There aren't any fender braces made for the CB7 so I purchased a set for the CD5 HERE from Ultra Racing. I also have their rear strut bar on my wife's CRV and their quality seems to be GOOD, not excellent like ESP but still GOOD. To my dismay the CD5 door hinges are about 1.25" closer together than the CB7 BUT everything else lines up ok. This DIY will explain how to modify the Ultra Racing fender braces for the CD5 to fit the CB7.
Tools needed:
* 10mm, 12mm, 19mm, 1/2" sockets and wrenches.
* Phillips screwdriver or bit on drill.
* Small pry bar.
* Drill with 5/16", 17/64", 27/64" metal drill bits.
* 8mm X 1.25 and 12mm X 1.25 thread taps - PepBoys or Napa is your best bet for these.
* Heavy duty paper clip.
* Vice grips or a buddy with channel locks.
* Hack saw or dremel with cutting wheel.
Parts needed:
* 2x - 12mm X 1.25 X (20mm-50mm) 8.8 or 10.9 hardness flange bolts with flat washers
* 8x - 8mm X 1.25 X (25mm-30mm) 10.9 hardness serrated flange bolts with hardened washers
* 2x - 5/16" - 3/8" regular flat washers or whatever you have laying around.
Process:
1. Remove fender.
A. Remove front corner light (one screw from top and slide straight forward)
B. Remove mudflap if applicable.
C. Remove rubber fender liner completely and set aside. It has tons of Phillips head push tabs. Back out the Phillips screw and pry out the surrounding tab.
D. Stick pry bar between body of car and end of side skirt with the handle towards the brake rotor and pry down on the side skirt. At the same time use other hand or buddy to remove the single 10mm bolt at the very bottom of the fender.
E. Open drivers door and remove two 10mm bolts at top and bottom of fender near the door hinges.
F. Open hood and remove three 10mm bolts along the edge of the fender.
G. Remove two 10mm bolts under corner light holding fender to the chassis.
H. Remove two Phillips screws along the wheel arch at the top of the bumper. Pull end of bumper outward and slide that triangle piece rearward and set aside.
I. Remove fender. Pry down on sideskirt as before and pull bottom corner out. Fender will flex some to twist it away from scratching the door. Make sure fender can't scratch door and pull it up and rearward to remove. Set aside.
2. Preparation:
A. To prevent having to realign door, drill a 17/64" hole in the top hinge as pictured below (bolt already installed), tap with 8mm X 1.25 thread tap and install a spare 10mm bolt in the location in pic below. The bolt can be removed later so if you have no spares just use one of the fender bolts you removed previously. DO NOT drill this hole any higher than pictured....there is a big hole in the body behind the hinge and going any higher will mess you up. Tighten the bolt pretty tight. It's going to hold your door in alignment.....also you can close your door for the rest of this DIY to help keep it still. Picture:
B. Grab a hack saw or dremel and cut the top hole on the lower hinge mount on the fender brace as pictured below. Note you are cutting two small pieces of material and eliminating usefulness of that fender brace hole location for structural purposes....no worries, keep reading. Picture:
C. Make sure the bolt installed in step 2A is tight AND the very bottom bolt in the lower hinge is tight. Remove the other 3 hinge bolts. You will remove both bolts in the top hinge and the upper bolt in the bottom hinge.
3. Installation:
A. Slap your brace up there and wiggle the fender mount end between the wire/washer fluid line and line it up on the upper hinge. Take your 8mm X 1.25 X 30mm 10.9 hardness bolts and washers and thread the two top bolts in till almost touching the fender brace.
B. Make sure the bottom brace mount is flat against the hinge and push the whole brace rearward till it's hitting against the upper bolts AND the inside circle of the bolt hole in the lower brace mount (where you did some cutting in step 2B) as shown in the above picture. With it pushed rearward snugly, tighten the two top hinge bolts as shown in picture 1 above.
C. Insert one of the 8mm X 1.25 X 30mm bolts and washer into the lower hinge, top bolt and SNUG it. Do not tighten it or it'll tend to push the brace away from the hinge.
D. Drill a 27/64" hole through the CENTER of the very bottom brace mount hole and into the lower door hinge and body. You are drilling mostly into the hinge and only a little bit of the body so don't worry about structural issues. Tap with 12mm X 1.25 thread tap and install one of the 12mm bolts with a flat washer and TIGHTEN to about 50-60 ft. lbs.
