What do you do with the old OEM mid body brace?

Same question I had. I was thinking that with a little grinding that two stock bars might be mounted. One up side down ( with the lip ground off) and the other in the normal position.

 

Lol. Mine is sitting in the garage, alongside the wheel covers.

 

Ditto, but I also have a front plate bracket along with it all.

 

I am keeping them to re-install when I sell the cars. It will cover the curb-rash.

 

How about donating it to a Gen II Prius owner?

Same brace needed but the older cars didn't come with one installed by the factory.

 

My 2008 came with a brace. I replaced that one also. I must have the old one sitting around somewhere.

 

The Gen II brace is a whole 6 inches shorter and about an inch narrower.

 

So it's only the Gen II OEM brace from a touring model that I could accept as a hand me down I guess.

 

Both the hourglass and the tubular braces are designed to "twist." They are not that stiff when bent "end to end." The "ultimate"brace needs to "twist" but needs to ne very stiff when bent "end over end."

That can only be accomplished with stiffer brace or intimately, a "box beam" like my latest design in the attached photo. It is like the one that Andy Newhouse and BreitrthrnU replaced theirs with. Their earlier versions function exactly the same way.

 

That's correct. The Gen II brace is about 14 inches long and supplied with four M8 bolts. The Gen III braces is about 20 inches long and uses four M10 bolts.

A lot of Gen II "stiffener" braces are not properly design to allow them to twist like the OEM brace and could exert extra stress on the mounting bolt area of the frame rails. Metal fatigue might NEVER show up or may many years down the road.