Stillen Bar - Finally Installed

[OwnerCS]

Last night I installed the Stillen bar.

Just remember to complete the bar installation and final adjustment with the wheels off the ground.






Craig

[elwesso]

Wow good job on the polishing.. I need to hire you to polish my engine bay like that.. Better yet, polish the whole car like that!!

[Infinitiguy19]

This is the cleanest Q I have seen! Hell it looks like your brake fluid reservoir is empty because the fluid is so clear. I wonder what Dennis would say if he saw your car in person?!

[Lokim]

Very nice, Craig! The polished manifold is gorgeous! How'd you do that?

Let us know what you think of your handling after installation of the bar...

[OwnerCS]

Thanks guys! The whole handling feel is so different from the original car it doesn't resemble the original feel.. It has been just a bunch of small updates to the suspension..

1) Tokico Blues (and all the related strut bushings and boots)
2) Q45a sway bars
3) Moog end links on the front
4) Poly end links for the rear
5) 18" wheels and Michelin MXM4 (tires came with the wheels)
6) Stillen Bar (last but not least)

The change I think I noticed most is it just takes a "finger twitch" to change lanes at 70 mph. Very little steering wheel movement will allow you to change lanes.. It just gives so much better control over the steering..

The ride is stiff no doubt, but the driver is so in control..

Plenum polishing -- It starts with like 200 grit sand paper to buff down the sand casting, then to 300, 400, 500, 600, 1000, 1200, wet sanding 2000, 00 steel wool, 000 steel wool, 0000 steel wool, then jewelers Rogue on a cotton buffing wheel..

Early in the sanding process, I used a random orbital (Porter Cable 7424) with a sanding disc -- also a Dremel tool with the jewelers polishing brush for hard to get into areas..

The bar was in somewhat bad shape when I got it.. The car it was on had a lot of rust on the strut towers.. The tower braces had some rusting and pitting.. I had go grind off all of the rust -- down to bare metal.. I got my buddy with the plating shop to power coat and bake the black finish on the tower braces.. The bar had to be sanded then polished with a wheel polisher and grind past the stock matte finish. It has been sprayed with a clear lacquer that is the same as plenum emblem. There is no clear finish on the plenum -- other than Mother's Mag Wheel polish and some Armor All Wheel protectant.. Properly applied, the Armour All Wheel protectant really holds up better than I thought..

I found these you tube videos (part 1 and part 2) that is really close to the approach I used..

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrFmA2RO ... re=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srjvR8Z8 ... re=related[/youtube]

[goody90q45]

Nobody commented on the chrome and gold plated plenum emblem.

The entire engine bay looks great Craig!!

[Trnqld]

Sweet !!! Where did you get the strut brace ???

[OwnerCS]

Sweet !!! Where did you get the strut brace ???

A guy in St Louis was selling parts from his Q before he donated it to charity.

Posted a Wanted-To-Buy listing in the following section..

nissan-infiniti-wanted-wtb.html