My beater is low, but not too low. Anyways, I want it "too low" now and I'm at a standstill. The race-quality Ractive coilover sleeves are "upside down" and lowered as low as i can possibly go. Still not tuckin tire in the back or enough in the front.

You MIGHT be able to distinguish between tire and fender in this pic...



Anyway... I have about an inch of shock travel before it sounds like the world is ending and my car is breaking in half. All my bumpstops have dry-rotted and fallen out. No doubt the 160k mile shocks that are just now 15 years old have been dead for quite some time, but i need suggestions on what to do.

This car is my beater... no more, no less. I don't need a full coilover suspension. I drive it maybe 50 miles a week, maybe. My thinking was to use ONLY the springs from the coilover sleeves, which would obviously drop the car to the ground. However, I need to know what kind of shock I can get away with that wouldn't blow out, and at the same time would be as stiff as possible. I don't know much about drop-forks or whatever they're called, so any insight on that would be nice. Just keep in mind, this is just a beater... just something to ride around in on the weekends and have fun in.

Thanks in advance.

-Erik <--- who's awaiting flames from everyone who didn't comprehend the "beater" status

 

There's another pic... maybe better... maybe not...

-Erik

 

are you using stock shocks in the front?

if you are

bang off the front brakeline bracket(couple of wacks with a hammer)and push the front forks all the way up this will give you another 1/2 inch or so.

 

ok its a little off topic but my im's don't work. is the body in good condition? no dents or anything

 

I like your stealthy hatch.

 

Body is in great shape. Had some problems when I bought it but I ghetto shaved my moldings, replaced a fender, played with bondo here and there, and replaced the bumper. I gave $500 for the car just cause I needed something to knock around in aside from my work truck.

I'm gonna try the suggestion for the front tomorrow. Nothing better to do after work anyway.

Does anyone else have any suggestions?

Oh, btw, the "stealthy" look cost me $12 @ walmart for ColorFast flat-black spray paint and a few bucks for some sandpaper. I gave up sanding though, too tiresome and too dusty. I'll try to get a more up to date pic of the beater... It's got a JUN style valve cover and air chamber cover (thanks to walmart's ColorFast paint and $2), as well as JUN (hehe) wheels... Yellow and green of course. I'm stripping the wheels next week if I can find some time and I'm going to repaint the car flat-black again, but this time with a spray gun instead of the spray paint. Hoping to get a better even look.

I also need to get a new Home Depot lip since I plowed the roads with my last one when it snowed.

-Erik <--- who's actually learned quite a bit about body work since I got her.

 

when you push the fork up you will have to bang in another dent for the fork bolt just use a rachet handle and a hammer or the best is a tool called a "slideing T bar" its handle makes the best dent.

 

talk with hammed hatch. he knows all about slamming and keeping a nice ride. and his car is kinda low..

nice hatch, and trinity.. are you getting any ideas?? you already have too many. hahahaa.

 

I just so happen to have that tool

This will be a short term easy way to slam this piece a little more, but can anyone suggest an inexpensive way to slam her and maintain at least SOME ride quality. The shocks bashing the shock towers when I hit pebbles on the highway is a tad annoying.

-Erik <--- who suprisingly enough hasn't picked up any girls in the hatch

 

just check for the clearence btween the bottom of the shock and driveshaft when you put it back together.

 

can anyone tell me anything about drop forks, or other methods to lower it more?

-Erik <--- who's also lookin for a shock that is deisgned for slammed cars

 

ttt

 

Ham'ed Hatch would have a few ideas for you. A good thing you can do to get another inch without losing suspension travel would be use 86-89 Accord front struts. Theyre about an inch shorter than 88-91 Civics and they bolt right in. Thatll give you another inch and keep susp. travel. Just a thought......

 

I knew I'd hear something creative! Thanks

I'm going to PM the above mentioned member momentarily.

-Erik

 

bump

 

I'll have to watch this one.. I want my hatch slammed too!!

