long overdue pics of Jims cut pinch forks on my car

[2old_honda]

Ok I would like to apologize to everyone for taking so damn long to do this! I installed the bilsteins and neuspeed springs last week with the stock forks, and i just installed Jims cut forks tonight.

Now that I got that out of the way I would like to give a big THANK YOU to Jim!! He gave me tons of great advice and provided me with the cut forks.

Ok here are some pics of the car with the neuspeed springs and the stock pinch forks.

[2old_honda]

The struts had to be modified because of this bolt (with the stock forks the bolt sits in a groove on the shock)



I used a 4" angle grinder to carefully grind out a little place for the bolt to pass through. I then painted the exposed metal with yellow(+10hp) rustoleum.




Here you can see the fork fit to the strut, ready to install

[2old_honda]

Here are the forks and struts installed in the car




Here are the crappy after pics. I will get day time pics tomorrow.



I do know that my car is a rusty, dented POS. you dont have to remind me. The project for this winter is to fix everything and repaint the car. Pics of that will come later

[pearldrop]

It looks good. Did you measure before and after to see exactly how much extra drop you got? That is a great way to gain 1/2 to an inch of drop without losing any ride quality at all.

[goldyaccord]

Patrick,

I noticed you have the upper prelude arms on. Did you by any change drill out the slots up to about an inch? It'll give you more adjustablity for camber. I did that to my lude arms that I had on the Hatch. I was able to get the wheels at .6 camber at a 2.75 drop or so.

I'm glad to see you have everything installed! How's the ride? I want to hear about it!

[2old_honda]

Originally posted by pearldrop
It looks good. Did you measure before and after to see exactly how much extra drop you got? That is a great way to gain 1/2 to an inch of drop without losing any ride quality at all.

Yes I did actually. It is right at 5/8" lower. I think it is the perfect amount of drop. Not too low where I scrape on everything, but it still gets the center of gravity down. Plus it looks pretty good. Thanks for the comments

[Justin86]

That is a pretty good idea. I never though about that. Well another thing on my to-do list.

[2old_honda]

Originally posted by goldyaccord
Patrick,

I noticed you have the upper prelude arms on. Did you by any change drill out the slots up to about an inch? It'll give you more adjustablity for camber. I did that to my lude arms that I had on the Hatch. I was able to get the wheels at .6 camber at a 2.75 drop or so.

I'm glad to see you have everything installed! How's the ride? I want to hear about it!

That is actually something that I didnt do. The camber really isnt bad at all right now. I am getting a alignment here soon, so if they say it needs more adjustment I will widen the slots.

Thanks! It rides really great. I am very happy with it. Not bouncy at all. And it handles waaaay better. I still need a damn rear sway bar tho.

[2old_honda]

Here are some better pics with the cut forks on the car:

[guaynabo89]

Wont taking an angle grinder or denting in the strut damage it?

I wouldn't want to damage my konis and then be really in a tough spot?


You measure how much lower the srut sat being compared to how much smaller the gap was?





I just wanted to get a better before and after.

[2old_honda]

Originally posted by guaynabo89
Wont taking an angle grinder or denting in the strut damage it?

I wouldn't want to damage my konis and then be really in a tough spot?

On the bilsteins this wasnt a concern because it is hollow under the spot that I ground down. But not all struts are like that, the KYB GR2's that came out of the car were not hollow under that spot. It is kind of hard to explain, but the bilsteins have a hollow space about 1.5" on the bottom of them. I did take some pics of this, I will post them later. Also, I barely ground them down. I didnt take much metal off at all. I just needed a small flat spot where the bolt passes through. I didnt want to try to dent them because the metal is pretty thick in that area, plus I did not want to warp the strut in any way.

Originally posted by guaynabo89
You measure how much lower the srut sat being compared to how much smaller the gap was?

What do you mean by that? I am not understanding your question. Jim said he cut off 1/2" and I got about 5/8" drop. Is that what you mean?

I think the angles of the two pics you posted dont really show the difference very well. Here are two that i think show it a little better

actually, on second thought I think I should take some better after pics.

[Jims 86LXI HB]

Long overdue, gee I feel greatfull that you should post this at all, thank you for not letting my experiment be in vain. I wanted this post to be done so that other's could see what's this mod is all about. Thank for for doing it. Their are several member's that over the years that have complained about their lowered front end's are to high. This is a perfect way to fix that.

