Brace:

GT or GTII?

I'm currently mounting doors/windows/eng cover on a GTII that doesn't have the butt sag and so far I can see daylight through almost every gap. Do any of these actually seal water tight? lol

Lets see....
1. A 40 year, old poorly constructed and neglected fiberglass shell designed with a $100 engineering budget
2. Mounted on a 50 year old pan designed to be built as cheaply as possible
3. Built by someone who could barely afford the magazine they were advertised in and built it with basic hand tools

ahh...no.

It's all of ours brother,

even the best of them is an aquarium on wheels!

If yer gonna drive in the rain, have someone duct tape you in,

then the water will only come in thru the fresh air vents up in the wheel wells.

If you need some help taping the car drive to the local Walmart parking lot,

someone there will be thrilled to lend a hand

The twoie is for sure a fair weather ride

I guess they find someone to weld for them.

Without having my eyes on a GTII (and my memories from the one I built are looong gone) but couldn't you do something that is bolt together? I was looking at putting a brace on my Deserter to support the rear shelf. It looked like I could take some 2" or 3" angle iron and make two small brackets that would attach to the shock towers. Then I would run some square stock (1"...maybe 1.5") from one bracket to the next. You could drill and bolt them together.

I am not sure if this goes far enough back though to give you the lift you need. Another alternative is to make all the pieces, mark them, and bring them to a welding shop to put the puzzle together.

I thought I had pics on here somewhere but I guess not. Sag is a big problem in GT's also. The brace I have on my GT will work on a II also and requires no welding. I will look for the pics when I get home.
Eric

I thought I had pics on here somewhere but I guess not. Sag is a big problem in GT's also. The brace I have on my GT will work on a II also and requires no welding. I will look for the pics when I get home.
Eric

Wyn states he has a 1" lift and "might not work for everyone" and also mentions he's going to pull a trailer. I am impressed with his set up, and just because he went all out does not mean everyone else did it wrong or it didn't work. I DO have ideas on how to fix it but it doesn't mean it's going to work and I would rather not brake something trying or waste money on something that's going to fail. If you want to help, jsp, then help. No one's forcing you to comment. I got the same respect for you either way. This isn't Bradley's dirty little secret, and there isn't enough information on this topic to make an informed decision.

skarekr0w,
I own a GT and haven't worked on any potential sag or bracing, yet. Here is a website that contains a lot of pictures and may include some ideas for you:

mysite.verizon.net/bobthagard1/car/restoration.html

I remember he gave the body a 1" lift to give more head room. He used 1" square tubing.

I am also guessing that Skip has some ideas. This site seems a little "quiet" lately, but be patient and someone will help.

It has nothing to do with "respect". It might have alot to do with expectations.

My response was in reply to this:



Do you think that everyone who has ever owned a Bradley GT2 has actually built it to a running/driving vehicle and in turn has fabricated a brace to help fix the butt sag? Many, many, many people come onto this site looking for answers only to realize they are more complicated then they expected. Thats why the kit car hobby is littered with unfinished kits. The reason that there might not be alot of info about it might be because of all the people who are currently on this sight maybe 2 or 3 have actually fabricated that brace. I know I didn't when I built mine 14 years ago.

And I never said you neglected or broke your car. I know where you are coming from. Your story is the same as alot of kit car owners. They fall in love with the style and then are overwhelmed with everything that has to be fixed on them. I get it. I have been there. I am often STILL there on alot of my projects. The fact of the matter, as learned from over 11 kits brought back from conditions far worse than yours, is that more often then not there are not cheap solutions to complex problems. That doesn't mean that you can't so something affordably....what it means is that raw supplies are going to cost you money. You can't avoid that. You can save money by using what you have...but you haven't suggested you have anything availkable to you in your posts.

You said you couldn't weld so I gave you two options. 1. Find someone who will or 2. a bolt together option. What else do you expect?

And you are right...no one is forcing me to post. I do it to try to help. I won't force any more suggestions on you. Good luck with the build.

"Bud"

I put a 2x4 between shock tower and body and it worked find for 10 years then I sold it.

Haha.... Vertical or horizontal? Now we're getting somewhere

"Sorry if I offended you somehow, I just want to see what other people HAVE done. It's not personal. I know you know what your talking about and I love your car. You're not wrong. But you're not telling me anything I don't already know. "Get stuff and make something" isn't what I had in mind. I've had to learn so much about this car in the 2 months I've had it. Every little bit of information I get is going to benifiet everyone here who needs to know. Not all of us are engineers. "

Not rocket science. Bracing the body is easy and straight forward for the front weld a 1x1/4 flat bar to a muffler clamp that fits around the lower torsion tube, bolt the other end to the wooden body former, one for each side. For the rear same flat bar from rear upper shock mount to rearmost side of rear seat, use big washers against the fiberglass. I did mine but the info is of no use to you unless you go mid engine Subaru.

Yes, thank you. I did find this image somewhere on the forum, when I realized how little information there really was. I wish it was that simple, although I've never seen a gt in person, I'm still willing to say gt2 has more weight in the back. My biggest concern, is I don't want to push it out to make it go up, and I don't want to pull it down to make it go up either. I need a safe way to do this. This particular gtii is older than a lot of yours. I am already going to have to do a ton of fiberglass work on this. Maybe I'm babying it too much, but what you refer to a sag, is more like a slide. Then again, if I lift it too much, it could crack the glass, not enough the glass won't seal, I pull the glass, I might not be able to get it back in once I add the brace. I don't know what it will do. That's why I'm here looking for expert advice.