That is all you get for now, and the little spots you see unpainted have been painted

 

WOW!!!

Very nice, does it meet your expectations Kevlo?



One more question...How do you guys bring them to the shop. They seem a bit too big to fit them in the car.... like the cross member or even the sides....

 

Excellent photo, Kevlo, thanks!

So seeing this photo reminds me of a question I was going to ask: has anyone contemplated welding the whole thing together? That is, welding all the bolt connections as well as the rest? Because if you look at the bottom view, it really wouldn't be that hard to remove the exhaust by pulling it out fore/aft. It might require unbolting more of the exhaust to get at the particular section, but the added stiffness could be quite significant.

WhiteA32, they are smaller than they look. They ought to fit in the trunk (gotta love how roomy the 4th gen is compared to its apparent exterior size!), but if they don't you could always carefully put them through the pass-through into the back of the cabin.

 

Or, you could drive the front up on the ramps, jack up the rear, and put 2 identical ramps in the rear (or maybe vice-versa). I hope to get these soon, as soon as I have the time to find a place to weld them on.

 

Front of the pass door to the front of the rear wheel.

 

Well this is ****ty. The quotes I've been getting for installation are in the $300-500 range. I even got one as high as $1200. WTF?!

 

WOW! I went to my local exhaust shop. He charged me 90. I wouldn't call the performance shops, just mom/pop exhaust places.

 

I only called one performance show and they wouldn't give me a solid estimate. $350-900 was their quote. The other quotes were from ma & pa shops listed in the yellow pages. There's only a handful of them. Out of 10 pages, most were big chains, like Midas, Meineke and AAMCO.

I think the problem is that most people think I don't know what I'm talking about or that I'm oversimplifying the description. I talked to a couple guys and as soon as they hear "subframe," they're thinking of frame restoration/straightening. One guy kept insisting it was a big job that involved flipping the car upside down, cutting out the floor and lifting out the motor, even though I told him over and over that it was just some basic welding.

Edit: It also doesn't help that there were no pictorial instructions. I'm creating my own to take to a couple shops, but I hate the idea of driving all over town, comparing prices, no knowing which shops can/can't do the work, and how good the work will be.

 

Yeah, I just went to my local place, didn't tell him what it was until I got there.

 

Just print out Kevlo's pics, I think that's all they really need.

 

Yup, the rear mounting point is the main thing. Rest is easy to figure out

 

Will anyone install the rails, do a review then complete the x-brace? I'm interested to see the difference, since I just want to the rails (logistical reasons).

 

Yeah, that's what I ended up doing. Drove all over town through 4 hrs of Friday afternoon rush hour traffic, following one tip after another. Still no luck. No one wants to have anything to do with welding anything to the frame. I wonder if has to do with Philadelphia being such a litigious city.

Closest I got was a place out in BFE that did collision repairs. The owner's name was literally Billie Bob and the name was very befitting. He said he'd "give it a shot," but wanted $75 up front plus $75/hr. He estimated 2-3 hrs or more. But I looked around the shop and they didn't have a 4-post/drive-on lift. I told him that people weren't paying more than $100 and he just laughed and said, "That ain't happnein' around here." If I don't find a place under $150-200, I'm going to get some cinder blocks and look into renting a welding rig. But I've never welded in tight spaces, near fuel lines/tanks, or upside-down before.

Edit: Well actually I found a couple ma & pa body shops that were willing to do the work for $150, but didn't have the right lifts.

 

Man, that sucks. Maybe try posting on local car forums and see if anyone has leads on local shops or members who could help you with the welding.

 

So were you able to get a price in writing before he started working? Knowing the work ethic in Philly, if I don't get a fixed quote, the shop will just charge by the hour and let the clock run all day long.

 

Na I've taken my car there a few times so I knew he wasn't gonna charge too much. I asked him after I got done spraying and he said only hour and a half so $90...

 

looks like if you have an electric cutout.. it will get in the way no?

 

If it is in place of the cat then the SFC's won't be in the way.

 

I have an appointment to have mine put on Friday morning at Piper Motorsports (one of the best shops on the east coast for roll cages/roll bars). They quoted me "2-3 hours maximum" for install, but I've heard that these guys are super-careful about perfect fitament and perfect welds so I suppose it's worth it at $85/hour <sigh>

Was nice of them to fit me in at the last second. Usually they have about a 3-month backlog to get a car in there.

Pics and thoughts when it's done.

 

Yeah I thought it would take alot longer than it really did. Only took us an hour and a half.

 

yeah I think he gave me a high estimate "just in case"

 

Nice, here is what my miata will have soon:

 

\\

DAMN!!!!!!!! Maybe I should mod these

 

It's called the butterfly brace, maybe cause it's going on a gay miata

But I like it, FTW....

 

make sure you talk to Clayton....he can't get into work through one of our entrace gates because the butterfly brace will catch on the speedbump (and it's not a very high speedbump either...)

BTW, Robbie is the GM of Piper. Wanna come out and hang out on Friday while they get done? Going in around 930-10am.

 

is that actual size?

 

Real life size

 

That butterfly brace probably costs more than my '95

 

$400 for both the butterfly and frame rails, so it's a pretty good deal. The SFCs that you guys are getting are very good as well and I am sure they will do wonders for the maxima!

 

A lot more Miata owners care about handling and chassis stiffness than Maxima owners, so I'm sure they sell a lot of those braces. I've always admired them but in the pictures the metal looks really thin and flimsy.

 

Yes, but don't forget that Miatas are really small and really light, so they don't need as much reinforcement in the first place...

 

I can't even drive a miata, too tall. I think they are more engineered towards women.

 

I owned one with my 91 miata I had, it's not flimsy and is very thick.....

 

I don't see a racing division sactioned for maximas, miatas have SPEC Miata

 

Never said anything about racing nor the max. Honestly, I was going to build up a miata with my father but we are both way to big.

 

IIRC, you never installed it before you got rid of the 91....

 

I got mine on all on...

Sanded down the rubberized undercoating off the frame rails.

Getting ready to weld the side rails on, friend who welds for a living came over.

With the SFCs installed from ABOVE the welded in tabs- the center X brace rubbs on my Cattman resonator.

Notice how the cross braces are mounted on in this picture- no room for resonator.

 

With the X braces readjusted- this is how much room I now have- originally I had about 1/8" now I have almost 1" of room.

More room for the exhaust to fit... notice the middle of the X-Brace bolted on.

Middle tabs support the middle of the X brace from the bottom- the X-brace resting on TOP of the welded in tabs.

Almost finished painting the SFCs and cleaning off the welds with a brush and grinder.

Finished welds and paint.

I welded the MAIN rails on a DRIVE on lift... once that was in place I mounted the X brace on a 2 post lift.

Impressions- well the car feels much TIGHTER. When going over bumps the car just doesn't crash over the road like it used to. With JICs and 174K miles on the chassis I can't complain, but now the car feels TIGHT. No longer does the car rattle when going over bumps. Its smooth and suspension absorbs all the impact now, vs chassis/suspension without the SFCs. If someone drove my car they would say the car feels TIGHT, with no rattles and fairly stiff- JIC FLTA2 coilovers, ES bushings everywhere,yadie yadie yada..... They would probably not know bout the SFCs, it makes a big diff to the one who drives/owns the car (not a occasional driver), because this is what its really supposed to feel like !

Thanks for the great product !

 

Your friend came over?
Do you have a lift at your house???
:-)

 

I got a friend who welds for a living, slipped him a hundo and he did everything

I work as a Acura Mechanic for a living, so I got like 20 lifts to choose from after hours