I've had a modified MR2 strut bar on my car for years. I also have a weber and the small air cleaner so it all fits nice under the hood. Some time back I modified the stock air cleaner to fit on the weber. But it didn't fit on the car with the strut bar in place. I thought about modifying the MR2 bar again, but then decided it was best to make a new one from scratch. I found a rusty old piece of 3/16 plate in my dads junk pile so thats where I started. I traced the MR2 mounting holes, but mirror imaged where the bar would connect to them so the bar would move back away from the carb.
These are the plates I came up with:
I slotted the mounting holes with a rat tail file. All of this was built with basic hand tools, angle grinders, cordless drill and a welder.
This shows how the new plate will place the bar farther back
I bent the plates in the vice to get the angels similar to the old MR2 bar.
I then notched the tube with a hand file so it would sit in on the plates and not roll.
Here is the bar just sitting on the plates
Tack welded into place in the car.
I made up some pie wedges of tube and welded them to the ends of the main tube as my main contact points to the plates.
Here you can see it compared to the MR2 bar.
Welded the bar solid to the plates
Then added gussets
And here is the final fitting in the car.
Here is the final product compared to the MR2 bar.
And here is my reaction to a job well done
