J’s Racing Fender Brace Install DIY
12-01-2013, 02:57 PM
#1
J’s Racing Fender Brace Install DIY
J’s Racing Fender Brace Install DIY
Upon searching the forums the only DIY I found on fender braces was for the Nagisa Brace which has a slightly different install. So I decided to attempt to do a write up and hope that it helps any one that maybe a little confused on how to do this. The installation doesn’t take long once you know exactly what to do but figuring it out on your own with Japanese instructions can be tedious. Well here it goes.
Here is what the braces look like when they are sent to you in the box from Japan.
Here are all the components that are included in the package:
2x fender braces labeled left and right
4x M10 I believe bolts
4x Countersunk M6 bolts
2x Curved aluminum mounting brackets
2x Threaded mounting plate
2x Countersunk Non-threaded mounting plate
Here are all the tools I used to complete the job:
Torque wrench capable of 47-80 ft lbs
Torque wrench capable of 4.5-20 ft lbs
3/8 drive Ratchet
3/8 drive 6 inch extension
10 mm 3/8 drive socket
10 mm 3/8 drive deep socket
12 mm 3/8 drive socket
17 mm 3/8 drive socket
4 mm Allen socket
4 mm Allen wrench
10 mm wrench
Vise grips
Popper tool
½ to 3/8 drive adaptor
Jack and jack stands
First start by breaking your front wheel lug nuts loose and then raising up the front of the car with the parking brake engaged and the car in a forward gear. Pop the hood and open the doors and begin to remove the fenders. Inside the door there are two 10 mm bolts one located at the top which you will need to use the box end of your wrench to loosen.
And one located at the bottom which you will need to use the extension and the deep well socket so you can reach it adequately.
Next you will find three 10 mm bolts near your jacking point.
Next locate the bolts connecting your fender to your bumper. I have J’s racing fenders and a C-west bumper so I used 10 mm bolts to hold them together. Typically on an OEM car this is either a Cross tip screw driver, 7mm, or 8mm. At this time it would be a good time to remove all the poppers/bolts connecting your fender liner to your fender. I am not sure if you need to completely remove the fender liners form the car to complete the install since I don’t have any but it might be a good idea to do so they aren’t in your way. Use the popper tool it makes life really easy and you break less poppers.
Next remove the five 10 mm bolts that are under the hood alongside the fender. If the car is using the OEM bumper and fender you might also have another screw under the hood near where the bumper and fender meet at the inside portion of the headlight. Disconnect your side marker and remove them and remove the fender. Repeat same steps for both sides. I found it easier to do one fender at a time but this is your choice.
First I will start with the drivers-side located below. The front hole is where you use the counter sunk mounting plate and the rear hole is where you will use the curved mounting plate.
Locate one Countersunk screw, threaded mounting plate, and non threaded mounting plate and assemble them together like so. Ensure to get a decent amount of threads engaged so that the backing plate doesn’t fall into the car somewhere which would really screw you.
Slide the end without the bolt in first and then push the plates in so that it sandwiches them around the hole. Thread one Large M10 bolt slightly into it for positioning later.
Now grab your curved mounting plate.
Near the door hinges you will see an opening located in the picture below. Orientate your curved mounting plate like so.
Slide it upwards into the hole.
Turn it 90 degrees roughly so that it is orientated like so.
Rotate and push then end upwards and begin to look for the threaded portion (On the passenger side it was tighter for me and I had to use vice grips to angle the bracket appropriately. Use shop towels to protect the vice grips from biting into the bracket.)
Once you know you can easily manipulate the bracket to have the threads in the rear hole you can let it go.
It will support itself and not fall out. Next locate the four 12mm hinge mounting bolts for the door.
I chose to shut my door at this time so that it could remain somewhat in the same position. Realistically it becomes fairly difficult to gauge your door placement since the fender braces go over the marker so marking its location would be a good idea.
Once the four 12 mm bolts are removed start to mount the appropriate fender brace by threading them slightly into those four holes. Remove the snap bracket with your popper tool that is holding the hood release cable to make sure it’s out of the way. Now is where you go to the Front mounting bracket and adjust it so that the large bolt can line up with the fender brace. For me it was in a different location on either side and was the only tedious part of the entire install. Once you have it lined up correctly use the 4 mm Allen wrench to tighten down the countersunk screw with the M10 screw still threaded into the back plate so that it doesn’t misalign. Once the mounting plate is secure into a position, I chose to remove the fender brace and torque the M6 counter sunk screw to 4.5 foot lbs (54 inch pounds.)
Remount the fender brace and line up the rear curved bracket with the second mounting hole. Before I removed the door bolts I checked to see what they had been torque to since I didn’t find a torque spec in my service manual. They were torqued to 47 ft lbs so torque them to the same rating. So you can either take my word for it or check your own bolts torque before loosening them. For the large bolts supplied with the fender braces I looked up M10 torque into aluminum and it was listed at 25 ft lbs. I chose to only do 20 ft lbs (240 inch lbs) because I didn’t want to strip out the inner bracket. This is where you use your 17 mm socket.
I used two zip ties to move the cable up and out of the way but still tight. Check for proper hood opening and you are done with the driver’s side. Slap that fender back on there in the reverse order you took it off and move onto the passenger side.
Here is what the passenger side looks like under the fender. With the Nagisa braces you have to remove your washer reservoir and use some baggy in your engine bay instead. With the J’s you don’t have to do this.
Following the same steps as the other side and bam that went fast! When mounting the brace slide it under the tube for the windshield washer so that you don’t pinch it. Put the fender back on torque your lug nuts to 80 ft lbs and your done!
I will let you know my opinion of these when I get my engine back into my car in the next couple of months I hope this was helpful!
