Rather than buy a new strut tower brace, modidify the old one...bad idea?

[Pokageek]

With the addition of the Trickflow intake our stock strut tower brace no longer fits. Instead of buying a $110 Ford Racing one, I thought I might cut, modify and have a buddy weld my old one to fit. How "perfect" does it have to be? Can I mess anything up if it is not perfectly exact like down to the millimeter or something?

 

[droptopford 5 0]

i am in no way an expert on this subject but from what i can gather, the only real purpose of the brace is to connect the strut towers for chassis rigigity... so no exactness is needed as far as shape goes... thats why there are so many different variations of braces for our cars, i would think the only "exactness" you would need is for the mounting holes to line up with the stock points, and the rest would just fall into place, but that is just me .02 cents, so obviously dont take it for more than what it is... an opinion

 

[Zero Signal]

If you bend the front bar the bolt holes won't line up anymore. You would need to cut the front bar off the old one and weld a new one in. Plus with a larger bend around the new intake, you will need a stiffer tube to account for the increased bending moment.

What I would do it cut one hole on each side as a standard bolt hole, then make the rest slightly slotted so you can fit them all. With them torqued, you got a slip-critical connection that won't slip.

 

[Pokageek]

I was thinking cut it and then weld another pipe on to fit that simply goes around the front of the intake and engine much like the Ford Racing one. Thanks for the ideas!