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- aggressive auto culture
Any news on the rear camber plates? Interested in how they look
Building Koni Coilovers
- Thread starter low_psi
- Start date
boostedmsp
Member
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- 2003.5 Titanium Grey Metallic Mazdaspeed Protege
subbed!
Well I ordered the bearings to use for the rear camber plates and then got anxious and modified the OEM rear mounts to work. Machined camber plates are still in the works but not a priority right now. To move the strut further down into the wheel well for more droop travel I used two OEM top mounts. I knocked the studs out of the bottom one and drilled out the sleeve for the bushing. Then cut the bushing out of the second one and welded it on top of the bushed mount. No pictures of that, I'll snag some tomorrow.
Because the rear assembly is so much shorter than the OEM one, I need to replace the 8" springs with 7" springs. This way I can keep the car at a reasonable ride height and keep preload off of the spring. The fronts went on w/o much hassle at all. I used new 400# springs and the modified Cusco plates. Droop travel is great and ride height has a great window to work within. The old 350# springs from the front are getting swapped to the rear to replace the 250# springs.
Overall the ride is beautiful. Commuting home this evening was the most fun I've had with the car in years. The car just eats up bumps in the road with ease. Its obviously a drastic change from the blown Tokicos I had on the car but the only time the car rode this well was when it was over an inch higher with the soft stock suspension. I've doubled the spring rates and the car is just as compliant. Really looking forward to taking it out to the track on Friday. Just need to swap rear springs, reinstall the rear sway bar and corner-balance/align it.
The pearl:
The rears:
The modified sway bar:
Because the rear assembly is so much shorter than the OEM one, I need to replace the 8" springs with 7" springs. This way I can keep the car at a reasonable ride height and keep preload off of the spring. The fronts went on w/o much hassle at all. I used new 400# springs and the modified Cusco plates. Droop travel is great and ride height has a great window to work within. The old 350# springs from the front are getting swapped to the rear to replace the 250# springs.
Overall the ride is beautiful. Commuting home this evening was the most fun I've had with the car in years. The car just eats up bumps in the road with ease. Its obviously a drastic change from the blown Tokicos I had on the car but the only time the car rode this well was when it was over an inch higher with the soft stock suspension. I've doubled the spring rates and the car is just as compliant. Really looking forward to taking it out to the track on Friday. Just need to swap rear springs, reinstall the rear sway bar and corner-balance/align it.
The pearl:
The rears:
The modified sway bar:
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- aggressive auto culture
O wow, that modified sway bar is are awesome! Great idea.
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- aggressive auto culture
What's the part numbers on the koni's?
8610-1346RACE x2
8610-1347RACE x2
73.25.01.003.1 x4
The price of the inserts dropped a little since I bought them and I also have accounts with some of the companies but approx retail pricing is as follows
OEM Struts = $60
Koni Insert = $250 x4 = 1,000
Gland Nuts = $30 x4 = 120
Camber Plates = $250
Hyperco Springs = $65 x2 = 130
Ground Control Kit = $399
Rear Top Mounts = $25 x2 = 50
Painting Tubes = $120
Total: $2,129
I already had material to reinforce the swaybar tabs and make spring seats, and I had MR2 struts with the threaded section for the gland nuts. Otherwise that would have been $200 to have threaded sections machined. I used some spare parts I've bought from GC over the years since I already had the kit on the car.
Also keep in mind most everything listed was modified in some way. No labor, welding supplies, etc are accounted for.
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- aggressive auto culture
Thanks! looking into them....
AWR no longer makes rear camber plates. They may still offer the fronts. The Cusco fronts are still available but I can't confirm either will work with OEM suspension. Quite frankly, if you don't have coilovers on a Protege, you don't need camber plates. Camber bolts will do just fine.
