how low can u go ?

[wildplumdx]

hahah thats awesome u so need pics man i'm keen to see it!

[77vette]

will do i just got a digicam

[west]

Gems can go as low as you want them, just the ride that you sacrifice, my wags has had 18"s and no springs and still turned sweet as,no rubs, just depends on the offset of your rims.

And they gotta be under the guards man, fuk that HI jak nuts.

Hopefully my wags will be lower than before, got 75mm (aparently) lowered springs from pedders, all I know is that they are lower than my choppys

[zep]

HAhah, I'm going to sacrifice ride height for excellent track-style suspension Hoepfully will be just on the guards still tho

[wildplumdx]

hey west got any pics bro ? how much whre ur springs ?and you say these springs u just bought will take u lower then ur 75mm chops? and what offset u have ur mags ?

[77vette]

This is my current ridehight


^thats a swapacrate bottle, so you can sort of guage the highness.
I'll take it out on the road on the weekend for some better pics.

[mikuni]

Yay my favourite subject! I like low cars, and I personally think that no matter what you do to a higher car, a lower one will always handle and look far better. Its the laws of physics, lower centre of gravity = faster cornering speed. And lower car = looks fukn cool! haha

How much money are you looking at spending because to get low legally costs money, no matter how you look at it. Not excessive amounts tho, but just remember when your car is sitting on the ground it limits where you can go. If you have a difficult drive way or you don't pay attention while driving you will cause damage to your car very quickly. I like having to dodge stuff while I drive tho, keep my eyes on the road

On my car I have modified several aspects to get it to sit low, this is what I recommend:
Front
- Cut bumps in half to allow more travel
- Suzuki sj4 uprate gas shocks with modified attachment to allow more travel
- Wheel offset +32 or less so it doesn't rub inside at full lock
- Failing that you will HAVE to reduce your steering lock for cert purposes
- Lipped guards using dolly + hammer to give guard clearance

Rear
- Isuzu Rodeo rear shocks but I need something smaller as I'm using cut springs
- You will need to cut the gem bump as the vauxhall one is far smaller*
- Rolled guards, especially if you want to sit stupidly large 18's up in thur
- Adjustable panhard rod. Gets things sitting bang on centre so it all sits snug

Now, the only difference between my car and yours (other than angle of rear shocks which shouldn't matter) is the rear diff. Gemini diffs are a little larger than chevetts ones, and the bumpstops are also large in gems. My concern is that the bump stops are larger because they need to stop the diff head from coming into contact with the floor panels above it, so you will need to look into this and find out how much room you have to play with before going ahead and cutting the rear bumps.

The front bumps can be cut fine. As far as I've found after looking into it, cars can sit metal on metal with no bump stops and no damage will be caused in theory. Bump stops are there to reduce the impact of metal on metal when this occurs. Theres a guy on oldschool, drftnmaz and he has had a gem and lowered it alot and will tell people how its done. But, what he doesn't mention is that his was not one for the road, it was apprantly a paddock basher so I would be a little concerned about the legallity of some of the modifications. Particularly modifying the front cone that the bump stop sits on. The control arms and ball joints aren't made to travel beyond this point, therefore they should not be altered to. Again, thats just my opinion.

I hope you take my advice, and if you look in my chevette galary on here you will see my cars getting all this stuff done to it as we speak so I stand behind what I say and can get you detailed pics of anything you want more info on if required.

And (hopefully for inspiration) you can get it this low fully certed for less than a grand I believe.

[mikuni]

77vette said:

This is my current ridehight. I'll take it out on the road on the weekend for some better pics.

That looks awesome bro! Can't wait to see some proper pics of it. It brings out the look of the wheels heaps too.

I will possibly have mine rolling again tomorrow, can't fukn wait! I started looking around for some smaller wheels too which will make it look properly lowed. Thats one bad thing about big wheels and one reason I would never go to 18's.

[wildplumdx]

hey you know these on TM www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/Car-parts-accessories/Isuzu/auction-67206103.htm you know how it says there adjustable in what way like height do really get what he means /.? i dont even no what the hell they woulkd look like! help!

[wildplumdx]

oh yeah thanks mikuni for the info i'm keen to go as low as u got ur wags looks mint bro!

[mikuni]

wildplumdx said:

oh yeah thanks mikuni for the info i'm keen to go as low as u got ur wags looks mint bro!

Cool let me know if you want anymore info or what not. Happy to help a fellow awesome car owner make it low.

Adjustable shocks are usually just adjustable damper. Will just look like any old shock but will have a dial on top so you can set how much damping (or what ever) you want. Ie hard or soft ride to a point.
www.bmrfabrication.com/gto/Koni.jpg

Coil overs are springs that go around the shock and you can adjust the base plate that the spring sits on, which changes the height of the vehicle. These are a straight bold on to cars with mcpherson strut type suspension set ups but will unfortunately require alot of modification to the chassis to fit into a gemini.
www.modacar.com/Merchant2/coilover_honda_files/koni_coil.jpg

I wouldn't bother with adjustable anything if you only wana go low. If you want race handling then yeah, look into it.

[zep]

Nice write up man!! I'm interested in the reduction of the steering lock. How do you go about this, I think I may need to do this at some point and it'd be good to give it a go before I take the car for the cert!

[wildplumdx]

awesome thanks minkuni ive placed a bid on the shocks on TM so 600 u reakon zep ? no more than that ? oh also how will i know if there shortened enuff for the low of ride height i wanna go ?

[wildplumdx]

ouch yeah your right zep found prices online and the fron konis are 616 and rear 570 not cheap aye!

[zep]

Maybe 800$ ? who knows. Really depends on the seller. I think with Konis you can get them shortened if they're not long enough. And + they're adjustable so that's a bonus!