Ready for sand blasting and painting.
New Koni 8610-1437 Race and Tokico Illumina for a '76-85 Celica (and AE86 Corolla).
2 inches shorter shaft.
2.5 inches shorter body.
Prototype (left) is complete, now it's time to transfer all the dimensions to the unmodified unit. With the perch at the same height, the new shock has about 3/4" pre-load (for what it's worth I measured wrong, I was shooting for less).
Closeup of the spring area showing the differences. Sorry for the poor focus. If I want to lower the car more it should be a non-issue now!
Disassembled strut, ready for some work. The first step it to beat off the spring seat (tack welded in 3 spots). It was being supported by the welded ring left over from the original, factory spring seat.
No more spring seat (if it was always this easy). Next up, cut (no need to even measure yet).
Use the chop saw to section the strut just below the big factory weld (no need to keep that part).
Two parts, a little cleaning of the cuts and things will look great.
About 1.5 inches removed from the strut body. The upper (left) section must be retained because it has the threads for the gland nut that holds the strut cartridge in.
Using some square iron stock and a few clamps, a jig is set up to keep the two parts square to each other (trust me, Harbor Freight Chop saws don't cut things at perfect 90's). Next up is welding.
Three tacks to hold the new strut tube together, then fill in the gaps!
All done. no laughing at my welds, you get what you pay for. The spring perch had to slip over this weld, so it will be ground down.
After grinding. I left enough of the weld to actually keep the collar from rattling around (the perch is about 1/16 to 1/8 bigger diameter than the strut tube). The shiny part of the threaded collar is where the loose spring could rub anytime the suspension was unloaded (no pre-load). This new setup will solve that problem!
The spot welds at the top of the strut provide additional support for the collar. Next up is to measure and weld in the spring seat.
Spring seat all welded and ready to go.