While I was back on the rear suspension, I went ahead and rebuilt the Watts link brace. I had to remove it when I was fitting the exhaust due to interference. The original brace was made of 1 1/4" square tubing. I looked at modifying the original frame, but decided to just start over. Snaking the tubing around the exhaust was going to be difficult and would have looked odd when done, so I thought I would explore other options.

Because this car is so compact (and crowded) underneath, I made as many parts bolt in as possible to make future servicing a lot easier.

I made the new brace from a piece of 1/4" 6061 aluminum plate I had. I don't have any pictures of the cutting. I didn't think a mill covered in aluminum shavings would be very interesting. The frame end mounts are steel and they will serve double duty as a place to mount the rear sway bar. Both halves of the brace are same. At least it adds a little symmetry to this thing, since the Watts link forces most of the parts to be asymmetrical.