30 replies to this topic

[CiDirkona]

[Gideon35T]

Are the pics on top as low as she goes or .... ?
Looks very clean. Kudos and a +1 to you good sir!

[okoye]

yeah he said it hits if he goes lower.

[Mattphi]

Nice, well done. Welcome to the club.

[CiDirkona]

Thank you, all, and thanks Matt.

The fronts right now are limited by the length of the strut itself. The top of the strut is bottomed out on (basically) the bottom of the upper strut spring mount rubber chunk thing. (There's actually strut mount, upper bag bracket and a custom made bump stop in there so I don't eat the seat valve inside the strut.) I will be making custom struts in January or February that are about two inches lower than where I'm at now -- but that brings in all sorts of NEW problems -- custom strut top mount, brake lines will bind, etc.)

The rears right now are limited by my intentional design of the rear brackets. The car is sitting on the internal jounce bumpers inside the rear bags. About a half inch up further down, the right side hits the fuel lines, and a 1/4 past that, the swing arm impacts the unibody frame rail, so there's not a WHOLE lot further I could, or want to, go there. My attention will turn to the fronts.

The cool part of it basically sitting on bump stops front and rear when aired out though is that the wheels roll just fine without binding... I can't steer, but I can roll forward and backward.

I'm only on 17" Volans right now, so 18"s with 35 series tires would tuck even more wheel in the back and possibly some in the front as is, but that's an expense I don't want to chunk out right now as the 17s have nearly new tires on 'em already.

[Mattphi]

CiDirkona, on 05 January 2012 - 06:54 PM, said:

The fronts right now are limited by the length of the strut itself. The top of the strut is bottomed out on (basically) the bottom of the upper strut spring mount rubber chunk thing. (There's actually strut mount, upper bag bracket and a custom made bump stop in there so I don't eat the seat valve inside the strut.) I will be making custom struts in January or February that are about two inches lower than where I'm at now -- but that brings in all sorts of NEW problems -- custom strut top mount, brake lines will bind, etc.)

Don't forget about the fact that those UAS bags will only give you so much lift. Yes, 2 more inches will be awesome...but wont raise you enough to drive properly lol.

Very glad to see that you got it done, though.

Edited by Mattphi, 05 January 2012 - 07:28 PM.

[CiDirkona]

Yep, that's one of the problems. Riding around at 110psi in the front bags to get enough height to turn doesn't sound too comfortable. Brake lines are already stretched upwards as far as they'll go, so they'd have to get some custom lines made. Koni wants $539 each to make shorter struts that I could put these bags around, or $350 to rebuild and shorten mine. I could do 8610 inserts and go for maybe an inch and a half lower than I am now for only $200 a piece.

Universal Air custom bellow strut kits would work, but considering I have a whopping 1/2" clearance between the bag and the inboard edge of the strut tower, I'd have to be uber super careful to make sure that if I moved the bearing outward, I wouldn't accidently give myself positive camber. Those custom bellow bags get a good 5.9" inches of travel though too, and a much shorter overall length, and their own bearing plate that could be welded to the bottom of the oem bearing plate... But they're $700 a pair. I'd have to move the bearing location and also BFH the inboard surface of the strut tower to make room for the bag.

The Universal Air custom sleeve strut kits would work without fear of rubbing, but they also don't go as low as I'd like either since they're quite a bit longer by design. The strut body sits so close to the inboard edge of the wheel that you have to put the bag section over the tire and not next to it, so I'd probably only get an inch or so lower on the strut height, plus the height of not having the oem bearing and top mount. Welding strut tabs also sounds far more risky with my skills than I'm willing to get into as well, and they're also $700 a pair.

[flyfishing3]

[CiDirkona]

I do have a spare hub/spindle assembly I could turn into a welding jig though to make sure the strut body, tabs and holes all end up in the correct spot though too... Hmm....

[exexpat]

Brother. Welcome.

[Korruption]

That's awesome!! Am jealous

[sacrifice]

Win. Ning.

[Oreo931]

Awesome, awesome work. Props. I love it.

[JVC]

Very awesome... the front just leaves a bit to be desired with how low the back is.

[EVL WAGN]

You need to come to Michigan and do mine next!

[exexpat]

Do I spy a smaller tire in the back? Looks like a monster truck 215/45/17 in front and a comparatively attractive 205/40 in back if I were to guess.

[CiDirkona]

Good call -- Yes, there are 205/45 in front and 205/40 in the rear. Not sure why though, came that way when I bought it.

[CiDirkona]

Ride height:

[flyfishing3]

that looks like a PA plate but your background is far from PA. where you located?