W Brace replacement -Which one to go for?

[Stephanie]

Hi Guys,

 

Had the Zed in the garage yesterday and was able to take a quick look underneath, immediately obvious the "W" brace needs replacing, it could probably last a while longer, maybe even a wire brush and hammerite jobby at a push (see attached photo of current brace)

 

 

..but I've had a quick search on eBay and you can pick up a brand new Ultra racing brace for £139 delivered, the Zeds booked in the garage in a couple weeks anyway and will be on ramps so will be easy/cheap enough labour wise to take off the old and bolt on the new -well that's what I thought...

 

Done some reading and spoken to ZMANALEX and the UR braces stick out more than OEM, which could prove a problem.. she's sat on tein lowering springs so is pretty low, but is she too low for a UR brace? Don't want every speed bump being a PITA.

 

Anybody have a UR brace with a low Zed?

 

 

 

 

Trying to show the clearance in the above photos - not the easiest to take, not the best shots 😬 Side skirts do make her look lower than she is also☺ï¸

 

Any experience/advice of the braces will be greatly appreciated.

 

 

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Edited January 19, 2017 by Stephanie

[Paul K]

TBH, that W brace looks in pretty good shape compared to some I've seen on here....I would give it a wire brush and a coat of hammerite

[Ekona]

I ran the Summit braces on my old one (the UR ones are a copy of their design), and even though my car wasn't lowered it did scrape a bit. Not a lot, but enough to take the paint off it.

 

Personally I'd just brush over and paint your existing.

[Adrian@TORQEN]

Hi Stephanie,

 

We have brand new OEM W braces and hardware kits in stock, see here:

 

https://www.torqen.uk/nissan/350z/suspension/braces/3346-350z-nissan-oem-undercarriage-body-tunnel-w-brace-74870-cd200.html

https://www.torqen.uk/nissan/350z/suspension/braces/5596-350z-nissan-oem-w-brace-hardware-kit-74870-cd200-hwk.html

[Hayd350]

correct me if I'm wrong but aren't the aftermarket chassis braces designed to be used along side the OEM W brace rather than being a replacement option?

As i said, correct me if I'm wrong, it's happen once before, back in 92

[Ekona]

They are, but they also do a much better job structurally so can be used in place of as well.

[KyleR]

Your Tarmac side steps will probably hit before the brace. But as others have said, it doesn't look too bad, just a bit of surface rust.

[Stephanie]

Hmmm decision time🤔

 

Thankyou for all suggestions/advice -much appreciated.

 

Perhaps this is one thing that doesn't need splashing on. More in the pocket for other partsðŸ‘ðŸ¼

 

 

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Edited January 19, 2017 by Stephanie

[nissanjuke]

My car is lowered my 25mm and I had the same problem as yourself and I just put the ultra racing brace on ,simple to fix and I have had no problems,its been on a year and my car past its mot with flying colours.

[modo]

That looks better than mine, stick with it a while longer if I was you. Im hanging on until mine starts to crumble, or fails MOT if it is checked.

 

I like welsh cakes.

 

 

[RobPhoboS]

My one was looking similar, got a tin of POR15, coated it and a bunch of other stuff.

[Gerry40]

Removed mine last year and cleaned as much of the surface rust off as possible, gave it 2 coats of Bilt Hambers Hydrate 80 which I must say is fantastic stuff and then 2 coats of smoothrite on top.

Refitted using copper grease on all the bolts, also while doing an engine & gearbox oil change gave all the bolts holding any covers underneath the same treatment.

 

Just a note on the Hydrate 80, I gave a rusty old antique wheel that I had from my old farmer mate a couple of coats of it at the same time, it stands out in all weathers and the surface rust that it had changed to black looks like I painted it yesterday, didn't put any top coat paint on that by the way.

[RobPhoboS]

Yup, Bilt Hamber products do what they say, very good !

[Guest]

Got my OEM form Torqen then sprayed it with black smootherite, should last years...

[Olly350z]

Sorry to hijack your thread Stephanie and its probably going to be a extremely novice question but how important is the W brace? Can you run without one? Its just mines pretty rusty and I wonder if I can run without one

[Flex]

I've often thought this.

[Ekona]

Safe? Yeah. Good idea? Nope. It'll make the car wobbly as anything, as essentially it's doing a very important job of connecting the two sides of the car together, so you'd find extra wear on suspension components and a hell of a lot of scuttle shake. The chassis would be trying to twist itself every corner.

 

It may look a bit naff and flimsy, but you'd be surprised at just effective things like that are from an engineering POV.

[Flex]

Boss. How was QT?

[Ekona]

I fell asleep

[Flex]

That's rock 'n roll.

[Ekona]

Still better than listening to Diane

[Olly350z]

Safe? Yeah. Good idea? Nope. It'll make the car wobbly as anything, as essentially it's doing a very important job of connecting the two sides of the car together, so you'd find extra wear on suspension components and a hell of a lot of scuttle shake. The chassis would be trying to twist itself every corner.

 

It may look a bit naff and flimsy, but you'd be surprised at just effective things like that are from an engineering POV.

 

Noted, ill get hunting for a new one then

[Adrian@TORQEN]

Noted, ill get hunting for a new one then

 

Hunt over

 

 

https://www.torqen.u...4870-cd200.html

https://www.torqen.u...-cd200-hwk.html

[Carbon.Ninja]

Wondering if there are scope to do a group buy on the OEM brace as most of the 350z including mine are rotten!

[Otis350]

Hello, I wonder if I can get the kidneys for the W brace from somewhere different then scrap yard. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.