Upper control arm strengthening?

[Binladin]

Can I weld a plate to the open end of the upper control arm to make it stiffer? Or is it a dumb idea?... I plan to change to urethane bushings later on this year...

[illinois_erik]

Originally Posted by Binladin

Can I weld a plate to the open end of the upper control arm to make it stiffer? Or is it a dumb idea?... I plan to change to urethane bushings later on this year...

You could but that metal is kind of thin and done incorrectly could tweak and distort it enough to cause problems. why do you want to reinforce it? usually i go by the adage..if it aint broke dont fix it, and K.I.S.S.

edit: You could emulate this, strengthening the UCA mount to the body


or theres gussets that weld to the body (Spoon- S2K)

[likwid2u]

why do you need to strengthen them?

[Ravens_CB7]

Originally Posted by illinois_erik

You could but that metal is kind of thin and done incorrectly could tweak and distort it enough to cause problems. why do you want to reinforce it? usually i go by the adage..if it aint broke dont fix it, and K.I.S.S.

edit: You could emulate this, strengthening the UCA mount to the body


or theres gussets that weld to the body (Spoon- S2K)

On the last pic, can you do that to a cb7?? If yes then with that set up you could roll on wider rims without having trouble clearing the arms ???

[dj_ender]

You would have to hack up the shock tower to get those on a CB7. There's barely enough room on the outsides of the anchor bolts to get a closed end wrench, let alone one of those braces.

[Binladin]

Was just looking for a way to maybe make the front tighter and since I already have like 4-5 old control arms and metal plate laying around... What if I tack welded and cooled it like a body panel? Or just pointless?

[Ravens_CB7]

Originally Posted by dj_ender

You would have to hack up the shock tower to get those on a CB7. There's barely enough room on the outsides of the anchor bolts to get a closed end wrench, let alone one of those braces.

Then it would be too hard to be done, too bad cuz it sounds like a nice ideap to try out

[illinois_erik]

Originally Posted by Binladin

Was just looking for a way to maybe make the front tighter and since I already have like 4-5 old control arms and metal plate laying around... What if I tack welded and cooled it like a body panel? Or just pointless?

IMO it pointless, the rigidity is there made by the stamped shape of the UCA, if you want it tighter..do a triangulated upper and a lower front tie bar, they also have unibody fender tie bars, then theres also rear upper and lower tie bars. If youre handy with a welder make some custom subframe connectors.
But if you have extra UCA's and the time go for it and let us know if you gain anything. and yeah spread out the heat to minimize distortion. they do have UCA's that are DOM tubing and tig'd

[illinois_erik]

Originally Posted by Ravens_CB7

On the last pic, can you do that to a cb7?? If yes then with that set up you could roll on wider rims without having trouble clearing the arms ???

thats for an S2K.. but I think its still the same mount points, it just beefs em up

[GhostAccord]

The stock UCAs are pretty much as strong as you need. Welding a brace closest to the anchor points isn't going to make a difference. Strengthening the mounting area around the anchor points (shock tower) would be where I would be looking to add any strength. In this case, installing one of the many shock tower braces available, would be the easy route for doing that.

Besides, If you were to close in the open/mounting end of the UCA. You would then have to unbolt your strut and spring assembly in order to put the strut through the now boxed in UCA.

[djcaz_aom]

You could upgrade to these:

[C91BLX7]

Originally Posted by djcaz_aom

You could upgrade to these:

Those suck. They smash up your tower even if you are slightly lowered.

[Binladin]

I'm leaning more towards the strut braces but I'm still gonna try it when I get the chance

[djcaz_aom]

Originally Posted by C91BLX7

Those suck. They smash up your tower even if you are slightly lowered.

Nothing a hammer won't fix. The OP was wanting to see Upper control arm strengthening. I have been running these for years and they are still holding up just fine.

Because they smash your tower, does not mean they suck. They might not clear, but by no means do they suck.

[beerman987]

Civic control arms?

[Binladin]

Was planing on boxing the u shape in kinda capping it off, no brace at the end... Now that I seen all those nice looking bars up there is getting me anxious to do some welding. Lol... Thanks y'all for the info