While the factory stamped braces are better than nothing, and would certainly benefit from a Monte Carlo bar, I would recommend a heavier one piece export brace first. I have always found a Monte Carlo bar to be obtrusive on the Mustang.
It's made from 1" diameter .12" wall DOM tubing from McMaster-Carr. The round pieces are actually large structural washers 5 1/2" OD X 3" ID, also from McMaster-Carr. The piece at the cowl is some 1/8" flat stock I had laying around. Welded nuts on the bottom so I wouldn't have to fool around with a wrench under there. The cross piece was located so that it just cleared the rear bowl of the 650 double pumper I used to run. Had to do some grinding on the ends of the tubes to get them to lay flat due to the angles of the tops of the shock towers and the cowl. Fit the cowl and the shock tower pieces first, trial and error on fitting the two main tubes, tack weld everything in the car, then remove and finish welding. The whole thing cost about $35 to make.
Since I don't have a distributor anymore I thought about running a bar from side to side in front of the throttle body but I didn't want it to look like I stole some little kids jungle gym... It works out good, remove the radiator and I can pull the engine without touching the bar. And between that and the shaved shock towers, spark plugs are really easy to get to.
37 some years ago when I first began suspension mods on my 74 Comet, from what I learned from my 65 Mustang, I fabricated both Export Brace (firewall to shock towers) and Monte Carlo Bar (between shock towers). I wanted to see the effect with how each performed, so since our Mav/Comets already had firewall/tower braces. After using the stock bracing as a guide line, I then removed and installed the Export Brace, yes there was a noticeable difference, but when I installed the Monte Carlo, this was the greatest improvement and most noticeable difference. What it does is "box" in the shock towers to keep them from flexing inwards. I found this was the greatest improvement over replacing the stock firewall to tower bracing with Export Brace. Obviously, having both the Export Brace and Monte Carlo Bar is beneficial! David attached picture of my Monte Carlo Bar, curved to clear the distributor........
Nice work David! I been thinking about Monte Bar but would need to clear my dist. and AC compressor. I would keep my stock Xbraces. What material is the bar made of and how you make the bends? I saw an early Mustang few years ago w/ same setup as me and he had a Monte Bar. The kind of driving I do, I don't think it's must have.
Hi Everett! The Monte Carlo bar I used was for 65-70 Mustang and I had to lengthen it, which you see in the picture, it was a curved version which was designed to clear those oval "Cobra" air cleaner. Material was steel, can not remember the wall thickness, but .100 or .125" Even with "normal" driving, I was surprised just how much difference it made, I would say similar to when you did your "roller perches" kind of feel........those Mustang bars are a dime a dozen, can pick one up anywhere for good price! Take care! David
Those who say the Monte Carlo bar should be straight and those who say a curved bar works fine can both be right. Maximum stiffness will occur when it's straight. If it has a curve then it needs to be made heavier to regain stiffness lost to the curve. To see that illustrated look at strut tower braces for late model Mustangs. They cannot be straight, because they'd have to pass directly through the engine. So they have an arch to them, but they're built heavy enough to be stiff even with the curve.
