I've just finished installing my Guiyngmyo fender braces from Turn-in-Concepts and the install was smooth. However, I just wanted to put up a DIY instruction here on the forum. Let's begin. You will need: Philip's head screwdriver. Preferably a shorty. 14mm box-end wrench. A ratcheting one will make your life easy. Jack/Jack stands Optional: 13mm box-end wrench (to use as a cheater extension on your 14mm). Flathead screwdriver to pry out plastic rivets. 10mm ratchet wrench with a 3"-6" extension (one bolt at top-dead-center of fender liner). First, jack the car up, pop out the rivets, and move the fender liner. There should be 6 rivets total (3 on the sideskirt area) and one 10mm bolt at 12 o'clock on the liner. Remove all these and muscle the liner back into the fender well. Next, look up into the fender and you should see your brace and the 4 bolts holding it on. These bolts are all 14mm driven, and this is where a ratcheting box-end wrench will pay for itself. 2 of the bolts are quite self-explanitory. However, the bolt on top in the fender will require small hands. The wrench should point to the door, it's the only way to gain clearance. Also, my bolts were wrenched in pretty hard. Be prepared to break these things loose and bust some knuckles. The other bolt that is tricky is the bolt on top, door-side. The best way to get to this is through your door jamb itself. It will require opening your doors nearly all the way. If you're using the 13mm for a cheater, now's definitely a good time to use it. Once the brace is out, installation of the new one is great, even easier than removing stock. Because the mounting plates are perfectly flat, you should have no problems getting the new one back in. Reverse installation and you're home free.
Sorry I have to be the one to keep the thread on topic but, First off thanks for the write up Its nice to see things like this on the site once in a while. and secondly What were the results of the mod? Woluld you recommend doing it? I assume since you went through the trouble of documenting it you must have thought it was worth the time/money.
Lol. Ironically I don't shower much or wash my clothes... yet I wear gloves when I work on cars... meh. Crisper turn in and much more connected feeling in the front end. It's a lot like what a front strut bar feels like on a Honda (or any other car that has it's strut towers detached and far away from the firewall). I'd do these before a strut bar on a GD impreza for sure. Price is nice too (around $100). 07 STI got beefier stock braces that resembles these. Apparently they are still not as strong as these and other aftermarket choices. GT-Spec makes a version that triangulates. This piece requires removing the fenders.
Yes, other ones are going to triangulate and bolt to the lower door hinge if I recall. However, they cost about 2x to 3x more than the TiC ones. Also, there is a night-and-day difference between stock and these. I had very little experience with my car (just did front and rear sways the day before) but immediately I could notice a better feel out of my steering response. For how cheap they are, I would definitely recommend them for a handling/steering performance mod.
yes.. nice write up... planning on building my own when house is built... also some argue that it stiffens up the impact zone in a bad way .... but whom knows.. dont plan to find out
Others argue that the impact zone is moved backward... or the weak point moves further back towards the middle of the car. I'd imagine the detriment to the impact zone would be the same or similar to adding an H-brace... another popular mod. I'm more of a cross between pig pen and linus... except instead of a security blanket it would be an ass pillow.
Strut bars have no place on the GDs, period. An X-Brace on the other hand.... I've heard some pretty good reviews on these fender braces though. I might have to add that to the suspension list.
I'm glad something so simple has generated so much buzz. Seriously, they are worth the $100 or so easily. If someone would like to step up to something even beefier and do a write-up, that would be cool too. Also, the total install time took me about 1:30 and I was stopping to take photos. It's really a very quick-and-easy mod to get in.
I made a custom set of fender braces for the forester (wrx ones don't fit), they don't come with any stock and it made a noticeable difference in the front end. Definitely tightened it up a good bit. -Steve
I felt a noticeable difference at highway speed with an ebay front strut bar. This was after coilovers, sway bars, fender cowl braces, alk, etc... The carbing piece is very nice too. Also, rear strut bars are VERY helpful in GD wagons. I'd still recommend these first for the solid, connected feel and more precise turn-in. One word of caution when installing these... the fender clearance tolerances are a bit different for each car so a ratcheting box end wrench or offset 14mm is definitely needed. I was able to use a socket on most of the bolts on my car, but not on a buddy's (same year). Also, didn't need to jack the cars up.
It depends on the spring and damping rates you are running. Stock to 2x stock, I agree with you completely. Once you start getting over 2x stock spring rates the stiffness of the chassis becomes a larger and larger issue, at that point a strut bar starts to become worth it. At no point is a strut bar worth as much as the fender braces though. Fender braces are simply awesome. I have the GTspec braces on my car, they took about 4 hours to install as it involves removing the fenders, bumper, and removing the bolts from the door hinges. By the design I would say that they are not any better than the TIC braces as far as the amount of stiffness gained due to the bend in the lower tube of the GTspec model. Unfortunately for us old-school Impreza guys, they are the only ones that fit. '97 and up have the correct holes for the ones like the TIC design.
I disconnected my rear brace once at a test and tune event. It was pretty extreme how much of a handling difference there is. (I use a whiteline detachable wagon strut brace)
As much as I praised them before, nothing's changed. The car is still as ridged as it was before. I've had the car on one autocross event so far and it was great. I had some very solid front end feedback and it was really quite crisp (I could start to feel when the tires were loosing traction). I imagine that getting a steering rack bushing would make even more of a difference. This is a great mod, especially if you need the additional feedback.
