1g Fender Brace? Does anyone make one... and will a VR4 brace fit?

[talon77]

Hey All,

I did a quick scour of the internet with Google searching for a 1g Fender Brace and I'm having no luck. There are at least 2 fellas on tuners that have made their own for 1g from scratch and had great luck with them, but I'm not really in the mood to make one right now. Having said that, I found maybe 1 or 2 vendors that make them for the Galant VR4. This is just a total shot in the dark, but has anyone bought these braces for the VR4 and checked to see if they fit the 1g dsm?:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ULTRA-RACI...ash=item2840bbe286:g:l8AAAOSwpoJXDuTG&vxp=mtr

They look like they would fit, but it's hard to tell just looking at pictures. I contacted the vendor on ebay asking if the VR4 braces fit 1g, but I got no response.

If anyone actually knows of a source for braces made specifically for 1g dsm, I'm all ears too.

Thanks

 

[talon77]

I just heard back from the ebay vendor above. He says that the VR4 fender brace is "not compatible" with 1g dsm. I figured I would share that info. @Archer Fabrications says he would be willing to make one for 1g, but he doesn't have access to a 1g dsm to mock one up on. Unfortunately, he is located on the opposite side of the U.S. from me so he can't mock it up on mine. If he doesn't end up hooking up with a 1g guy, I may have to resort to making my own ugh.

 

[Archer Fabrications]

I just heard back from the ebay vendor above. He says that the VR4 fender brace is "not compatible" with 1g dsm. I figured I would share that info. @Archer Fabrications says he would be willing to make one for 1g, but he doesn't have access to a 1g dsm to mock one up on. Unfortunately, he is located on the opposite side of the U.S. from me so he can't mock it up on mine. If he doesn't end up hooking up with a 1g guy, I may have to resort to making my own ugh.

Make one with proper mounting points and I can try and re create it, or if someone in scottsdale AZ wants to let me borrow theirs.

 

[talon77]

If anyone has a 1g and happen to be near Scottsdale, AZ and is interested in having Archer make a fender brace for you, please feel free to hit him up! Or, if anyone just happens to have a 1g near Scottsdale and wants to do all of us 1g guys a solid by bringing it over to Archer for him to mock up a brace; that would be sweeeeet. I know, this is a long shot. Thanks

 

[FireFighterMatt]

Decided to be the guinea pig. They bolt up to the hinges fine, but will need a some love up front and a backing plate made. Fender fits over brace as well.

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[talon77]

I actually ended up ordering the braces and mocked them on my car too but haven't bolted them on yet and they appear to fit similarly as yours. I intended to follow up after I finish a complete install with some pics. So I guess we are both guinea pigs.

 

[scotthidley]

Nice, how do those line up compared to the strut towers?

 

[talon77]

They connect on the car right around where the strut tower starts. As you can see, I only mocked them up but have been way too busy to install them, but this is what they look like. I will report back after final install and, of course, will provide full review after I get them on the track!

 

[scotthidley]

Thanks for posting the extra picture, I'm certainly interested to see how this works out.

 

[Ludachris]

Did you check with @greengoblin (Kevin)? I know he only advertises 2G braces, but I'm wondering if he'd consider building a set if enough 1G/GVR4 owners sign up.
http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/group-buy-compworks-2g-fender-braces.512202/

 

[talon77]

Kevin was actually the first guy I asked last July about doing a 1G brace and (at the time) he didn't plan on making any because he did not have access to a 1G when I asked him. I already got these ebay braces that I'm going to hang on to and use now, but maybe the situation has changed since last July and he might be open to doing a 1G brace if there is enough interest in the 1G/GVR4 market

 

[greengoblin]

The ultra race braces are actually pretty good from the units I've seen. Honestly the gap in the pic is not that bad. I'm pretty sure if you put on a backer plate and bolt it down it would be fine. Some time my braces will end up with a gap but then fit another car just fine. Good fine. They also make some pretty cool lower braces too for the EVO 1 2 3 that might crossover to our cars.

 

[scotthidley]

Has anybody finished installing these and tried them out?

 

[talon77]

Just an update, I finally got around to installing the UltraRacing fender braces. Overall, they fit great! Just a few installation notes/observations for those who want to get these braces (which I highly recommend based on the good quality vs. super reasonable price point):

- You will need to make your own sandwich plates (2), which are not included with the kit. Alternatively, you could omit the sandwich plates altogether and just use bolts and washers to "sandwich" the brace onto the fender rail; but I like the sandwich plate idea much better.
- I'm not sure about the quality of the bolts included, so I bought my own grade 10 bolts, nuts, lock washers and washers.
- There is a little "lip" at the fender rail where the front part of the brace mounts attaches to the fender rail. I decided to hammer the lip flat before bolting the brace on. See picture. Also, make sure to paint everywhere that you hammer or drill to avoid rust!
- In addition to the "lip" mentioned above that needs hammering (super easy to do btw), there is also a "step" where the brace mounts onto the fender rail. I used a large diameter fender washer as a shim between the brace the rail, to account for the step. One shim (fender washer) is needed for each side of the car. See picture.
- Again, these fender braces overall fit great! I was initially worried about clearance between the braces and the inside of the fender, because these braces were designed for GVR4, not TEL, but no worries there are zero clearance issues whatsoever.
- As previously mentioned, the fender brace is good quality and seems plenty rigid, but it looks to be coated by 2-stage paint (no clear coat), so don't get any brake cleaner or cleaning solvents on it because it might weaken the paint.
- I chose to torque the bolts mounting the brace to the door hinge to 15 ft-lbs and I torqued the front mounting bolts (where the sandwich plate that you will make are used) to 25 ft-lbs. I used blue Loctite and lock washers on the front mounting bolts.
- I've heard that the toughest part of this job is realigning the door after loosening the door hinge bolts. I disagree because it really wasn't that hard. In my opinion, the toughest part of the this job is re-installing the actual fenders and getting them to line up properly without the doors rubbing on them when opening/closing. The other hard part is just dealing with oldish, rusty bolts, particularly those securing the fenders to the bottom of the chassis.

Review:

I haven't had the car out on my local road course with the new braces yet (which I think will be the true test), but I did take it out on an autocross event. Between the autocross and local driving here are my thoughts on these braces... I think they help! The car definitely feels less flimsy. I think the car just feels more rigid overall, even in everyday driving. Overall, I think this is a great, high-value addition to the car for an extremely reasonable price. Do it!

 

[Vegas Smith]

So you got these off eBay?

 

[talon77]

So you got these off eBay?

Yep!

 

[talon77]

These are the exact ones that I bought, I paid $133 shipped for them but I'm not sure if you can find these exact ones (particularly at that price) anymore. But, the point of the post is that the GVR4 fender braces fit the 1g TEL, so that means us 1g guys that are interested in improving chassis rigidity now have a fender brace option!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/DD-3-Point...-4G63-87-93-/352080838738?hash=item51f9a74052