33 Gtst Seam Welding And Front Bracing

[Touge Kyousou]

Hey guys,

Recently did some bracing and a half cage for my 33 gtst and this has increased rigidity/feedback from primarily the rear of the vehicle which is great, but now making the front lacking.

Have always felt the 33 front to be mush but it is now really highlighted, pushing me to do something about it sooner than later.

Currently front end only has the nismo strut brace.

Has anyone done any seam welding around the front half of the car to help rigidity ? Any opinions/feedback on it and recommendations where to seam weld exactly ?

Also looking for any form of front bracing etc as well, so if there's any feedback/opinion on that, i'm all ears.

Car is street rego'd so not going full cage. Primary use is track however. Circuit car, not drifter.

Front grip level is 245/45/17 nitto nt01, ARB coilovers etc etc.

Cheers

P.s. i currently am thinking of getting the front fender braces, and maybe welding some form of bar across the front two hooks to further tie the chassis rail ends together ?

[hardsteppa]

I made up some front under-fender braces; ugly as sh"t but who cares, you never see them, and combined with using a one-piece Ultra Racing strut brace rather than the bolted-together type, the front feels wayyyyy more solid on the road at highway speeds...not something you feel just driving around but once you get a bit of speed up, very worthwhile.

[warps]

I've thought about making up a set of these for my track car. Given mine is already very nose heavy, I'm reluctant to add any more weight to the front. However, if they offer a reasonable improvement, I might reconsider. Wonder how much effect they'd have if you already have a weld-in cage?

[hardsteppa]

Well the cage would only brace to the firewall, these are effectively on the other side of it so would be bracing a different area.

[Touge Kyousou]

Thanks for the feedback hardsteppa!

The fender braces is definitely on my to do list...seems easy enough to do and actually does something.

I'll be looking to get these:

http://www.rhdjapan.com/nagisa-auto-gacchiri-support-front-fender-brace-nissan.html

[hardsteppa]

further to this, spent some time over the xmas break doing some more bracing on the front. The car is really nice and stiff now anyway from previous bracing done but mid-section of the car across the front seats feels the soft point now as far as chassis flex goes.

So, pulled the seats out and did some spot-welding along the centre bracing that is in there from factory.

Then made up a brace to run underneath the car to box in the transmission tunnel. The brace bolts through the floorpan on either side of the factory bracing bar; theory being this will complete it as effectively 'one piece' running across the car now rather than missing in the middle.

Initial thoughts are it does feel a little flatter/solid early in the turn-in but really haven't had the chance to give it a good drive yet.

While I wouldn't expect it to transform the car or anything, it should help, similar to a canoe using the same type of cross-brace along it's length to keep it rigid and box it over rather than having it open-sided.