Its Canada and in the winter when theres alot of snow there alot of salt; therefore, alot of rust on the poor laminated steel frame S13’s.
When we all go to the track we hope that our frames dont twist, but what are some ways to prevent that ?
Any suggestions or 'how-to’s to prevent that ? Im sure alot of people besides me cant move to a roll cage at this point, but what can we do to prevent it ?
Thanks, Please post suggestions.
I imagine you could also add rear cross bars and fender braces to your list for the S13…and/or maybe just rebuild/reinforce your current frame somehow?
seam welding. braces help too, btu seam welding is for the hardcore!!
weld the seams is alot of work for little gain.
install a cage 
no one seam welds anymore… too much time, too much work , too much heat into the frame ( warpage) and frankly as a TIG welder myself, too annoying to do!!
you either rivet all your seams or… and this is what is being done 80% of the time now , you scour ALL your weld points of paint and primer, then use automotive bonding agent ( it’s what holds most cars together now instead of welds) , on every seam, inside and out… if you feel REAL beefy, you ureathane core the body, light weight but massively stiff …
No one? We’ll see about that…
… ok let me repharse… no one who knows and understands the advantages of the options avaialble… seam welding is the least desireable of the three I’ve mentioned… very old school ( which doesn’t mean chuck taylor cool old school, just old school as in K car old school ) 
Old school works though… and it’s readily available…
A little birdy told me there might be a group buy on roll cages soon.
:lol:
Poeple used to body weld unibody muscle cars. The sheet metal was slightly thicker back then and it could be done carfully with out too much warping. Try it on your s13 and let me know how your seem look after you are done. My guess is they will look like the middle of lake Ontario on a stormy day.
^^^ Werd
This thread is about preventing your frame from warping not how to make it warp
seam welding is still used…subaru canada seam welds all there rally cars
Subframe connectors … I’m starting to sound like a broken record LOL
You can stiffen up the front and back all you like, your floor will be the weak point.
There’s also chassis foam … that’s always an option, cheap-ish, messy but stealthy.
Lotsa hp through a big unibody chassis = cracked paint
Can show you what it looks like on a B body Dodge
If you brace between your frame rails and run a role cage. How is your floor the week point? The frame of your car supports the floor on an s-chassis. If you have a crappy frame your floor will take all the load.
Let examine how a car frame twists. Its because it has no support between the 2 rails besides floor. So yes floor takes the load without bracing the frame. If you brace the frame, you will take load off the floor and reduce chance of tweaking the chassis.
Its simple in my mind, brace specific points between frame rails/6-point cage/strut bars. Let me see you twist that
Andrew.
Sure, I assumed we were talking about starting with a stock S13/14
Nothing will add more stiffness than a roll cage.
I was talking about strengthening everything front and back, but not tying the two together beyond what the factory did … as I see a lot of people doing just that.
Ok I guess I miss understood you. But what do you mean by sstrengthening everything front and back. You mean all people do is run STB’s I guess right?
Andrew.
yup … then they add 1000lbft coilovers and a 400hp engine.
when accelerating, and cornering, it will apply torsional (? been a few years since HS) stress, as in try and twist outside rear to inside front.
basically just illustrating the point that you have to consider your suspension and anything else on the car really, as a linked chain. Everything you strengthen just moves the stress to a weaker part.
Either or … trying to shore up a rusty frame with STBs and a roll cage is kind of a bad idea to begin with.
Yeah your right. The goal is to transfer really all the load to suspension. Which means you have to have a heavly braced frame. Otherwords your suspension and engine transfer it all to the chassis of the car. Very true indeed!
Thats why its important to have a solid frame that is braced properlly. So thats really the answer to this kids question. Make sure your frame is solid from beginning to end, if its not, fix these rusted spots. Then brace between the frame in specific points:
I.E. front jack supports,
rear supports where front portion of subframe is bolted to frame rail,
rear ladder support behind gas tank,
and front tension rod bracket
Pair these with strut tower bars.
I think this would be a good start.
Andrew.
… two point ’ strut tower bars’ are next to useless, all theydo is control one of the 3 main axis ( in a very basic sense) distruibuting the that load to the other two axis’s… talking an already soft unibody and increasing not decreasing overall loads. IF you plan to do a cage, then make sure that your cage ties not only the points between the axels together but also the point infront and behind the axels ( meaning you need to extend the roll cage out the firwall and back to your rear subframe rail-R bumper supports…
the Uni body is by far the saddest excuse for a production vehicle, it was instituted to make life easier and cheaper for the car manufacturers in the 70-80’s… now they spend millions trying to meet crash test rating that’ would be a no brainer with a semi tube or even a body on frame car…
your best bet is to tube the areas in front of and behind the 4 strut towers… but that’s a fair commitment to both time, and money… up side is the car is stiffer, lighter and not prone to sheet metal rust like a uni body.
Whoa whoa now… tubing the front? I think that’s a little to intense for a street car… A little to out there… people round here aren’t fans of anything besides the norm… they should just stick to running stock SR’s and STB’s… Or whatever other bars Bings selling…
it’s not THAT bad… it just costs more to do then say… adding neon underglow or a type -R sticker that goes with your 22mm dia tower brace…