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Coilovers for the Protege are: meh. There expensive and to be honest, they dont go low enough. Thats why Ive designed these to go lower than any other Protege. I should be able to lay frame and still have strut travel. So here it goes. My progress...
Been working and researching on this for about 3 months. With 16's in the front I had to dump my skunks practically all the way down which means im pretty much on the bump stops. You know what that means: horrible ride. So Iv come up with a design for a custom front coilover. Before you go all willy nilly saying "why don't you just buy coilovers already." For one reason, I have pretty much all the parts and tools i need, minus shocks. Another is I LOVE custom fabrication and that's what I'll be majoring in at Wyo-Tech next year. Here's my plan of attack...
1. Ill be using my stock strut bodies as tubes to hold the new shocks. Best part is its free and i know it'll fit without a problem
2. Shocks. These are what Iv been looking for over the past 2 months. Iv tried struts from other cars like; VW Rabbit, VW Golf (mk2 and 3), VW G60, BMW E30, Nissan S13 and MR2. Most fit well for the most part but I came to the conclusion that its not exactly cost effective. Not to mention the fact that these cars arnt very close to the protege's front weight. Then I started looking at oval track/modified type shocks and hit the gold mine. Shocks are available in almost every compression and rebound setting you could come up with. They also have a super short body and short stroke. For those of you who don't understand, it basically means the car is already lower while maintaining full strut travel. BILSTEIN is the brand Iv chosen, specifically the "big body" series with a 5/5 compression/rebound. This will give me a good balance of ride and performance with my 350lb springs. They have a 9" stroke, compressed length of 14.75", extended length of 23.50" and a 2.0" O.D. body. Iv measured the inside diameter and they will fit inside snug. Im going to chop off 2" of the stock mount tubes. From there ill be able to get the proper ride height while still remain the strut travel. One problem Is the fact that there is a bearing mount on the bottom of the shock. I think Iv found a solution in using a mount traditionally welded on to a control arm. Using this I can make a bracket that will wrap around the mount and let it sit flat up against the bottom of the strut tube. The shock will still be way to down in the tube so ill have to raise even more by having a spacer machined up.
3. The endlink will need to be relocated, Havent decided if im going to keep it on the strut or some how mount it on the control arm.
Parts have all been purchased, just waiting for them to arrive. Ill try and post pics up asap.
Been working and researching on this for about 3 months. With 16's in the front I had to dump my skunks practically all the way down which means im pretty much on the bump stops. You know what that means: horrible ride. So Iv come up with a design for a custom front coilover. Before you go all willy nilly saying "why don't you just buy coilovers already." For one reason, I have pretty much all the parts and tools i need, minus shocks. Another is I LOVE custom fabrication and that's what I'll be majoring in at Wyo-Tech next year. Here's my plan of attack...
1. Ill be using my stock strut bodies as tubes to hold the new shocks. Best part is its free and i know it'll fit without a problem
2. Shocks. These are what Iv been looking for over the past 2 months. Iv tried struts from other cars like; VW Rabbit, VW Golf (mk2 and 3), VW G60, BMW E30, Nissan S13 and MR2. Most fit well for the most part but I came to the conclusion that its not exactly cost effective. Not to mention the fact that these cars arnt very close to the protege's front weight. Then I started looking at oval track/modified type shocks and hit the gold mine. Shocks are available in almost every compression and rebound setting you could come up with. They also have a super short body and short stroke. For those of you who don't understand, it basically means the car is already lower while maintaining full strut travel. BILSTEIN is the brand Iv chosen, specifically the "big body" series with a 5/5 compression/rebound. This will give me a good balance of ride and performance with my 350lb springs. They have a 9" stroke, compressed length of 14.75", extended length of 23.50" and a 2.0" O.D. body. Iv measured the inside diameter and they will fit inside snug. Im going to chop off 2" of the stock mount tubes. From there ill be able to get the proper ride height while still remain the strut travel. One problem Is the fact that there is a bearing mount on the bottom of the shock. I think Iv found a solution in using a mount traditionally welded on to a control arm. Using this I can make a bracket that will wrap around the mount and let it sit flat up against the bottom of the strut tube. The shock will still be way to down in the tube so ill have to raise even more by having a spacer machined up.
3. The endlink will need to be relocated, Havent decided if im going to keep it on the strut or some how mount it on the control arm.
Parts have all been purchased, just waiting for them to arrive. Ill try and post pics up asap.
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