[One1whaoo.]

This is a feeler for interest in rear swaybar adapters for the Bolt.

I plan to fund manufacturing of adapters that allow easy installation of a rear swaybar on the Bolt, such as the Cruze swaybar by Whiteline, as sold by EV-MODS and others. The adapters are dasto's design, as shown in another thread.

This should make the car feel considerably more nimble and willing to turn, for autocross or just fun use on twisty roads.

At this point I don't know what the price should be, but I'm guessing in the neighborhood of $75-100 for the adapters. I'm currently waiting for a prototype to be shipped to me, so this will most likely take several weeks to get to the point of taking orders and shipping.

I'm presently soliciting interest to get a sense of how many I should expect to order from a machinist.

Please reply here with a note indicating your interest in such an offering. As the project progresses I'll post availability and pre-payment price here.

 

[hatchy]

If it fits one of teh bars I already have, I may be in for one set. What all would the adaapter fit?

 

[One1whaoo.]

This is designed to fit a specific swaybar to the Bolt EV. I have no idea and no way of finding out whether it fits any other cars and bars.
The adapters are the "plugs" that fit into the D-shaped hole in the lower rear suspension arms, with offset bolt-holes to accomodate the length of the Whiiteline Cruze bar.

 

[rlhammon]

This is a feeler for interest in rear swaybar adapters for the Bolt.

I plan to fund manufacturing of adapters that allow easy installation of a rear swaybar on the Bolt, such as the Cruze swaybar by Whiteline, as sold by EV-MODS and others. The adapters are dasto's design, as shown in another thread.

This should make the car feel considerably more nimble and willing to turn, for autocross or just fun use on twisty roads.

At this point I don't know what the price should be, but I'm guessing in the neighborhood of $75-100 for the adapters. I'm currently waiting for a prototype to be shipped to me, so this will most likely take several weeks to get to the point of taking orders and shipping.

I'm presently soliciting interest to get a sense of how many I should expect to order from a machinist.

Please reply here with a note indicating your interest in such an offering. As the project progresses I'll post availability and pre-payment price here.

At least I know who beat me to the bar. I was on vacation when he sent me an email and I responded to late.

I'm interested, but the cost is a bit high IMO. I'd measure up and make my own at that point. $50 is a reasonable price IMO though.

 

[One1whaoo.]

Feel free - I can't imagine valuing my time that cheaply - it would take quite a few hours to measure and machine a set of anything worth the time for this. I'd only price these because dasto already did the measurement and development and I can build on his work.
We'll see what the machine shop wants for stainless steel parts. Plain steel or alu is probably not a great choice, corrosion-wise.

 

[RichardC]

I would do a set of adapters for $100. Has anyone beside EV-MODS driven with one to see if it makes a big enough difference to justify the extra weight?

 

[One1whaoo.]

"Has anyone beside EV-MODS driven with one to see if it makes a big enough difference to justify the extra weight?"

Ask dasto - he's another guy who autocrossed with it, aside from EV-MODS.

And I'm pretty sure that 6 or 7 pounds (around .2% of the Bolt's weight) is not going to make a measurable difference in anything.

 

[dasto]

Ask dasto - he's another guy who autocrossed with it, aside from EV-MODS.

You will immediately notice the difference in normal driving, especially on exit ramps. The bar transforms the car for autocrossing. The car rotates much more willingly.

 

[EVThunder]

I'm really interested. I'll keep my eyes open on this thread to see how this progresses.

 

[sev1]

New Bolt owner here and I’m in for this. Even if you don’t make full production let me know what one off would cost.

 

[wefordus]

This is a feeler for interest in rear swaybar adapters for the Bolt.

Please reply here with a note indicating your interest in such an offering. As the project progresses I'll post availability and pre-payment price here.

I'd buy them.

 

[tk1971]

I want in on this... so please add me to the list.

Thanks.

 

[One1whaoo.]

I'm having serious second thoughts about making these for sale, due to liability concerns.
The GM engineers didn't exactly design the swing-arms to have a strong piece resisting motion near the center of the spring seat, thus there is some chance of damage occurring sometime down the line, leaving me legally liable in case of an accident caused by breakage. I have no way of analyzing the stresses involved or of testing to destruction, so there is some risk involved.
If I do sell them, I'm thinking that at a mimimum I'd want a signed release of liability from purchasers.
Anyway, I'm taking the prototype parts to a machinist tomorrow, and there is a chance they won't even take on the fabrication, as I have no engineering spec or drawings, and they would have to measure the pieces and hope that copies would fit in Bolts.