Upon searching the forums the only DIY I found on fender braces was for the Nagisa Brace which has a slightly different install. So I decided to attempt to do a write up and hope that it helps any one that maybe a little confused on how to do this. The installation doesn’t take long once you know exactly what to do but figuring it out on your own with Japanese instructions can be tedious. Well here it goes.
Here is what the braces look like when they are sent to you in the box from Japan.
Here are all the components that are included in the package:
2x fender braces labeled left and right
4x M10 I believe bolts
4x Countersunk M6 bolts
2x Curved aluminum mounting brackets
2x Threaded mounting plate
2x Countersunk Non-threaded mounting plate
Here are all the tools I used to complete the job:
Torque wrench capable of 47-80 ft lbs
Torque wrench capable of 4.5-20 ft lbs
3/8 drive Ratchet
3/8 drive 6 inch extension
10 mm 3/8 drive socket
10 mm 3/8 drive deep socket
12 mm 3/8 drive socket
17 mm 3/8 drive socket
4 mm Allen socket
4 mm Allen wrench
10 mm wrench
Vise grips
Popper tool
½ to 3/8 drive adaptor
Jack and jack stands
First start by breaking your front wheel lug nuts loose and then raising up the front of the car with the parking brake engaged and the car in a forward gear. Pop the hood and open the doors and begin to remove the fenders. Inside the door there are two 10 mm bolts one located at the top which you will need to use the box end of your wrench to loosen.
And one located at the bottom which you will need to use the extension and the deep well socket so you can reach it adequately.
Next you will find three 10 mm bolts near your jacking point.
Next locate the bolts connecting your fender to your bumper. I have J’s racing fenders and a C-west bumper so I used 10 mm bolts to hold them together. Typically on an OEM car this is either a Cross tip screw driver, 7mm, or 8mm. At this time it would be a good time to remove all the poppers/bolts connecting your fender liner to your fender. I am not sure if you need to completely remove the fender liners form the car to complete the install since I don’t have any but it might be a good idea to do so they aren’t in your way. Use the popper tool it makes life really easy and you break less poppers.
Next remove the five 10 mm bolts that are under the hood alongside the fender. If the car is using the OEM bumper and fender you might also have another screw under the hood near where the bumper and fender meet at the inside portion of the headlight. Disconnect your side marker and remove them and remove the fender. Repeat same steps for both sides. I found it easier to do one fender at a time but this is your choice.
First I will start with the drivers-side located below. The front hole is where you use the counter sunk mounting plate and the rear hole is where you will use the curved mounting plate.
Locate one Countersunk screw, threaded mounting plate, and non threaded mounting plate and assemble them together like so. Ensure to get a decent amount of threads engaged so that the backing plate doesn’t fall into the car somewhere which would really screw you.
Slide the end without the bolt in first and then push the plates in so that it sandwiches them around the hole. Thread one Large M10 bolt slightly into it for positioning later.
Now grab your curved mounting plate.
Near the door hinges you will see an opening located in the picture below. Orientate your curved mounting plate like so.
Slide it upwards into the hole.
Turn it 90 degrees roughly so that it is orientated like so.
Rotate and push then end upwards and begin to look for the threaded portion (On the passenger side it was tighter for me and I had to use vice grips to angle the bracket appropriately. Use shop towels to protect the vice grips from biting into the bracket.)
Once you know you can easily manipulate the bracket to have the threads in the rear hole you can let it go.
It will support itself and not fall out. Next locate the four 12mm hinge mounting bolts for the door.
I chose to shut my door at this time so that it could remain somewhat in the same position. Realistically it becomes fairly difficult to gauge your door placement since the fender braces go over the marker so marking its location would be a good idea.
Once the four 12 mm bolts are removed start to mount the appropriate fender brace by threading them slightly into those four holes. Remove the snap bracket with your popper tool that is holding the hood release cable to make sure it’s out of the way. Now is where you go to the Front mounting bracket and adjust it so that the large bolt can line up with the fender brace. For me it was in a different location on either side and was the only tedious part of the entire install. Once you have it lined up correctly use the 4 mm Allen wrench to tighten down the countersunk screw with the M10 screw still threaded into the back plate so that it doesn’t misalign. Once the mounting plate is secure into a position, I chose to remove the fender brace and torque the M6 counter sunk screw to 4.5 foot lbs (54 inch pounds.)
Remount the fender brace and line up the rear curved bracket with the second mounting hole. Before I removed the door bolts I checked to see what they had been torque to since I didn’t find a torque spec in my service manual. They were torqued to 47 ft lbs so torque them to the same rating. So you can either take my word for it or check your own bolts torque before loosening them. For the large bolts supplied with the fender braces I looked up M10 torque into aluminum and it was listed at 25 ft lbs. I chose to only do 20 ft lbs (240 inch lbs) because I didn’t want to strip out the inner bracket. This is where you use your 17 mm socket.
I used two zip ties to move the cable up and out of the way but still tight. Check for proper hood opening and you are done with the driver’s side. Slap that fender back on there in the reverse order you took it off and move onto the passenger side.
Here is what the passenger side looks like under the fender. With the Nagisa braces you have to remove your washer reservoir and use some baggy in your engine bay instead. With the J’s you don’t have to do this.
Following the same steps as the other side and bam that went fast! When mounting the brace slide it under the tube for the windshield washer so that you don’t pinch it. Put the fender back on torque your lug nuts to 80 ft lbs and your done!
I will let you know my opinion of these when I get my engine back into my car in the next couple of months I hope this was helpful!
.these help to improve chassis rigidity
12-01-2013, 08:22 PM
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http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticl...e-Chassis.aspx
the above link is Nagisa fender brace review. it's quite detailed.
the above link is Nagisa fender brace review. it's quite detailed.
12-02-2013, 12:04 PM
#7
