Great job on those they look great and makes working on your car much easier. My computer with AutoCAD is gone so I cannot draw anything but will have back soon.
You should consider making the components out of high strength steel (HSS), High Strength Low Alloy (HSLA) about twice as strong as normal steel or even better would be Ultra High Strength Steel (UHSS) that is 4 times the yield strength of normal steel. You buy less steel and don't add as much weight but are stronger.
I worked in the automotive stamping world for many years. One of my projects was working with John Deere on their combine. They wanted to make the cut width greater but with all the added weight of the steel they were going to have to add an engine to run the thrasher and an engine to power the combine through the field. I came in and made some recommendations to change to Ultra High Strength Steel, make several of the components from stampings instead of welded assemblies to reduce weight and save mfg. costs. It is about 4 times the tensile strength of normal cold rolled or hot rolled steel. The supplier of the steel was Swedish Steel and Domex is their brand name. Now trying to bend and form this stuff is a bear it is like bending a spring. The steel company gave Deere an award for the most innovative use of their steel and Deere gave the project the best project of the year award. \They are even using some steel in cars today that has to be red hot to "Hot Form" it. It will shatter like glass if not heated but is really strong. They laser the hole in after forming. You can check with local steel suppliers or there might be a stamping house around that could help you find what you need.
One of the tool & die shops that I deal with was making quarter panels for one of the NASCAR teams, that I will not disclose, but was replacing the normal soft cold rolled steel with high strength to allow you to rub someone or the wall a little harder and it not give as much.
I would think your design would give side to side bracing but would not help much in the up and down without a ridged connection between the cowl and shock tower. The export brace that Carol Shelby stole from all the Mustangs that were exported had shape that gave left to right and up and down and since it was one piece also helped more with the twisting.
It is great that you are investing your time into coming up with new stuff. We all need more stuff.
I need to sell some stuff.
David
