I'm developing a performance suspension package for City's

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turbocab
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Postby turbocab » Sat Oct 02, 2010 11:38 am

to quote asian frank "k sport can be adapted to fit enything"
i will be interested to see what he comes up with for me.

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James
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Postby James » Sat Oct 02, 2010 7:00 pm

turbocab wrote:in that case the guy that is painting my car does k sport coilovers. so looks like ile be getting a set of them instead :cry:


Eh? I still said I would do you suspension, just better Koni stuff instead of old honda crap...

If the damping in K sports is re-valveable it might work tho, they dont have a great reputation for being very good handling suspension, Koni has a much better rep in the honda community here at least.

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Postby James » Sat Oct 02, 2010 7:05 pm

turbocab wrote:in that case the guy that is painting my car does k sport coilovers. so looks like ile be getting a set of them instead :cry:


Eh? I still said I would do you suspension, just better Koni stuff instead of old honda crap...

If the damping in K sports is re-valveable it might work tho, they dont have a great reputation for being very good handling suspension, Koni has a much better rep in the honda community here at least.[/quote]

turbocab wrote:to quote asian frank "k sport can be adapted to fit enything"
i will be interested to see what he comes up with for me.


If you were going to go for custom, Id be tempted to go somewhere a bit better than for K sports. I know a suspension guy here, http://www.tsv.co.nz/ that will do a full Koni setup for around $1500NZD, custom valved for your car, not much dearer than generic K-Sports.

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Postby turbocab » Sun Oct 03, 2010 8:54 am

oh ok i misread your post then,but if it is going to cost 800 to 1000 for the shocks alone and i still need to buy springs on top of that i may as well get a k sport setup for 1500

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James
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Postby James » Sun Oct 03, 2010 1:29 pm

Yeah, I don't see it coming in for under 1k, still fairly cheap for adjustable suspension.

By all means if you can get K sports installed for 1500 then rock that, make sure they give you proper MacPherson struts, and don't just use some Honda shocks that are double - a -arm and have skinny little shafts. The shafts should be at least 20mm on the front and 18mm on the rear.

As for what 3g was saying about the rears, you have so much length to play with the t2 that its not going to be a big issue. The rear springs however may be a bit trickier, I might have to post a pic of the spring adaptors colin made up to allow coilover springs in the rear if I havnt already.

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Postby ProT » Sun Oct 03, 2010 6:11 pm

Photo(s) please !

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Postby James » Tue Oct 05, 2010 7:16 pm

Going to Aus for work on Thursday morning, will be photos when I return! Unfortunately going to Bundaburg so not very handy to all you NSW guys.

The Koni gear gets here next week, if I have success with it, the same stuff might end up working for you ProT? Also, consider those rear spring adaptors and the 8kg/mm springs if you want them part of your kit, those springs are reasonably well calculated to match some 6kg/mm fronts.

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Postby connorling » Fri Oct 08, 2010 11:47 pm

are these packages still going on???
i m after some suspension mod, used to my civic hard set up, its weired i cant take corner with my city like i do with the civic

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Postby James » Mon Oct 18, 2010 7:02 pm

Image

Koni Red wet kit :D

These are Koni internals that you are meant to screw into your Stock civic strut bodies, and fill up with new oil (hence the wet part). They suit my needs because they are affordable, very easy to shorten (I need them about 100mm shorter, and adjustable - rebound via a screw (you have to take the strut out, collapse it and turn the shaft) and compression via the weight of oil you put in.

The main reason I didn't get some new, adjustable Koni Yellows like I have recommended above is that they are gas pressurized, and their internals are a bit of an unknown for me so Im not sure I could shorten them easily. Cities use a much longer strut tho (check out the size of those strut towers!) so its not really a problem.

Pretty much bang on $500NZD landed, would have been a lot more if I had to pay shipping to NZ, a kindly friend brought it over in his luggage.


connorling, I won't be offering the kits in their original capacity as its just not at all feasible for me time-wise.

