Fitting Leon Rear Turret Brace

I fitted the rear turret brace today, which is the OMP Honda Integra front one part# MA1834, which i've seen fitted on Robdons Leon.

And all i can say is two words "bloody nightmare"

The easiest way i'd recommend is drop the rear seats down pull up the carpet covering the side wells, you don't need to remove any of the interior trim to do this.

Once the side carpet is pulled back you'll find two enlongated slots these will act as the lower mount holes for the new brace.

bolt the mount plates to these sloted holes at the very bottom, then centre punch where the upper mount will be, but i'd suggest you bolt the bottom one so you can hold a spirit level against the mount, so you make sure it's properly upright, do this on both sides, and apply a lick of paint to the newly drilled holes.

Now comes the "very" tricky part, if you have fingers that bend at right angles, you can do this one of 2 ways, either as i did and pass the bolts through from the inside of the cavity, or if your really cleaver you can hold the nuts and pass the bolts through the brace mount and the carpet, then through the cavity, and tighten it all up, but the first method is easiest

Trust me this sounds much easier than it is in reality, and it took me about 2-3 hours to get it finished, as it's very easy to drop the nuts/washers/bolts or allen key down into the cavity and then have to try & get them out, which ain't at all easy...

I used 8m x 30m cap head bolts, nyloc nuts, and 4 small washers, but it would have been better in retrospect probably to use some bigger penny washers, to spread to load out a bit more.

Still it's all done look's the bizz, and should stop the rear twisting about too much, I was going to get one of the upper ones i've also seen on Robdons Leon, but in all honesty looking at the thickness of the Integra one don't feel it's going to be really neccasary.

Here are some pics of the finished jobby...

allen,

Theres about 4 1/2 inches clearance between the bar and back of seat's, i had a look at Robdons pictures here...
http://www.rd20vturbo.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/interior/boot1.jpg and mounted the brackets facing to the rear of the car same as Robdon has..

Be prepared for a pain in the butt job tho' it really isn't easy getting the bolts/nuts into the cavity, especially if you keep dropping them down inside the car.....

It's not a job i'd want to carry out again, unless i get an LCR of course then I'll remove it and fit it to that, but I don't want to put you off, but it's bloody tricky....

Oh yeah, forgot to mention the price got it from Strutbracer on fleebay £45.00 + £10 p&p, which is about half the normal retail price of these thing's, took about 3 weeks to get here, from Italy, cos Strutbracer don't seem to hold them in stock, I know some people have had a lot of hasle from them but I guess I was one of the lucky ones... and didn't have any grief..

Don't know if this item is optainable elsewhere for a decent price, but i googled the part number, and didn't get much of a response, apart from strutbracer, so you pays yer money, and takes a chance, i spose....