the-ish.com/supra

The Rear Strut Tower Bar is attached to the rear strut towers. They’re right behind the back seats. The Towers are covered by vynil, and to install the bar, you cant really avoid cutting a hole for it. Unfortunately, the guy who had the car before me did a real hackjob with the cut.

First thing i did was grab a straight edge and mark off a straight line. I wanted a similiar line on both the Left and the Right sides, so after a little work with a ruler, i was set. I’m going to keep an eye out for these vynil pieces to replace the ones i have (so i can make the cut much smaller) but until then, a straight, clean cut will do.

A dremmel tool worked pretty well. i used a medium grade sandpaper attachment, and it did the job. you could use a fine grade, but it doesn’t really make a difference. Start shaving down the excess plastic. It comes off pretty easy, so dont press down too hard. I stayed on speed 2 pretty much the whole time. It’s difficult to get a straight line if you are trying to move with the direction of rotation. Move it in the opposite direction of the rotation at the point of contact.

Once you’ve gotten it down very close to your line, under an eighth of an inch, grab a lighter. You can melt away all the little shreds of plastic still clinging on. You can also heat up the plastic and smooth it out with your finger to get rid of the freshly-sanded look.

Project Completed!

There we go – much better. Check out the Before and After images below. It’s nothing competition quality, but it at least doesnt look like someone tried to steal the bar.