Anyone made thier own coilovers?

[joeseth]

I'm sure I've seen a couple of threads on here but can't find them now.

[jmc330i]

A mate did so on his Celica. Looks good, drives shite. He fitted them in August, and has just bought and fitted some secondhand BC coilovers.....

[Rav335uk]

Done mine for the E30.

Will get pics up tomorrow

[jmc330i]

Rav - will be interested in how yours drive/ride when you get them fitted

[harry_p]

No reason why they can't handle as well as 'proper' kits as long as you use decent dampers and do some research on spring rates and lengths.

Main problem is most try and use or length damper bodies which compromises springs when trying to run low.

Ideally you need a shock that fits the tube, but with a shorter body, then cut and shut the strut to the right length to suit that, then weld on the threaded tubes.

[Rav335uk]

I'll be using Faulkerner springs and Gas adjustable shocks.

[rob0r]

No reason why they can't handle as well as 'proper' kits as long as you use decent dampers and do some research on spring rates and lengths.

Main problem is most try and use or length damper bodies which compromises springs when trying to run low.

Ideally you need a shock that fits the tube, but with a shorter body, then cut and shut the strut to the right length to suit that, then weld on the threaded tubes.

Absolutely this. I've DIY'd my own with full length E30 shocks and standard length struts, there is little point as more often than not you'll try to run too low and run out of shock travel. Mine ride like arse. Among other reasons this is also why cheap "coilovers" are rubbish.

If you consider how much it is to buy shorter uprated dampers for the fronts from something like an E30IX and uprated dampers for the rear, then you are in Gaz GHA and BC coilover spending territory. I myself am picking up a set of Gaz GHA tomorrow

If you don't want to run lower than 60mm and want more spring choice then I can see the point in DIY coilovering. Otherwise, no. The rear spring perch can take standard short 2.25" coilover springs relatively well.

[steve_k]

I know you can get ball the parts needed from rally design, but does anybody have a guide on how to do it?

Got some spare old struts & fancy having a go myself.

[maggspower]

Here is my effort:



They were terrible

Until I fixed them. Look at where the top mount sits. on the standard e30 spring this sits down inside the coils, now it is sat on top. So instead of losing hight you have gained about 30mm.

No problem you say, I'll wind it down. By the time you have a meaningful drop you have about 40mm suspension travel left, so you are on the bump stops most of the time.

The way I fixed it was (as stated above) the strut needs to be cut and shut, unless you can cut threads into the top. Then I had GAZ make a shorter set of dampers to fit.

I made mine for handling purposes (it was a track car) not drop, and they were very good in that respect as the rest of the suspension was built to match.

[steve_k]

Byron, looks good dude, got any hints/tips on how to go about it??

[Rav335uk]

What spring size and Lb'age did you go for Byron??

[maggspower]

Byron, looks good dude, got any hints/tips on how to go about it??

Yes, the rally design stuff fits perfect, capri stuff IIRC.

Welding obviously needs to be cock on!! No pigeon shart.

Cutting and shutting struts is not advised, unless you are totally confident with your welding. It needs to go togetger perfect too as the threaded sleeve is a very tight fit, and needs to be.

Like I said I had GAZ make dampers, but I think something VW fits, mk2 golf? I'm not 100%

There needs to be a helper spring, one that takes up the droop in the suspension, or your spring will rattle around when the damper is fully extended, this does not act as any of the spring rate.

Make sure the struts are straight and not accident dammaged, I had to make 3.

You will need to cut the damper retaining collars to get a 2 1/4" spring to fit.

HTH

[steve_k]

Cheers for that Byron

[maggspower]

What spring size and Lb'age did you go for Byron??

Oh crap the numbers This was some time ago and I remember many workings out

Lets think, I started with in the pics, 9" and 250lb. I upped the poundage to 300lb, and had a helper in there too. I think this is well short of the Gaz ones poundage but I was still using it on the road so wanted to keep it comfortable, hahaha.

It wasn't.

[maggspower]

Obviously 2 1/4" springs

[Rav335uk]

Obviously 2 1/4" springs

Length, not O/D

[pacerpete]

Answer the phone captain, Bilstein need your help !

[gooner1]

Done mine for the E30.

Will get pics up tomorrow

[sweep]

coil-ektomy front AND back

[joeseth]

Yeah I saw the Capri/escort threaded sleeves, that's what gave me the idea. Anyone know what the inner diameter of the JOM style "coilover" spring is at the bottom? Because I was hoping that I could keep those springs and therefore not have to worry about the top spring mount at all. I know they are probably crap but they've done me fine the last couple of years. I've also heard before likes maggs said that cutting and shutting the struts and using shorter inserts is the only way to get decent travel, either vw g60 or the ix inserts. But I don't trust anyone to do the cutting and welding! It's only the front I'm worried about, rear is fine. Unfortunately can't really justify £600+ otherwise I'd just go buy something off the shelf.

