trunk shocks

[mbdblue]

I was planning on scrapping this idea, since it won't really gain me much...until I considered that Im in an apartment building and can't do much other fab work right now. So I decided to lose the trunk springs and throw on some struts . I searched the web to find a civic forum talking about it and a step by step build of someone doing it found here>> civic shocks there are also other tutorials but they did some things I didn't want to do so I figured Id post it up.

first I got the hardware from autopartsbylou.com instead of McMaster. the stainless 10MM ball socket brackets and a pair of stainless 10MM ball studs. I drilled a hole in the side of either trunk arm and tapped the hole with a 5/16"-18 tap (I would have liked it better if they had 1/4-20 ball studs cuz I would have thrown a rivnut in there but the metal is actually decently thick).

then I took the 2 ball brackets and mounted them to the back wall (or what remains of my back wall) right over the rear struts. they may have to be turned around since the top of the strut may get in the way. the one in the tutorial had his mounted to the rear deck which is fine if your deck isn't ummm...slaughtered like mine

so thats pretty much it! all I have to do now is measure fully opened and fully closed to see what size struts I need. it measures 9.75" closed and 14.25" fully open. so Ill be getting struts that can open to 15" and close to 9.3"

by doing this, I'll gain a whole 1/2" in height when I take the spring out :woot: but I will gain more if I decided to run active with just a front setup and lose the rear speaks.

also note, make it easier for yourself and pull off any dampening material FIRST. that shit got all over my drill bit and ruined it...good thing they are left over from my old job and I have about 6 more

[rysc86]

wish i knew about that site when i converted my trunk from torsion bars to struts. I took the clips off and drilled holes to mount bolts through the strut mounts. one of the screws broke and i haven't got around to fixing it since its a bitch to take my box out. might have to look up the model# of the strongarms i brought and get the correct ball socket for my lower mounts

[mbdblue]

was able to install 1 strut and then it started pouring...so no pics ATM. but with just one installed, it already opens my trunk for me. I went ahead and bought the 45 lb. struts...just cuz I didnt know which ones to get. in retrospect, I could have looked up what lb. rating is on hatches like an eclipse and get ones a couple lbs. lighter. pics to come if it stops raining