I've came across a few threads lately regarding extending your stock top hats by cutting it in the middle and adding a 1" or so piece of steel tubing to give the shock more room to travel down while your vehicle is "slammed"

Everybody always praises GC/Koni setups, especially with the extended top hats that GC offers.

Why don't all of these newer "JDM" companies (that everybody refers to them as) carry extended top hats on any of their setups. I can't even name all the companies that have their own full-coilover setups, but no extended top hats. Maybe some do, but most don't. I haven't done my homework on all of them.

Isn't this the biggest problem with all of these JDM coilovers? Everybody on here wants their street car to look slammed. They blow out 'cuz people slam them too low? Knowing this before-hand, why arn't companies jumping on the bandwagon? (or maybe I'm missing something)

I've always felt that it's just a matter of time before one of these companies runs with it and everybody soon follows *cough* tri-y header design *cough*

 

PIC coilovers offer the extended top hats.


My guess would be though, that JDM coilovers down have this problem. they have really short stroke, and you aren't/shouldn't supposed to change the pearch were the spring sits. So hopefully you aren't going to be bottoming them out. A lot of them blow because well some times it happens, and when quality isn't a top priority well then you get shocks that blow.

And on all the most popular honda/acura run out of travel via the UCA hitting the fender, shortly after the shock would bottom with out extended top hats.

 

well i've had my omni's for like 4k or 5k miles (a lil less miles than whats on my motor right now) and one of the rears blew out...my car wasn't that "slammed" i don't think comparing to a lot of other rides on here, but could this have been prevented by giving the shock a little more room to travel down (even if top-notch parts arn't being used) ? i hope i'm making sense

 

 

No, extended top hats would not have helped, because there is TONS of room in the rear. Extended top hats are almost never needed in the rear, certainly not with your ride height. You must have either had a defective damper or it was somehow damaged during installation.

The "JDM" coilovers don't need extended upper mounts because they have shortened damper bodies, which serves to increase compression (bump) travel.

BTW car looks really clean. What size wheels and tires?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dinko &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">well i've had my omni's for like 4k or 5k miles (a lil less miles than whats on my motor right now) and one of the rears blew out...my car wasn't that "slammed" i don't think comparing to a lot of other rides on here, but could this have been prevented by giving the shock a little more room to travel down (even if top-notch parts arn't being used) ? i hope i'm making sense </TD></TR></TABLE>

As i said, shocks can and will blow out. There have been reports even here on HT of Koni's, Tockico's, and every other shock under the sun blowing out.

extended top hats wouldn't have done anything for you.

 

Yes we have extended upper mounts but they don't serve the same purpose. It's just on the 88-91 Civics and 90-93 Integras in the front, it allows the cars to sit a little lower due to the limited space they have up front.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PIC Performance &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Yes we have extended upper mounts but they don't serve the same purpose. It's just on the 88-91 Civics and 90-93 Integras in the front, it allows the cars to sit a little lower due to the limited space they have up front. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Wouldn't that make the upper control arms more likely to smack the shock towers?

 

That will happen when you lower a car, regardless of how you lower it, save for also shortening the upright.