DIY: Front 1988-1990 Civic struts.

[A18A]

could i cut my springs and make it safe by doing this?

(i am kinda a suspension newbie)

[Vector]

could i cut my springs and make it safe by doing this?

(i am kinda a suspension newbie)

believe it or not... yea you could... they will stay tightly seated when cornering heaily... i dont ecourage it since the spring rates will be all messed up..

i did that with my se-i accord... i'm not doing it again, .. gonna put the sportlines in that car instead. i did this soley as a test... and i raced it like that to... works great. if you dont mind the car bottoming out everynow and then

cut springs dont stiffen up enought when excursion happens... there like over speed bumps.. the car will bottom out. with stiff shocks... you could probably avoid this.. but your just putting more strain on them.

[ghettogeddy]

function over form

[Oldblueaccord]

Im thinking aluminium spacers might be better in the long run but I guess the stress would still be on the bolts.SOmething along th lines of the hat maybe in a triangle or something similiar. Luckily our cars the strut is just a shock it doesn't control the wheel like Macphersons do so it not much an issue.

The only thing I could add is maybe use regular bolts since carriage bolts are usually not rated ? ? Grade 8 would be nice. 1/2 inch is a good thing.

Vector I assume you got an adjustable strut so the car can be leveled and corner weighting can be done.

Where AZmike in all this.....



wp

[Oldblueaccord]

what like a strut tower bar?... should bolt on exactly the same as it would with the stock hats. only diference is... if your making your own now you can make it thicker since theres alot of thread to play with... another thing to.. for the rear brace.. as you can see it will be dificult to get it to sit flat on the against the wheel well as its uneven.. so i'm contemplating that if you make the end pieces out of 3mm thick steel or thicker.. shouldnt be a problem.

only thing i'm questioning tho.. is do we really need it?.. does the body on these cars flex that much when hard cornering is needed?.. if so i will go out right now and make one for my car lol.

about chassis flex....



http://www.xvmotorsports.com/media/C...Stiffening.wmv

see if that video works. Not our cars of course but its a unibody. Watch the masking tape.

Another way to prove it is jack up your car on the jacking point and try and open the door either one see how much flex there is.


wp

[Vector]

Im thinking aluminium spacers might be better in the long run but I guess the stress would still be on the bolts.SOmething along th lines of the hat maybe in a triangle or something similiar. Luckily our cars the strut is just a shock it doesn't control the wheel like Macphersons do so it not much an issue.

The only thing I could add is maybe use regular bolts since carriage bolts are usually not rated ? ? Grade 8 would be nice. 1/2 inch is a good thing.

Vector I assume you got an adjustable strut so the car can be leveled and corner weighting can be done.

Where AZmike in all this.....



wp

if you can break a carriage bolt by pulling on it vertically... i'd be surprised... let alone 3.. they are pretty beefy.. i thought about that to... but since it was all i could get initially and didnt know exactly what i needed.. thats what i started out with.

no... sensatracs oems.... with sleeved coil overs.

thanks for the vid to btw... if i do a brace.. i will definitly do a 3 point over a 2 point.

[2oodoor]

Lots of feedback..

I was concerned about the gradeing of the bolts as well, I think you can find that more selection of that kind of thing at mill supply vendors.
That particular config could be dolled up by using alum conduit and a DIY anodizing kit.
Unibody flex, try jamming your fingers in between the door rubber and door
while you are driving, feel the pain.. lol
As far as covers go, there are some OEM various other brand cars applications around that I have seen that had huge 'decorative' covers that could be found at junkyards. For that matter, just get a large slurpee in the plastic cup and cut it ,, no really.. lol

[bobafett]

http://www.ground-control-store.com/...hp/II=647/CA=5

hey guys, what do you think about buying something like this, raises the shock 24mm (.9") and we could EASILY redrill the top mount to use 3 holes instead of 2 (or redrill our shock tower to use 2 holes).

what Do you guys think?


EDIT: or maybe something like this too?
http://www.daveregis.net/bimmer/Grou...all/index.html

[Legend_master]

http://www.ground-control-store.com/...hp/II=647/CA=5

hey guys, what do you think about buying something like this, raises the shock 24mm (.9") and we could EASILY redrill the top mount to use 3 holes instead of 2 (or redrill our shock tower to use 2 holes).

what Do you guys think?


EDIT: or maybe something like this too?
http://www.daveregis.net/bimmer/Grou...all/index.html

Definitely usable, but you have to make sure the diameter of whatever car you get those from is not larger then ours. Also I would modify the tophat and not the body of the car IMO.

