How to modify a Nissan 240SX Strut tower bar for a 3rd gen celica
A guide brought to you by your friendly Teranfirbt

The first thing you need is a strut tower bar (from now on referred to as "STB") for an 89-94 Nissan 240SX
It's recomended you get one that has full circles that bolt to the towers rather than the C looking ones.
Ebay is a good place to find them (Search for 240SX Strut tower)
After you get it you can start modding it to fit your celica!
(Try to ignore the crappy pictures o_O)
Oh yea, all information on this page is provided as is, blah blah, not my fault if you hurt yourself, blah blah, not my fault if you break something, blah blah... Feel free to use the images as you need, just don't call them your own (I don't know why you would want to..)

Required tools:
Large bench vice
Hack Saw
Dremel or air powered grinder with a metal grinding bit
sandpaper, able to sand metal
14mm socket with a torque wrench

Recomended tools
Metal cutting bandsaw
High speed, air powered cutoff wheel
Air powered grinder with titanium carbide bit (read: $$)
Belt sander

Step 1 after you take it out of the package you need to figure out what you have. You should have 2 rings, the bar, 2 large eye bolts that thread into the bar, 2 lock nuts for the eye bolts, and 2 bolts with nuts that bolt the bar to the rings.

Step 2 Begin by marking the rings and bar for cutting.
You will be cutting about 1/4-3/8" off each bar end and about 3/16"-1/4" out of the rings

Then mark the eye bolts for cutting. You will be cutting about 1" off the ends of each.
Note that one of the bolts is reverse threaded (at least it was on mine).


Step 3 Cutting.
Start by cutting off each end of the bar with your trusty hacksaw. It's aluminum, so it won't take much
Put it in the vice to make it easy.

Cut off the ends of the eye bolts. I'd recomend a high speed cutoff wheel, these are hard bolts!
Should look about like this:

After completing these cutting steps you should sand or use a file to get rid of the burrs.
try to put a little bevel around the ends of the eye bolts as it will make it much easier to thread them on.

Step 4 Carving out the rings.
Due to the nature of this operation (there will be little metal bits flying EVERYWHERE!) I'd like to make a few notes here.
1 - wear safety glasses, as I demonstrate here:

2 - Wear shoes/boots (not sandals like I did)
3 - Wear gloves, (not like me who didn't)... thin latex or rubber are fine.

Ok, on to the carving...
I used a titanium carbide bit designed for porting cast iron heads, as such it's sharper than hell and stays sharper than hell.

After you've got your tool ready, lock one of your marked rings in your vice, like so:

(lucky for me I have a vice that angles up like that, it made it much easier)
Then just start carving. It's pretty fun really, and with a good tool won't take more than about 30-45 minutes to get both rings done.

About halfway done on the first one, you can see the metal bits on the floor:

I'll also note that this point that you need to carve a little bit out of the bolt hole nearest the uprights.
It doesn't take much, as I've marked.

Step 5 Installation.
Start by cleaning everything up with a rag and brake clean. If you'd like you can repaint the insides of the rings where you carved out, but I was too lazy ^_^.
Installation is fairly straight forward.
First put the rings on each strut tower, it's as simple as taking off the bolts and putting it on.
NOTE:You might need to make adjustments to your carving, do so as needed to get it on.

retorque these bolts to 35 ft/lbs.
Before you put the bar in the car, take the lock nuts (they are far too thick) and cut to them down to about 3/16-1/4" thick. Use a hacksaw or high speed cutoff wheel and then clean them up with a sander.
If you don't use the nuts you will hog out the threads in the bar and it won't work.

To put the bar on, thread the lock nuts onto each eye bolt and then thread those into the bar as far as they will go and start making adjustments out. When you go out 1/2 turn on one bolt go out 1/2 turn on the other so they are even. It shouldn't take much adjustment with the nuts, although you might have to make the nuts thinner either with a grinder or belt sander.
You will know it's right when you can barely get the bolts on that hold it to the rings.
Finished bar:



Update 5/31/2004:
I've modified it a little bit more to clear the hood properly:

You can also see the cut down lock nut at the end of the bar.
Thanks to Dynamic73 for that idea.

Questions, comments, complaints (yea, like I'm gonna listen to those..) can be sent to me Teranfirbt@hotmail.com
The original concept was done by celi_83 on the Celica-gts message boards.
Celica-gts.com Message boards