[pacerpete]

Forgive my ignorance , what was wrong with the suspension that your car and hundreds of thousands of E30s left the factory with ?

[maggspower]

Forgive my ignorance , what was wrong with the suspension that your car and hundreds of thousands of E30s left the factory with ?

Stop being facetious Pete, you know they are no good for the gape

One thing I will say is that a propper set of coil overs (Gaz) are worth their money, if you want a sorted racer, or you are caked and have a track car.

[Rav335uk]

Forgive my ignorance , what was wrong with the suspension that your car and hundreds of thousands of E30s left the factory with ?

Tell us.

You have a car with coilovers on.

[gooner1]

Forgive my ignorance , what was wrong with the suspension that your car and hundreds of thousands of E30s left the factory with ?

Tell us.

You have a car with coilovers on.

Bang out of order, Rav, you know they are installed
to counteract pete's water retention problems.

[pacerpete]

Forgive my ignorance , what was wrong with the suspension that your car and hundreds of thousands of E30s left the factory with ?

Tell us.

You have a car with coilovers on.

Bang out of order, Rav, you know they are installed
to counteract pete's water retention problems.

Higher rate springs on the drivers side FTW

[ross_jsy]

Forgive my ignorance , what was wrong with the suspension that your car and hundreds of thousands of E30s left the factory with ?

Stop being facetious Pete, you know they are no good for the gape

One thing I will say is that a propper set of coil overs (Gaz) are worth their money, if you want a sorted racer, or you are caked and have a track car.

I wouldn't call a set of Gaz's proper coil overs at all. Average at best

[maggspower]

Forgive my ignorance , what was wrong with the suspension that your car and hundreds of thousands of E30s left the factory with ?

Stop being facetious Pete, you know they are no good for the gape

One thing I will say is that a propper set of coil overs (Gaz) are worth their money, if you want a sorted racer, or you are caked and have a track car.

I wouldn't call a set of Gaz's proper coil overs at all. Average at best

OK

If you read again, my comment refers to bang for buck, value for money. By the time I had R&Ded the ones that I made, I could have bought Gaz golds if I included my time.

On high end coilovers you are paying for the finnese within the dampers.

What are you basing your review on anyway? Track time testing hours, or stuff you read on the internet?

[ross_jsy]

Reports from 2 people I know who are local who owned them, competed with them and both sold them, they were the option I was going to go for up until that point.

In fact one of those sets were on my e30 when I bought it but the deal we settled on didn't include them after he told me to go for something different (and this was the bloke selling me the car, it was in his interest to get rid of them). Had a drive on them and they weren't necessarily bad, and a better coil over than I could make full use of as a driver but a review by two people driving in the same competitions I will be using it for saying they weren't great was enough to put me off.

[capnmchl]

But why weren't they great?

[harry_p]

They seem to be very bouncy on the road. as if the dampers cant control the springs properly. A lot of people seem to get them to work well on track though.

[ross_jsy]

They seem to be very bouncy on the road. as if the dampers cant control the springs properly. A lot of people seem to get them to work well on track though.

That's what they both said.

[Tom7]

Do the struts need to be cut and shut for a shorter damper insert? Can the thread for the locking cap not be cut further down the strut body? I fancy having a go at DIY coil-overs in the future but do not have a strut to hand to look at.

[Jarno]

I'm not sure what counts as DIY coilover here. What are you building, what's the problem?
For my own car I bought a pair of uniball top ends and had nuts and such made for them. They'll go in the car with shorter 51mm Koni Sports. From those I'll get the adjustability I need and it'll be low enough. Meant for driving, not to look low/cool/slammed/whatever.

Custom made springs aren't expensive either. Atleast around here they're not.


-Jarno

[capnmchl]

We made some for an E21 last year.

E21 front dampers are longer than E30, and less avaliable, so we cut down the strut to take an E30 damper. Butt welded that, ground down the weld and then put a piece of pipe over the weld and welded that in. And then because the E21 struts are 45mm, the extra sleeve helped bulk it out for the threaded sleeve that was 2.25" or whatever.

For the rears we just used Polo 6n rear coilover units, with the bushes swapped for the ones out of the E21 rear shocks.

[Junglistjed]

How much would a pair of coilovers cost for a 316?