Coilovers and caliper paint

[johnynoi]

Start my holiday from work tomorrow guys, and going to fit a set of ak coilovers. Anyone got any tips/hints do's or dont's for me to watch out for. Be as well painting my calipers at the same time, and my cars the green that you see in my avater, what colour should i go for? Dont want to look chavvy, but not boring either!

[OPC]

Took me a day on my own to do each of those jobs, 2 days work for me i'm afraid.

http://www.vectra-c.com/forum/showthread.php?t=112693

http://www.vectra-c.com/forum/showthread.php?t=104312

[johnynoi]

Thanks for the links, better plan my time for one job then. Hsve done it on a clio but not a vec

[John LE]

Fairly straight forward mate, just make sure you have a decent set of spring compressors

[johnynoi]

Thanks John, id forgot about them. I take it i'll need to reuse the top mounts?

[John LE]

Yeah just transfer all of the stuff from the old ones to the new ones

[johnynoi]

Help guys, how do you remove the spring clip holding the brake pipe in place on the strut!!?? Totally stumped!

[johnynoi]

Well, finally got the fronts done, ran out of time to get the back ones on though! Took a bit longer than I was hoping, because i'm an idiot!

Old ones


Damage to hands trying to get the bolts off, surely I get a man point for the DIY masking tape plaster.......


New ones on, shiney!


Plastic clip that holds the ABS wire on crumbled to pieces in my hand though, need to find a way to secure it? Couldnt get the spring clip back on either as I'd totally bodged it trying to get it off. Yup, I tried to prise, bend and destroy the wrong side, who'd of thought that just hitting it flat on with a hammer and screwdiver and it would just pop off.........

And back on its wheels



Panicked a bit with some horrendous knocking when I started driving, turns out that I had so little energy left getting the bolts off that I hadn't nearly tightened the top nuts enough, what a wimp!

Removing the top nuts was a right pain, was doing it miles from home and realised when everything was in bits that my swan neck spanner wouldn't fit deep enough in the recess to get a grip on the nut. Got a 22mm socket, stuck the molegrips to it as tight as I could, and stuck an allen key in the top with a spanner for leverage and finally got the ******s off!

But man my hands hurt!

[John LE]

Sorry I didn't get back to you today mate (was away all day)

I see you got it sorted though, if I hadn't been so busy this weekend i'd have offered to give you a hand

[johnynoi]

No worries mate, mixture of tiredness and stupidity made it harder than it needed to be! Be good to meet up one day though!