BTW, my tape measure said I took 1/2" off, but maybe I didn't measure so good and I really did 5/8. Their's no reason I could do less, like 3/8".

I'll say one thing, doing the cutting and keeping them even and square was actually extreamly easy.

[Justin86]

Originally posted by Jims 86LXI HB
Long overdue, gee I feel greatfull that you should post this at all, thank you for not letting my experiment be in vain. I wanted this post to be done so that other's could see what's this mod is all about. Thank for for doing it. Their are several member's that over the years that have complained about their lowered front end's are to high. This is a perfect way to fix that.

BTW, my tape measure said I took 1/2" off, but maybe I didn't measure so good and I really did 5/8. Their's no reason I could do less, like 3/8".

I'll say one thing, doing the cutting and keeping them even and square was actually extreamly easy.

Hey Jim what did you use to cut the pinch forks. Also would it be safe for me to grind away with my Koni's to make the bolt fit?

[guaynabo89]

Originally posted by 2old_honda


What do you mean by that? I am not understanding your question. Jim said he cut off 1/2" and I got about 5/8" drop. Is that what you mean?

Yeah thats what I meant.

Did you consider intalling the srtut on the pinchforks without the bolt to see how that would work?

[2old_honda]

Originally posted by Jims 86LXI HB
Long overdue, gee I feel greatfull that you should post this at all, thank you for not letting my experiment be in vain. I wanted this post to be done so that other's could see what's this mod is all about. Thank for for doing it. Their are several member's that over the years that have complained about their lowered front end's are to high. This is a perfect way to fix that.

BTW, my tape measure said I took 1/2" off, but maybe I didn't measure so good and I really did 5/8. Their's no reason I could do less, like 3/8".

I'll say one thing, doing the cutting and keeping them even and square was actually extreamly easy.

Hey man no problem. It is the least that I could do after all the help you gave me.

It is very possible that I measured wrong. I just did it really quick. I will remeasure it tomorrow.

Jim, Do you still want my old forks? If you do, shoot me a PM and I will sent them out!

[2old_honda]

Originally posted by guaynabo89
Yeah thats what I meant.

Did you consider intalling the srtut on the pinchforks without the bolt to see how that would work?

yep, I tried to get them on without grinding/modding but it just wouldnt work.

See how far the bolt is in the fork in this pic? It would not go much farther without grinding. I guess one thing that I should tell you is that the strut did fit pretty tight in the pinch fork (without it bolted tight) So there was not much "give". That was probably because of the thick metal that bilstein used on the strut body.

[2old_honda]

I took some pics of the bottom of the strut to show how far down it was hollow, but I cant find them. So I will just show you in this pic.


As you can see circled in blue, the bottom is hollow. This hollow space goes all the way up to the dark red line. This is why I wasnt concerned about grinding. Even if I went all the way through, it wouldnt have effected anything.

[wprocomp]

hey great work man...this is going to be my new project this winter...unfortunitly I have tokicos so I will have to see how much metal I have to work with on the bottom...have you noticed any handling improvments or probs?

[Justin86]

Hey 2old_honda do you know what Jim used to cut the forks. I'm going to be doing it here pretty soon when I do my brakes.

[2old_honda]

Originally posted by wprocomp
hey great work man...this is going to be my new project this winter...unfortunitly I have tokicos so I will have to see how much metal I have to work with on the bottom...have you noticed any handling improvments or probs?

Its hard to say if it improved. I only had the new struts/springs for a few days before I put these on so I didnt really have enough time to really get used to everything and put the car through its paces. I can tell you that it did not make anything worse, and I have not had any problems (I dont expect to) The only thing is that the front is a little lower, so there is a better chance of scraping on curbs and stuff like that. But other than that everything is great

[2old_honda]

Originally posted by Justin86
Hey 2old_honda do you know what Jim used to cut the forks. I'm going to be doing it here pretty soon when I do my brakes.

He used a miter saw with a metal cutting blade. here is the link- https://www.3geez.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24453

[Justin86]

Thanks

[doug]

[QUOTE=2old_honda]....

Ok here are some pics of the car with the neuspeed springs and the stock pinch forks.

any chance of getting the pics back up again?

[adams86lxi]

yea. i want to see the pics too. very interested in trying it!

[slowazz86carb]

Dam.Something else on the to do list.Is there anything to lower the rear?