shocks for the slammed

[sohc_it]

Alright i know that i could use 92-00 civic rear struts for the rear without any problems, but im still confused about the front. What other struts from another vehicle can i use on a +3 inch drop? i really dont want to use the diy extended tophats and cut wishbone diy because i feel that they are unsafe. Getting cut and rethreaded struts are kinda of expensive and hard to find someone that is willing to do them in my area. I would cough up $850 for d2 suspension but i can get my handz on new struts for free from a buddy of mine. I really perfer this option.

currently im running skunkworks(skunk2) coilovers and stock struts(shitty ride)

thank in advance

[itzdave]

bilsteins yo!

[sohc_it]

byt they wouldn't be able to handle so much of a drop

[ghettogeddy]

i dont think any struts thats mad for anything that will fot a 3g will handle a drop like that lol

[Tdurr]

no stock strut is made to handle a drop like that. simple as that.

[mushroom_toy]

Alright i know that i could use 92-00 civic rear struts for the rear without any problems, but im still confused about the front. What other struts from another vehicle can i use on a +3 inch drop? i really dont want to use the diy extended tophats and cut wishbone diy because i feel that they are unsafe. Getting cut and rethreaded struts are kinda of expensive and hard to find someone that is willing to do them in my area. I would cough up $850 for d2 suspension but i can get my handz on new struts for free from a buddy of mine. I really perfer this option.

currently im running skunkworks(skunk2) coilovers and stock struts(shitty ride)

thank in advance

You wanna dump your car...and you dont think the tophat mod is safe? LOL The tophat mod is NOT to lower your car, it is to retain shock travel, so you be using any regular old strut. Ive put 20k or more on mine and have had no problems, hell the originator (Vector) put track time in on his and didnt have any problems, if you can break grade 10 carriage bolts then youre doing something wrong.

[Strugglebucket]

If you really drop the car over 3", the front UCAs will be constantly hitting the top of the unibody/fenderwell. Basically the UCAs will be pointed waaaay up in the air. You would need at least 600 pound springs and they'd probably still hit sometimes.

The other problems you also have to solve are 1) Getting a shock that has a stiff enough valving for your springs, and 2) Modifying the suspension so the strut won't be mashed against the bump stop all the time.

[sohc_it]

i just want to have some more strut travel and so i wont have such a bouncy ride. i dont mind having to cut my fenderwell to get some more travel in the uca. i want to know if i there is any other strut from a different car that has a shorter shaft that will work with our 3g.

[mushroom_toy]

i just want to have some more strut travel and so i wont have such a bouncy ride. i dont mind having to cut my fenderwell to get some more travel in the uca. i want to know if i there is any other strut from a different car that has a shorter shaft that will work with our 3g.

More strut travel = tophat mod. Cory(Hondamonster) and I have looked for a shorter front strut, but we couldnt find one. Right now thats your best/cheapest option.

[Strugglebucket]

Another way to increase shock travel is to relocate the spring perch higher on the shock body. Also, cutting ½" off the tops of the pinch forks will get you a little more shock travel.

Cutting the bumpstops can get you a tiny bit of extra travel. But you have to be VERY careful not to cut too much or it won't keep the shock from bottoming out. Cutting slightly less than half off of a new oem bumpstop is about the most I would do.

[mushroom_toy]

Another way to increase shock travel is to relocate the spring perch higher on the shock body. Also, cutting ½" off the tops of the pinch forks will get you a little more shock travel.

Cutting the bumpstops can get you a tiny bit of extra travel. But you have to be VERY careful not to cut too much or it won't keep the shock from bottoming out. Cutting slightly less than half off of a new oem bumpstop is about the most I would do.

A lot of people dont realize though with tophat mod...you dont really have to run bumpstops on the struts...you end up having almost complete full travel.

[2ndGenGuy]

You always want to run bumpstops. They come on the car in stock configuration for good reason...

[mushroom_toy]

^ Eh, its fine to run a strut without em, as long as youre not straining the strut. Never had a problem with running mine without bumpstops. My upper control are hit the strut tower sometimes, but thats about it.

[2ndGenGuy]

Dude... they come on every single car from the factory for a reason. Think about it, they're putting them on cars with stock suspension, with maximum shock travel. That means you will never have more shock travel than stock. They're there in case you hit that pothole or bump just a little too hard. It's really a bad idea to run without them. You may be fine for a while, you may get away with it forever, but that does not make it a good idea.

[A18A]

agree. my rear shocks don't have bump stops & with passengers back there, you can tell lol. i should really put them back in.

[mushroom_toy]

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. 2 years no problems on my end. In all actuality, my car didnt have em to begin with...it may have from factory, but by the time i got it it didnt have em.

