Y'all commented before I was finished with the post! Hopefully you saw the pictures. If you're just reading this, be sure to jump back a page and take a look at my update with coilovers, SuperPro endlinks, stainless rear brake lines, and more! (Post 150)
I'd also like to say I'm pretty happy with these ST XTA coils so far. I have them set to 11 out of 16 clicks as far as the dampening goes. They feel so responsive, and ride quality isn't bad at this stiffness setting. I may could bring them down a couple of notches for the day-to-day, but for now I don't mind. ~550 miles so far. Once again, they've passed the wife test with flying colors. We
still take my car everywhere we go, after everything that's been done to it. That, in my book, is complete success as far as my goals for this car go.
I also installed the Eurocode front and rear chassis braces:
https://www.ecodetuning.com/eurocode-8v-mk7-mqb-front-rear-chassis-brace.html?category_id=659
I picked these up on sale a few weeks ago for $80 off from their site. Looks like they're no longer on sale, guess it wasn't a "fake" sale! Man I lucked out there looks like.
Anyway, the main reason I picked these up was because I was planning to cut out much of the top portion of my strut mounts to gain access to the camber adjustment plates without removing the struts. I wanted these front braces to add the extra reinforcement and replace what I was taking away.
Install was pretty simple and straightforward. You can immediately feel the results, just take the car out and jerk the wheel around. You don't feel the body/chassis "bend" like it used to, that's the best way I can describe it. Definitely a positive effect on the car, improving overall rigidity and confidence in corners!
As far as cutting the strut mounts, well I just pulled out my handy wireless Dremel and went to work. The metal isn't thick. At first I cut a 2" circle around the camber adjustments, and it was actually a pretty nice circle! However I quickly realized this wasn't actually going to give me the access needed to the camber adjustment once you actually adjust it (lol I'm new, remember?)
So at that point I began cutting more on the inside of the strut mounts so that once the camber plates are actually
adjusted, we can still access the screws. My performance alignment shop was very thankful for this, otherwise they would've had to pull off the struts to align (and I'm sure I would've been charged extra on top of my unlimited plan
)
Right side:
Left:
Forgot to mention I picked up some Rustoleum black spray paint and painters tape, and spray painted where I cut into the metal just to make sure I don't get any rust. I sanded the edges first using a sanding bit on my Dremel. My alignment guy told me he was almost right at the edge of camber adjustment, so if I wanted to go more I'll actually still need to cut more into the insides of the strut mounts! Sheesh.