Thread: So you want to make your own coilovers? DIY How To

Lol yeah I got lucky. That was the thing id be most worried about making my own. I would have had to pay someone to weld me up some tophats for the front. And yeah since the bearings are up top its even better in my case. So if you guys good find a way to seal up the bearings for when on the bottom it may help. At least you wouldnt need to clean them so often and replace. Luckily theyre pretty cheap at 50 bucks for a set of 2.

Good stuff guys. I'm going to go back and move the stuff from the second post to the first so I can add the pictures back in. Sometime

Why is this not a sticky?

Ya those are the Seals-It bearings.. which are not made any more unfortunatly. I too searched and searched for them a while back when i was going to make my own coilovers but could not find anymore

Lemme ask you guys a question. I had someone who isn't a member on here ask how much I would charge to modify struts. What do you guys think is a fair price? I would be cutting off all the spring perches, grinding down the welds, cutting off the sway links for the rear, grinding down those welds, grinding down the collars at the top of the strut body, and then scuffing and painting to avoid them rusting. Figure start to finish is probably 6 hours. Using my own tools and buying the paint. What do you guys think?

80-150...to be honest thats the worst part of coilover conversion and the most dangerous to the strut itself. Grind to much you cause to much heat and risk blowing the seals. To little grinding and the coilover sleeve won't fit right.

Figured i'd update this a little bit and share my experience. 400# springs really aren't stiff enough if you're wanting to wind the coils all the way down. I had them all the way down and I hit the bump stops constantly. Of course the roads around here aren't ideal at all for a car being that low. Doesn't matter if you're driving a Cadillac, they still suck. I've hit the bump stops in stock height cars on the same roads I drive this car on. I may go all the way back down again now that I bought my other car back and won't be DDing the purple car anymore. We'll see, it'll probably happen since I loved the way it looked with the coils all the way down.

I have a little squeak in the front. I think it's the spring rubbing on the mount. Remember the top mount design I have isn't the best. Mine requires cutting part of the isolator out and allows the spring to rub on the metal mount. So I'm sure that's where my squeak is from.

Other than those 2 things I have no complaints at all.

Originally Posted by 4THGENCAMAROFAN

Figured i'd update this a little bit and share my experience. 400# springs really aren't stiff enough if you're wanting to wind the coils all the way down. I had them all the way down and I hit the bump stops constantly. Of course the roads around here aren't ideal at all for a car being that low. Doesn't matter if you're driving a Cadillac, they still suck. I've hit the bump stops in stock height cars on the same roads I drive this car on. I may go all the way back down again now that I bought my other car back and won't be DDing the purple car anymore. We'll see, it'll probably happen since I loved the way it looked with the coils all the way down.

I have a little squeak in the front. I think it's the spring rubbing on the mount. Remember the top mount design I have isn't the best. Mine requires cutting part of the isolator out and allows the spring to rub on the metal mount. So I'm sure that's where my squeak is from.

Other than that I have no complaints.

Other than those 2 things I have no complaints at all.

Thyell start to squeek when the bearings get clogged with rocks and **** then the spring has to kind of use the polyurethane to spin on which will give you the same noise.

ill cut a thread on how to make ghetto ass bearing covers to avoid them getting fubared from daily drving.

I just give my bearings a squirt of WD40 when they complain then there happy again

I may. I've been looking at upgrading the sways. Since the front is broke and the rear one barely does anything.

You haven't had any probelms with your cut/welded links? Wasn't aware you were a member on here. Thought you were just on ClubGP.

It's that time again GPF'ers. I've been looking into doing bags but I just can't see it happening. That means another set of coils is probably in order. So, my questions for you guys is, do you see any disadvantages of doing a front top mount like Intense's coils? Other than the top hat is going to reduce the amount of drop since the spring doesn't come up as high. Doesn't really bother me cause I doubt I'll go as low this time around, and i'll actually probably get a softer spring.

Anyway. This set of coils popped up for sale by Chris Amand (Incase you're interested in buying them)on the GP FB page and I saved the pic for a reference.


What I like about this setup is that for one I don't have modify the top mount. I can stick a top hat in and go. The other thing I like is that I can stick the bearings up top to help keep dirt and crap out of them.Thoughts? My only concern is figuring out a bump stop that will work, which honestly may not be an issue since I don't plan to go as low. I had the coils all the way down without bump stops and I don't recall every bottoming the struts.

what's the difference between those and using the stock top ones cut up for the application? besides having an actual bearing in the mount so it rotates how it's supposed to.

Those are the intense racing versions of coilovers. Using the factory mount though limits articulation and with it being rubber causes deflection.

I'm working on making some factory mounts with spherical bearings pressed and welded in. Check out the bilstein coilover sticky in this section you'll see what I'm talking about

Originally Posted by Bio248

what's the difference between those and using the stock top ones cut up for the application? besides having an actual bearing in the mount so it rotates how it's supposed to.

Its the lazy way out. Don't have to punch the rubber out. Don't have to weld the cup in. Just throw the top hat on and go. I'd still have a thrust bearing

get the rod shortened and run a shorter spring.

or gut the housing and get a shorter insert. then run a shorter spring.

I'd love to, but that's been pretty unsuccessful. That's also a whole different topic, i'm more so worried about the top mounts right now.

what i would personally do is buy a set of coilovers for another car and modify the upper and lower mounts to match our car.

then you can actually have a usable set of coilovers in the end.

Well help me out here. And what's this "our". You buy another GP we don't know about? LOL. Anyway. Help me out. I can take measurements of everything