Swaybar Modification???

[garner]

First let me apologize for how vague I am going to be about this.....

 

*cough, cough, stealth project cough*

 

long story short, I need to either cut and weld or heat and bend a 20mm swaybar (don't ask why)

 

anyone know what type of steel they are made of?

 

are they are actually spring steel or just high carbon?

 

I don't caer too much about getting it back to it's exact harness etc but want it to be close and especially don't want it to bend or break too easly

 

heating and bending is my prefered method of modification

 

 

thanks for your ideas (hair brained or not)

 

garner

[carfreak85]

It will be weaker. Don't ask by how much, I don't want to look it up and calculate it. I would look into the price of a custom bent bar.

[garner]

freak,

 

do you know what type of steel sway bars are made out of,

 

 

as in what alloy? I know I'll have to do some hardening once I'm done but if I had a clue what alloy it would make it easier

 

garner

[bushbasher]

You wont be able to do it right by heating only an area, it will have too much internal stress and will fatigue crack. You could heat an area, bend it, then afterwards heat the whole thing up in a furnace and re-harden it, which would relieve the stresses. You wouldnt be able to bend it much cold, it will probably snap on you.

[scrapdaddytatum]

try custum mounting, bending/welding a sway bar IS A VERY BAD IDEA

[archemitis]

having cut through one... they seem like normal mild steel to me.

 

it is subaru, and it was the late 70s when they thought of them. so cant be too much technology in there. they are mounted with rubber, cant be too much stress.

 

they are nowhere near as hard as springs, or shock rods. heat er up, and let er buck!

[Andyjo]

i want to ask why