Can't wait to hear your thoughts. I've had nothing but excellent results installing these for customers in the past.

 

I'm hoping everything will be ready for alignment by the end of the month/beginning of April. The KW's will be noticeably softer than my HKS, so that makes my current wheel offsets too aggressive. I have to wait until the rear wheels are redone, so I can align and corner balance the car all at once.

After reading through the paperwork that comes with the coils, I'm kind of annoyed with the v3. For the amount of money these cost it really should have come with top hats or they could have at least designed the shaft to have a flat spot exactly like the oem suspension making it a direct install. Instead I have to bore out the center with a metric drill bit I can't buy at the hardware store. A 12mm drill bit from MCmaster was about $20 after shipping.

Their requirements for their lifetime warranty to be honored is kind of ridiculous too. They'll honor the warranty if I use KW approved control arms, sway bars, or air cups. The ride height has to be within a specified range to honor the warranty, but their shocks allow you to go lower.

 

Unfortunately that sounds pretty accurate for them. I understand with the warranty I suppose (I wouldn't want to warranty anything people were slamming on their nuts), however, that's a huge issue with the top hats for the price. Most others make that easy it's a shame KW can't follow suit for cars like this.

 

It's annoying because all the other offerings in that $2-3k price range have top hats and are a bolt in package. I knew this before I bought them, and I still decided to do it.

The other way to look at it is, KW is the cheapest 2 way adjustable coilover on the market. I can't think of any other manufacture that offers a better deal (if you're looking for 2 way). The only other one that might come close in terms of value is the Tein SRC which isn't offered for our cars, but can be custom built if you contact tein directly. It should be in the $2.6-3k range and takes about a month once the order is finalized.

All the other 2 way adustable coils are well over $4k
Moton 2 way pro - $4680
Aragosta Type SS with pillowball mounts - $5145

 

Which, as cool as those would be, I could never pay that bill for a 20+/- year old car unless we start talking about a serious track machine (even then...).

Huge PITA, hopefully worth it once everything is installed.

 

I guess I should unbox mine to read the installation instructions as well. I read the online PDF they have published and didnt see any directions about drilling out the top hats:

http://www.kwsuspensions.com/extras/...ah68656010.pdf

 

It doesn't specify in the instructions, but it's said repeatedly in the KW thread on supraforums. There are 2 notches in the center shaft of the top hat that have to be removed in order for the shaft to go through the top hat. The factory shocks have flat spots to keep the shaft from spinning, so those flat spots have to be removed for the round kw shaft to go through.

 

You happen to have a link to that discussion? I cant find it. Is this the kind of bit you got? It goes to 12mm..and its stepped, so it will keep itself centered in the existing opening.

 

No, I got a regular jobber bit. The step bit only works if you wanted to drill on the surface with a shallow depth. The portion you need to remove is inside the center tube, so the bit has to be longer. I ordered this one. https://www.mcmaster.com/#30565A336 If you have a grainger near you, then you can order it there and pick it up within 1-2 business days to save on shipping.

It's mentioned in all of these threads, but no specific one outlines the entire install process.
http://www.supraforums.com/forum/sho...stall-question

http://www.supraforums.com/forum/sho...s-installation

http://www.supraforums.com/forum/sho...pension/page27

You could probably get away with drilling it out using a smaller bit and turning it into a circle. Maybe even using a dremel and a cutting bit if you can find the right length.

 

A couple of updates

- Wheels:
I bought a pair of 19x9 +22 High disk Hre 540R last week. I've been searching for a set of 19" 540 or 540R for a while now, but they're rare in 5x114.3. I came across this pair a few months ago, but they were expensive for wheels that needed repairs. The seller has been lowering his price slowly, and it finally became a good enough deal for me to buy them. The wheels are supposed to arrive this weekend or early next week.


My plan is to hold on to the 540R until I find another set or pair of 19's. I'm waiting for the gloomy weather/random showers to stop here in Socal, so I can swap the TE back on to the car and send out the 18" 540 to be refinished.

- KW:
12mm drill bit showed up and it didn't fit in my corded drill.


The bit fit in my Milwaukee M12 drill, but it isn't strong enough. I managed to drill out 1 top hat before I decided to wait for my friend to let me use his drill press.


Failed attempt:


KYB top hat for comparison:


One thing I did notice about the KYB top hats was the rubber is a lot softer compared to the oem top hats.

- Brakes:

The 3m roloc bristle brushes worked ok for removing loose paint on the iron faces. It helped, but it wasn't as good as sanding to remove the casting marks.


Calipers masked off - it isn't a good idea to mask them off this way. Part of the area I masked off on the back half of the front caliper was still exposed after being painted. I'll post pics below.


Calipers hung up ready for paint. - I also wiped the ground with a wet rag while spraying.


VHT yellow caliper paint on top of VHT high temp primer


I ended up running out of the yellow paint while spraying. I would say 2 cans is the bare minimum for 4 calipers, but 1 can per caliper is more realistic for a deep color.


Going back to what I said earlier about the masking, once I removed the masking tape and put the calipers together this area that was unpainted was still exposed:


It's really hard to photograph an accurate color, but I think this picture did the best job.


Caliper color in comparison to the cap:


I need to figure out a better way to hang up the calipers. The faces of the 2 front calipers were too heavy, so the wire had to be tied which unfortunately left a line. Once I knew I wasn't going to have enough paint, I stopped and left them alone. I'm not completely satisfied with this shade of yellow, so I won't be ordering more VHT paint. The chipped lime green isn't looking too bad right now. lol

 

I agree that the yellow could certainly be deeper... However, I'll say I really like the contrast! Been debating on whether or not I want to paint my calipers while I do rotors/pads/SSlines here in the next few weeks.

 

If you're putting in steel braided lines it is the perfect opportunity to paint since you'll have to bleed the brakes anyways. You can paint the calipers off the car and avoid worrying about over spray getting on to the car.

I would recommend getting some hose pinching pliers and clamp off the rubber lines before removing the brake calipers. That way the master cylinder, abs, and hardlines stay air free while you work on the calipers. The last thing you want is for the entire braking system to get air in it.

 

Great advice - planning to do exactly that while I work on it here in the next few weeks!

 

- KW:

One of my friends offered to drill the top hats out for me today. He got through 2.8 of the top hats before his drill broke. He finished the job using my drill + a generous helping of cutting oil.

I had to go out and buy a round file to clean the inside of the bushings. Top hats are done and ready to be installed on the coils.


I had to take each of the coilovers a part to clean everything and remove all the dust and cardboard particles from the coilovers. There was a lot of debris that was built up where the seals are on the shaft. Once reassembled it looks like this:


The front top hats have a bit of a gap between the purple adapter and the top hat. I'm not sure if this is because I used an aftermarket SC top hat or if the supra top hat is the same. Hopefully another KW owner can provide some insight on this.


While assembling, I ran into issues torquing the center shaft bolt to spec. The nut sits recessed, so a normal wrench can only hold the nut at an angle. A wrench holding the nut + a 9mm socket on the shaft (in reverse) will help tighten up the nut, but once trying to torque the shaft to spec, then the nut starts to strip.


After talking to a couple of friends, they said I would need a pass-through ratchet. I was about to order it when I remembered my serpentine belt tool looks just like this.


Everything setup in the vice for torquing to 26 ft lbs


All torqued and back in the box:


I'll be going through all the settings (ride height, compression and rebound dampening) and setting them all to the manufactures recommendations sometime over the weekend.

 

Very thorough, looking good! I'm all about the color combo. The calipers match the springs so nicely!