Rear Ladder Bar Install...How-To w/ Pics.

[ucfz31s13]

For those that are interested, here's a short how-to on installing the rear ladder bar on the s13. I got my bar from Sam at Jspec.com. As most of you know, it's not a direct bolt in affair, as the JDM and USDM rear chasis has a slight difference. The main problem this causes is w/ the brackets. I only personally know of a few people (Dousan/DriftHeaven/etc) that have done this, so I never found any kind of write-up or pics at all of the brackets and the modifications that have to be done...until now

If you don't know by now, this is a rear ladder bar.


And here's a close up shot


The driver side bracket bolts on just fine...as noted by the pic below.


There are two bolt holes in this bracket. Both holes are already in the frame, so just screw them in. You see the one hole, the other is hidden behind the exhaust hanger. To install both bolts you have to drop the rear exhaust hanger, thats it.

Now to the fun part...the passenger side bracket.

Here is a pic of the orignal brackets. The passenger side is the one on top.


This is the part of the bracket you have to cut/grind off.


Once you cut off that angled side, the bracket will sit flush against the passenger side frame, like this.



Now you have drill the holes in the bracket. I used a piece of aluminum foil as a guide to drill my holes. Cut it as a template, then pushed in where the holes on the frame were, the punched them on the bracket, and drilled.

As you will notice, the holes on the driver side bracket are slotted up and down to allow adjustment, and thats what I did on the passenger side bracket as well. Once you drill the holes, bolt her up!

As I mentioned in the beginning, the only downfall to having the bar straight, is only about 1/2 of the bracket sits against the frame, and unless you drill a hole in the passenger side frame, you will probably only be able to get one bolt in.

What I am going to do to remedy this situation is weld an 'L' shaped plate to the bracket, that sits flush on the bottom of the rail, and then goes up the opposite side. There are a couple more holes on the opposite side of the rail, so once I drill a couple holes in the newly welded add-on bracket, I figure it will do its job. I also might weld an extra piece connecting the corner of the new bracket and bottom of the original bracket for add on strength, as seen below.

This is a pic of my front ladder bar, but it looks similar to the rear, and gives you the idea.


Make sure you have powerful tools (I had air), and bring a somewhat intuitive mind if you attempt the project. Its easy to bugger up the passenger side bracket if you aren't careful and take things slow. The hardest part was probably locating where to drill the new holes in the bracket, as you have to be exact.

I will post pics of the welded bracket once I get around to fooling w/ it. The holidays have kept me busy. If anyone needs specific pics, let me know and I can take them since I FINALLY got out of the stone age and got a digi cam.

Hope the write-up helps! Enjoy!



z

[knightrider]

great write up, i have installed my rear ladder bar and did it the same way you did, i was planning on doing a write up, but it seems you beat me too it.

[Var]

Will it work the same on a hatchback? i've heard that it is different from the coupe.

[ucfz31s13]

From what I've been told, it will only fit coupe. Although I've never been told why it won't.

z

[Brian]

it can work on a fastback. just ask Mr. Dousan

[ucfz31s13]

haha

duh.

:hammer:

z

[Var]

Dousan if your read this post would you be kind enough to confirm whether the write-up above would be similar on a fastback, or is it a different ballgame altogether?

[ucfz31s13]

It's the same. I asked him a couple questions when I was looking at the bar and he confirmed.

z

[Ghettokracker71]

Originally posted by ucfz31s13
It's the same. I asked him a couple questions when I was looking at the bar and he confirmed.

z

Sweet thread....mind if I holla at you and ask what exhaust you got bolted on that thing ?

Thanks alot for the how-to...definitely will come in handy

[zero.counter]

It won't fit on hatches, they have a different configuration of support and the frame is rounded differently as it will not allow the plate of the bar to mount anywhere flat or planar. Without major modification to the bar, possibly dropping the structural integrity of it and is usefulness that is.

[Ghettokracker71]

Originally posted by zero.counter
It won't fit on hatches, they have a different configuration of support and the frame is rounded differently as it will not allow the plate of the bar to mount anywhere flat or planar. Without major modification to the bar, possibly dropping the structural integrity of it and is usefulness that is.

damn...........

[JasonNagra]

Great write up!!

This should definatley be in the archives.