On 10:52 AM 07/10/02 -0700, Mike Buenrostro said...
> July 10 02 >Hey what's up Godzilla? Well as for me I took in your advise and I went >out looking for some coilovers that were respectable. Well I was going to >buy some OBX but some guy from a car shop told me that "they were shitty" >He told me to "buy them if I wanted my car to bounce around" and he told >me that Skunk 2's were a lot better then OBX. He even showed me his 93' >Civic HB with the Skunk 2's on there. So I kind took his word on it and >bought the Skunk 2's. Now here is my question, Do you know how hard it is >to put the coilovers on? Do I need certain tools aside from the spring >compressor? I can get my alinement done for free so I'm not even worried >about that. Should I even try to put them on or just pay someone to do it >for me? Well if you could Godzilla hit me up. Oh dude my girlfriend bought >me a new Deck for my car it's a Sony EXPLOD CDX M630 so I installed that >myself but that's tight huh? > >_________________________________________________________________ >Join the world's largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. >http://www.hotmail.com I can't speak for the OBX kit other than I've seen them but from a few people that I do know that have installed them on their Civic's, they tell me that the springs that come with the kit are *bad*. In other words, they're OK for a while but then over time they tend to get *soft*. My younger brother has the Skunk-2 kit on his 2000 Civic/Ex. We installed it last year and so far it's been pretty good. He's running Tokico shocks and 17 inch Tenzo rims. He's not running with a body kit but he does run it low at times (2 inches from stock) and it's pretty stiff. :^P So... personally, I would go with the Skunk-2 kit over the OBX only because I've installed them and I know a few other people who are running them who are very happy with their performance. I only know a few people who installed the OBX kit (less than 6) and all have pretty much said the same thing. Again, since I've never installed the OBX or rode in a car with one in it, I can't verify the claims. As far as installing goes... very straight forward. A spring compressor is needed. Be sure to get one that is designed for the smaller springs used by the Honda's and that it has safety hooks. You can rent these or purchase them. I purchased mine 7 years ago for another car that I had. I think I paid around $50 (USD) for it. I've seen some for $20 (USD) at the local Pep Boy's and Kragen. Other tools you will need is a torque wrench, at least one jack stand (though a pair will make it much easier). The installation of my VSpec (I need to update it, but the basics are the same): http://www.crx.org/southcal/tech/vspec/default.htm It's very similar to the Skunk-2 kit only their sleeves don't use set screws but rather rubber O-Rings (unless they changed it recently). The rubber O-Ring slips over the body of the shock and then you slip the sleeve over the shock and the rubber O-Ring. The sleeve should fit snuggly and require some effort to slip on. They also give you a TON of different width O-Rings which you are left with when all is said and done. I also highly recommend that you do not re-use your stock shocks. I did this originally and they just could not keep up. I was basically riding on the springs with no dampening. :^P Be sure to keep your bump stops. Trim them down if you think it's needed, but don't trim too much. I cut about a half inch off mine. I've seen a lot of people remove the bump stops all together and they end up blowing out their shocks as a result from it. As for the alignment... the most they will most likely be able to do is set the toe-in. They won't be able to do much about the camber or the caster unless you happen to install a camber and caster kit. But I would still have the alignment checked to see where it's at. I have the Ingalls camber kit which I really need to get off my butt and install one of these days (I've had it for almost a year now...). And as for the Sony ... is that the one with the motorized flip-up face unit and is XM Satellite ready? Anyways... let me know what you decide with the suspension stuff and shoot me a pic when all is said and done (including the Sony). Robert K. Kuhn CRX Owners Group President (http://www.crx.org/southcal) 1990 Honda CRXsi (http://drive.to/jiggy) ICQ # 3714283 (nickname: godzilla)
