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mk1 cavalier lowering


chrisnorrie
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can someone help? 

will I be able to use 55mm lowering springs with mini shocks? if so, is it recommended?

mostly because my budget is tight. I could get a full lowering kit from spax but £400 is a bit excessive for a car that cost half of that ;)

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Just use standard springs and cut a load off and then try until you like the look. You will have to remove the front bumper stop cones and replace the bump stops and cut the back ones down. My red coupe is on its bump stops. Looks great and handles good too. The look is well worth the money spent in physiotherapy      :lol:

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The most expensive part is the shockers. Best one's are Bilsteins, i don't think mini ones will fit. As for cutting down standard springs i wouldn't recommend it because they wont really suit the uprated shockers and being on the bump stops technically means the suspension cannot dampen impacts etc so you run the risk of damaging and bending components or even popping the top of the inner wing tops. 

Ask around on our facebook parts page etc etc. You will pay around £80-£100 for a set of springs (-55 will be okay) but then you need to think about wheels, shocker set will be around the same money for good second hand ones. 

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Sweet, cheers lads. Ill have a look into those options 

On 04/08/2017 at 03:55, Kevin Abbott said:

Just use standard springs and cut a load off and then try until you like the look. You will have to remove the front bumper stop cones and replace the bump stops and cut the back ones down. My red coupe is on its bump stops. Looks great and handles good too. The look is well worth the money spent in physiotherapy      :lol:

Sorry Kevin, when you say it's on its bump stops, do you literally mean its that low it sits on them? If so, thats nuts.

Impressive tho.

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1 hour ago, BIG STU said:

Monroe shocks all round

Standard shocks,all round  minus 3 coils.

Cut off with a  grinder .Job done.

 

Good price, Good look, good ride.

 

GREAT HANDLING. EASY.

Cheers lad, do you mean standard springs all round?

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Yeah standard springs .

Put them in the vice and cut off 3 coils for all 4 springs.

If will sit nice and handle really good .

Not as much body roll when cornering. 

Good luck pal with the  project. 

 

I did a mk1 cavalier up from the age of 13.

It was my first car when I passed my test bacase in 1992.

 

It was great fun..

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1 hour ago, BIG STU said:

Yeah standard springs .

Put them in the vice and cut off 3 coils for all 4 springs.

If will sit nice and handle really good .

Not as much body roll when cornering. 

Good luck pal with the  project. 

 

I did a mk1 cavalier up from the age of 13.

It was my first car when I passed my test bacase in 1992.

 

It was great fun..

Cheers man, another question - sorry

If i get a hold of some monroe shock absorbers, will they be okay with the shorter springs? Ive heard of shocks bursting when their not extended enough at regular ride height..

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Only bother I had when I put in -55mm spax springs was the shocks bottoming out. Obviously cut down the bump stops though.

Put in a set of Mini Gaz shockers which worked great for length but wer too soft so ended up with a set of Jamex shorter shocks...much better now:rolleyes:

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  • 2 months later...

This is on Jamex -75mm progressive  coils. But unlike a lot of aftermarket coils, they were not "Coilbound" meaning that the coils basically had a lot of air between the coils is as best as I can explain it. and ride was absolutley brilliant

Fitted loads of aftermarket lowered springs in my time and these were by far the best, and yes on a lot of load they did hit the rubber bump stops, but I raiseed the bump stops on the car in the pic , poss not a good idea as this would mean the shocks bottoming out.

Someone mentioned Monroe Shocks.... Monroe oil shocks were nice for a -25 drop, gave a lovely ride but were not a heavy duty long lasting shock absorber, not brilliant at speed on bad surfaces.....  Monroe Gas shocks at speed on bad road surfaces were pretty damn good, but harsh at low speed on same road surface.

Spax springs -55 I wouldn't piss on, a bit of harsh driving on 6 month old springs seen 2 of them break on me.

Chassis Dynamics springs (-60 progressive rate) had about 4 coils that were not coilbound car felt like a go-cart, no body roll whatsoever.

Been a while and done so many but they were the ones that stick in my head.

Original springs cut down, actually works well, more you cut the stiffer you go, but coil ends don't seat in the spring seats correctly which is a serious worry, need heating and flattening and dressing back with a grinder to copy the original spring ends as close as possible.

ME I would try and find the Jamex equivalent of what i had years ago, or source a spring manufacturer (which I may well do) to tell them the spring rates and dimensions of what i require and may well start a thread up of doing a group buy................ 

Apologies for pic, only one I could find at short notice.

 

P3310009.JPG

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