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The FM solution is atrocious, and the good answer is right in front of you.
Hog out the attachment hole on the oem brackets, so they fit over the actual frame rail bolts. Sammich them between nuts. Done.
Yeah, its pretty bad. My rails are the 1.0 version and I'm kinda shocked that they stuck with that method for the 2.0 revision. That's so bad its comical. I have 2-3 complete extra sets of those hangars and I was considering doing something similar to what you described, but for this car I think I want to protect the lines all the way down. We've had cars loose fuel and brake lines in the past and its a bitch to repair. Ounce of prevention and all that.
I'm considering grabbing a 2" x 0.5" chunk of C channel angle iron similar to this at Home Depot Racecar Supply and the mounting it along the rail with the legs of the U facing up, and replacing FMs bolts with longer bolts down through the channel after sleeving the lines with rubber or whatever to keep them off the steel to prevent chafing and rattling. Its not going to be lightweight or pretty, but it'll protect the lines and I won't have to replumb the damn car
I assume you just chose to not represent the head of the bolt in your cad program in order to save on the rendering costs?
Yep! The CAD program on my Nintendo DS really struggles with these models. I didn't bother to render the FM rail or set a scale either
Originally Posted by gesso
Also seems like you'll need a pretty long fully threaded bolt in order to sandwich the tub to make a "stud" for mounting the channel.
I haven't measured but I shouldn't need more than maybe 3"~4" bolt? I expect I'll need to buy over length bolts anyway and "trim to fit" post install. As long as the "extra" bolt end and nylock don't hang down below the level of the rail I'm willing to call this a win.
Originally Posted by gesso
Edit: Oh... 0.5" channel seems like a bad idea. You only get 0.38" throat depth... how big are the fuel lines. Maybe at least a 0.75" channel?
That's a super good point. I think 0.38" will be fine as the lines aren't super big but sourcing 0.75" channel would definitely give more room for activities. I picked the 0.5" because that's what came up first on the HD website I want to say the lines aren't bigger than 0.3125" ( 5/16" for our non-engineering friends) but slightly deeper throat in that channel is only going to help in this regard. Again, as long as its not hanging down below the rail I'm happy.
Though I should probably look to source 0.75" or 1" throat channel.
I assume you are just going to use some of the existing frame rail bolt locations to just use longer bolts to hold your fuel & brake line armor?
The challenge now is to find a more appropriate depth of channel. Onlinemetals.com is failing me for basic bitch steel options, but if I want to use aluminum or stainless steel, some additional options open up.
The challenge now is to find a more appropriate depth of channel. Onlinemetals.com is failing me for basic bitch steel options, but if I want to use aluminum or stainless steel, some additional options open up.
Never underestimate McMaster Carr. I buy nearly all of my work-related metal from them.
They also carry tool steel, nickel, tungsten, and titanium.
Never underestimate McMaster Carr. I buy nearly all of my work-related metal from them.
They also carry tool steel, nickel, tungsten, and titanium.
Yep! That's my next stop. I need to get some vibration isolators for my radiator mounts from them anyway, I just hadn't got there yet as I've been in meetings all morning. As you can tell, I'm paying attention and being highly productive
Originally Posted by Joe Perez
This photo was on my mind this morning as I drove to work, hearing & feeling those big chunks of ice scrape along the underside of the vehicle.
If your NB has the stock setup without the FM frame rail caps the lines should be much better protected, but I can totally understand why it would cause some pucker.
I seriously want to know who is buying 1" tungsten bar-stock from McMaster.
But they must have it in stock at the local distribution center, as the website says "delivers today." I don't usually get same-day service from them on stuff that isn't on the shelf at the local warehouse.