Saturday, I helped a buddy install his new Eibachs on his stock struts. Took us about 3 hours because of two stubborn bolts on the rear sway bar. Battled each of those rusted bolts for about 30 minutes apiece, but otherwise, it went without a problem. Having all the right tolls on hand was a life-saver.

His is the fourth different car that we've installed springs on in the last 6 months!!! We did my cousin's '99 Civic Si, my friend's '01 Eclipse GT, my '01 Maxima SE, and now the '02 Protege LX.

In order of difficulty (easiest to hardest), I would rank them like this:
1. Civic
2. Eclipse
3. Protege
4. Maxima (tougher than the other three combined!!!)

The Protege and Maxima both involved some interior removal, so that's why I rank them more difficult. Otherwise, once you've done one car, you could probably do them all.

He also put on his new 17" Enkei CDR-9's and Kuhmo 711's (215/ 40's, I think). That car is ON RAILS!!! We test ran it through some windy roads around his house, and he was easily pushing 70+ through some 30mph curves!!! I was hanging on for dear life! He was quicker than me through the turns before, but his car will ABSOLUTELY outhandle my car now.

The car looks great! The wheel gap is down to about 1 inch all the way around, and the silver finish on the rims matches his car perfectly. I'm going to get some pics soon, and post them on my cardomain site. I'll let you guys know when they go up.

 

nice! I wish I could afford new wheels . Maybe after I get my taxes back. Anyway, if you need hosting pm to me I can post them for ya.

 

TrexPro5... good to see ya again. Had a great time at GameWorks in Columbus last weekend (18th & 19th). Didn't see your car though . Were you hiding from the snow??? After GameWorks, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings near University Center (I think that's what the area is called). Cold as he!! when we went inside... inch and a half of new snow on the ground when we came out!!! And we were about a half hour from our hotel, too. We stayed at the Red Roof Inn on Bryce Rd. We (my cousin and I) realized that there is a strip club a block away on Sunday afternoon!!! Too bad we didn't see it sooner !!!

I'm hoping to buy some new wheels with tax money too. Wife won't let me do it otherwise! Thanks for the offer to host the pics. I'll probably just post them up at my site with the Max.

Later,
Steve

 

I had a hard time on the rear bar too....thats what took the longest for me and my friend also......anywayz good job on the drop.

 

Yeah, the bolts on the rear sway bar are a bitch to get off. My friend and I put eibach springs on my car last week. It took like 30mins for the right/rear and like 20mins for rear/left. I also had a strut tower bar installed. Now my car handles EXCELLENT I feel like I can out handle almost anything.

But I wasted $60 to get my car aligned for no reason. It was off only 0.71 degrees. Oh well, 'better safe than sorry'.

 

redrims, I was going to ask about having alignment done. I advised my friend to wait a few weeks to do it anyway, to give the springs time to settle. Do you think he'll even need it at all?

It's raining today (and 50 degrees ... almost like summer compared to last week!), so no pics yet, but hopefully soon.

Thanks for the replies, guys!!!

 

I would advise him to drive it for about a week or 2 just to see if he needs it. Have him go on a straight street at about 40-50mph at let go of the wheel. If its starts to pull any direction, well you know... I wouldn't want him to waste $60 like I did. Some places are a lot more.

If he wants to be on the safe side and have the money, I think he should do it. "Better safe than sorry".

When I got my car alighned, the told me it wasn't necessary, but it was better to be safe and ruin a tire. NTB is the cheapest place I found for alighnments. The dealership wanted $25 more.

BTW, NTB has a 6,000 mile warranty on their alignments. So if it messes up b/w that time, its free.

 

Just because it drives straight doesn´t mean that it doesn´t need alignment. It could still be off and drive straight. I would get the alignment done regardless.

 

yeah, thats why I said "its better to be safe than sorry"

 

Well guys... he went to get it aligned and found out that the camber was definitely out of spec. He couldn't remember the measurement, but they got it squared away for him.

On another note... a couple of PHOTOS are now available. Check out my homepage. Page 6 specifically, but feel free to roam around there and leave a comment or two, if you'd like!

Peace in yo' butt-crease!!!