Export brace blues

jerry S · May 3, 2009

I recently got the new Global West tubular steel export brace

and it is too long by about 2 inches. I took this to mean that the car had kind of settled in against itself. The mechanic working on the car put the front end up bottle jacks to see if it would reverse the body sag. He said after two weeks, it had not budged a single millimeter. I had had a lot of body work done in the US prior to this: new torque boxes in the front, global west jacking rails and subframes. We should have known something was off when the new doors were not lining up correctly and closing with difficulty.

His solution will be to see if the car is straight on the alignment machine. If so, he will simply shorten the bars to make them fit and re-weld them together. I am kind of bummed but at least I know that my car is as stiff as an iron bar.

C0V3R · May 3, 2009

Check the dimensions compared to another export brace before you spend all that money on chassis alignment

2+2GT · May 3, 2009

I took this to mean that the car had kind of settled in against itself.
The towers tend to sag inward, especially 67-70 cars.

The mechanic working on the car put the front end up bottle jacks to see if it would reverse the body sag. He said after two weeks, it had not budged a single millimeter.
Waste of time. Literally, time does not fix this.

I had had a lot of body work done in the US prior to this: new torque boxes in the front, global west jacking rails and subframes. We should have known something was off when the new doors were not lining up correctly and closing with difficulty.
Any smart shop will do such repairs with an export brace bolted in place. If your brace is "2 inches" off, either it's screwed up, or the car is sagging.

His solution will be to see if the car is straight on the alignment machine.
Like I said, if your brace is "2 inches" off, either it's screwed up, or the car is sagging.

If so, he will simply shorten the bars to make them fit and re-weld them together. I am kind of bummed but at least I know that my car is as stiff as an iron bar.
Actually, full stiffness can only be provided by a Monte Carlo bar, no matter how much you spend on your export brace. Your aftermarket brace may or may not be made to the correct dimensions. When I install export braces, I use the more expensive repro (or a real one if I can find it) and force the car to fit it. This is actually pretty common even on coupes that have never been hit. Install the brace with the cowl bolts installed but not tight, and drop the ends onto the shock towers. One will be closer to right than the other, do the easy one first. Put your jack under the rear end of the front frame rail extension, below the front edge of the seat. Raise the car. If necessary, raise the whole side, both wheels, off the ground. Attach the brace to the shock tower. If necessary, use a Port-a-Power to push the tower farther out, but this is rarely necessary. Repeat on the other side. You will now need wheel alignment, but at least your shock towers are now set at the designed angle.

2nd Mustang · May 3, 2009

Did the car have the factory brace?

My 67 coupe's driver's door and trunk lid don't line up perfectly either so either the first two owners did some body work or quality control wasn't all that great from the factory. I suspect quality control on these early cars.

jerry S · May 3, 2009

2+2GT said:
I ]Like I said, if your brace is "2 inches" off, either it's screwed up, or the car is sagging

These GW export braces have been installed by others here without problems. I know that they are made on a jig and that the odds of the bars being too long are slim to none. Otherwise, they would not have fit in the jig. The most likely explanation for my problem is that the car sagged in on itself. When I had both doors replaced, the body guy had a hell of a time getting the doors to be able to close. This should have been the tip off that something was wrong. I have no problem with the monte carlo bar fitting only the export brace.

bnickel · May 3, 2009

jerry S said:
These GW export braces have been installed by others here without problems. I know that they are made on a jig and that the odds of the bars being too long are slim to none. Otherwise, they would not have fit in the jig. The most likely explanation for my problem is that the car sagged in on itself. When I had both doors replaced, the body guy had a hell of a time getting the doors to be able to close. This should have been the tip off that something was wrong. I have no problem with the monte carlo bar fitting only the export brace.

you really need to do the porta-power trick to get the towers back in alignment, otherwise you may have problems getting the car aligned in the future, when the towers sag like yours have you lose adjustability of the front suspension and eventually you won't be able to have it aligned properly, ask me how i know this. i had to use the porta-power on my car too, once i got the towers pushed out i was able to have a good alignment done on the car. once thing i will tell you before you use the porta-power is to loosen all of the front sheetmetal, fenders, headlight buckets, etc. these will need realignment as well after the towers are pushed out but once they have been pushed out the body panels will align much better too, with better gaps and all.

2+2GT · May 3, 2009

jerry S said:
These GW export braces have been installed by others here without problems. I know that they are made on a jig and that the odds of the bars being too long are slim to none. Otherwise, they would not have fit in the jig. The most likely explanation for my problem is that the car sagged in on itself. When I had both doors replaced, the body guy had a hell of a time getting the doors to be able to close. This should have been the tip off that something was wrong. I have no problem with the monte carlo bar fitting only the export brace.

Yeah, this problem is so common it's almost certainly the car sagging.

2+2GT · May 3, 2009

2nd Mustang said:
My 67 coupe's driver's door and trunk lid don't line up perfectly either so either the first two owners did some body work or quality control wasn't all that great from the factory. I suspect quality control on these early cars.

What's really interesting is Ford had a reputation for superior fit and finish to the other carmakers.

jerry S · May 3, 2009

bnickel said:
you really need to do the porta-power trick to get the towers back in alignment, otherwise you may have problems getting the car aligned in the future, when the towers sag like yours have you lose adjustability of the front suspension and eventually you won't be able to have it aligned properly, ask me how i know this. i had to use the porta-power on my car too, once i got the towers pushed out i was able to have a good alignment done on the car. once thing i will tell you before you use the porta-power is to loosen all of the front sheetmetal, fenders, headlight buckets, etc. these will need realignment as well after the towers are pushed out but once they have been pushed out the body panels will align much better too, with better gaps and all.

The towers have not sagged inwards towards each other but backwards towards the windshield. Unless I am mistaken, the porta-power can only spread the towers out to achieve the desired 40 inch distance between them, not forward.

2+2GT · May 3, 2009

jerry S said:
The towers have not sagged inwards towards each other but backwards towards the windshield. Unless I am mistaken, the porta-power can only spread the towers out to achieve the desired 40 inch distance between them, not forward.

Most of the sag in these is inward, and in any case the towers will get farther from the center cowl, achieving the same end. Supporting under the frame extension as I described above will do the rest.

jerry S · May 3, 2009

2+2GT said:
Most of the sag in these is inward, and in any case the towers will get farther from the center cowl, achieving the same end. Supporting under the frame extension as I described above will do the rest.

My mechanic followed the instructions in this how to

Mustang & Fords - Press - How To: Install an Export Brace and a Monte Carlo Bar 02/2005

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