too tight. Therefore something like this must be designed for worst case min with tolerance for a larger span. I don't know what Ford's datum scheme was for this area of the whitebody, but I can imagine 3mm (~1/8" as I estimated) tower-to-tower after upwards of thirteen years of fatigue could be possible.
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Thanks for the measurements.

Cross brace was cut with a miter saw type chop saw at the supplier. The cross brace was to be held to 39±1/8". All cross braces where hit on the ends with a grinder to remove any burrs (which may be the reason for the angles you see), but will not effect the function of the RSTB. Based on the trunk measurements (39.875", 39.625", 39.6875"), I figured I'd take a low end target of 39.5" to be safe. So lets look at the tolerance stack up...

High end tolerance of trunk width
39.875"
Low end of tolerance of cross brace
38.875"
Bracket thicknesses taken into account (12ga steel, 0.1046")
2x 0.1046" = 0.2092"

So, 39.875 - (38.875+.2092) = 0.7908" clearance

Low end tolerance of trunk width
39.5"
High end of tolerance of cross brace
39.125"
Bracket thickness, assume decent tolerance (most likely excessive)
0.25"

So, 39.5" - (39.125+.25) = 0.125" clearance

Then there is room for adjustment due to the oversize holes in the cross brace and the slotted brackets as well. However I don't feel like going into the detail on the positional tolerances and stack up on all of that as well here...

Bottom line your cross brace doesn't fit. It appears your car is a lot shorter in width then the ones I measured. Hind sight I should have asked everyone interested here to measure their trunks for me to get a larger sample size. I sent you a PM a few days ago. As I mentioned there we can figure something out. Get back to me with what you want to do.
 
So has anyone else installed these besides gomach1, rollinstylee, and myself? Just curious how everyone else's installation has gone.
 
AndrewM6097 said:
Install went PERFECT. Everything fit great.
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Good to know. Thanks for the update!

About how long did it take you to install? I designed it so that hopefully everything would go in pretty straight forward with little work involved despite having to drill the holes. Do you have any pictures you could share?
 
I took my time installing it and i would say it took me about an hour to do. I did have someone help when lining up the backing plates and brackets so that definitely saved me some time. I did not take any pictures during the install but i can snap a few of it installed tomorrow and put them up.
 
AndrewM6097 said:
I took my time installing it and i would say it took me about an hour to do. I did have someone help when lining up the backing plates and brackets so that definitely saved me some time. I did not take any pictures during the install but i can snap a few of it installed tomorrow and put them up.
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Sounds good, yea having an extra hand definitely makes it easier. Look forward to seeing the pics.
 
CSVT#49 said:
I sent you a PM a few days ago. As I mentioned there we can figure something out. Get back to me with what you want to do.
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Sorry, I've been really busy since my last post and haven't even been on the site or had a chance to figure out what I want to do. I responded in the thread since you had asked for the measurements in the thread. I'll get back to you when I decide how I want to address this, as I don't have a grinder to fix it. I did take a bunch of pictures up until the bar install.
 
Here's a few installed images for you guys. Before anyone says anything, I have mounted the battery, the box I was using wouldn't fit under the bar. :D Over all it's an easy install, couple of pointers though. Use the backing plate you plan to use on each tower to figure out where you will drill your holes as there will be a little variation between the two. Also, with how thin the metal is where these bolt up, I opted to use a smaller 3/8" hole instead of the 1/2" in the instructions. That is also the cause for my first suggestion. So far haven't noticed a huge difference but I haven't driven very aggressively. I have noticed that turn-in seems to be better and more controlled. All-in-all this is a great mod. Thanks Mike!
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rollinstylee said:
What are the extra holes on the passenger side (as installed) of the bar?
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I had to redrill the holes as there was an alignment issue with the holes. The brackets were about 10-15 degrees off, as I'm sure you saw when you installed yours, you can't have much misalignment where these mount.
 
That's what I figured. I had a hole misalignment issue as well after I ground the bar to fit lengthwise...thanks for posting.
 
I didn't like the bracket-look, so I made boots in matching felt material and attached with velcro...bar and brackets were painted in t-red.

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I had to ground the bar at least a 1/16 of an inch on each side and almost had to re-drill the bolt holes in the bar...fortunately, there was enough play in the bracket mounting holes that I was able to get the bolts through with some taps of a hammer.
 
Looks nice. Sounds like from what everyone is saying, or at least the people posting up feedback, these bars need to be a little shorter in width, not much, but about 1/4". A bit concerning since the cars that I measured up here seemed to be wider, which if I shortened them by a 1/4" with those cars then they would be to short just about. As for the holes what's happening is when the bar is shortened that is removing some of the play allowed by the brackets, which is making for more of a tighter fit. Thanks for the feedback guys. May end up having to go to an adjustable cross brace, which I'm not a fan of, but given the amount of differences that I'm seeing here there may not be much of a choice. That is unless people are willing to grind down cross bars to their custom size and then drilling their own holes. That or I suppose I could supply the cross braces with oval holes to allow for more adjustment, which I'm not really a fan of either.
 
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As people already have to drill the strut towers for the brackets, I don't think having to drill the bar is too much.
 
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