 

looks like my hatch almost but no ef9 front end if u wanna go lower take off the adjusters for the coilovers

 

Does that really work? Have you done it? Just curious. Thats kick *** if it does!

Ben

 

I started a topic on drop forks a while back but not a whole lot of feedback...mostly "they dont make it anymore, nobody has em, there bad for the car..." all kinds of stuff like that buy the info I really wanted nobody had! that suspention technics(or how ever u spell it) used to sell em! but they dont anymore! the best bet I think for a slam 88-91 is shortend struts with ground controls! that seems like it would go low and u wouldnt be ruining the struts! Chassis Tech has so LowBoyz(or what ever the name) but I dont know anybody who personally has em! the ride might be nasty! well good luck on the hunting and let me know of any progress!

 

i'm loving all these threads lately where people actually want and like their car low, more power to ya folks heh.

anyways, to the topic. my setup in the front: $39 autozone special (gabriel i think) 88 accord struts, with skunkworks sleeve and spring. the perch (only need one) is a lil' less than half way down...so maybe 1.5". the rear: civic tokico blues with skunkworks spring, no perch. here's a pic of the hiegth i get from my setup:

the thing about the 86-89 accord struts is that the casing is about an inch shorter than the stock civic one, PLUS the strut rod has an inch more of travel. so basically i put them in, and my car turned out lower (at the same threads on the sleeve) but with a much better ride. the car rides super decent for the heigth. certain HT people can vouch for that. the rear is a little stiff since it's spring only, but not bouncy by any means, and the front's actual moving suspension is only lowered ~1.5", so the struts have PLENTY of travel. i got the autozone cheapies at first to see if they really worked, then i thought if i liked them i'd go and get some accord tokicos, but i'm happy with the cheapies, the ride is what i was looking for.

and i've had the dropforks and proarms, and the accord struts have the SAME EXACT EFFECT, but at a fourth of the cost. i've looked into the rear lca's, and it'd be super easy to fabricate some proarms. or another option is to use 88-91 wagon rear struts. they're supposedly like 1 3/4" shorter (or something like that) than hb/sedan/crx struts due to their larger wagon springs. i've yet to try those though. dropforks are impossible to get these days and totally NOT WORTH the money. i can't believe i paid so much for them when there's so many other cheaper options.

i know where you're coming from on how annoying it is when the upper control arms hit the strut tower, i'd get so frustrated over that i would scream. ask losrockeeto, he's heard all my bitching about it . after a couple years of stressing over every BOOM! i decided to finally do this:


solves the problem for the most part, but they'll still hit on bad bumps, but not nearly as rough and hard though. i'll prolly end up enlarging the holes. and don't let anybody tell you "it'll ruin the integrity of the unibody". bullshit. they're just hating.

sorry if some of this is been repeated. i'll try and take some comparitive pics of the accord struts next to civic struts cause they're out of my car right now.

 

this is a good method as well to get more travel and lower it. and i think you can get up to around an inch and a half, any more and you'll have clearance issues with your axle and strut. easier to do on some struts than others.

 

those pics are GREAT. Thanks for the suggestions! I'm going at it this weekend!

-Erik

 

your car is seriously already low enough, there isnt any point to really lower it anymore unless you want to scrape everything under your car and just eat up your fenders...

 

heres something for you...I do this to all of my shocks and it works great on the track...I don't do it to slam the car though just for the travel. Works best on Koni's and Ohlins as you can move the fork up A LOT. Works on KYB & Tein too but not on bilsteins. lol YES I've had all of those shocks.
Here are my teins, look for the travel increase up top.


KYB AGX> you can't bang off the bracket...you have to trim it off with a cutting wheel or hack saw


Bilstein(not all the bilstein models are the same) this is a pic of a eg bilstein


Ohlins



[Modified by 89civicdx, 8:46 AM 1/8/2003]


[Modified by 89civicdx, 9:07 AM 1/8/2003]


[Modified by 89civicdx, 9:35 AM 1/8/2003]

 

no but would ya sell it?