Front Extended Top Hats Installed

[gloryaccordy]

why didnt you shave off the older portion of the tophat mount? directly to the mount instead of leaving 1/4 inch old metal and having over excessive welding?

Also tophats dont drop your car more, you shouldve upgraded to some shorter shocks so that the shock wont bottom out into the tophat. Also you shouldve used a thinner diameter piping instead of hacking up the bay.

And to add to that, you didnt need to extend them that much.

At his height, that kind of extension will be what he needs to keep the shocks in their operating length.

But like others said, at that height, while shocks are A problem, UCAs are THE problem.

CBs are happiest at a drop no lower than 2" all around... and that better be with some damn good shocks...

[Raceboy]

For doing this but you really to find a better welder. This is what welds should look like

I'm going to have my buddy Ryan (laguna7) fab me a set of these, he's pretty gangster at TIG welding. They'll look close to the pic you posted. Plus the UCA problem will be solved by cutting the fenderwells then welding slight dome top (a"cap" if you will) to cover the holes and clean up the engine bay.

[FAK_LAF]

why didnt you shave off the older portion of the tophat mount? directly to the mount instead of leaving 1/4 inch old metal and having over excessive welding?

Also tophats dont drop your car more, you shouldve upgraded to some shorter shocks so that the shock wont bottom out into the tophat. Also you shouldve used a thinner diameter piping instead of hacking up the bay.

And to add to that, you didnt need to extend them that much.

They will drop your car more if you were riding on the bump stops before

Shorter shocks, extended top hats, they are both accomplishing the same goal of not allowing the shock to limit suspension travel. Extending the top hat was more economical for me than having a shock shortened.

Using smaller diameter pipe would defeat the whole purpose of extending the mount seeing as the shock body needs to be able to travel into the extension under compression.

I am very happy with how the car rides now so I really don't care what you think I should have and should not have done.

[FAK_LAF]

i like it.
i never thought to do the rear ones there is very little room back there to extend it any more im wondering about that.
that thing looks slammed from what i can tell though
and good idea on cutting the chassis for the upper control arm its a must.
you will laugh when you see how much i had to cut

Wow man, I can't believe you are as low as you are on stock shocks and no extensions. Are you running no bump stops or what? Your ride looks sick that low on sawblades. When I first installed the extensions on the front the UCA's where banging like crazy over everything. Cutting the fender well definately solved that problem. Your fender well cuts look clean in your thread. How did you fill the gap between the two layers of sheet metal?

[904dr]

FAK_LAF do you know exactly how much you extended your tophats?

Also what size is the outside diameter of the piping you used? I'm trying to avoid modifying the holes they come through under the hood, and hood clearance issues.

[xkjnboix]

use smaller diameter piping and smaller diameter bushings should work too

i have an oem set in my signature link to my f/s thread.

[AstroVannin]

I like it.

Use those with some full coils and short springs ... win.

[FAK_LAF]

FAK_LAF do you know exactly how much you extended your tophats?

Also what size is the outside diameter of the piping you used? I'm trying to avoid modifying the holes they come through under the hood, and hood clearance issues.

The fronts are extended 1.5-in and there are no hood clearance issues using the orange Koni shocks. I used 1.25-in OD steel exhaust couplers from Autozone. You are going to have to enlarge the holes in your strut towers, no way around it. Like I have said numerous times in this thread, the extension MUST be large enough for the shock body to travel into it or else there is really no point to extending it. You can not have additional shock travel if there is nowhere for the shock to travel into.

[blackoutt]

I have this done to my civic and it helps alot,and once you get stiffer springs the arms shouldn't bang as bad on bumps..

[FAK_LAF]

I have this done to my civic and it helps alot,and once you get stiffer springs the arms shouldn't bang as bad on bumps..

Good call. I just put Skunk2 coilover sleeves on (10kg/mm front and rear). I have to say, I am disappointed with the drop in front though. I am deffinately not taking full advantage of the extended shock travel anymore...

[dbales]

A beautiful weld doesn't guarantee strength. When I took welding at my community tech college that's one of the first things my instructor told us. As long as he had good penetration (giggidy), then the welds should hold just fine. Are they the most beautiful looking things ever made? No. The OP simply didn't want to spend a lot of money on the "best" suspension setup. He achieved his goal of being able to go lower without compromising his shocks.

This thread and the one before it has given me the knowledge and the how-to to do this myself when I go to lower my car.