bart3lz

hey....i ordered the CS front and rear strut tower bar at the same time i ordered my exhaust....they sent it thursday and it still hasnt gotten here dammit.... ..but any way.....i think i heard that the front tower bar has some clearance issues with the hood..if it does is it really that bad or can i trim off a little from the hood frame....and i also think i heard that when installing the rear one u have to cut some sheet metal.. ..if anyone has installed these on there 7 can u tell me how u fit it on if it needed some modifications....and if u have ne pics that would be awsome!

thanx



peace

FCmaniac

I had some fitment issues with my front bar but that could have been a fluke.. others said they had no issues. For the rear bar, you'll need to cut the metal shock towers in the back. I started with a dremel tool and by the end I was mutilating the towers with a hammer, screwdriver, and tin snips. Its fine with the interior panels back in though. I like their rear bar.

bart3lz

how u know how big of a hole to cut in ur carpet....and where

FCmaniac

you'll want to remove the side panels/carpet first and install it obviously and then once installed, just take measurements to get a rough idea of where you need to cut the carpet. Its pretty easy. I cut mine a little bigger than needed but it looks fine. I have a pic of it in the members rides thread.

RONIN FC

The FC has threaded bolt holes on the strut tower, Im surprised no one invented strut bars that bolt to that.

FCmaniac

Ronin, I think those are the bolt holes for the 2+2 seating brackets.. those holes are in all FC's I've seen. I don't know how rigid that would be compared to connecting the actual shock mounts but it sounds like a good idea.

pengaru

It's not very strong.



you can remove that sheet metal surround entirely, it's pretty easy. Then you gain access to the strut tops where you can install a nice strut tower bar that actually works.



it's like this after you remove em:

j9fd3s

the mazdaspeed one is like that. they have a bracket that goes between the strut tops and the speaker tower and then the bar bolts thru the existing holes onto the bracket



mike

bart3lz

oooookkk...so the only reason the rest of that sheet metal is there is to hold the speakers up...ok cool so now i know i can take out as much metal as i can. but o make a cleaner install, i was thinkin about IRST bolting the brace on then cut a hole big enough to insert into the tower , then reconect the bar to the bracewith some sockets. that should be a pretty clean install .not to much taken out.