my muffler guy doesn't know how to install the factory cabrio rear brace. can someone post a pic. thanks.

 

Sorry - not a great photo, but the best I have right now. The short piece goes across the rear of the exhaust tunnel and bolts down on the blocks there - should be obvious. Then the other four arms will line up with existing holes....

Are you adding an aftermarket exhaust? Because that may be creating clearance issues which could be what's confusing the issue... many aftermarket exhausts don't have the bends necessary to clear the cabrio brace...

 

Here's a picture of mine:



Ignore the four extra nuts on each side - they're just there to lower the brace a little bit to provide clearance for some custom exhaust piping.

From the picture, you can see that the long diagonal braces bolt to the underside of the short brace, and then the short brace fastens to the car via four bolts. There are four diagonal braces - the two that go toward the front of the car go right up against the short brace, and the two diagonal braces that go more off to the sides of the car go next, so that the order of parts from the top down is 1) floorpan of the car, 2) short brace, 3) diagonals that lead to the front of the car, and 4) diagonals that lead to the sides of the car.

 

Didn't the muffler guy take note of how it was on there before taking it off to do whatever he did?

 

Does anyone know if, like the mount-points for the Cabrio front diagonal braces, the mounts for the rear brace are included on later R53s?

 

Pretty sure they're not.

 

I thought people had put the rear braces on R53s before.

Edit: this was my 2,999th post. I'm about to join a semi-exclusive club. T-T

 

I thought so too, but can't find the post.

 

I think the easiest thing to do would be to look underneath a coupe and see if the two metal mounting blocks for the short grey cabrio brace are there. If they're not, adding the cabrio braces to a coupe would be prohibitively difficult.

(That is, unless the blocks themselves are bolted to the floorpan and the holes to attach them are present on the coupe.)

 

Would those blocks be the ones from which the nuts are hanging in the picture?

 

Yes - the right one is hidden in the shadows, but you can see the camera flash on the left one.

 

The other big part are the bosses that protrude from the sideskirts... I'm sure those aren't there...