Buying used bracing (specifically a flyin' miata butterfly) off craigslist.. Good alternative to new? Or bad call?

but it works

>the chassis is so shit it needs 3 braces
lol, convertible, not even once.

I wondered about that too. It just screws into some flimsy thin sheet metal. But it does work, and I think the reason is that the screws don't take much force. They just hold it up; the strength comes from reinforcing the frame rails which they wrap around.
I've heard so many good things about the FM brace that I doubt it's all just imaginary.
Oh and it only reduces ground clearance like 1/4 inch, that's really not a big deal.

I'd say go for it. My friend recently sold me his Flyin Miata butterfly brace and frame rails off of a car he was parting out. Gave me a preety good price at $200 for everything. Totally worth it in my opinon. I just hit it with a bunch of degreaser to clean it up. No problems with it being flexed or bent or anything.

Bolt-on itis. Just go to any shop that can do basic fabrication and have them weld a simple X brace for a fraction of the cost that will actually work. Better yet get a roll bar with removable door bars that will stiffen your chassis even more and provide you with some safety.

Sure it works, but how long does it work? If you take one off after 5 years are all the holes oval?

It is going to lose its stiffening performance gradually, so gradually you probably wont notice it. This is what the crooks at Flyin Miata are banking on.

Back when I had a miata 10 years ago, FM was known as the guys that sold fischer price garbage only gullible fools went for. FM is comprised of stupid people that don't really understand how stupid they are.

Says the guy who bought prefabbed bolt on suspension bits for his boomer mobile

shots fired!

Not to shill here, but as I understand flyin miata is one of the best miata tuners/parts suppliers out there. I don't defend their prices, which are ridiculous, but I've never heard any complaints about quality. Personally I'm going to make my own bracing using this guide since $400+ for some bent and cut stainless seems insane: miataturbo.net/general-miata-chat-9/diy-butterfly-brace-73870/

>I understand flyin miata is one of the best miata tuners/parts suppliers out there.
Sure there is a group of miata.net users that believe this. They are people that understand nothing, they look at race cars and say "wow it is so shiny! it must be really high tech!".

It has been this way for 10 years.

Listen, I'm trying to be impartial here, since as I said I can't defend their prices, but so far you've just told me they were shit 10 years ago.

Is there anything in particular that they're shit at recently?
For things like turbo builds everyone I've seen recommends either the fm manifold or to go custom if budget allows. I've seen plenty of love for the butterfly brace on a bunch of forums, not just miata.net.
Again, I don't mean to shill, I just want to know if fm really is that bad so I can look into other shops for some parts.

I already laid it out when I posted a AutoEXE brace. The AutoEXE brace goes to existing hard points, the FM brace goes into unreinforced sheet metal.

No serious racing team, as in a group of people building a car to withstand abuse, would do anything that FM does.

People love FM stuff because they do not know any better. It is the same as boomers getting a total hard on over their motors and ignoring aero. They do this because they can not comprehend (or accept) how significant aero is. In the same vein people can not understand or accept how important it is to design things properly. If you design something like the FM butterfly brace and continue to sell it, you admitting to the world you have no idea what the fuck you are doing.

Alright I get what you're saying. Taking into account that the brace is mounted onto the actual frame though, there's a large area to distribute load onto though. The side of the frame rail could easily support the brace enough to prevent chassis flex, no?

I'm evidently not an engineer and I'm sure the load transfer equations are probably complex as balls, so I'm just theorizing here. You seem knowledgeable though, am I wrong?

what shit website are you reading this on? please dont say you frequent the shitshow that is miata.net

if you want reliable turbocharging, vbands or the trackspeed kit is the way to go, literally no argument.

I just mentioned the manifold they make, don't know much about their kits really.

in general FM is really overpriced. you can find equal or better parts for a fraction of the cost.

10/10 underrated post.

Oh yeah, no argument there. I can't believe their prices on some of the things they sell. I'm from out of the US and most of the time we just get parts custom made over here since shipping is expensive, but with some of the fm stuff it's ridiculous. Like I said, $400+ for a cross brace is stupid.

There are two schools of thought

A) The rails themselves prevent flex and the fasteners are simply there to locate the rails

B) The fasteners themselves convey load.

I am in the camp where I believe B is what is happening. In a unibody you are going to be experiencing flex of the total structure, not just the 'load bearing' segments. Furthermore you are not going to permanently enhance the load bearing of the structure by adding additional layers to the outside of load bearing segments. If these are overworked you need to remove load from them. If you try to reinforce them themselves with sleeves all they are going to do is deflect outside the sleeves and load up the attachment points for the sleeves.

This is engineering 101, it is imagining how the chassis is going to escape a rigid add on structure like the FM brace. If they can't do this and understand how their brace in inherently flawed they ought to an hero.

Any love for Maruha here?

So I've never really done any cosmetic mods with my miata so far, though I've really wanted to get a r-package front lip for it for a long time. Anyone familiar with the trackdog racing lip? It's a lot cheaper than any other aftermarket lips that I've found.

trackdogracing.com/rpkg-lip-front.aspx

Who here laugh at FWD when we pass them and have more fun?

I think Civics look fun to drive too, why are you discriminatory?

Oh god someone else on here is in the Phoenix area? Well fuck I'm not the only one!

FM is one of the best companies for Miatas what kind of fucking moron are you?

There are probably enough phoenix people to have a meet

I am the kind of moron that actually understands stress flows, not some cad jockey.

I move between Phoenix and San Diego, I'll be back in Phoenix in August as I'm working in San Diego right now..we should probably try and schedule a meet sometime though.

I agree it makes no sense at all but if it works it works right?

>but if it works it works right?
For how long though? If you take an unreinforced subaru out on stage rally for a season it will start out stiff, it sure as hell wont finish the season that way.

Alright, touché.

...

The pedal modification is great, but...his bit on removing the backrest of the seat is a joke, right?

citation needed
the brace definitely works so what are you getting at?

whats your opinion on door bars?
that is extremely debatable. better than begi maybe, but begi is shit

Looks good. My lip sticks out about 2 inches, I'm amazed I haven't destroyed it on a parking spot block or curb yet.

Pic related my msm