RVM Rear Strut Bar


I purchased the RVM Rear Strut Bar on a group buy through a seller on Ebay. The RVM bar is a replica of the Cusco bar, but has one less cross brace on each end plate. The bar can be mounted either offset to the front or the rear. While most people choose to mount it to the rear, I chose to mount it with the offset to the front, because it is most close to centered on the struts in this position.
The installation is very straightforward, but I have included how I did it. Some pics and short directions of the installation are included below.


Bar









Before



Remove both access panels to the rear struts.


Remove the front and rear nuts from each strut. (The large nut in the center remains.)


Installation



Disconnect the end brackets from the strut bar by removing the nut and allen head bolt on each bracket.
Put the ends over the studs on the struts. (Choose whether to align bar to the front or rear: I chose front.)
Put nuts back on front and rear nuts to both struts hand tight (for now).




Loosen adjustment nut on each end of the strut bar.
Attach bar to both end brackets with the allen head bolts & nuts.
The length of the bar is adjusted by unscrewing the ends of the bar.


Once everything is attached, tighten the nuts on both struts.
Then tighten the allen head bolts on the ends of the bar.
Finally, tighten adjustment nut on each end of the strut bar.

After



I chose to leave the access panels removed for now, because I did not want to hack them. Many people choose to cut small notches in them and reinstall them around the strut bar.








Update

Modified Rear Strut Cover Panels

I finally got around to modifying the rear strut cover panels to fit with the rear strut bar. The rear strut cover panels were placed on the vehicle as best as possible, and I made marks on them with a marker. I then used a dremel to slowly cut away material. I attempted the passenger side first, and I cut out a notch starting with a small amount of material on the botttom side. I slowly increased the width and height of it, until it would fit into place with the screws holding down a little tension.



For the driver side, I decided to see if I could make an improvement, so I decided to cut a hole in the middle of the panel, and only a small slit in the bottom, so that the panel could be slid over the rear strut bar. Other than that difference, I modified it the same way as the passenger side.





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