Got mine too.. I 2nd Irish's "woot"

 

Checked my tracking number..estimated delivery Thurs

 

have you found a welding shop? i think pandaexpress and myself are interested but have not idea on where to get it installed for a good price. let me know if you find something in the so cal area. thanks!

 

Just call up exhaust shops and ask if they have a 4-post lift. Any decent exhaust shop should have no problem with the welding itself. There have to be loads in SoCal....

 

Yeah, might just cruise around with it in my trunk and look for an exhaust shop that isn't busy at that moment..I'll let you know Max112

 

I just looked up my local SCCA. Some of the sponsors are local speed shops that deal with chassis mods. That's where I'm going to start calling. If their prices are outrageous, my backup is do to what VQuick said.

 

I got my SFCs in the mail today.... em bishes are heavy ! Looks pretty solid thou.... tomorrow I will see if I can get these on within the next few days

 

Hey Dan, what grade are the bolts that you sent?

 

Anybody else having a shipping issue with fed ex? I got a lovely "Delivery Exception" notification yesterday (the day it was suppose to arrive).
I noticed today that it hadn't been rescanned "Out for Delivery" so I called in and this is the quote I got after 10 minutes of hold "I'm sorry sir, your package seems to be having all sorts of issues today" then she tells me that there is not a delivery address... To which I ask "what do you mean it doesn't have an address? there is nothing in the computer? How did it get half way across the country without a destination address on it?" the answer to that was "I don't know sir"
I am currently waiting for a call back from the terminal manager to confirm whether or not it is on a truck or sitting in the terminal...... Instills great confidence in Fedex when they can't even scan an item properly.

I am sure it will all get worked out, just sucks because I wanted to install these this morning before the crazy weekend.

 

My package supposedly got delivered yesterday at 11:38 but it was nowhere at my front door. I called the HQ and they were going to contact the driver. I guess the dumbass driver scanned the wrong **** or something.


Edit:
The dumbass driver gave it to the wrong house. The person came by my house and dropped it off. I still need to talk to my sister and see what happened.

 

Awesome.... Not only did they never call me back, but they have no record that I ever called this morning to clear it up...So I gave them the shipping address AGAIN, and my cell # AGAIN... They are claiming now that the label was not a fedex label (printed from fedex.com or whatever) but some sort of custom label. Can anyone that has already received their package confirm the label crap?

 

Mine came with a Fedex label, you can sort of see the logo here:

http://forums.maxima.org/showpost.ph...3&postcount=60

All the best dealing with them....

 

Mine was the same way. Fedex logo on the shipping label

 

I've always preferred UPS over FedEx. I've had things break a couple times through FedEx...

 

I have had multiple issues with fedex before. I got this one solved because I was on their a$$e enough. Apparently mine was scanned but never put on the truck.... then got lost in the pile of crap they had... I ended up sending the pic that PuppetMaster posted of his package to one of the terminal managers' personal email address so he could know what to look for. He finally found it but I had to drive way out there to pick it up. Even with the picture it took 3 more hours for them to track it down....when I went in to pick it up that pic was printed out full page and posted on a bulletin board with a handwritten "Have you seen me?" note on it.

As for the connectors, I am gonna paint them up before I install them, but I want to make sure that only the tabs and the short leg end actually get welded in. I should be able to primer and undercoat them everywhere else with no issues right? I was thinking about welding it lengthwise along the rails in some spots but that might really be overkill.

On a side note, I have been an IT consultant for many many years and have never seen a more fitting nor hilarious address for anyone than for the terminal manager that had me send in the pic, his email was...drumroll please......dyckweed@aol.com... I kid you not.

 

Similar thing happened to me, but it was only partially FedEx's fault. Mine had 2 labels: one hand written and one printed. For some reason, the address on the printed one was incorrect and different from the hand written one. It probably would have gotten here OK, but both labels got folded when they were taped on, so that part of the address was obscured. Rather than peel apart the tape to read it, FedEx routed it to 2 different addresses and slapped 2 revisted labels on before finally finding me. FedEx had marked the package as delivered when it actually wasn't.

 

You've got to be kidding me! I honestly don't like FedEx, as they've never been as convenient to ship with as UPS. I'm hoping to jump on these soon, as I'm too lazy to try to install new springs/struts myself and this will do a whole hell of a lot more for my handling.

 

mine got here on time, as expected.

