WOO WOOO! Huge difference, transformed the car. I chose just to go with the side rails for now, cross bracing might come later. Cross bracing helps more with torsional rigidity, i.e. more apparent when one side of the car hits bumps. Just the side rails were 35lbs on the very bottom of the car... small price to pay.

Best I can describe it is before it felt like the center of the frame was sagging and bowing over all the bumps, etc. Now it's just solid--no distortion. It's noticeable.

Handling's improved as well--the car feels more solid and confident around corners.

I'd like to say, I went with TMS because they're pretty much functionally identical to the WSP ones, except:

Better ground clearance
Slightly better price (IIRC, from group deals)
But most importantly, TMS is not a douchebag of a company, has come to support the Maxima community while WSP blatantly ignored them, and stands behind their products and respects their customers in addition to WSP while WSP was talking ****. I don't care how or why WSP is acting the way they are--that is NOT the way to conduct business.

Edit: pics




Snapped a few of the welds:

 

The ends are welded shut..




Here they are on the car, I still need to undercoat them.

 

Ground clearance:
(this is how low I am)

(this is how low the SFCs are)

(The LTBII is far lower)

 

cool.. they look nice man... so you can really feel a difference huh? i'm very interested in a set of SFC's because they seem to be a huge improvement for a not so huge price.. but still confused about what the cross bracing does and if it's worth all that extra money or not.. what kind of a difference can u feel now that you couldnt before when going over bumps? and how do you think thatll change with cross bracing? does the cross bracing have any other advantages? thanx

 

Nice job man Looks good.

 

Oh yeah. The entire car is much more composed, you can feel it no matter how you drive. One or two have said they don't notice much of a difference--they're not paying attention. Keep in mind, it WILL make your car ride more firmly and it won't be quite as pleasant, but it's well worth it in composure IMO. Feels close to driving a bimmer now.

You can get most of the benefit just with the side rails, cross bracing will help out torsional rigidity more than anything, meaning it'll resist the frame "twisting" more during hard cornering, hitting uneven rough pavement, etc. I'll probably get the cross bracing a little later when I have more cash.

Keep in mind that they're cheap, but it'll cost you to install them unless you have a welder. I had a shop put them on to the tune of $220, around 3 hours of labor. Make SURE that when you have them installed you tell the shop to weld them on with the chassis LOADED, i.e. the car on its wheels.

 

oh ok... thanx.. that helps alot... so as far as torsional rigidity, you mean like.. when you're taking a turn fast and you hit a bump around that turn, you can kinda feel the car skip out on you a little bit.. is that what you mean would be better with the cross bracing? cause i hate when that happens.. lol.. or if just the side rails would correct that issue, then that would be nice

 

Yes, that's the sort of thing that cross bracing will primarily help with. However, make no mistake, just the side rails help substantially. There are patches of rough pavement that I didn't like to drive aggressively over before--you could feel the chassis flex and vibrate and the tires would skip across the pavement, not getting much grip. Nothing scares me now (in fact I like feeling the suspension work so I go for the rough patches now ) unless it looks like the car's going to bottom out, no joke.

Basically, cross bracing isn't at all necessary to feel the difference but it will further strengthen the frame.

 

alright cool.. i think im gonna start out with just the side rails... then if i want more i'll just get the cross bracing sepertately.. glad to see they worked out for you man

 

alright now that i put the stiffer eibach springs and koni sports on the chassis is flexing some again... not nearly as badly as it would be without the SFCs, but still... i'm gonna have to get cross bracing for sure.

wyche89, what springs are you running? if you have progress or similar mid-soft springs then you'll be good with side rails, but if you have some stiff ones i.e. sprints or eibachs then you'll probably want the full thing.

at any rate, try out the side rails first... you should definitely see an improvement.

 

word! Paint them JDM red and put Nismo stickers on them for a 20% increase in stiffness.

trust me, it works!

 

i'm running stock springs so it sounds like i should be good... the only thing i have done to my suspension is an FSTB.. you got the 4 point TMS side rails right?

 

if that works on everything, you could put viagra out of business.

i painted them rustoleum flat black, looks pretty good even with my drippy painting job.

yessir. good man; doing chassis modding first.

 

cool... one more question... is everybody painting thier SFC's cause of rust or just the hell of it? cause i really don't wanna paint mine

 

The welds are bare, unprotected metal and WILL rust quickly if you don't paint over them.

Just get some flat black rustoleum and give them a few coats, it takes like 20 minutes. Make sure you go over the welds or they'll rust.

Also, IIRC most primer holds a good deal of water and isn't a good idea to just leave it primed or it might rust anyway.

 

cool.. nice advice man... thanx... i'll probably paint them before i have them put on rather than ask the welder to do it

 

IIRC that won't help because the welder will need metal to metal contact to weld them together.....

 

ohhh... well.. so much for that idea.. lol.. i guess i'll bring a can of that flat black rustoleum stuff with me that morpheus was talking about... can that be found at like autozone or advance or something?

 

Yeah I think you can get it from walmart as well. And I think you may need 2 cans. I know people that did the full setup with the cross member and they used 2 cans.

If it were me I would def get 2 cans just in case....

 

I got it from OSH, I'm sure it's pretty widely available.

I used one can for three thorough coats on just the side rails. If you want you can get two just to be safe.