DIY: "Boat look" Remedy for Accords on Lowering Springs

hiddengamer7 said:

Nice guns
Great writeup!

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Yeah, the girlfriend was taking the pics for me, so I had to pose.

Raymond said:

Nice write-up, do you have a before picture of the car to compare to? I'm curious to see how big of a difference it made. The stance looks perfect now though, so I want to see how "off" it was before.

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I've got some around here somewhere. I'll dig them up and post soon.

Levi said:

dude this is ****ing genious. i so want to do this. how hard did you struggle to take off the fork? i remember when i was trying to install my sportline's myself and i couldn't get the front strut off because the lugs did not go down all the way, even with a friend standing on it.

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It wasn't a struggle at all. I removed the 17mm bolt, then stepped on the lugs to let the strut pull the fork off of the lower arm. Then I removed the 14mm nut holding the fork to the strut, and pulled it down as far as I could. Next, I had my friend step on lugs while I maneuvered the fork off of the strut, and out of the car. This is why I removed all but one of the nuts on the strut perch at the top. This let me move the strut around to remove the fork, while the one nut on the perch held the strut up for me.

cantafordaccord said:

so what did you do about the indent on the shock?
the one that allows the 14mm bolt to fit throught the a arm

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Honestly I wasn't aware of an indent on the shock. I'm assuming you speak of an indention on the shock, in relation to the notch in this picture where that 14mm bolt goes?



I had no problem at all replacing that bolt. I recall guessing that it would be a little tight before I reinstalled it, but I really didn't have any issues with it.


On another note, some people argued about issues with the axle clearing the bottom of the strut after doing this, so I snapped some shots of the car bolted up, and sitting naturally on the ground.

Driver's side axle.



Passenger's side axle.

nicely done! i'll be doing this when i have money for the drill bits

also, do u just bore it out to just right there as shown in the pic, or do u go from there to all the way to the top

Levi said:

would a drill tool something like this work fine?

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Well as you can see in my pictures, I was forced to resort to a corded drill after the cord on my 60+ year old grinder shorted out. Things I would recommend:

1. Corded/AC drill or grinder is a must. Anything battery operated will not have enough torque to keep spinning when you are pressing the bit against the iron.
2. A battery operated drill probably won't spin fast enough. I want to say the drill I ended up using ran at 18,000rpm, which took me twice as long to finish than the grinder.
3. The batteries will probably die by the time you get half finished with the first side.
4. A straight grinder/drill with a stationary switch is MUCH easier to use than a 90 degree drill with a trigger that has to be held down.
5. A dremel tool is affected by the same issue as number one above.

Levi said:

also, do u just bore it out to just right there as shown in the pic, or do u go from there to all the way to the top

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I did grind all the way to the top, unfortunately I didn't think to take a photo when I finished. Here's a photoshop'ed picture of the finished product.

Cool cool, I think i have it down now. Thanks a lot for answering.

wow, great writeup man. big props on figuring it out.

Thanks all. I spent quite a while contemplating how I could lower the front just a bit more with what I had, and without modifying the spring or shock. If anyone has a question, feel free to ask so that others may learn too. If you've found this write-up helpful, please consider rep points.

wow im glad i came across this thread. the accord im picking up exhibits the exact same problem, and it is also on eibachs.

my question is, does this change the suspension geometry at all? would it create more camber?

is this mod reversable? say if i changed springs to a diff company that offered varying ride heights? could i put the collar back on?

check his sig raymond for a before pic