Those of you looking for Steve to get CSK's or other suspension things

[Pretty White]

I spoke to him today. Please bear with him. He is very involved with moving and fixing up his house now so he is not responsing to any emails or threads, but he is well aware of them, but he cannot make any promises to anyone and does not want to get any hopes up "right now". But trust me, once he gets situated, you guys better not miss that window. He told me he is itching, but this is not the time. So my advice to you who want CSK's is to get your cores together and get your money together, cause once he starts he will go all out. Which from the tone of the conversation may be in a month or so.

[billc]

Originally Posted by Pretty White

So my advice to you who want CSK's is to get your cores together and get your money together, cause once he starts he will go all out.

Or consider installing the Koni inserts yourself -- it's just not all that hard, and there are plenty of detailed instructions on the Forums.

[JimR]

Thanks for the update, Ian. I was going to call him. A little antsy. My cores and inserts have been with him since December, and I'm driving the car in a ProSolo next month.

[classicaddict]

Originally Posted by billc

Or consider installing the Koni inserts yourself -- it's just not all that hard, and there are plenty of detailed instructions on the Forums.

yea they arnt that hard. but steve does such an amazing quality job i would rather him do mine if i were to buy them.

[Tricked]

I have also been trying to get ahold of him. I knew he was busy moving but I have money in hand and all I want are the SpecV inserts and red B14 rears and I'll make my own CSK's.

[wes]

Originally Posted by Tricked

I have also been trying to get ahold of him. I knew he was busy moving but I have money in hand and all I want are the SpecV inserts and red B14 rears and I'll make my own CSK's.

Dude I appreciate wanting to support Steve as he is a great guy, but you think because you just want to order the inserts and you have $ he should hurry up and get them for you? For what he makes on the inserts he may even tell you just to order them from Tire Rack. Maybe I'm wrong and out of line in talking for Steve but honestly for the inserts themselves there are many places to get them.....

[Tricked]

How did my comment come off as I want him to "hurry up and get them?" It is in no way in an offense to Steve. He just has the best "deal" and I'm anxious. Who wouldn't be anxious for a deal on a set of struts with all the great reviews. I guess I was just trying to support Pretty White's original statement.

[Pretty White]

Wes is right. I would measure your rear struts and get the correct ones. The Rack was exactly what Steve told me to do. Buy them there (THEY ALWAYS HAVE A SALE ON THEM). It speeds up the process. He is a man, not a shop.

[Moto]

You should go for it, yourself.

I used the Sears die grinder assortment, ($6.00) after the 1/4 then 3/8 bit was run through.

I chose a die grinder bit, instead of the select-a-hole drill bit, because it was too expensive and there was no way to be sure the pilot hole drilled, was dead center. Even if I used the expensive 1/2 inch chucked select-a-hole bit, there is a rather large chance you would have to tailer the hole by grinding, anyways. It's very tough to center the first hole "perfect".

Skip the select a hole bit and just use the round ended die grinders, with a bit of the strut oil, as lubricant. The mild steel can be Dremel'd easily, if you save the smaller Dremel cutters, (preferably the newer style, with the bow-tie center hubs in them), as you grind them down cutting the strut tube ends and shortening the bolts.

Then the smaller wheels, you have saved, which are pre-sized, will fit into the strut tube holes you have wallowed out with the die grinder, so you can smooth the internals of the strut tube, exactly to one inch for the shortened inserts. The lil' Dremel works great for fine tuning and cleaning any lumps or slag which might stop the strut from seating correctly, as well.

The red insert Greg V sold me for $60.00 had a larger than stated strut nub, welded on the bottom of each insert. It wasn't 9/16, but rather a full 1 inch, so the holes came close to the welds around the donor tubes.

I made sure the bolts didn't bottom out on the cartridges, and every one had to be shortened more than I originally had them cut down to. Also noticed a bit of welding lump on the Koni's which was easily removed with the smaller Dremel, along with the paint, so the epoxy sticks correctly.

I'd say there were six threads cut from each bolt, not four like the write up stated, but that's because the struts have been improved and I didn't want to take a chance on the bolts cutting into the cartridge base, which they will certainly do, if they are too long and over-tightened.

Thanks Steve, wherever you are!

[Tricked]

I understand Steve's situation. I gave him the part numbers and he gave me a price cheaper than Tirerack. I've been waiting and still am. I will continue to wait until he has time, doesn't think it's worth his time or he tells me otherwise. I am in no rush so, I've since been in contact with him and am waiting further details.
I'll try to keep my experiences to myself from now on.

[Moto]

By the way, I'd like to add; there are "universal" "Gabriel-Brand" struts being sold on eBay, which are cheap and advertise as for B-13 REARS. Thinking they were a terrific deal, I over-looked that they arrived with 2 brake-line tabs, welded on either side of the inner-rear-struts.

The tubes we should be using, are supposed to have left and right rear-stabilizer-bar tabs, and a single brake-line-mounting bracket; not redundant brake-line-tabs. Stock struts are side specific, (and your rear cores should be too, if you are considering this mod).

These after-market brake tabs, may also rub the inside of the brake mount welded to the body, in the driver's side well; as the tabs are longer than need be to clear the brake-line-mount.

The stock torsion-bar, is able to be temporarily mounted to the forward brake-line-mount on the strut, but it's definitely not right and the RSB joints will not aligned vertically.

Really a let-down, to see there is such a discrepancy, between stock and what we need to use ANY stock or replacement bolt-on RSB, effectively.

Be aware, the stock tubes may be the best for this mod, and there are inter-change-able after-market models which are not side-specific.

These are deficient, for strong RSB bar mounting and should be avoided.

Rear, stock-style, side specific "RSB disk saddles" should be verified on rear struts to be used for this mod, so adding them afterwards doesn't make the job a PITA.

I'm going to have to grind the extra tabs off and re-weld the RSB mount or go with a NASCAR style torsion bar, altogether. Not so sure the Koni's will like that heat torture. I'm considering using ice or oil bath, in order to cool the replacement brackets, right after they are welded. However, fast cooling, or quenching with ice, might make the welds brittle.


The tubes' inner diameter were terrific for the mod, but the extra work that after-market cores add to the speed and effective-ness of the process, would be much easier to do, with reconditioned stock tubes; in my humble opinion.

There is a chance these eBay beauties were not all real Gabriel's and were merely re-packaged, and dumped in the boxes by the seller. Three of them all had stamped markings, (one had nothing), in the tubes. They all received the inserts O.K. (tight-fit). I did notice the drastically, undersized guts, on every stock after-market strut, had different amounts of oil in every tube.

[JimR]

Ian, any movement in the last month?