I'm looking to have some custom top hats done

Does anyone have any certain material/size I should use? recommend, Thx

 

I don't remember the dimension off the top of my head, but just grab a tophat and run down to where your gonna buy the metal. Just make sure the bushing will fit into the pipe, and that the OD of the pipe is not bigger than the tophats OD, or your gonna have a hell of a time getting it up through the strut tower. Mine cost less than $2 to make.

 

I'm guessing all cars that have aftermarket suspension? Of course as long as they will fit properly with the hood closed and made properly as well. I have a prelude with the koni/gc setup, not lowered that much but have bottomed out so I would like to eliminate this if possible as well.

I have seen writeups on people cutting their stock top hats and just extending them with some steel and that seemed to work. Might want to look into something like that.

 

something similar...to this one (custom made cnc)




or this one..(home made)

 

thank you guys can you post me a link to that diy/thread?

thank you

 

Just remember that the extended upper shock mount doesn't help anything if the shock body itself can't fit up inside the extension.

 

You can do 1.9"O.D. on the extension, as for I.D. I just made sure the shock could go in if it had to but the spring would be fully compressed by then. If you have konis you CAN'T go more than 1" extension on the front (Ask me how I know), for the rear you can do whatever you want but 1.5 or less seems to be good.

 

Looking good, Do you know where I can purchase the material? I'm not going to weld it myself, My neighbor is the one who is going to do it but I have to find the materials, etc.

edit* I will be using this with my konis and thanks to you I know I can only extend it 1" Max for the fronts!

 

can anyone make me these if i send them the stock top hats? PM me if interested

 

I would say that any metal supply place will have the necessary pipe. The only downside I see is being able to buy small piece. Make sure what ever you get is not galvenized, you can use regular mild steel pipe.

 

Ok I will stop by Osh/Home Depot. When you say Galvenized is that a type of metal? I appreciate the help guys. This will be saving me a ton from buying the extended top hats on ebay.

 

Galvenizing is a coating to prevent corrosion, mostly used on fence pipes.

 

Thank you very much!

 

Important thing:

The head of the shock need to go inside the extended part....very very important

Dont cut to much the bumpstop...with extended part...just 1/2'' is enough





Some specification:

- Koni Yellow body size: 42.3mm
-The internal diameter of the extension part is 44mm.
-The external diameter of the extension part is 48mm maximum, without mounting hole modification on the cars.


Material: regular steel tubing 1045 (OEM) or 4140

The extended part lenght is 1'' (25.4mm) maximum with Koni shock.








The koni ajustment are tool long, and you will need to drill a hole inside the Hood brace for EK.



Old link without picture:

https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-civic-del-sol-1992-2000-1/%5Bfaq%5D-how-extended-shock-travel-56k-better-get-some-coffee-469485/



Nice upgrade to do, but i prefer one part top hat...no welding

 

How do you do a 1 part top hat? as the one shown above.

 

get someone to make it on a CNC lathe for you

 

and pay the ridiculous amount of money!

 

I made a pair of rear's for my car and love them. I did a 2" extension

 

CNC turning....made of steel 4140

And i'm using OEM bushing and OEM Coil rubber.

1'' is the ideal lenght for front & back

 

baller

 

not really. GC tophats are what, 120 a piece? well it would probably take a total of 30-45 mins to turn all 4 of them, maybe longer but im guessing here. Most ships charge between 75-120 a machine hour and obv. the 1 hour minimum. Than figure in maybe 60 an hour for programming, here depends on how its charged, would maybe take me 20 mins to write up in mastercam, so i could charge you 20 bucks or 60, so theres 180 at most. Than another 50 in materials since they are steel thats 230 than figure in some other stuff and we'll come out to say 260 maximum. Seems like a good deal for 4 tophats to me

 

You have to find a friend working in this type of business or do it your self,

in a machine Shop, it is to expensive, that's true.

 

i always wanted to do that never had the time it looks eazy

 

or buy a piece of piping for $10 and cut and weld it your self...

also not sure if making cost's are different were you are but where I used to work those prices are no were near correct. especially for a 4 part run. also you didn't include setup cost or fixturing cost.

 

most shops here charge between 75 and 120 a machine hour and setup and what not is not alot. I dont live in a big area but there are over 75 shops in my county