John, You have to make your own BRB's. Either adjust the length or you can ,if its an old narrow body bend the bars with an inward angle to clear the tyre on full lock. use an old wire coat hanger to determine the point at which you make the bend. I do use a pipe bender to make the bend and protect the tube and the deformation has no effect on the function of the BRB. The BRB's are made such as to protect the chassis should the cross-head take an impact in that the chassis rear mounting point should suffer little damage in that event, you could say that a modified BRB in the way I have just described will have a natural fold point thus aiding chassis protection even more.
Having always worried about the resultant chassis damage from impact to the front of the car on the rear BRB mount I have for the last two years been using brass bolts and stainless nylock's on the chassis end and there seems to be no detrimental damage to the bolt in use. I had expected to change them annually but on inspection they seem fine. My prompt for this solution was that when the BRB's were first marketed they had bolts supplied that were stated as shear-able in the event of frontal impact but now they seem to be supplied with high tensile steer versions, I think the cassis would suffer damage were these used and an impact occurred. Perhaps the tube SWG rating is thinner than the originals and the tube expected to collapse before damage takes place but I don't want to chance it!
Thanks for that, I haven't made anything in metal since metalwork class in 1970, so I doubt I have the right tools or way with all 55 years on. Whilst I understand your concerns regarding having a sheer-able connection, my initial thought is, if the metal doesn't collapse and sheers away, where could it finish up?,
