Megan Racing Strut Brace

Removed the name plate, filled the holes, scuff padded it, red is rattle can engine bay high heat and black detail/fade is gloss black rattle can, bases are rattle can flat black. Looks a little better in person. Overall fit is good. Installation was very easy. No idea if you are supposed to leave the factory 3 hole plate in place or not. I chose to and do have threads expose above the nuts so should be OK. Not thrilled that you can't torque the front right nut (needs a wrench not a socket). Ad says bases are "powder coated" but I'm not sure with what exactly and I doubt anyone would want to leave them that way... anyway one of those silly add-ons you just can't resist. I'm happy.

looks good

Looks good but its important that you delete the black OEM plate, otherwise it wont work properly and can break.

Thanks!
Nice if that was mentioned somewhere in the instructions!
Hasn't left the garage yet - I'll pull them tomorrow.

AlinaFK8 said:

Looks good but its important that you delete the black OEM plate, otherwise it wont work properly and can break.

Click to expand...

Curious cause I'm getting one soon, what black plate are you talking about?

When you pull the three strut retaining nuts there will be a factory plate with three holes that closely resembles the base that comes with the strut bar.
Yep - toss them - or take them off and save them - and then install the bar/base.
Fair warning: once you do that the front nut on the drivers side gets even harder to get a wrench on and there is no way to get a real torque reading.
You can get the required 46 on all the others pretty easily but that one you just need to take your time and get it tight.
Leave the allen bolts loose-to-snug, tighten down the 6 retaining nuts in sequence then tighten the allen bolts.

Akuto said:

Curious cause I'm getting one soon, what black plate are you talking about?

Click to expand...

Yes - exactly what John said.

I just installed one on mine it feels great but I do feel the car needs an alignment after... I'm I trippin'?

If you did everything right the car dont need an alignment after you install a strut-brace. Its important that the car is staying on a flat underground and isnt liftup in any way.

solidconceptgroup said:

I just installed one on mine it feels great but I do feel the car needs an alignment after... I'm I trippin'?

Click to expand...

Um, yeah I'm afraid you might be trippin...
There is no way on Earth that you could ever "feel" the addition of a strut brace.
Unless you could do a side-by-side comparison on a track under full race conditions and even then you would be hard pressed.
If there is enough frame flex that adding a strut bar is a noticeable change you have more important things to be worried about!
Now maybe on a 1985 Yugo - now that is another story...

AlinaFK8 said:

If you did everything right the car dont need an alignment after you install a strut-brace. Its important that the car is staying on a flat underground and isnt liftup in any way.

Click to expand...

I thought I was, the car was on the ground and I torqued the bolts to 40 lbs.. thanks for keeping me straight lol

Looks really good.

JESFromASC said:

Um, yeah I'm afraid you might be trippin...
There is no way on Earth that you could ever "feel" the addition of a strut brace.
Unless you could do a side-by-side comparison on a track under full race conditions and even then you would be hard pressed.
If there is enough frame flex that adding a strut bar is a noticeable change you have more important things to be worried about!
Now maybe on a 1985 Yugo - now that is another story...

Click to expand...

Hey don't pick on Yugo, I learned how to drive on one back in motherland lol My dad sold it 15ish years ago when he bought new car for two 24 packs beer to a neighbor, he still drives it around sometimes lol

nick_takov said:

Hey don't pick on Yugo, I learned how to drive on one back in motherland lol My dad sold it 15ish years ago when he bought new car for two 24 packs beer to a neighbor, he still drives it around sometimes lol

Click to expand...

Oh you poor thing!
There is something to be said for a car so simple and so cheap that they can keep going and going and going.
Did you catch the James Mays Cars of The People series where he covered several cars built under the same principles.
Go Yugo Go!

I decided to do a traditional JDM application to my Megan Racing strut bar. Wrinkle red & black. I kept their badge.