Hi Everybody, that’s my car the braces are on. I haven’t been able to really test out the braces as its been snowy and icy here in MN.
The install is pretty simple. Things you need for the install would be a four point lift, a welder, a grinder, another person or something to hold up the brace in place when welding.
1. First you would have to lift your car up on the lift and mock up/mark where you would have to weld the plates/chassis brace onto your car.
2. After you have figured that out, you then would have to grind down that area to a clean metal surface. So you will have a good metal to metal welding area of the chassis and the brace.
3. With prepping the area all done. Have someone or something hold up the chassis brace in its place and begin welding the chassis brace onto the car. There are three plates connected to the brace and those three plates are where you will have to weld the brace to the chassis of your car.
4. Another area you would want to weld the brace onto the car will be on the rocker panel. We welded the brace onto three spots of the rocker panel. Once towards each end of the brace and another time in the middle. Again you will have to grind the area down to a clean metal surface.
5. The brace is finally installed! My brace in particular was not powder coated, so a spray of rubber coating was sprayed on it to keep from rusting.
First impressions, I was Excited just to get these on, after having read the reviews of the other chassis braces on the other cars. On my 1 hr drive home on the snowy and icy MN hwy, the car felt a bit more solid I don’t know how to explain it, but it did. I hear less cracks and squeaks from my car that I used to hear more often. I don’t know how much better it handles on the turns and cornering because I haven’t been able to test that. I don’t autocross or race my car so I probably won’t ever feel or know the full extent of the upgrade from the chassis brace. Either way, I love this upgrade thus far and will continue to keep a keen eye on anything differently that I feel from my car. Aside from the brace I also have the Prokit/KYB AGX combo, An EBAY FSTB, and I’m running on winter tires right now on stock rims (Hankook Winter Pikes to be exact).
There is little to no clearance issues. the brace does stick out a little bit from under the rocker panel as you can see in the pictures but there shouldn't be much worries there. the brace was not weighed but it felt the same as the b15 brace. so i would guess 30 lbs. at most.