Beretta.net

Just don't fear the rear bar from MRZ it is steel. It's not as stout as the Cavy bar, but there should be little to no flex. For a DD car there will be no flex. As for what Heavywoody does he might get some. It would take something special just measure it though.

The MRZ rear bar does look better than most that are offered for other applications.

I was thinking about buying one, then triangulating that into the trailer hitch, which was installed by the previous owner.
I'm hoping this will tie the entire rear unibody together, maybe even running a brace to the trunk floor as well.

Not sure if it would help much over just a rear bar, but I think the next step up after all that would be running a roll cage LOL

heavywoody wrote:When the car is parked, and moving the wheels to full lock, the MRZ bar flexes up about 1/16-1/8" of an inch.

My first reaction is that if there is so much body flex when the car is parked, something must be very wrong on that car, rotted to hell or something.

I don't have Any visible flex on my cars when parked. Was this on Cavi? Maybe those things got the factory bar for an reason.

Hey guys! Just wanted to update an old thread.

I've been working on finding some fender braces that might fit our car, but the options aren't cheap and won't be bolt on. My option right now is sending my door hinge mounting points out to brace manufacturers to find one that is equal or similar and then spend hours fitting it in place. I'd have my coworker weld me up something, but he's had recent major surgery (he's 65 too) and will be out of commission for a while.

It seems these braces make a huge difference on these unibody cars and I would love to get it done for mine and spread some of that info to the rest of you.

In the meantime, I'm still working on the friggin car. The only thing's left to do are:

-Install new OPS
-Install exhaust
-Replace a coolant hose
-Install new hood release cable

Then it's getting it started, ironed out and then I can focus back on engine modifications. I spent so much time changing things that i reverted back to stock, just to make sure the thing will run properly first. It's been too long since it was running that I'm afraid it will die LOL

The MRZ front bars I've seen don't look all that strong. The GM bar on Cavaliers is cheaper and I think beefier, too. And you already bought shock plates for the rear so you can make your own.

I've already got the factory Z24 STB and lower subframe brace, thanks to Money Pit Beretta for an awesome deal!

And Thanks to you, like you mentioned, I got the laser cut plates to make a super beefy rear bar

But the Fender brace are what I've got my eye on next. Even on a STi that comes with a factory brace can see huge improvements from aftermarket upgraded versions. I'm hoping to get a reply on some specs soon, then I can be the test mule for the rest of you.

I'm not sure what I'm turning this crappy 2.2L/Auto Corsica into, but it's gonna be strong as fvck, I do know that.

haha I totally missed the last two pages of the thread! So you're already ahead of me.

I just googled the subaru fender braces you are talking about. Interesting. I wouldn't have thought that area of the car would be that weak.

On the deal.
Wow what a brace! A bit too many bolts on one side, but I like the idea.

I was just using the Subie as an example, but if these cars can benefit from them, I can only imagine what they would do for a simple passenger car.

I used to think they were overkill for ricers and drifters, but some say they make a bigger difference that a solid strut tower bar would. I might just end up making some rough plates to fit in the door jamb and figure out the rest. Then I can just hand it off to a welder.

Cool Koots, I'll be watch this for sure.

According to a couple old pics I have during the teardown, it looks like the Beretta unibody actually has more beef in that area than the Sube. There doesn't appear to be a lot of room for a brace without interfering with the wheel well.

Our best bet so far looks to be the ones manufactured for the 95+ J-Bodies by Driving Force Fabs (formerly Overkill Engineering Motorsports).

Just by eyeballing it, it seems to have a similar door hinge mounting placement as our cars, but I'm going by small pics and measuring my own. I'm just waiting on the owner to report back on the specs of his, so I can figure out how it will fit.

If it doesn't work, some of the other brands use large mounting tabs, which could be cut, modified and redrilled to accommodate our specific measurements

Here is the manufacturers thread on JBO about their brace, just to see it fitted on the car and how it works.

I see that we don't have much room to triangulate the brace, but neither do the J-body cars either, so we might be able to get away with it:

http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f ... 7&t=146881

Looks like the triangulated piece will just out into the wheelwell on our cars, but that could be remedied if need be. I'm more concerned with door fitment LOL That's the ADHD for you, I get caught up in one detail why the rest goes unnoticed LOL.

I still haven't heard $hit from anyone I sent out emails too lol

I've been pouring over pics of these things today and noticed one that looks like it would fit the easiest:

92-95 Honda Civic


It looks like the easiest to try and install...but not exactly the strongest.