[2ndGenGuy]

So, this mod doesn't really give you any extra suspension travel correct? It will just keep you from bottoming out the struts. If the base of the strut is still longer, you're still losing suspension travel when the top of the strut base hits the lower "top-hat" under the car... You'll still be hitting the bumpstops a lot won't you? You just won't bottom out the strut itself...

[Legend_master]

So, this mod doesn't really give you any extra suspension travel correct? It will just keep you from bottoming out the struts. If the base of the strut is still longer, you're still losing suspension travel when the top of the strut base hits the lower "top-hat" under the car... You'll still be hitting the bumpstops a lot won't you? You just won't bottom out the strut itself...

It would give you factory civic suspension travel. With the proper struts, and half cut bump stops you will never hit bump stops. There's no point in doing this mod unless your going to use some high performance struts.

[Vector]

It would give you factory civic suspension travel. With the proper struts, and half cut bump stops you will never hit bump stops. There's no point in doing this mod unless your going to use some high performance struts.

yea it be nice if i could afford some nice shocks.. unfortunatly i cant so i did this for the oems plainly so they would last longer and i perposly wanted to limit downward suspension travel..

i'm using tighter springs now so its much much better, also as far as the bump stops go.. i'm using them still. i actually added a rubber bushing so they wont bottom out... before the control arms did hit the fender...

autox in vernon yesterday, gtech'd my runs managed to hit around 1g in the corners. as far as tires, i think they are 205/50/15 Falken Azenis Rt615's. i will pics up of that soon.

[2oodoor]

limitiing downward travel of the body is what I need, without sacrificing ride quality or inducing unnecessary body roll in the process

that is good news about your run at autocross

[bobafett]

yuck so i called koni and discussed my options for modding accord specials to become sports. it will run me about $1200 minimum, plus shipping both ways. and another $108 from ground control to get the koni kit. so in the intrest of not spending $1500 on struts and springs it looks like I too will be further investigating the coilover method.

[Accordtheory]

so you put in 2.5" lowering springs in... you bring the hat up 2.5" measuring from the top to bottom centers before put it together. bam... the shocks in its supposed to be comfort zone..

I just want to point out that this is not accurate. The spring/shock's connecting point on the lca is closer to the lca's axis of rotation than the steering knuckle. In other words, if your spring itself was 2.5" shorter, your car would be lowered a lot more than 2.5".

I want to know how much the hat can be extended before something else bottoms out, like the upper control arm hitting the tower like in a civic. My friend's civic had holes in the strut tower from that. And as previously mentioned, what about the top of the strut itself hitting the "lower hat"? Will it fit through it? And what is with there being 4 hats? Is each hat 2 pieces?
I think I'm going to go look at my car..

[Accordtheory]

Well, I guess I'll be answering my questions myself whenever I get the gc coilovers.

[2oodoor]

Well, I guess I'll be answering my questions myself whenever I get the gc coilovers.

I have not seen Vector post in a while, good question though. Probably best answered by looking at your own set up,
Vertical travel may be different from one car to the next, were talking 0 to 2.5 inches clearance before upper control arm contacts something, variances in spring rate, wear, strruts valving/condition..blah blah blah

[Oldblueaccord]

I would like an update from Vector on this




wp

[mushroom_toy]

Few pics of the Vector mod that I did. Mine is modified a good bit, but its basiacally same thing. Also you can knock out the studs on the tophats without cutting em off. It is actually easier to knock them out than to cut them off and drill em out. Also You cannot run a front strut bar UNLESS you mod the strut bar around the tophat mod. Also your coil might have to be relocated, mine did.I think im only the second 3gee to do this?

[Legend_master]

Few pics of the Vector mod that I did. Mine is modified a good bit, but its basiacally same thing. Also you can knock out the studs on the tophats without cutting em off. It is actually easier to knock them out than to cut them off and drill em out. Also You cannot run a front strut bar UNLESS you mod the strut bar around the tophat mod. Also your coil might have to be relocated, mine did.I think im only the second 3gee to do this?
]

awsome, does it seem very strudy? did u notice a difference in performance?

[mushroom_toy]

awsome, does it seem very strudy? did u notice a difference in performance?

Yeah they seem plenty stiff to me. SO far ive put a good bit of stress on em and no problems. Handling got a little better, but I can attribute that to the lowering/camber. But the best thing is full shock travel..it is god sent. XD

[rustlude87]

For the people who have done this, what size drill bit did you use on the top hats to get the carriage bolts through?

[import racer]

You would drill the hole to match the bolt size.