[Hondamonster]

with the tophat mod, bumpstops are unnecessary. my tophat is extended enough so that the bottom of the car hits the ground before the valve hits the internal bottom of the shock body. and i'm the lowest on the board, with comfortable ride quality and my shocks are not blown. mushroom toy can vouch, its not caddy smooth, but it sure as hell beats any little civic on drop springs. i work at autozone and spent a good bit of their payroll looking up and comparing honda struts for the front. ours are the shortest with the lowest spring perch. ef, eg, ek, da, cb7 and maybe a couple others have one or both of the following problems- they're longer than stock or won't fit. and ba4 preludes use the same ones as us. do the top hat mod and if you're going low enough then you have to either cut the top out of the strut tower so the uca can pass into the engine bay to maintain travel, or shorten the upper section of the steering knuckle so it doesn't travel as far at compression.

when you purchase a set of new struts, they're compressed in the box with either a little clip thing holding them down or you have to twist them to release them. thats the lowest position they can travel to. with the top hat mod, it can NEVER reach that position. simple as that. it gives you travel, you can add in preload, and you don't need bump stops, therefore giving you even more travel.

[mushroom_toy]

with the tophat mod, bumpstops are unnecessary. my tophat is extended enough so that the bottom of the car hits the ground before the valve hits the internal bottom of the shock body. and i'm the lowest on the board, with comfortable ride quality and my shocks are not blown. mushroom toy can vouch, its not caddy smooth, but it sure as hell beats any little civic on drop springs. i work at autozone and spent a good bit of their payroll looking up and comparing honda struts for the front. ours are the shortest with the lowest spring perch. ef, eg, ek, da, cb7 and maybe a couple others have one or both of the following problems- they're longer than stock or won't fit. and ba4 preludes use the same ones as us. do the top hat mod and if you're going low enough then you have to either cut the top out of the strut tower so the uca can pass into the engine bay to maintain travel, or shorten the upper section of the steering knuckle so it doesn't travel as far at compression.

when you purchase a set of new struts, they're compressed in the box with either a little clip thing holding them down or you have to twist them to release them. thats the lowest position they can travel to. with the top hat mod, it can NEVER reach that position. simple as that. it gives you travel, you can add in preload, and you don't need bump stops, therefore giving you even more travel.

Truth.

[2ndGenGuy]

I guess that's fine, if you think the tophat mod is a good idea too. But I don't really think either of them are good ideas. So I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. :)

[mushroom_toy]

I guess that's fine, if you think the tophat mod is a good idea too. But I don't really think either of them are good ideas. So I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. :)

True, but if you havent ever tried the tophat mod, you really cant say anything about it, it looks sketchy until you actually try in and then you find out how sturdy and useful it is.

[stat1K]

i think if someone would make a real extended tophat for the accord this would all be better...

even then i would still run the bump stop, you can say it's pointless BUT if it's not any additional work to slip a bump stop over the strut rod why would it matter?

at any rate, i don't think slamming the car is the best idea. it looks nice enough, but when you're scraping and destroying parts because of it, i have to wonder if the cool factor is enough?

[2ndGenGuy]

True, but if you havent ever tried the tophat mod, you really cant say anything about it, it looks sketchy until you actually try in and then you find out how sturdy and useful it is.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v667/Legend_Master/DIY/10.jpg

I can tell you one thing, you're not getting any extra suspension travel out of this. Unless you mean to tell me that the strut body can come up through the original tophat which is in the original location. I don't have to have ever tried it to see how it works.

All the mod does it have your strut extended as though the car wasn't as low. Honestly, I'm not sure that really does anything if my understanding of how a shock absorber works is accurate. Shocks are stored, and shipped in a compressed state anyways as noted above, so I can't see how it being compressed while on the car will damage it.

Although, looking at this, you are right, you don't need a bumpstop. It looks as though your strut will slam into the lower tophat before it can actually bottom out internally.

[mushroom_toy]

I can tell you one thing, you're not getting any extra suspension travel out of this. Unless you mean to tell me that the strut body can come up through the original tophat which is in the original location. I don't have to have ever tried it to see how it works.

All the mod does it have your strut extended as though the car wasn't as low. Honestly, I'm not sure that really does anything if my understanding of how a shock absorber works is accurate. Shocks are stored, and shipped in a compressed state anyways as noted above, so I can't see how it being compressed while on the car will damage it.

Although, looking at this, you are right, you don't need a bumpstop. It looks as though your strut will slam into the lower tophat before it can actually bottom out internally.


You dont have to have the strut come up through the tower, because IT WILL NOT UNLESS YOU JACK THE FUCK OUTTA THE STRUT ON THE CAR, or otherwise do something incredible or stupid. Hondamonster has the lowest car on the forum, and if I remember correctly did widen the hole so the strut body could travel up though, although looking at it, I couldnt tell that it even would come up through. Like has been said the tophat mod is to extend the travel of the STRUT back to stock specs. If you dont think that having the strut in a more stock position on a lowered car to extend shock travel does not extend suspension travel, youre an idiot. Your upper control arm will ALWAYS bottom out first, unless your towers are cut, or you are slammed on stock height struts. If you are slammed on stock struts, the strut piston will bottom out on the body. Extending the strut with the tophat mod, extends the range back to stock and therefore DOES INCREASE suspension travel. (if your strut is bottomed out, the piston or the body, or is close to being that way lowered, then you have close to NO suspension travel)

Either way you can talk all you want, unless you have done it, I dont really think you can give a proper opinion about it, you can give a opinion on how it looks, or theory but not how it works on the specific car.

