DIY Coilover Sleeve kits

[Lurkin]

know for sure of struts in the last 18 months requiring x-ray and that is what my certifier has indicated to me for mine.

no weld, no x-ray.

but mine are for changing height and changing spring rates in a club/rally car.

Relax, I'm not in NZ anymore....

I've been pricing it up, and camber plates + sleeve kit

= thereabouts of a cheapish coilover kit

which will bolt in and work without discovering how not to build suspension....although it will become a game of working out which coilover packages are crap out of the box...

**** Awaits the raging debate of bc's, d2's, Tein's, HSD's etc etc****

Although there is the advantage of buying relevant bits and building the suspension up, rather than spending $$ on things that are not required.(i.e. camber plates)

Just to confirm - the diameter/ shape of coilover springs is definitely different to regular springs?

if so, its a shame - -otherwise could buy bits as I need them, as opposed to in one go....

[fj40cruzapete]

Ditto here, though I imported a kit from T3 and welded a ring on the strut to hold the threaded sleeve. Commonly done on older cars that have no off the shelf options, and Stocks used to do them all the time before all the aftermarket stuff came along.

i remember doing this

we also machined a new thread inside the tube for memory

[Dell'Orto]

Yup, none of this dodgy cut and weld business, rethreaded like a boss

[Bling]

Could always get Bazda to get you some coilovers custom made?

[Lurkin]

I'm sure they're worth every penny, but ~2k is out of the price range...

They would be going into a ae71 club/ weekend car.. so I'm probably over doing it with coilovers anyway...

Just thought it would be neat to (1) have a go (2) learn something new from it (3) have suspension that I can actually alter.

Have done the lowered spring/ standard shock, based on advice from this forum before, and it was very cost effective.

But it left an itch unscractched.. "what if this was just a tad higher in the front, lower in the rear" - goes off to buy another set of springs.... grrr. Once I started really paying attention to what the different combinations felt like to drive with, the more fussy I would get... Its a PITA changing the springs round all the time with full interior! (hmm... ditch interior, coilovers , adjustable goodies all round hmmmm...)

little hooked on the coilover idea after going in a ae86dc members car today... pretty keen on learning from his experimentation (strut/ insert/ spring combinations etc) as the car was definitely set up well, and lent well to finer tuning/ adjustment..

[crispy'86]

A bit of adjustability is good when it comes to the racetrack, obviously you have to be careful how the coilover is setup to how it handles. Had coilovers in my fxgt race car , different characteristics from rwd i know, but thought how different would this handle being lower front/rear etc. Was improvement on the springs and shocks i had but my suspension arms were pretty much horizontal to achieve the desired height. Just something to bera in mind when/if you do decide to go down this path

[wde_bdy]

Yup, none of this dodgy cut and weld business, rethreaded like a boss

Nothing dodgy about welding if done right, you can stuff up the re-threading just as easy as you can welding. Looking to re-thread mine but no one local seems to want the job, if using steel sleeves you can weld top and bottom so not really an issue.

Callum

[Dell'Orto]

Done right is the key though, one set I saw on Club K looked scary!

[wde_bdy]

Re-threading is just harder to see if done right, not cut deep enough and the first you will know of it is the nut ripping out and your strut falling apart. Either way a shit job shouldn't get past a certifier.

Callum

[Lurkin]

the only stink thing about welding it 'properly' is that if the strut needs to be changed for any reason its a bit more tricky to swap to a new strut housing...

[d1 mule]

cant beat BC and HSD. IMO HSD are better as they run an inverted shock, which gives marginally less unsprung weight.

ill either be running HSD/Driftworks CS2 or BC ER which have damper bound and rebound adjustment with external oil resivours which obviously contain more oil which keeps the oil cooler.

that being said "homemade" coilovers are sweet, iv used them before but it def does take alot more research and the old measure twice cut once approach.