Audi Coupe B2 strut brace

[Colin Aitchison]

This weeks project, some of the higher powered Audi B3 / B4 cars have strut braces fitted as standard and in the past you could buy the weld on front strut top brackets from Audi but now they are NLA from Audi, the availability is getting less and less, on Ebay last week the two weld on brackets and strut brace bar went for £112, Audi Tradition want close to £80 just for the two weld on brackets delivered, you can see where this is going I hope, spent two hours one night measuring up the strut top on the B2 coupe and getting the sizes on to AutoCad so I could produce two paper templates to work from.



Next was to get them cut out in metal, the 'C' shape has been marked in 17 segments and if you place the 'C' shape in a vice with the top of the vice jaws alined with each crossing line of the 'C ' shape and give it a little bend, after 16 little bends the 'C' shape will become an 'O' with a conical look, after welding up the and some finishing with the grinder to remove most of the weld the top of the conical shape needs a little 4mm flat bit round the top radius, now into the bearing press, top hole in the conical shape in now about 67-68mm, place the conical shape on a used 75mm wheel bearing and pop a 100mm round alloy bearing die on top of that and give it a little press, hey-presto now the top has a 4mm flat lip. The other paper template is the bracket for the strut brace to fix to, it dose require cutting out and two M8 nuts welded to the under side before bending, welding and finishing.





The under side is under coated and painted black before fitting to give limited rust protection, yes some of the paint will burn off when welding but the majority will remain to protect the metal from rust.



In all a nice week night project, just need to fit them to the car but the strut bar will not be picket up till tomorrow ( 20mm x 20mm box section with 1.5mm thick wall ) and I can't weld the strut top plates on till the strut brace is fitted to them, the next post will show the finished strut brace. Back to cost 2mm flat plate from scrap metal bin, four M8 nuts are stock item, 1mm cutting disc x 2, Argon gas for Tig welder, 1.6mm filler rod, four M8 35mm long bolts stock item, four M8 washers stock item, 20mm x 20mm box section, what do you thing £15-£20 and keeps me out of trouble.