I have a 1983 Honda Civic 1500 S. I am considering turning it into an auto x car and occasional driver to work and back. I can not find any kind of springs or performance shocks. I have only found some gas shocks by KYB that are really not performance oriented. Any help with finding shocks, springs, sway bars, etc. please pass on the info.

Also if anyone has any personal advice on auto x this car your 2cents would be awesome. I have auto x my last CRX and wondering how this will compare.

Ian

 

Anyone? I really dont want to have to resort to cut springs and kyb shocks...thats my last resort with no other quality suspension!

 

Think I am going to try and pick up some cheap/ebay/knock off coilovers and see how they fit and if they will fit without too much work I may just spend some cash and buy some name brand quality sleeves to pair with some KYB shocks. Any opinions? These would not be on permanent...just for mock up purposes and research.

 

Um, I've never owned a Honda older than 1988, but didn't the 83 Civic use torsion bars for springs on at least one end?

 

No they used them in 84-87 in the front of the CRX's for sure. I have coils all around and want to pair some coilovers with some new KYB's since those are the only shocks I can find for the car. I want to try and find out if coilovers for another car or try to fit some Ground Controls thats why I want some cheap coilovers to measure/mock up/experiment with, not to use.

 

Come on there has to be somebody with experience in this car?
On a side note, I went off roading in the Civic today and the shocks are completely blown all around...ask me how I know

 

Maybe you can contact Ground Control to see if they can make you a custom set...

Their website
http://www.ground-control-store.com/index.php

 

These guys are near my home town and race an older Civic - you might want to see if they have any suspension parts for sale.

http://www.proimportservices.com/

 

Thanks for the link. Ill shoot them an email probably a little later this week. Unfortunately I am going on vacation soon and need some cash so the suspension will have to wait a while. For some amusement here is what I am dealing with:

 

never go for ebay coilover their ride is BOUNCY and rides like ****..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ian1006 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">...I want to try and find out if coilovers for another car or, try to fit some Ground Controls thats why I want some cheap coilovers to measure/mock up/experiment with, not to use.</TD></TR></TABLE>
I wont use them to drive on or race...I want to see if they could work on my car and possibly measure length and other dimensions.
Ian

 

Search on google IVe read some things about the older civic and modifying the suspension.

 

There is a couple gen II Civic websites so check there or in the classic section. Mugen did make track suspension for the car but good luck tracking those parts down. Koni is your best other option and they are hard to find also. As you will find out parts for those cars are rare and not to many people build them. Good luck and I like your black "S"!

 

I have been around the web a few times and still cant turn something up yet. Been in the classic section and cant turn up anything there. Even if I could find some Mugen suspension parts...I probably couldn't afford it either. I think I may just replace the carb and shocks with some KYB and rally it around while doing an occasional auto x car.

 

Looks pretty clean for a 25 year old car! Hey you can get antique plates for it and never have to renew them

 

If I do keep the car which is up in the air at the moment, I may throw the plates on. I have someone offering double the money I have into it...on the other hand I would really like to keep it but the suspension is frustrating me at the moment...cant find any options that in my opinion are worth it or decent.

 

A bunch of the 2nd gen guys are on 1stgencivic.com if I remember right. I was working on an 82 1500 last fall. Great car!

Suspension is almost impossible to find. I talked to the head tech at Ground Control and he pulled up notes (yes, all hand writen) from way back in the day and called me back. The rears are pretty limited. The KYBs are pretty much all you can use. On the front, I seem to remember being able to swap to an Accord or Prelude front knuckle (which upgrades the brakes). It uses a slightly larger diameter shock body so then you can use a Koni yellow insert.

If you're going the coilover route, get some cheap sleeves off ebay, but then order correct spring rates from Summit. QA1 springs are dirt cheap. Something like 300F/250R was what I was planning on running.

There's some great info out there, but it takes a while to find it. I wish I would have kept all the old emails and links from when I was working on mine. If I find something, I'll post it up.

 

Hey thanks a lot! I think for now I will settle though...which I really dont like to do, but just get new shocks all around. The car needs some new rims too haha...the stock 13's kill me! Im thinking when it comes time to order some rims going with some Axis OG old school rims in a 15x8 size