[Strugglebucket]

This reminds me... I was watching an old episode of "Cops". Some dude was running from the police in a maroon 3g. He hit a railroad crossing doing 60 and blew out the suspension. Sparks went everywhere and the car was pretty much dead after that.

I was like "Nooo!!! You fool!"

[Hondamonster]

You dont have to have the strut come up through the tower, because IT WILL NOT UNLESS YOU JACK THE FUCK OUTTA THE STRUT ON THE CAR, or otherwise do something incredible or stupid. Hondamonster has the lowest car on the forum, and if I remember correctly did widen the hole so the strut body could travel up though, although looking at it, I couldnt tell that it even would come up through. Like has been said the tophat mod is to extend the travel of the STRUT back to stock specs. If you dont think that having the strut in a more stock position on a lowered car to extend shock travel does not extend suspension travel, youre an idiot. Your upper control arm will ALWAYS bottom out first, unless your towers are cut, or you are slammed on stock height struts. If you are slammed on stock struts, the strut piston will bottom out on the body. Extending the strut with the tophat mod, extends the range back to stock and therefore DOES INCREASE suspension travel. (if your strut is bottomed out, the piston or the body, or is close to being that way lowered, then you have close to NO suspension travel)

Either way you can talk all you want, unless you have done it, I dont really think you can give a proper opinion about it, you can give a opinion on how it looks, or theory but not how it works on the specific car.

this.

as stated, my shock body can literally travel into the engine bay. i built mine specifically to do that because as stated, my car is low enough so that if i hit a bump hard enough, the suspension travels enough so that the limiting factor would be the shock body hitting the lower top hat. that said, yeah i upped my suspension travel. but the point, is that shocks are designed to be in a certain range of motion. when you lower a car, you lower the shock's range of motion beyond what it is designed to perform in. this causes the internal valve to bottom out in the shock body. when shipped, it is bottomed out and that doesn't hurt the valve or internal seals. but when you do it with 1000 pounds of weight over the front axle in a car with inertia and springs and hit a big bump or pothole, bottoming out the shock blows the seals and damages the valve inside, causing it to no longer dampen the bounce of the car resulting in a blown shock. hopefully you already knew all that.

that said, the thread is titled "shocks for the slammed"

the reason luke and i are explaining to the op that he can do the top hat mod is because you can take a factory shock and adapt it to become a shock for the slammed. you retain the designated travel so that the shock can perform in its range of motion and add longevity to the life of the shock because it no longer bottoms out so it doesn't blow in a week of driving because the valve is constantly slamming into the internal bottom of the shock body. you can do this with a factory strut, or like me, a performance strut. my performance strut still dampens the stiff springs i'm running so i end up with a comforatble ride and a very low ride height.

now unless your frame is 2 inches from the ground or less, keep your theories and desk knowledge to yourself and leave the suggestions to those who know from experience.

[LowSider]

Yeeaah I got mine all the way down on ebay coilovers, and I just smoked some raised casting and drove the shocks right through the tops hats!

Time for the top hat mod!

[sohc_it]

thanks for all this information guys ill have to really try the extended tophat

[2ndGenGuy]

Wow well you guys certainly let me have it, didn't ya? :D

[Strugglebucket]

Get the f@ck out of here with your desk knowledge.
:bow:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/luby555/mrpeanut.jpg

[mushroom_toy]

Lols.

[SQ is the SQUAD]

has anyone tried modifying these

http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/9/8/5/4/2/9/webimg/399338941_o.jpg

i might run legend masters setup with the ef fronts and the accord rears. and modify either the mounting holes on the car or the studs on the top hats themselves

[mykwikcoupe]

My car is dropped 3inches and it drives me nuts. I feel as though I cant drive over a rock and not bang the bottom of the car into it as i try to get over it. Maybe its just the roads here, all the speed bumps or who knows what but I dont see how you guys can be slammed. It must kill you to beat your cars this badly. Im leaving mine as it is but my plans to go lower are out the door

[itzdave]

has anyone tried modifying these

http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/9/8/5/4/2/9/webimg/399338941_o.jpg



what are those?

[mykwikcoupe]

those a different design of a raised tophat mod. Obviously not built for our cars unfortunately as they have 2 studs and ours have 3. I contacted dc sport or koni or whoever it was that made the billet ones and got no response

[SQ is the SQUAD]

modify either the mounting holes on the car or the studs on the top hats themselves

[2oodoor]

Wow well you guys certainly let me have it, didn't ya? :D

zombie I know, but there is good info in this thread.. so bumpty

Hey keep in mind that the strut on a 3rd gen doesn't place or anchor the upper suspension like it does on a 2nd gen. Top hat mod should be fine, just needs some prettyin up...