Quickie: Is four hours enough?

tommigun · Post by **tommigun** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:21 pm

Okay, here's the thing. I'm not exactly a master mechanic but with good-enough instructions I get stuff done. Since my normal garage isn't available I thought about putting my lowering springs on at work. The only problem is that the shop is open only to 9pm and I could start working on my car at around 5pm. Do you guys think I could do it in four hours or should I just wait patiently so that I can get to the usual place? All opinions are appriciated.

Craz1000 · Post by **Craz1000** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:44 pm

wait, do it right.... do it once

hansken_yo · Post by **hansken_yo** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:53 pm

Craz1000 wrote:wait, do it right.... do it once

Well said.

Wenuden · Post by **Wenuden** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:00 pm

if time is an issue and you wanna save money by doing it yourself, do the rear one day and the front the next day. The car probably won't even look that funny considering how high the back sits anyways.

cgneon · Post by **cgneon** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:21 pm

took me and a buddy 5 hours with hand tools and alot of breaks and refering back and forth to the fsm and haynes manual in the hot ass florida sun with no prior suspension work experience.. but you never know what can go wrong so do hgalf one day and the other half the next...like wenuden said..

Wenuden · Post by **Wenuden** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:42 pm

LOL just make sure one side is the front or back, not the left or right.

Post by **Diablo0** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:28 pm

If you've never done it before, I'd wait or like Wayne Newton (lol) said, do the front one day, the rear the next or vice versa. It's not really a hard job, if you have a helper you can save a lot of time not using a spring compressor by having someone push down on the top hat while you loosen the nut nut an air gun. It's not exactly the safest way so I take no responsibility of any injuries from the spring popping up... but as long as someone is putting their weight on the top hat while you're taking the nut off, it should keep it held down from popping up. I find the spring compressor, while it is safer, eats up a lot of time.

Once you do once side the other side goes a lot quicker since you're pretty much repeating everything you just did.

dblsg · Post by **dblsg** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 9:28 pm

anytime i do suspension work, i always do the front first... if i don't have enough time, its still driveable. the advantage of doing the front first is that if you need to do any night time driving... you won't blind oncomming traffic with the headlights.

OB · Post by OB » Thu Feb 28, 2008 3:49 am

The rear's are easier IMO, just because of the extra room to work with and the lower spring rates. I agree that it would make the most sense to split it into two days. The downside of a fully independant suspension is the longer R&R time. Took me half a day the first time I did it. That was after a huge mixup and a broken spring compressor though, so expect a solid 6 hours for the whole car if you know what you're doing, maybe less with a friend.

tommigun · Post by **tommigun** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 6:33 am

Well I'm sure one of the night shift mechanics can help me out on those things you need a extra pair of hands. But I guess I'll first try the front as suggested and if it goes well then I'll take on the rear aswell. Thanks for the replies, I really had no clue how long the work takes. Now I just hope the front doesn't get too low so I can get off the lift when I'm done...

kc2005ptgt · Post by **kc2005ptgt** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 1:01 am

first time I did it - 6 hours for all four, second time it took me 4 hours, then 2.5 hrs for just the rear. then I replaced all four struts/springs with coilovers and it took about 4 hours incl. setting the height.

jphillips · Post by **jphillips** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 12:08 pm

do the left, then right and you can have realtime before/after pics!

tommigun · Post by **tommigun** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 4:24 pm

Lol, should have done it like that.

Front went really well, took about 2,5 hours. Rear caused trouble, mainly thanks to stupidness. Thankfully the guy in charge let me stay one hour extra so the total time it took for me was 5,5h. And now my ride is lowered, pics to be posted in my project log.

King Crab · Post by **King Crab** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 4:43 pm

I can't wait for the pics. Really looking forward to seeing them on your Neon as I have the same (H&R) springs waiting in my garage to go on my baby. Hows the ride from your perspective? FYI I think Jari Kurri was the man.

tommigun · Post by **tommigun** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 7:30 pm

King Crab wrote:I can't wait for the pics. Really looking forward to seeing them on your Neon as I have the same (H&R) springs waiting in my garage to go on my baby. Hows the ride from your perspective? FYI I think Jari Kurri was the man.

Ah the good old NFL... Me and my friend were just wondering the otherday where have all the huge, scar-faced "peacekeepers" and weatherhardened Canadians gone from the league. Nowdays it's just talented young Russian after another.

As for the ride, even with the stock struts I definetly like the ride better. You definetly feel the bumbs in the road if you don't watch out for them, but in the downtown area here is this annoying stone road. Amazingly the ride was way better on it with the H&Rs then with the stock springs, definetly the best mod on my car so far. Pics will have to wait for tomorrow as we forgot to tag the camera along.