I just recently replaced my lowering springs with West Shore Fabricators coilover kit. Even though it is pretty much a self explanatory process, I thought I would do a build thread to show how to complete it.
The website I brought from. Their customer service is very helpful.
http://www.westshorefabrica...iero/CoilOverKit.htmJust as a disclaimer, don't try this at home if you are unexperienced.
You will need a jack, jack stands, an angle grinder, a bench grinder, and an assortment of sockets and wrenches.
First thing to do is to jack up the car and make sure you put it on jack stands securely.
Next, take of the tires and locate the two large bolts on the strut.
I used a 1/2 socket wrench with the end of a jack handle for leverage to get the bolts off. I didn't have a wrench large enough to hold the other side of the bolt, so I used vice grips.
One important thing to remember is to disconnect the brake line from the strut.
Once you get the two bolts out it will hang in the same place it was. Now its time to work on the top three screws.
You need to take off the mounting tab for the decklid vents first
Then you need to take off the three top bolts, but be careful, it will start to drop the strut as you loosen the bolts. The best way to do it in my opinion is to take off the two shorter bolts(the ones that are closer together) off first and then take off the longer bolt while holding the strut in one hand so that it doesn't fall when it is fully disconnected.
Once you get both of them out, they will look like this.
Next you have to take apart your struts. This could be the most dangerous part of the process depending on what springs you have. You may want to rent a spring compressor from a local parts store. I already had lowering springs so I didnt have a need for a spring compressor. What I did was put the bottom of the strut up against the wall, and kept pressure down on the spring just in case. To take apart the struts you need the correct size wrench or vice grips, and the right size allen wrench. You hold onto the nut at the top of the strut with your wrench and put the allen wrench into the actual strut and twist the allen wrench while holding the bolt steady. Its hard to describe this part for me but you will understand once you start doing it yourself. Once you get that nut off everything else just slides off. I forgot to take a picture of me doing this but here is what I'm talking about.
So by this time you will have both of the struts off the car and completely dissembled, and be left with something like this.
Now its cutting time, hold your strut in your bench vice by the base of it. Tighten the vice enough that you can put a decent amount of pressure on it and it wont move, but not too much to where you damage the strut. You will be cutting off the spring perch that your stock springs sit on. Your coilovers will go completely over the entire spring.
When you begin cutting with your angle grinder, make sure to hold it securely with two hands. I don't have a ton of experience with using an angle grinder, so I used it in moderation. I started out using small little triangular cuts, being careful not to get too close to the barrel of the struts.
If you continue to cut them like i did in little small sections, and not all in one motion, your cuts should turn out something like this.
I would recommend, if you are not good at using an angle grinder, to cut until you are about an inch away from the barrel all the way around. If you are a little more familiar with an angle grinder, then its your call on how comfortable you are, but I don't think I would go much closer than half an inch way from the barrel. I forgot to take a picture of how close I got but it was around 3/4 inch away.
Next, use your bench grinder to grind away the rest of the metal. You want to be careful to grind only the spring perch and not the barrel. This will be the longest step. I had a 2.1 amp bench grinder, so with mine I couldn't put full pressure up against it because it would make it slow down its speed, therefore grinding even less. I also had to take breaks because mine would start getting too hot. For the grinding process, it probably took me about an hour and a half per strut. Depending on how close you cut with your angle grinder, and how powerful your bench grinder is, your time my vary.
And here's a picture my girlfriend decided to take.
When its all said and done, the spring perch needs to be completely gone. The barrel of the strut needs to be one size around from the top to the bottom.
You will know that you have ground enough off once you can slide your threaded sleeve all the way down your strut.
Apply RTV around the base of your strut and then slide on the threaded sleeve.
Then put on your threaded nut with the spring setting on it. Then put a large washer and the bushing on. It will require some difficulty to put the bushing on because as you try to push down on the bushing, the strut will start to compress.
Once you get the bushing on, you then put your top hat on followed by another bushing, followed by the original top washer. Then put the strut nut on the tighten it all down. Then put your strut tower D plate back on. You have now completed your coilover build.
Now its reinstallation time. Nothing fancy here, but reassemble exactly like you took apart.
First put the top three bolts into their holes, starting with the longest one to make it easier. Don't forget to put the plates and washers down before you put the nuts on.
Next, connect the two large bolts back at the bottom. Don't forget to reattach the brake line to the strut.
Then put back on your vent mount.
Next thing to do is to adjust your car to your desired height. The only real way to do this is to make the coilover almost as high as it will go but twisting the threaded nut, put the tire on and see how high it sits after you lower it to the ground. Then raise it back up and adjust, and then lower it back down and see where it sits. Repeat till you find the right height.
After you fully adjust your ride height, get your car an alignment, and you'll be good to go.
