95KA-Turbo
07-16-2012, 09:13 PM
VERY brief summery:
Stealth-Custom-Fab has excellent products and customer service!
Install Review:
I ordered a Stealth Custom Fab tension rod brace with the hopes that it would tighten up the feel of the front end of my daily driver S14. With the drift car being the only 240 I've driven in years, a completely stock S14 with coilovers feels like a floppy pile of crap, haha.
First off Jonnie Fraz, the owner/fabricator of Stealth Custom Fab, is awesome to work with. He's very down to earth and promptly gave me a tracking number for my brace. When I got the brace in the mail I couldn't believe how light the box was, I didn't think it could possibly be it, but it was - this thing is stupid light weight. All of the welds looked great on it and the hardware provided is beefy as hell.
So when I got under the car to put the brace on, I was impressed it slid right in place with no effort and lined up perfectly with everything. This especially impressed me as my daily is very low and the undercarriage is less then perfect from bumping and scuffing on all sorts of different surfaces. One of the really cool things about the Stealth Custom Fab brace over say, the Nismo brace, is the double brace point that it has. This extra brace point, however, can mean a range of different things need to be done to your OEM tension rod brackets depending on what style brackets you have. Some OEM tension rod brackets have no holes in them at all, some have holes on one side, and some have holes on both sides. The brackets on my daily S14 have holes on one side but not the other, so this meant I needed to drill a hole on the other side so the bolt could fit through and thread into the brace. This part isn't rocket science, I just used the provided hardware and tubing to line the bolt up where it is supposed to be and made some scuffs on the tension rod bracket where the hole needed to be drilled. I drilled the hole (which took like 15 mins per side as my drill bits were not the best ones...nor were they very fresh) and that was it! I loosened the front bolts on my tension rod brackets so I had a little wiggle room to get everything to thread together even easier.
Driving Impressions:
Once I got the car on the ground and drove it I could tell an immediate difference. I was, and still am, completely shocked at how the brace changed the way my car feels. The whole front end feels connected now, before it felt like the four corners of the car moved separately from each other, now when I hit bumps and corner the front end will move in unison. The car turns in much quicker then it did before, and I know I have worn out outer tie rods - it feels like the front end has all pillow ball arms now! Its definitely made the car a lot more enjoyable to drive, and it feels much better put together - surprisingly extremely similar feeling to my drift car (which has a full cage, corrected roll center [plus its actually higher then the daily], boxed in LCAs and tension rod braces, and an 1/8" thick stainless steel skid plate that ties in the front subframe/tension rod braces/the front of the car). I have nothing negative to say about this brace, its 110% worth the money and time it took to install it.
Photos:
I didn't have my good camera with me for the install (its in need of some TLC), but I took some pictures along the way, as well as borrowed an image from Stealth Fabrication. (http://www.stealth-custom-fab.com) so you can see what you get when you order it.
Here's what you get:
http://knoop.sumospeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/s14trb.jpg
In first picture of it on the car the brace is just sitting there in place, it fits that well.
http://knoop.sumospeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SCFB1.jpg
In these shots you can see how well machined it is, it lines up perfectly with the tension rod bolts.
http://knoop.sumospeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SCFB2.jpg
http://knoop.sumospeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SCFB3.jpg
The next few pictures show where I drilled the hole in my tension rod brace, and the last picture shows it all installed.
http://knoop.sumospeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SCFB4.jpg
http://knoop.sumospeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SCFB5.jpg
http://knoop.sumospeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SCFB6.jpg
Hit up Jonnie Fraz or go to Stealth Fabrication. (http://www.stealth-custom-fab.com) if you are interested in ordering one. At $90 + shipping its completely worth it...I mean its literally a fraction of the cost of the Nismo brace, and you'll be supporting a real live human being doing what he loves for a living.
Stealth-Custom-Fab has excellent products and customer service!
Install Review:
I ordered a Stealth Custom Fab tension rod brace with the hopes that it would tighten up the feel of the front end of my daily driver S14. With the drift car being the only 240 I've driven in years, a completely stock S14 with coilovers feels like a floppy pile of crap, haha.
First off Jonnie Fraz, the owner/fabricator of Stealth Custom Fab, is awesome to work with. He's very down to earth and promptly gave me a tracking number for my brace. When I got the brace in the mail I couldn't believe how light the box was, I didn't think it could possibly be it, but it was - this thing is stupid light weight. All of the welds looked great on it and the hardware provided is beefy as hell.
So when I got under the car to put the brace on, I was impressed it slid right in place with no effort and lined up perfectly with everything. This especially impressed me as my daily is very low and the undercarriage is less then perfect from bumping and scuffing on all sorts of different surfaces. One of the really cool things about the Stealth Custom Fab brace over say, the Nismo brace, is the double brace point that it has. This extra brace point, however, can mean a range of different things need to be done to your OEM tension rod brackets depending on what style brackets you have. Some OEM tension rod brackets have no holes in them at all, some have holes on one side, and some have holes on both sides. The brackets on my daily S14 have holes on one side but not the other, so this meant I needed to drill a hole on the other side so the bolt could fit through and thread into the brace. This part isn't rocket science, I just used the provided hardware and tubing to line the bolt up where it is supposed to be and made some scuffs on the tension rod bracket where the hole needed to be drilled. I drilled the hole (which took like 15 mins per side as my drill bits were not the best ones...nor were they very fresh) and that was it! I loosened the front bolts on my tension rod brackets so I had a little wiggle room to get everything to thread together even easier.
Driving Impressions:
Once I got the car on the ground and drove it I could tell an immediate difference. I was, and still am, completely shocked at how the brace changed the way my car feels. The whole front end feels connected now, before it felt like the four corners of the car moved separately from each other, now when I hit bumps and corner the front end will move in unison. The car turns in much quicker then it did before, and I know I have worn out outer tie rods - it feels like the front end has all pillow ball arms now! Its definitely made the car a lot more enjoyable to drive, and it feels much better put together - surprisingly extremely similar feeling to my drift car (which has a full cage, corrected roll center [plus its actually higher then the daily], boxed in LCAs and tension rod braces, and an 1/8" thick stainless steel skid plate that ties in the front subframe/tension rod braces/the front of the car). I have nothing negative to say about this brace, its 110% worth the money and time it took to install it.
Photos:
I didn't have my good camera with me for the install (its in need of some TLC), but I took some pictures along the way, as well as borrowed an image from Stealth Fabrication. (http://www.stealth-custom-fab.com) so you can see what you get when you order it.
Here's what you get:
http://knoop.sumospeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/s14trb.jpg
In first picture of it on the car the brace is just sitting there in place, it fits that well.
http://knoop.sumospeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SCFB1.jpg
In these shots you can see how well machined it is, it lines up perfectly with the tension rod bolts.
http://knoop.sumospeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SCFB2.jpg
http://knoop.sumospeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SCFB3.jpg
The next few pictures show where I drilled the hole in my tension rod brace, and the last picture shows it all installed.
http://knoop.sumospeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SCFB4.jpg
http://knoop.sumospeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SCFB5.jpg
http://knoop.sumospeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SCFB6.jpg
Hit up Jonnie Fraz or go to Stealth Fabrication. (http://www.stealth-custom-fab.com) if you are interested in ordering one. At $90 + shipping its completely worth it...I mean its literally a fraction of the cost of the Nismo brace, and you'll be supporting a real live human being doing what he loves for a living.