Coilover vs. Lowered Spring/Shocks

[xintersecty]

OK last night I swapped the suspension around. I got everything done. Found a mistake or two fixed them. Here is a picture showing the old springs vs. the new lowered HR springs.

Rear is located on the left.


Will upload more pictures later when I get more time/bandwidth.

[xintersecty]

Here is the before picture. I should have used an offset to keep the tire from rubbing on coil spring.


Here is the new spring and new shock for the front


Here is the new spring and new shock for the rear


I had to go to a doctors appointment and put two hours on the car. I can say it rides much more comfortable than the coilovers. It does not corner as well. Coilovers rock on cornering. HOWEVER there is a trade off for that stiffness.

So it has been an expensive lesson for me, however I feel like it has been worth it. Still working on the video.

[vicsm]

Forgive me if I missed this detail but, wheel and tire size on this project?

[xintersecty]

Forgive me if I missed this detail but, wheel and tire size on this project?

That detailed was covered years ago somewhere back in time on the forum. Well I went looking and I never mentioned it. Outside radius is the same as the 14" Aveo tire. I found a picture, 5" width 40R16

[xintersecty]

The video is done

[xintersecty]

I used three cameras, 2 outside and one inside.

Inside Camera
Canon EOS-M with a 20mm FD F2.8 (old school) lens

The inside camera was a jury rigged mount. Basically a 4x1 held in place by the doors using a clamp mount. It had a lot more high frequency shake to it. I also blew the focus on it. I needed to choke down the depth of field with the aperture setting and my adapter ring keeps going undone. I need to fix that. Video was stabilized.

Outside Camera 1, Wheel
Canon G-12 Wide Angle
I used a Stick Pod mount. I bought it years ago and basically Tom does not sell them much anymore unless it's the big kit. I went wide angle and need to to a better job of framing and capture the entire wheel. I did not use any stabilization.

Sticky Pod Mount
Attachment 9243

Outside Camera 2
Kodak HD Zx1
This is a sports camera that never did much. This camera competed directly with the Flip. Never went anywhere and the same with the flip (Flip Video - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). GoPro killed them. The Kodak is not a bad format and could have competed. I always have a terrible time with camera shake on this guy. It's tall so that moves the mass out over a longer lever causing more shake than needed. There is a reason why the GoPro is squatty. Alos the lens is comparable to 50mm and that makes it hard for action shots. You need a comparable 10-20mm to make it worth while.

Music Link: Free Music Archive: Halloween - Stray Jack

[northguest47]

So the sway bar and strut tower bar arrive tomorrow, the session is booked for next weekend, I guess its not actually late april anymore, but its close. The half axles are for the trailer.
Thanks for the links and taking the time to post edited video, Xintersecty, I actually haven't had time to research it all yet, but I will. And its a reminder to me to be more patient and actually document the session with pictures, something I so often skip. It takes a lot of time and effort to do video well.

[xintersecty]

So the sway bar and strut tower bar arrive tomorrow, the session is booked for next weekend, I guess its not actually late april anymore, but its close. The half axles are for the trailer.
Thanks for the links and taking the time to post edited video, Xintersecty, I actually haven't had time to research it all yet, but I will. And its a reminder to me to be more patient and actually document the session with pictures, something I so often skip. It takes a lot of time and effort to do video well.

Good luck with your install. Those are very nice coil overs. Let me know how you feel about your ride. Right now I have not done much since I got my surgery. Still hurting from that. I have since switched to the lowered springs and struts/shocks and loving my ride.

[northguest47]

Thx, hope you are well and getting better day by day. The lowering session was a complete success. Wow, handling! what with coil-overs on the front and lowering springs, shocks, and airbags on the rear and the strut tower bar and sway bar. The cornering is nothing short of amazing I'm giggling making the current tires chirp on my test drives
The under-steer is predictable its confidence inspiring to throw 'er into a corner. Coil-overs are comfortable enough for me but they are a bit bouncy for the performance.
No clicks or clanks in my setup; its quiet, folks said expect the front to be noisy - not so.
I just cant believe how different of a car it feels, the steering is sooo tight and the braking is so much better as there is virtually no nosedive anymore.
The car ends up with a bit of rake.
So coil-overs on the front and lowering springs on the rear with new shocks and airbags is definitely a winner. With the coil-overs you get a performance advantage at the cost of some comfort, which I'm totally ok with, and keep in mind I'm on 185/60/r14's at 44psi so there might be some comfort earned back in that sidewall. I did one test on the airbags and at 15-20psi the rear was rising easily back to stock height.

[northguest47]

Hey xintersecty, I just watched your video - nice work man, thats a fun watch, and I like the switching between cameras. Well done.