Steeda Front Strut Bar

[fobnicat]

So I finally got about half of my order in today and immediately headed to the shop to start installing what did come in. Mach 1 grill delete, Front and Rear Tower Bars and Front Sway Bar. The mach 1 grill delete didn't fit quite as well as I would have liked, which pissed me off, but oh well.

My question is, has anyone used the Steeda 3 point strut tower bar? It looks great, nice and strong feeling. I took the hood off and got to work. First off, as I was removing the cowl vent cover, I broke the damn thing, oops. Hopefully that won't cost too must to repair, but I got a feeling it will. I like that the steeda bar does not just attach to the C&C plates, it bolts to the actual shock tower and fire wall which is a good bit more work but will be much stronger in the end.

What I don't like about it, and I am curious about is the gap between the firewall point of the brace and the actual fire wall. There is at least a 1/4 in gap when the front two points are lined up. In the instructions it states that some bending and stretching might occur in places, but I can't believe that the tolerances are off enough to create a 1/4 in gap. I figure I will shim it with some 1/4 in thick flat aluminum, I was already going to use some as a backer plate.

I'm just curious if anyone else has used this bar and if they have, did theirs have the same size gap. What is everyone's opinion about the whole thing?

 

[fobnicat]

Anyone?

 

[Night Shifter]

i had a small gap at the fire wall too with mine..it was a steeda brace also

 

[fobnicat]

Did you fill the gap or just bend up your firewall? Use any kind of backerplate?

 

[Night Shifter]

actually, i put it all on there as a mock up...i havnt installed it yet cause it needed repainted cause i have an blue mustang and it was red...im painting it this week though so if i install it before you get yours on ill let you know how it goes

 

[fobnicat]

Hopefully I will get mine on tonight.... I'll let ya know. Thanks for the info..

 

[fobnicat]

Just as a warning, the bolts that Steeda sends with the front strut bar, SUCK A$$!!! I broke two of them just tightening them with a ratchet. I wasn't even cranking on them, just flipping my wrist to tighten them. Good thing my buddy that was helping me works on planes. He's gonna snap all new aircraft grade titanium nuts and bolts. No more broken bolts for me.

 

[trombonedemon]

They need a strut bar that just doubles up on the strut tower instead of the drilling in front of the firewall. The integrity of the firewall dosn't need to be sacrificed, even just a little bit.

 

[fobnicat]

I got mine in today.. not too bad.. I left out the shims, but I did add in the backer plates at the firewall. I'm gonna install the rear bar tomorrow and when my buddy comes to do the welding for it, I think I will get him to weld the front as well. It doesn't say to weld it, but I feel like it will make it that much stronger, plus it will help to replace some of the rigidity removed from the strut tower during drilling.

 

[BannonJr]

I prefer not too weld em incase you need to take em off for future mods/service.

Keep that in mind maybe

 

[fobnicat]

Yeah I got out there this morning to work on it and realized "wait, welding the front in would be dumb. I'm already planning on yanking the motor in 6 months, why make it harder that it should be"

So I didn't weld it... Dunno what I was thinking last night

 

[BannonJr]

We all have our moments...

In Mexico with those blo---

Nevermind.

 

[LI98GTStang]

That sounds strange that it doesn't fit right. My Steeda three point brace was an absolute perfect fit. I trimmed the black cowl piece around the bar and to me it looks like it is an OEM part. Once you figure out the install issues, I felt an improvement in rigidity when one side of the car hit a bump it felt more solid and in control. And yes, no welding please or you won't be able to take anything off the engine and would have to drop the k member anytime you need to do some internal work.

 

[fobnicat]

Yeah, there was no welding. The fit was just a little off, a 1/4", but Steeda claims that is normal. How many miles were on your car when you installed yours? How hard had it been driven up to that point?

 

[LI98GTStang]

Yeah, there was no welding. The fit was just a little off, a 1/4", but Steeda claims that is normal. How many miles were on your car when you installed yours? How hard had it been driven up to that point?

About 30k miles were on it when I installed it and while I drive it agressively, it's not abused in any way. Here's a shot just after install if your interested how it looks cutting out/around the black plastic cowl piece.