buying coilover parts separately

Welcome Guest, we hope you find what you're looking for. Take a few seconds to register for an account and participate in the conversations!

ALL FORUMS ARE OFF-LIMITS FOR 0-POST USERS
CLICK THE SIGN AND INTRODUCE YOURSELF

[TurboSedan]

redundant post i know

i went ahead and bought the AFCO Racing coilover sleeves and adjuster nuts.  they appear to be the same things that FFP and the now discontinued TDC kits used (possibly Held gets them from AFCO too?).  basically i skipped the middle man not to mention FFP doesn't sell these parts separately anyway.

here is where i'm at so far - brand new KYB GR-2 rear sturts, brand new KYB strut mounts, and the new AFCO sleeves and adjuster nuts:





as you can see in the 2nd pic the sleeves aren't sitting down on the strut body yet.  this is because there is a small lip above the strut body itself that needs to be ground down with a Dremel (easy; takes like 2 minutes to do).  after that i just need to hone the sleeves out a little and then the sleeves can slide down the strut body into place and i can install everything.

there is a cylinder honing tool i found at NAPA that i'm going to check out today.  it's the type that you put into a variable speed drill and has 3 rectangular spring loaded abrasive stones.  it can hone cylinders as small as 2" diameter so it should work fine as long as the abrasive stones are ok to use on aluminum and not iron only.  i might just buy it today depending on my money situation.  then i could install all my new parts before i leave to VA (i've had these struts in & out so many times i can have the job done in about an hour).  that would be great since one of the rear struts in my Cutlass right now is completly blown out.

[DiscoStudd]

IIRC, you have to cut that same flange on the strut for the FFP C/O kit as well.

So you can use KYB upper mounts with the AFCO C/O's?

[AWeb80]

IIRC, you have to cut that same flange on the strut for the FFP C/O kit as well.

So you can use KYB upper mounts with the AFCO C/O's?

yeah....will the spring fit?

[TurboSedan]

IIRC, you have to cut that same flange on the strut for the FFP C/O kit as well.

So you can use KYB upper mounts with the AFCO C/O's?

yeah....will the spring fit?

yes.  why wouldn't it?  i'm 99% sure the AFCO parts are exactly what FFP uses.

[AWeb80]

i'm talking will the spring fit in those upper mounts.....cause FFP makes some aluminum upper mounts for the spring to fit in....those in the pic don't look like aluminum

[TurboSedan]

i'm talking will the spring fit in those upper mounts.....cause FFP makes some aluminum upper mounts for the spring to fit in....those in the pic don't look like aluminum

the upper spring mounts aren't shown in the pics i posted.  i'm re-using my TDC aluminum upper mounts.

[TurboSedan]

IIRC, you have to cut that same flange on the strut for the FFP C/O kit as well.

yup, you do.  they even mention it on their website.

anyways i'm getting a little closer:

this is the upper lip that needs to be ground down so the sleeve fits over it:


after a few minutes with a bench mounted grinding wheel, i removed the lip:


as you can see the sleeve can now slide down to the strut body.  i haven't done the one on the right yet:


to my surprise, i found that the bottom end of the sleeve has a taper that goes about 3/4" into the sleeve:


that taper actually lets the sleeve slide over the strut body about 3/8" past the welded bead:


the top of the sleeve doesn't have this taper, so it stops here:


i'm going to go grind the lip off the other strut, then bring the sleeves and struts to the machine shop.  from the looks of it, they will barely need to be honed out at all to fit.

[LownSlow]

thx for keeping us updated.   hooray for air hammers (instead of grinding)

[AWeb80]

i had to grind down that lip like you said on a replacement pair i've put in my FFP's....

but the weld seam i didn't have to touch.....i just shoved the sleeve over the weld seam....lol

[TurboSedan]

one down, one to go:







i went down to the machine shop and the guy actually stopped everything he was doing and started in on it right there!  i watched the whole process.  most of the material was cut using a lathe and then finished up using a drill & cylinder hone (the spring loaded type with 3 stones).  i'm bringing the other strut in tomarrow and hopefully i'll be able to get pics of the process.  it took a good hour for him to get everything setup right with the lathe and cut exactly enough material out but tomarrow it should be a breeze.  he told me $25 per sleeve which IMO is a good deal since he got it done for me on the spot not to mention the time it took to get everything setup (this isn't exactly the type of thing he's used to doing).

hopefully i can get the new KYB GR-2 struts, KYB strut mounts, and coilovers installed tomarrow or the next day.

[TurboSedan]

i had to grind down that lip like you said on a replacement pair i've put in my FFP's....

but the weld seam i didn't have to touch.....i just shoved the sleeve over the weld seam....lol

you didn't have to touch the weld seam because the FFP sleeves are already honed out for you  the machine shop here cleaned the weld seam up a little to cut as little as possible away from the inside of the sleeve to get it to fit over the strut body.

i'll probably clean the area up and paint the bare metal with some Rustoleum before i install them in the car.

[pat]

lookin good.  if i wind up playing with rear coil overs i'd sand the weld smooth with the rest of the strut body and try my cylinder hone out on them.

now if i could only do alignments, balance tires, and do machine work on blocks i'd never have to farm out work

[TurboSedan]

now that i'm basically done with the project, i'll show you how much i saved.  FFP doesn't sell parts separately, so AFCO Racing was the only way (and i'm 99.999999% sure they get their parts from AFCO anyway).

i had two options:

$327 shipped - FFP coilovers without struts

OR

$63.70 shipped - AFCO Racing 5" sleeves and adjuster nuts
$52.50 - machine work for sleeves
=
$116.20

$326 - FFP coilover kit without struts
$116 - my way going through AFCO & a local machine shop
=
$211 saved.  sure i would have had the FFP upper mount but all i hear about are people complaining that they are noisy not to mention hearing stories of waiting 4 months just to get them!  and i would have had an extra set of springs i wouldn't need anyway.

i'm happy.  i basically saved over $200 bypassing the middle man and having the machine work done locally.

[TurboSedan]

lookin good.  if i wind up playing with rear coil overs i'd sand the weld smooth with the rest of the strut body and try my cylinder hone out on them.

actually, quite a bit of aluminum was removed on the lathe.  i mean, not enough to affect the structural integrity of it of course.  i told him i was going to try using a cylinder hone but he said i probably would have been doing that all day to remove the amount of material needed.

[Invasion1]

Right on!!

going to consider that an option when i ditch that friggen Birchmount leaf  :x