Basically you can buy brand new strut inserts off the shelf and install them in a weekend for the same price it was going to cost me to partially rebuild the 25 year old city ones, bit of a no-brainer, add springs and some adaptors in the back and you are away laughing.

You can also buy all of the bushings required for a city from SuperPro in aussie, it just requires a bit of leg-work.

There is a good chance I will still do some of the parts you can't buy off the shelf in limited numbers, like rear spring adaptors to use standard coilover springs instead of the factory strange ones, and some tubular lower control arms.

I will definitely be producing some adjustable strut tops (for me at least if no one else wants any!), these will most likely combine with an upper strut brace so those should be a nice product (no chance for one of those off any shelf!).

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ProT
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Postby ProT » Tue Oct 19, 2010 9:33 am

So what does this mean for me ?

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Postby turbocab » Tue Oct 19, 2010 5:13 pm

keep me on the list for possible suspension bits please james.
matt

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James
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Postby James » Tue Oct 19, 2010 6:12 pm

ProT wrote:So what does this mean for me ?


You still get whatever suspension you want of course :P

Although I would suggest new parts over rebuilt city gear. If you want to do it on the affordable side of things, then another set of the Koni red stuff like above would work well, if you want something a bit more modern and customizable, then some Koni yellow inserts may be the ticket. And there are steps in between like standard gas strut inserts and things.

I have enough rear springs and adaptors, control arm bushings and craploads of strut housings here so basically all we need for your set is some inserts, and some front springs. Might be a good time to start discussing options via email or something?

Matt, will do, if you want to email me a budget or something I can put thoughts into action on what we can do for you.

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Postby James » Wed Apr 06, 2011 4:24 pm

Finally got all the tools for my lathe ($500 worth of threading tools!) and have just ordered 6m of Aerospace grade aluminium tubing to make brand new struts with. If the first set goes well I may do a small run, will keep all posted.

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Postby James » Sun Apr 10, 2011 5:36 pm

So, if I were to offer a kit, (here we go again!) that was those Koni red adjustables show above, inside aluminum bodies with a threaded height adjuster, for around $900NZD, would anyone be interested?

The reason I ask, is that Colin (Colza) is going to CNC machine the aluminum shock housings for me at work (he works at a large CNC machining company), probably this week, I was thinking of having 4 sets made, one for me, one for Glen, and two spares.

I'm going to the USA in about 4 weeks so I will be able to pick up at least one more set of inserts, (for Glen if he is keen), and going back again a month after that where I can get more if required.

The Koni struts work out quite well, they are 50mm shorter than standard city struts so give you that much lowering for free. The reviews on the 1stgencivic forum are very good, with a lot of people using them in race cars. They are completely rebuildable and Koni still carry the appropriate parts.

I appreciate that people will probably want to see them in a city before committing, so I am working to get a set together, and then will need a test pilot with a city I can try.

Anyway, even if no-one is interested Ill still have 4 sets made as I have 6m of tube to use!

At $900 thats pretty much cost to me, I would just be doing it as a service.

These are the inserts: http://classicgarage.com/86-1940.html

The good thing about the aluminum strut housings is that they will be completely comapatible with many other inserts, so will give a lot of options. Once the CNC programs are made it won't be hard to knock some more off.

Anyway, thoughts?

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Postby turbocab » Sun Apr 10, 2011 8:40 pm

sounds good i just wish these were available in time for my car :cry: however i am very happy with my custom k sports and cant wait to compare them with glens car/s and by the sounds of it by the time you guys get springs into this setup the price will be very close to the same(not that i have actually payed a cent for mine so far :twisted: but the bastard does need a huge shed built out the back of his workshop :roll: )
i highly suggest you guys jump on these first four kits since custom adjustable suspension is the one thing that these cars have been lacking since new!now is your chance to get some for a very reasonable price.
matt


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