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#1210256 03/09/05 05:51 PM
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As most of you may already know, I won a complete set of brand new Koni Struts for front and rear on ebay for a little over 400 bucks. However, they were sitting in a box with other shocks and although new, had some surface scratches and scuffs.

Since I knew that the shocks needed some modding that involves cutting and grinding to work with the Ground Control sleeves anyway, I got some medium grit sanding blocks, a Rustoleum canary yellow (Allot nicer than the Koni cheddar), a 10,000rpm Black & Decker hand grinder (Daddy Dremel ), and grabbed my hacksaw to to give my Konis a complete makeover to compliment the brand new GC coilovers!


The mod includes some necesarry and some aesthetic upgrading, but here is the list of what is done:

1.) Grind edge of strut cap to about 2mm radius. (Necessary)
2.) Cut and remove spring perch right above weld (Necessary)
3.) Sand down entire valve body (not the picton obviously) with medium grit foam sanding block. (Aesthetic and rust protection)
4.) Coat with Rustoleum Canary yellow paint (Aesthetic and rust protection)

Since I did the front two yesterday and will do the rear two today, I will use the rear ones as a "before pic". Here you go Ground Control and Koni users...

Before


After








Side By Side:





Tools of the trade:
Group Hug

Daddy Dremel

Gotta love that yellow!

Get's my arms worked out, but a nice clean cut for the perches!



Well, there you go. You may not care too much about your shock absorbers being pretty, but if you are having rust problems it never hurts to give em a little TLC, hell, they sure take care of YOUR ride!

I am doing the rear ones tonight and installing them Saturday morning. Alas! I will have ride quality back!!! Sigh...

XL

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Very nice


-Philip Maynard '95 Contour [71 STS | Track Whore] '97 Miata [71 ES | Boulevard Pimp] 2006 autocross results
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I see you lightly cut into the strut tube. next time use a dremel with the cutoff wheels. It doesn't take very long at all and once you get close just hit the perch with a hammer a few times it'll pop right off. That way you won't risk the strut tube getting cut at all.


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liquidX Offline OP
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Originally posted by Thinkmoto:
I see you lightly cut into the strut tube.




It's very minimal and doesn't even make a millimeter. Besides, Dremel or no Dremel you are going to get a little scuffing on the tube. No biggie. I do preffer using the hacksaw because in contrast with the dremel, I can make an even cut all around, where as the dremel cannot due to the angles you need to seldom cut with it due to it's body getting in the way of strut appendages.

I did my stock struts with the dremel & hammer method, and I have to say that I much rather prefer the hacksaw method . Either way, I do get your point (Not sawing all the way to the tube but maybe 3/4 then hammer the rest off.) I will do this for the rears. Thanks for the input.

XL

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I would have used a bench vice to hold the 4" grinder and then a couple of V-blocks to spin the strut tube on. Would take less than a minute to cut each spring perch off and would make it a perfectly straight cut for all four...


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Cool. I use that same spray paint on my car!


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liquidX Offline OP
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Originally posted by bnoon:
I would have used a bench vice to hold the 4" grinder and then a couple of V-blocks to spin the strut tube on. Would take less than a minute to cut each spring perch off and would make it a perfectly straight cut for all four...




I would of gone to the Koni assembly plant, snatched 4 struts from the conveyor belt right before it made it to the spring perch welding robot but couldn't find my night vision goggles and black fatigues. Oh well, we can't have everything we want sometimes...

XL

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Originally posted by bnoon:
I would have used a bench vice to hold the 4" grinder and then a couple of V-blocks to spin the strut tube on. Would take less than a minute to cut each spring perch off and would make it a perfectly straight cut for all four...




bah just chuke them up in a lathe and cut them off with a parting tool. Perfectly straight cut there


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Well, I'm doing mine this weekend. Do you HAVE to cut them up like that?


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#1210265 03/10/05 05:43 PM
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liquidX Offline OP
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Well, yesterday I managed to complete the rears with the "cut 3/4 off the perch and hammer off method", and I can say that it worked very well! Thanks to all that suggested. My Konis are now officially ready to be installed on my car along with the Ground Control!!!! Here are some pics of the rears as well as the set...









With the knobbies


I was dreading the installation of these struts since the first time I ever worked on my car all the bolts were rusted in place, but now I can really say that I am down hill from here. Bolts should be already broken in and ready to take off.

XL

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