Slam a car that has no available coilovers

[hadoq]

Hi, I have this very nice 1990 Bluebird, not a sportscar by any means, but I love its looks, shape and I'd really would like to get it to the ground on some fat 14's

the thing is, they don't do coilovers for that car (which I can understand) and I'm not going to cut my springs.

the car really isn't worth much, it's not a collectors car and it's basically unsellable these days anyways. I just love it and I'd like to play with it a little.

anyway, what are the possibilities? I have no idea

thanks

[craig1010cc]

Try talking to proshock, they made a set of coilies for Mystery Machines rascal and they love making stuff for 'different' cars Other than that you are looking at trying to adapt coilies from another car or seeing if you can use a coilie conversion in the existing shocks

[kevfromwales]

craig has it right there

what you need is a pair of golf front coilovers - mine were off a mk2, but I'm not sure if other age golf's will work

the bottom mount holes need very slightly filing out, an you'll need some thick washers, but they are a great fit - then at the top, simply take off the vw topmount, and fit the nissan one

beware though, the front of the blueys are VERY low, and if you are after extreme lows you'll end up with the front x-member and sump about 3/4" off the ground

good luck - blueys are for winners!

EDIT - at the back there's plenty off room to chop the springs, or if you are really anti chopping (I'm not) then you could probably adapt the golf rears to fit? - the bley's rear suspension may even take a bit of re-jigging to induce a bit of camber which I'm looking at now on mine...

[RobinJI]

Jan 28, 2012 13:53:48 GMT kevfromwales said:

...I'm not sure if other age golf's will work...

Fitment wise, mk2/3 Golfs, Ventos, mk2 Jettas, Corrados, and B3/4 Passats all use the same suspension. Then 6n/6n2 Polos use the same front struts, but with shorter rear struts the same as mk1 golfs and mk1/2 Sciroccos rears (the same travel, but a shorter body).

VW like re-using parts It's worth remembering about the different length rear struts though, if you want to adapt them to fit then you've got 2 options to try.

[rodney]

other optiuons if you don't want major lows is get some new springs made up, say 2 or 3 in shorter,.

[79cord]

Jan 28, 2012 16:39:40 GMT RobinJI said:

Fitment wise, mk2/3 Golfs, Ventos, mk2 Jettas, Corrados, and B3/4 Passats all use the same suspension. Then 6n/6n2 Polos use the same front struts, but with sorter rear struts the same as mk1 golfs and mk1/2 Sciroccos (the same travel, but a shorter body).

VW like re-using parts It's worth remembering about the different length rear struts though, if you want to adapt them to fit then you've got 2 options to try.

Has anyone got some rough dimensions upon these?
personally I'd need to chop off the lower mountings anyway to clamp around the base of a circa 50mm strut.

[hadoq]

wow thanks for the replies. I live right on the german border so I'll try to get by some mk2 golf coilovers, that shouldn't be very hard, then I'll look into it.

I'm after getting as low as I can, but chopping is not an option (a friend of a friend killed 3 in a crash he had on chopped springs, although he was driving like an *** as well)

but anyway, I'll see if I can find some golf MK2 parts and then have them checked against the nissan parts.

here's a photo of the car as it is now


so completely standard. my main issues is to find a way to get it to the ground, wheels won't be hard to find and, then I'll probably look into some fender flares.
a friend of mine will be working on an exhaust as well

getting it done is not my priority tho, as I have lots going on these days and my priorities are elsewhere, but it'll be nice to have an ongoing project so I'll keep you guys posted if anything happens or if I have more questions !

thanks again you guys really helped here !

[kevfromwales]

happy to help a fellow bluebird owner

and robin, cheers for the compatibility info, that'll help when I try and find some coilovers for the front of the cherry

[RobinJI]

Jan 29, 2012 17:14:13 GMT kevfromwales said:

happy to help a fellow bluebird owner

and robin, cheers for the compatibility info, that'll help when I try and find some coilovers for the front of the cherry

No worries. Mk1 Golf and Mk1/2 Scirocco's front struts look very similar, but have the top hole slotted for camber adjustment. I couldn't say if they're identical in terms of dimensions though.

[akku]

Personally (not knowing the circumstances of your mate's crash) I'd be more concerned about driving standards and scrub lines than I would about cutting the springs.

Quality of work done also matters. Do the job right and don't reuse worn out parts.

In many cars cutting the springs is perfectly OK. I don't know enough about Bluebirds to comment.

I understand if you don't want to, in which case loads of places will sell you coil springs to any size and length and spring rate.

[hadoq]

Jan 30, 2012 9:55:57 GMT akku said:

Personally (not knowing the circumstances of your mate's crash) I'd be more concerned about driving standards and scrub lines than I would about cutting the springs.

Quality of work done also matters. Do the job right and don't reuse worn out parts.

In many cars cutting the springs is perfectly OK. I don't know enough about Bluebirds to comment.

I understand if you don't want to, in which case loads of places will sell you coil springs to any size and length and spring rate.

I actually didn't think of that "custom coil springs" solution. Although I'm in the complete dark when it comes to spring rates

[qwerty]

Jan 28, 2012 13:53:48 GMT kevfromwales said:

craig has it right there

what you need is a pair of golf front coilovers - mine were off a mk2, but I'm not sure if other age golf's will work

the bottom mount holes need very slightly filing out, an you'll need some thick washers, but they are a great fit - then at the top, simply take off the vw topmount, and fit the nissan one

beware though, the front of the blueys are VERY low, and if you are after extreme lows you'll end up with the front x-member and sump about 3/4" off the iground

good luck - blueys are for winners!

EDIT - at the back there's plenty off room to chop the springs, or if you are really anti chopping (I'm not) then you could probably adapt the golf rears to fit? - the bley's rear suspension may even take a bit of re-jigging to induce a bit of camber which I'm looking at now on mine...

Is this like the same fitting method as Polo Coilovers on Micra's? Just wondering if Corsa Coilovers would fit straight on like Micra's.

[joostvdw]

This is quite an old thread, but I'm reviving it anyway because I have the same question for a different car.

Does anybody have rough dimensions of MK1/MK2 (or according to RobinJI a lot of other older VWs) struts? In particular I need to know the front shocks, I'm after the diameter of the shock body since they need to fit inside to clamp-style hub of my car. Is it safe to assume aftermarket coilovers have the same shock body diameter? I guess not?

Since someone is going to ask it anyway, it's for a Subaru XT (Leone2/L-series2 underpinnings)