Ford Maverick Strut Bar

Welcome to the Cuban Redneck Garage, where today, we are going to make a strut tower brace for the 2022 Ford Maverick. A strut tower brace, also known as a strut bar or strut brace, is a bracket used to reinforce the strut towers on a unibody chassis vehicle. Strut braces used to be pretty standard on many cars back in the day, and although steel had not gotten any stronger, it has faded away in what I can only stipulate to be a cost-cutting measure. If you look for images of a 1965 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 on Google, you will see it came from the factory with a strut tower brace (STB). Today, Ford offers strut bars for the Mustang and other SHO models but not the Ford Maverick truck. And yes, I know that Steeda Motorsports makes a struct bar for the Ford Maverick! But as I mentioned in the video, I am not a me-too type of guy, and nothing sucks more than showing up at the hot rod meet, popping your hook, and the same lame crap as everyone else. Besides, when it is all said and done, you are going to save yourself about $100! For this reason, I embarked on this DIY struct bar project.

This question came up within minutes of the video going live! More than one person said it is unnecessary or that the Ford Maverick does not need a strut tower brace. Well, I beg to differ. After driving my 2022 Ford Maverick in various conditions, I think it can benefit from one. However, this depends on your driving style and other modifications you have planned for your Maverick. If you are keeping the factory steel wheels, the 17″ size rims, or drive around town like Mrs. Daisy, no, you don’t need a strut bar. But, if you commute quite a bit or live n an area with curvy roads, you are planning to lower your Marick and perhaps step it up to 18 or 20-inch wheels! Yes, you will notice the improvement a strut tower brace brings to your truck.

For this strut tower brace build, I opted for easy-to-find, over-the-counter materials, and even though I have a welder, I will be using blots and nuts so that anyone can replicate this build. Although this was custom-fitted to my 2022 Ford Maverick, the concept can be adapted to fit any vehicle with a unibody chassis design.

Materials:

• 2 – 1″ X .1875″ X 5″ (Flat Bar)
• 1 – 1″ X 1″ X 38.375″ (Square Tubing)
• 2 – 3/8 – 16 Coupling Nuts
• 2 – M8 – 1.25 X 70 Bolts
• 6 – M8 – washers
• 4 – ¼-20 X 1.25″ Bolts
• 4 – ¼-20 Nuts (Optional if you don’t have access to treaded inserts)
• 4 – 5/16 Nuts (To be used as spacers)
• 12 – ¼ washers
• LockTite (optional)
• 2 – 1″ Square End Caps (also known as Furniture Tips – Hillman #884318)

Step #1 – Cut two 5-inch pieces from the flat bar for the end pieces and the 1-inch square tube to 38.375 for the crossbar. Proceed to bend the two end pieces ½ inch at the 2-inch mark. See video for details.

Step #2 – Drill two ¼-inch holes at the end of the pieces about 3/8″ from one end and 1-inch apart. Drill an 8MM or 5/16″ hole on the opposite end about ½ inch from the end.

Step #3 –  Align one of the end pieces at the end of the crossbar, right at the bend. Secure it in place with a clamp and transfer the position of the holes from the end piece to the crossbar.  Dill it and fasten it. I used threaded insert in the videos, but regular nuts will work fine. If you have a ¼ – 20 taps, consider cutting a two-inch piece from the flat bar, trim it to fit inside the crossbar, and drill and tap it. This will do away with trying to align nuts in the holes. Also, consider drilling two or three holes at the bottom of the cross-member bar to allow water to drain.

Step #4 – Paint. I used a spray can of paint I had on hand, but as I mentioned in the video, that was a bad choice because it was way off, color-wise, compared to the truck. You should be able to find color-matching paint at your local auto parts store, and I think that is the way to go!

Here is the file for the “Ford Performance” decal if you want to add that as well! The file is in (AI) vector format so that you can size it to whatever size you want or need – DOWNLOAD

Thank you for visiting my website and watching my video. Please stay tuned for many more Ford Maverick mods and upgrade videos in the coming months.