 

[sev1]

Yeah i hear you. Liability is a big deal especially in this case. If you do want to sell a set of "used" parts with no liability let me know.

 

[One1whaoo.]

Unfortunately this isn't happening.
What with concerns about liability if I were to sell these, and the pricing I got from a machine shop I've worked with before, I'm going to just take the parts I bought from dasto, and have them powder-coated for anti-rust.
Sorry guys, but the pricing was way too high, and even if I ordered a dozen they would be over $450/pair for stainless and $300 for alu. One-off pricing was four times that.
(Obviously the machinist didn't want the job)

 

[rlhammon]

Unfortunately this isn't happening.
What with concerns about liability if I were to sell these, and the pricing I got from a machine shop I've worked with before, I'm going to just take the parts I bought from dasto, and have them powder-coated for anti-rust.
Sorry guys, but the pricing was way too high, and even if I ordered a dozen they would be over $450/pair for stainless and $300 for alu. One-off pricing was four times that.
(Obviously the machinist didn't want the job)

I had asked Datso via email to send me drawings of the parts, or if his person was willing to make me a set (remember we know each other, and race together). He didn't have dimensions. Are you willing to share the dimensions and save everyone else the time to do that at least?

We could have our own made up (in my case I'll make them at work) and at least get moving forward. I suspect there is only 20 or so folks that even want this anyway.

Appreciate you looking into it, but this is why I was upset I missed his email when I was on vacation, I knew this was going to be the difficult part.

 

[One1whaoo.]

I'll take a shot at measuring, but no promises on how accurate the off-center bolt-hole placement will be. Also, these were hand-filed to size, so the measured diameter of the top-hat part could be a little off. dasto said they were a hammer-in fit on the car.

 

[sev1]

Thanks for looking into it. Appreciate the effort.

 

[One1whaoo.]

OK - measurements for dasto's rear swaybar adapters. Click the image for full size.

Sway bar requires four pieces: two flat disks and two top-hats. Note: the two top-hats are mirror images.
These measurements are from parts that were machined and then hand-filed down to size, so the dimensions are somewhat irregular. I'm told that these parts were a hammer-in fit on the Bolt.
The rightside-up top-hat has a line scribed across it (actually two in parallel, due to a cheap centering tool) to show position of the hole.

Disk diameter = 1.93" more or less
Disk hole diameter = .500"
Disk thickness = nominal .25"
Disk hole to O.D. of disk = .505" - intended to align with the hole in the top-hat

Top-hat brim thickness = .255
Top-hat brim diameter = nominal 2.00"
Top-hat height = one is 1.75", the other 1.72"
Top-hat crown height = 1.43"-1.47"
Top-hat crown diameter = 1.485 plus/minus .004
Top-hat chord to flat thru the crown = 1.375" nominal, varies due to hand filing
Top-hat hole diameter = .500
Top-hat hole to flat = .385"
Top-hat hole to outside of crown - shortest distance = .292"
Top-hat hole to outside of crown - long way across = .700 plus/minus .005

I believe that the assembly sequence from the top down is nylock nut, top-hat upside-down inserted thru top of spring-seat, then disk, bar-end, washer, with a 3.5"x .5" partial-thread grade-8 bolt up from the bottom. The bar should have the ends toward the back, but I'm not sure of the vertical orientation, as the bar-ends are tilted – I'd like to have as much ground clearance as possible.

I have yet to install these, so if I have tips or issues I'll post in a couple of weeks.

 

[rlhammon]

OK - measurements for dasto's rear swaybar adapters. Click the image for full size.

Top-hat chord to flat thru the crown = 1.375" nominal, varies due to hand filing
Top-hat hole to flat = .385"
Top-hat hole to outside of crown - shortest distance = .292"
Top-hat hole to outside of crown - long way across = .700 plus/minus .005

Thanks!

I believe I understand everything but these above measurements. I'm an engineer, but not a mechanical one... Here's a bad drawing to represent what I think I do understand. Any way you can fill in the blanks? **Note: Nothing to scale, this is drawn up in Google Slides!