I had a eureka moment last night and got this idea. I am surprised nobody have thought it yet. It is pretty obvious so, perhaps others have tried it and it does very little improvement. My idea is to replace the tonneau cover with an adjustable shower curtain rod. This rod has to be strong and shorter than the shower curtain rods. To easily install and uninstall, the tension can be adjusted by turning the rod. It will be a cheap hatchback stiffener to improve the handling and it might even reduce the rattles in the back. I plan to "close the gaps" with the current tonneau cover so the edges are pushed out to the sides. I will see how it goes... See how the tonneau cover can be used to reinforce the stiffness to the body:
Wouldn't that just press on the interior plastic? Given my experience with shower curtain rods and their less-than-infallable record of holding up the shower curtain, I doubt one is strong enough to use as a chassis brace. I can understand the convenience of having an easily removable rear shock tower brace, though.
You really need a strong anchor point (shock mount or seat belt) and strong bar to get any benefit, if any at all. You're talking about something like this? Acura 94-01 Integra (DC2) C-Pillar Bar
This is an interesting idea; I actually removed my tonneau cover/bar from my hatch because it was making an incredibly annoying snapping noise over rough roads. At first I was worried it would reduce the stiffness of the car but after driving without it for 3 months I could never tell the difference. Which leads me to believe...the location of the tonneau bar is probably not ideal to make a significant difference whether you reduce flex or not. It seems a little too high. Plus without welding it in, it'll probably just create another annoying rattle.
Sounds like it. Which isn't a bad idea, nor exactly original, though using a shower curtain rod might be new.
But it could be cheaper and if you accessorize with the right shower curtain it may come out looking pretty good.
Yes, it needs to get through to the structure and be stiff enough to not deflect significantly under load. A shower curtain bar is probably not much more effective than starching the carpets. An interesting experiment would be to install a shower curtain bar without locking it, then put a tie wrap around it so you can see how much the rear deflects by how far the tie wrap moved.
I had read of similar experiment on STB, only guy used loctite.. there were ~3mm movement. Just installed rear antisway bar on tuesday, and have Tenabe STB and lower brace in box, coming in this weekend. I might change my mind after installing STB but IMHO there isn't much to gain past rear sway bar, at least on stock size LRR tires. As is tires start sliding before body roll/flex makes any difference; there isn't any roll and with rear and front better matched no flex to write home about.
My idea is to replace the tonneau cover with an http://www.amazon.com/Rubbed-Bronze-Shower-Curtain-Rod/dp/B002Y2F8YA. This rod has to be strong and shorter than the shower curtain rods. To easily install and uninstall, the tension can be adjusted by turning the rod. It will be a cheap hatchback stiffener to improve the handling and it might even reduce the rattles in the back. It would probably only work in the rain.
Real rear strut tower braces bolt to body structure. It's unlikely that a spring-loaded shower curtain rod will come close to furnishing the same bracing force. Get the Cusco rear underbody brace if you want more rigidity. I don't have ANY noises from the hatch area, even on rough road surfaces.
