[aftermidnight]

for anyone who is in the market for a panhard rod, definitely go with trackbird's panhard rods. they are great quality and i'm very happy with the fitment and adjustability. i give them (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/2thumbs.gif) .

[sgarnett]

At the risk of impeding progress, I have to ask, "why bother with steel"? The inexpensive, lightweight, high quality aluminum bars fill a niche. Part of what enables you to get there is (correct me if I'm wrong) the use of fairly off-the-shelf components, easily worked material, no finishing or welding required, cheaper shipping, ....

It sounds like the steel bars are either going to be very heavy or require some fabrication, which is probably a big hit to the business case unless you can do it yourself.

Sam and Lou already sell good steel bars, and I think Sam even sells several different weight/strength/cost tradeoff options. Lou also sells aluminum bars, but they are a bit more exotic and they are pricey.

Or to put it another way, why are you pursuing the steel option - strength, cost, or ???

If you are trying to build a heavy duty version, what about just increasing the wall thickness or otherwise tweaking your aluminum version?