I prefer UPS over FedEx, but it could be worse - DHL SUCKS!

 

Mine are going on... Tuesday. I got myself a TIG and a MIG welder from a shop that was going out of business

Anyone got theirs on yet ?

 

Cool Mike, I am pretty sure I am going to weld 2-5in sections down the framerail/main bar as well as the tabs.

I am only guessing at this point though, as the pics in the install thread don't really show a good angle on that gap between there.

 

I havent mocked up the SFCs under my car YET.... but my plan was to weld the tabs AND the main bars of the SFCs to the frame railing.

I'm installing the cross bars from the TOP- so I can retain some ground clearance. Looks like I won't have a problem doing that.

 

Ok, so exactly how I am planning it. I will let you know how they come out. I should be doing mine on monday.

 

put me on the list!

 

Just wanted to give you guys an update, I got the main tabs all welded in, I didn't have time to weld the rails and bars themselves in 2-4in sections down the length of the car yet, nor have I installed the crossbracing. I can say I am thoroughly impressed already. I took a little ride on the way back to work, and the car already feels alot more planted and alot less percieved flex over rough road.
One thing I did notice is a couple of the tabs are not welded to the bars straight...but nothing a big hammer couldn't fix.
I can't believe how paper thin the stock "rails" are. Took some care to not burn through that crap.


Hopefully I will have some time this weekend to finish everything up.

 

... brian... on the list... me

 

There is another thread for the current groupbuy for this product... it is a combined 5th and 4th gen deal. go put your name in there.

 

I installed mine tonight.

I have not driven the car because I need to make some needed adjustments to the cross braces.

If you mount it from the TOP- to give yourself more ground clearance.... the middle section where the cross bars all meet, that part hits my resonator. I have a Cattman exhaust system, with no cat and HS headers and the exhaust is pretty much 1/8" away from the cross bar middle section. Under WOT it rattles and I have Place Racing mounts in my car. I would imagine with softer mounts like the ES or god forbid stock ones- you would deff have rattles.

I didnt take any pictures of it installed- you all know what they look like. Tomorrow I am going to make some adjustmentd to get the X bar to fit good- no vibrations. I need to brush off my welds and clean some of them up a lil bit, then paint the connectors.

I will try to get a pic of the finished product.

 

Sweet, sounds good.

 

Anything yet??

 

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. They would probably not know bout the SFCs, it makes a big diff to the one who drives the car, because this is what its really supposed to feel like !

Thanks for the great product !

 

Look at that rust.

 

Ehh winters will do that to your car... actually its not as bad as the camera makes it look- flash. My car has 174K miles, it looks better underneath than any other Maxima I have yet seen come through my shop- and I work on ALOT of em. I clean my undercarriage with WD40 every once in a while.

I have too much time on my hands sometime

 

Very nice welds Mike. How come you switched lifts to a 2-post?

 

Its alot easier working on a 2 post ROTARY lift than it is drilling and measuring on a drive on lift- actually a Hunter aligment rack.

I raised the car recently and corner weight it, after this mod I must say its the best riding/handling grocery getter I've driven. You can't tell its riding on coilovers- thats how nice the ride is. Next month I am going to a track event so I will see how much all this helped with the handling. Videos to come.

 

I dont know what that means? ...please explain

 

Search noob...

Corner weighting a car consists of putting your car on 4 independent scales (one per tire) then balancing the car (getting the weight to each corner very close/exactly the same) with coilover adjustments (spring height, preload, etc etc), it can also be done in combination with actual weight modification.

 

I just tried to switch mine the same way today. With the Frankencar resonator there is PLENTY of clearance. Except, I have to get the dremel out because the drill holes don't quite line up with it flipped. I may actually just have a modified-design middle crossbrace piece fabbed up at a local metal shop - something that will give even more clearance.

 

also note that at the moment I have teh cross-brace off and just the frame rails. Honestly, it feels the same with just the frame rails. I don't notice any difference at all.

 

I think the X brace is too flimsy.... I can bend those bars without any problem by just pulling on the brace with my hand ! I am going to fab a REAL X brace using some solid steel. Its still going to be removable, but so much stronger.

I don't have the OEM brace.... mine has been off for the last 4 years. My exhaust was hitting it. With Place Racing mounts, there is barely ANY movement as far as the engine goes. I've had 5 diff exhaust systems on this car..... there isn't a bolt on this car that I haven't touched. 174K miles and it feels better than ever before.