Well, the car was riding like utter crap at its previous height, so i decided that it was about time to increase the suspension travel, hopefully alleviating that problem. You ask, "Why not just raise the car?" to that idea!!

Anyways, here goes:

Here is the brake bracket mod with the extended top hats. The AGX's will not allow for more than half an inch for the brake bracket mod, which is kinda crappy. I'm not sure if the illuminas are any different, but i know that DA illuminas will allow for much more.


Notice the right top hat has been grinded down, whereas the left one isn't? Make sure that all of the top hats look like the right one if you plan to do this mod, or the top hats will not fit through the hole of the body.


The top hats painted


The final height of the car


I had to raise the front a bit though, because my wheel popped out the inner fender lip, which made about a kajillion little cuts on my tire. Anyways, unless i run over a huge pothole, the car rides extremely nice. I'd say i'm about halfway to stock height feel, but with a more down-to-earth feeling of the road.

For anyone with a relatively low car, i suggest you get these two mods done!

Crap, just remembered, must refer you guys to this reference:

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=469485

 

nice write up...

 

So how does the car feel now?

 

Normal street:

The crummy streets of the 626 area aren't a problem anymore. So long as you stay away from the foot-deep potholes , your stomach won't turn everytime you run over a sewertop or a little bump.

Freeway:

Don't you guys hate it when you're driving down the freeway, hit a bump, and your car continuously bounces? Well, that's gone now too! Believe it or not, the car's pretty stable at highway speeds, no more bouncing! And for those of you with squeaks and creaks associated with the jarring of the car frame/body, this should quiet things up since the suspension is actually taking the punishment and not the body/frame of the car.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by erikiksaz1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Normal street:

The crummy streets of the 626 area aren't a problem anymore. So long as you stay away from the foot-deep potholes , your stomach won't turn everytime you run over a sewertop or a little bump.

Freeway:

Don't you guys hate it when you're driving down the freeway, hit a bump, and your car continuously bounces? Well, that's gone now too! Believe it or not, the car's pretty stable at highway speeds, no more bouncing!</TD></TR></TABLE>

Oohhh sweet!! How does it drive on the horrible 710 fwy? lol

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EL Vap133 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Oohhh sweet!! How does it drive on the horrible 710 fwy? lol</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well, i was on the 5N to the 710N to 60E, which means i didn't spend too much time on the 710. Either way, they all felt the same, which was....damn good.

 

Looks good. I want to do this myself once I can talk my welder-buddy into working on hondas. haha

 

Very nice! Any pics of your setup on the car, with the rims off?

 

wow, not bad

 

I hate you, I've been wanting top hats extended for quite some time. Did you do this yourself? If so, how hard? The ground-controls went up to $100 a pair

 

DA Illuminas aren't they longer than ED/EF units?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EL Vap133 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Very nice! Any pics of your setup on the car, with the rims off?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Those are the pictures i forgot Maybe tomorrow.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by krskid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I hate you, I've been wanting top hats extended for quite some time. Did you do this yourself? If so, how hard? The ground-controls went up to $100 a pair </TD></TR></TABLE>

I had a friend of a friend do it. There's a few things you have to worry about:

1) the tubing that you use. That's right, TUBING, make sure it's not piping. Anyways, make sure the outer diameter matches that of the top portion of the top hat (that you sawed off). As for the inner diameter, try not to get one that's too thick, because the bushing won't fit inside. If by any chances, you do get one with an inner diameter that's too big, you could just shrink your bushings by cutting with a razor.

2) The welding on the outer top portion of the top hat must either be VERY well done, or if not, grinded down flat. As i've said before, it won't fit through the hole in the body/frame.

3) The welding on the inside of the top hat should be as clean_as_possible. If not, you'll run into problems getting the bushing into it. You'll have to cut the bushing, just like in #1.

4) If the welds are not perfect, make sure that the metal washer that sits between the bumpstop and the inner top hat bushing will fit inside the top hat. If you have problems with messy welds, you want to double check that the washer fits.

If anything is unlcear ask, i'll try to take a few more pictures for an explanation if need be.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by HumanResource &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">DA Illuminas aren't they longer than ED/EF units?</TD></TR></TABLE>

The front shocks seemed the same to me. I didn't have the DA next to the EF for comparison, but from my memory, they were relatively similar. As for the rear shocks, yes, the DA shocks are MUCH longer, as i found out the hard way.

Oh, and if anyone wants to do both the top hat and brake bracket, you might want to compare the differences between illuminas and agx, especially near the brake bracket portion. On the agx, the diameter of the shock increases about half an inch above the brake bracket, so you can only gain half an inch of travel. On the illuminas however, i don't know if the diameter increases. The DA's illuminas had uniform diameter throughout, so i'm guessing the EF should be the same. If it's true, i'd probably buy illuminas up front (so i can have the 1 inch brake bracket), and agx in the back (since i can't tell a difference anyways for street, and agx is cheaper).



Modified by erikiksaz1 at 2:39 AM 6/24/2004