Lets discuss this: We had to eliminate one of the bolt locations on the brace on the bottom. I'm no engineer but my physics brain says that a 12mm diameter bolt is much stonger than TWO 8mm diameter bolts so this method is plenty sufficient for strength. Because it is threaded into the door hinge, it will spread the load back to the original bolting locations so all is good!
E. I removed the upper bolt in the lower mount, found a nut that threaded on to act as a spacer and tightened it back down, you'll see the need for this if you try to tighten down this bolt without.
F. Move to the 3rd brace mount on the inner fender. I might add here that before proceeding you'll want to make sure the car is sitting on all fours with the suspension loaded as normal. Drill two 5/16" holes through the brace mount into the inner fender material. It's not overly thick so this should be quick work. Picture below:
G. And you thought "paper clip" in the list of tools was a joke.
Make yourself a little "grabber" out of the paper clip as pictured below that will hold onto the 5/16" bolts that came with the brace. It cannot wrap all the way around and must be able to be pulled off.
H. There is a hole to the front and below the brace mount in the inner fender that is barely big enough for the head of the 5/16" bolts. You'll need to use the paper clip to maneuver a bolt up in there and over through the fender where you'll thread the nut on. Pull the "grabber" and it'll pop off letting your bolt loose to be tightened. See two pictures below:
NOTE: You'll need to place a washer between the mount and fender on the bottom bolt as you insert the bolt through the hole. See pic/reason below:
I. You will be able to thread the nuts until the bolt starts spinning. Proceed tightening by clamping the end of the bolt with vice grips and tightening the nut with a 1/2" end wrench as pictured below:
J. Go back and make sure all bolts are tightened properly. And you'll finish with this:
K. Instal fender reversal of removal (I plan to sand/wire brush the whole area under there, seal around hinges with RTV and spray rubber undercoating to protect from rust and help deaden sound a tiny bit)
Thoughts about performance:
Can't really tell because it's been raining too much to push. This did NOT prevent the front door from binding when the front corner is jacked which I was hoping for but it can't hurt. In the event of a frontal collision I believe this brace will help prevent the cabin from as much damage....but the "stop" will be quicker. All other vehicles I've heard about have benefited ALOT from a fender brace so I'm sure I'll notice improvements when it dries up and I can test cornering.
Tools needed:
* 10mm, 12mm, 19mm, 1/2" sockets and wrenches.
* Phillips screwdriver or bit on drill.
* Small pry bar.
* Drill with 5/16", 17/64", 27/64" metal drill bits.
* 8mm X 1.25 and 12mm X 1.25 thread taps - PepBoys or Napa is your best bet for these.
* Heavy duty paper clip.
* Vice grips or a buddy with channel locks.
* Hack saw or dremel with cutting wheel.
Parts needed:
* 2x - 12mm X 1.25 X (20mm-50mm) 8.8 or 10.9 hardness flange bolts with flat washers
* 8x - 8mm X 1.25 X (25mm-30mm) 10.9 hardness serrated flange bolts with hardened washers
* 2x - 5/16" - 3/8" regular flat washers or whatever you have laying around.
Process:
1. Remove fender.
A. Remove front corner light (one screw from top and slide straight forward)
B. Remove mudflap if applicable.
C. Remove rubber fender liner completely and set aside. It has tons of Phillips head push tabs. Back out the Phillips screw and pry out the surrounding tab.
D. Stick pry bar between body of car and end of side skirt with the handle towards the brake rotor and pry down on the side skirt. At the same time use other hand or buddy to remove the single 10mm bolt at the very bottom of the fender.
E. Open drivers door and remove two 10mm bolts at top and bottom of fender near the door hinges.
F. Open hood and remove three 10mm bolts along the edge of the fender.
G. Remove two 10mm bolts under corner light holding fender to the chassis.
H. Remove two Phillips screws along the wheel arch at the top of the bumper. Pull end of bumper outward and slide that triangle piece rearward and set aside.
I. Remove fender. Pry down on sideskirt as before and pull bottom corner out. Fender will flex some to twist it away from scratching the door. Make sure fender can't scratch door and pull it up and rearward to remove. Set aside.
