what is the prefered way of lowering a car?? cut, heat&cut, coil-overs, lowerin springs? how low do you go before you need to get a chamber kit? or if you cut the springs, then how much do you cut from the front and from the back?? thanks for any help!

 

Where to start... where to start.

First thing: if you really want to be ghetto, cutting or heating is probably the WORST way to do it... you'll end up with a bouncy, uncontrolled ride no matter what shocks you use. Also, unless you're REALLY good with a torch, the heating or cutting is going to be uneven, which, in the case of heating, will cause your springs to sag and your ride quality and levelness to suffer.

Next up is lowering springs. IMHO, a good set of lowering springs paired up with a good set of shocks designed for the extra stress put on them by a lowered vehicle is a great inexpensive way to lower your car. If you're looking to only lower a bit (less than 1.5") and you're not lowering specifically for performance (just for looks), you can use your stock shocks... However, this is not a given, your shocks may give out the first week you have it lowered 1" from stock, but mine lasted for months with a 1.8" drop, and the only reason they're not on the car now is because i upgraded to aftermarket shocks and springs.

Coilovers come in two types: adjustable coilover sleeves like the ground controls, and more expensive full coilovers with threaded shock bodies and everything. I don't have a lot of personal experience here, but from what I hear, one of the best combos is Ground Controls and Koni shocks. They provide a good performance drop, with decent ride quality (depending on spring rate and shock adjustment), and the Ground Controls can be custom ordered with whatever spring rates you want. When you start getting into the 1000 and up range you're looking at the full coilover setup, which offers the ultimate adjustability and tuning to suit whatever type of driving you want to do. But like i say above, it's gonna cost you.

As far as camber goes... it varies from vehicle to vehicle and spring/shock combo... generally an acceptable number for a street driven car is about -1.5 to -2 degrees of camber in the front. For perspective, the springs I just installed on my car (Neuspeed race, 2.25" drop in front and 2" in rear) threw my camber out to something crazy like -4.5 degrees. Needless to say, I forsee a camber correction kit in my future purchases

Anyway, my setup on my 95 civic coupe is a set of Neuspeed Race for springs and Bilstein HD (Heavy-Duty) shocks, along with strut tower bars front and rear. So far, I'm very happy with this setup. The ride is stiff, but not that bad on the bumps. It doesn't bounce AT ALL, and stays flat even through some of the craziest corners. Once I get a camber kit on the front and get it aligned, I have the feeling I'll be even more happy.

Hope that answers some questions...


[Modified by matt-eg, 7:42 AM 7/1/2002]

 

How do you determine what your camber is after you lower it?

 

You get an alignment done and it will show all your car's camber, toe, etc. specs. Then if you need to adjust this camber because it is not within spec then you will need a camber kit. Enjoy.