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I bought some of the cheapo e-bay strut tower braces for about $75 total, shipped. The rear I got from a vendor called drivinggear, and the front from procarparts. I ended up buying from different places because neither of them wanted to sell both bars at the same time, and it allows me to compare them.

Procarparts had "40mm" bars, and regular bars, so for about the same price I decided to go with the 40mm. It's a pretty solid piece, although I don't have a nice cusco or STi bar to compare it to, so I don't really know. Same goes for the plates, although the drivinggear rear bar plates have better welds. The bars also have left-handed threads on one end, so turning the bar will adjust the length when it's installed.

The top is the 40mm front bar, the bottom is the rear. I should vacuum my floor.


Front mounting plate


Rear mounting plate. From what I've heard I'm going to need to grind some stuff or something for it to fit.



I bought STi takeoffs and a rear sway bar (18mm from a turbo), so I'm waiting to install it all at the same time. Those UPS bastards had better find my missing strut. I still test-fitted the fronts, and ran into a slight problem.

The tabs on the left mounting plate are crooked


You can see that they don't line up with the other plate.

Here's the view from the other side


At least the holes line up. I took some pliers and bent the tabs so they're pointing more or less the right way.


Seems there's another problem; an A/C line is in the way of the right plate. (money shot)




It might fit underneath, but I think I'm going to have to move the line or something. Any suggestions on that?

The bolts were another concern, as I'd heard the chrome plating or whatever they put on can flake off and jam the nut. The bolts for the rear bar didn't have this plating. I just went to the hardware store and bought new nuts and bolts.




I don't really expect to notice anything from the bars themselves, and wouldn't be able to anyway with all the other new stuff going on. I do imagine that they will reduce some chassis flex with the stiff suspension on my older car.

I can also see the benefit of buying a nicer, expensive bar. I imagine the welds would be better, and the construction and fitment would be more precise.

Chrome hardware does suck. Funny, the rear would have been ok with chrome as it's isolated from the elements.

If you're careful and gentle, you probably can bend the A/C line out of the way. It's going into the receiver/drier, so it can't move very far out of the way, but it's made from fairly malleable aluminum. Just make sure it's secure in the end (use zipties or other clamps or something) so it doesn't rattle too much and especially so it doesn't bang on the strut bar.

Slide the bracket underneath the AC line. That's what I did with mine. You may need to unclamp the receiver/dryer slightly to allow the line to move upwards just a tad.

Nice writeup!

scottzg wrote:Nice writeup!

Thanks,
and thanks for the advice about the A/C line, guys.

Update:
Changed my oil today, and decided to throw on the front bar.

Bam! I feel like a ricer.


Right plate fit under the A/C line after I moved the dryer up a little bit. Thanks for the tip, Josh.


Barely.


I think I'll put some tape or something around the line.

I didn't really notice any difference driving around today. I guess it might have been a little more responsive, but I can't say I'm not just imagining things.

The plan was to put on the bars when I got my struts, but I'm still waiting on the claim. I didn't want to take my back seat out and worry about griding or whatever today so I didn't put on the rear.

tape probably wont be enough.

you should try to find some high density foam.

clear tubing will work.

That's a nice looking strut bar once it's all on there. I've got one with end brackets like that on my Civic.

My complaint with that style bracket is that where the two parallel parts stick out to hold the ends of the bar is very weak. it's not going to fall apart or anything but it also doesn't offer the stiffness of other types of bracket. What I'm going to try with my Civic is trimming, bending, and welding a sliver of steel to fit over the open part of the bracket to change it from two floppy parallel pieces into piece of channel steel which will be much more rigid. You might consider trying the same once you've got the alignment of the bar where you like it and/or if you have access to that sort of equipment or people.

I've noticed the flat plates of the brackets are pretty flexible too. I could probably have a friend weld some additional pieces on. Once I tightened them down, they bent a little. It'd be nice to have a piece that was triangle shaped holding it in place, along with something between the parallel bars. I'm also tempted to spraypaint the bar flat black. It just looks so ricey to me.

a solid bar would look better.