2. Preparation:
A. To prevent having to realign door, drill a 17/64" hole in the top hinge as pictured below (bolt already installed), tap with 8mm X 1.25 thread tap and install a spare 10mm bolt in the location in pic below. The bolt can be removed later so if you have no spares just use one of the fender bolts you removed previously. DO NOT drill this hole any higher than pictured....there is a big hole in the body behind the hinge and going any higher will mess you up. Tighten the bolt pretty tight. It's going to hold your door in alignment.....also you can close your door for the rest of this DIY to help keep it still. Picture:
B. Grab a hack saw or dremel and cut the top hole on the lower hinge mount on the fender brace as pictured below. Note you are cutting two small pieces of material and eliminating usefulness of that fender brace hole location for structural purposes....no worries, keep reading. Picture:
C. Make sure the bolt installed in step 2A is tight AND the very bottom bolt in the lower hinge is tight. Remove the other 3 hinge bolts. You will remove both bolts in the top hinge and the upper bolt in the bottom hinge.
3. Installation:
A. Slap your brace up there and wiggle the fender mount end between the wire/washer fluid line and line it up on the upper hinge. Take your 8mm X 1.25 X 30mm 10.9 hardness bolts and washers and thread the two top bolts in till almost touching the fender brace.
B. Make sure the bottom brace mount is flat against the hinge and push the whole brace rearward till it's hitting against the upper bolts AND the inside circle of the bolt hole in the lower brace mount (where you did some cutting in step 2B) as shown in the above picture. With it pushed rearward snugly, tighten the two top hinge bolts as shown in picture 1 above.
C. Insert one of the 8mm X 1.25 X 30mm bolts and washer into the lower hinge, top bolt and SNUG it. Do not tighten it or it'll tend to push the brace away from the hinge.
D. Drill a 27/64" hole through the CENTER of the very bottom brace mount hole and into the lower door hinge and body. You are drilling mostly into the hinge and only a little bit of the body so don't worry about structural issues. Tap with 12mm X 1.25 thread tap and install one of the 12mm bolts with a flat washer and TIGHTEN to about 50-60 ft. lbs.
Lets discuss this: We had to eliminate one of the bolt locations on the brace on the bottom. I'm no engineer but my physics brain says that a 12mm diameter bolt is much stonger than TWO 8mm diameter bolts so this method is plenty sufficient for strength. Because it is threaded into the door hinge, it will spread the load back to the original bolting locations so all is good!
E. I removed the upper bolt in the lower mount, found a nut that threaded on to act as a spacer and tightened it back down, you'll see the need for this if you try to tighten down this bolt without.
F. Move to the 3rd brace mount on the inner fender. I might add here that before proceeding you'll want to make sure the car is sitting on all fours with the suspension loaded as normal. Drill two 5/16" holes through the brace mount into the inner fender material. It's not overly thick so this should be quick work. Picture below:
G. And you thought "paper clip" in the list of tools was a joke.
Make yourself a little "grabber" out of the paper clip as pictured below that will hold onto the 5/16" bolts that came with the brace. It cannot wrap all the way around and must be able to be pulled off.H. There is a hole to the front and below the brace mount in the inner fender that is barely big enough for the head of the 5/16" bolts. You'll need to use the paper clip to maneuver a bolt up in there and over through the fender where you'll thread the nut on. Pull the "grabber" and it'll pop off letting your bolt loose to be tightened. See two pictures below:
NOTE: You'll need to place a washer between the mount and fender on the bottom bolt as you insert the bolt through the hole. See pic/reason below:
I. You will be able to thread the nuts until the bolt starts spinning. Proceed tightening by clamping the end of the bolt with vice grips and tightening the nut with a 1/2" end wrench as pictured below:
J. Go back and make sure all bolts are tightened properly. And you'll finish with this:
K. Instal fender reversal of removal (I plan to sand/wire brush the whole area under there, seal around hinges with RTV and spray rubber undercoating to protect from rust and help deaden sound a tiny bit)
Thoughts about performance:
Can't really tell because it's been raining too much to push. This did NOT prevent the front door from binding when the front corner is jacked which I was hoping for but it can't hurt. In the event of a frontal collision I believe this brace will help prevent the cabin from as much damage....but the "stop" will be quicker. All other vehicles I've heard about have benefited ALOT from a fender brace so I'm sure I'll notice improvements when it dries up and I can test cornering.
**Don't b scared be prepared for the worst**
I know the 1st gen CRV uses the same hinge part number as the Accord so I'm going to take measurements on my wife's CRV and just see how it compares.....that thing could use some structural improvements for sure!
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