How to Guide: Coilovers on the cheap

Now before I hear some nancy drew mystery finder open her ignorant slut mouth, lemme lay it out. Yes, I already own real Tein coilovers. "Real" coilovers are nothing more than nice struts with the collars welded on and properly sized/rated springs. What does that mean? Get some nice struts, put the collars on them and take the time to find properly sized and rated springs. Bam! Same damn thing but ¼ the price.

So where do you get the coilovers? Ebay of course. The “coilovers” in this guide were miata coilovers that came shipped to my door for about 40 bucks. Any coilover that has a collar 2in in inner diameter aughta work. As far as I'm aware, all of the honda kits will work. A sample ebay search would be like "civic coil*" or "honda coil*" or "miata coil*" any of those should land you some workable stuff. Just double check and make sure that the collars have an inner diameter of 2 inches.

So what’s the first step? As you can see from this picture, the bump stop perch is slightly too wide for the collar to slip on.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/oipaloi/coil%20overs/IMG_1981.jpg


Not to fear, just grind it off. By hand with a file it will take you about 30 minutes for each one. By dremel, about 10 minutes each.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/oipaloi/coil%20overs/IMG_1982.jpg

But for us big boys that have the proper tools it only takes about 2 minutes each on a bench grinder.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/oipaloi/coil%20overs/IMG_1984.jpg

With the bump stop perch ground down it’s almost ready for the collar to be put on. First put some of those little rubber deals that came with the kit on it. I put two of the smaller ones on and a medium one up top. These things just take up space, provide a better fitment for the collar.

With the extra rings, save them. Later on you can use them as cock rings. Show your wife/gf your ingenuity, she’ll be very impressed.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/oipaloi/coil%20overs/IMG_1986.jpg

Now slide the collar on. It should be nice and tight, like the first time you stuck it in your girlfriend’s ass. Now secure it with the locking studs. That collar isn’t going anywhere now.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/oipaloi/coil%20overs/IMG_1987.jpg

With the collar secured, put on the rubber little majigers that came in your kit. If you didn’t get them in your kit, you done ****ed up son. These are just for keeping noise down and a little vibration isolation. You’ll put one on the bottom and one on the top hat.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/oipaloi/coil%20overs/IMG_1989.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/oipaloi/coil%20overs/IMG_1990.jpg

Now place your properly sized and rated spring on. The spring in the picture is not properly sized or rated, it’s the trash that came with the kit. Put your dropsprings or whatever it was you found would work best on.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/oipaloi/coil%20overs/IMG_1988.jpg

Here’s what a front and back shock look like with the collars secured and springs on them.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/oipaloi/coil%20overs/IMG_1991.jpg




Now go find you some right proper springs. If you use the crap springs off ebay, or don’t take the 5 minutes it would take to find good rates, you’re not gonna have a good time.


Here’s some reference rates to help you make up your mind:
Stock: 460 lb/in front, 215 lb/in rear -- or ~ 8kg/mm front, 4kg/mm rear
ZEAL "Street" (14/10) or "Hard" (16/10)
Tein HRs, I think it’s 16/12. My ride is pretty hard.
Jeff's compilation: http://www.geocities.com/ma71supraturbo/MK3Tech/Coilovers.html

What year Miata? and would you be able to just use any aftermarket springs? like eibachs, h&rs.. etc?? aight peace

It's been a long time since I bought the kit, so I couldn't tell you that. Heh, something in the 90s.

As long as the spring coil will fit on the perch, they should work just fine.

anyone happen to know were i can see this thread with piks?

the thread is 4 yrs old dude....photobucket account is probably deleted..