//steve\\

Months ago I came across a thread where someone had managed to fit some Civic/Integra Ground Control top hats on their KW V3s. These are the extended top version which I believe per GC add 24mm of suspension travel compared to OEM mounts. GC does make s2000 specific tops that are basically the same height as OEM because it was determined the regular extended ones were just too tall and would cause fitment issues. I fit these to my KW Clubsports without any issues but can definitely tell you it's going to be application specific. If you're suspension has tall adjusters these probably will not work at all.

I run my car reasonably low and probably a tad below KWs recommended height so I knew that anything I could do to get back some of that precision suspension travel would be a win and I was willing to do it at the expense of giving up the spherical bearing top hats that came with the Clubsports. I've since discovered that GC makes their own solid/bearing version of the extended tops but it was already too late and I had placed my order. I will probably look at picking up a set in the near future and offering up my current setup for grabs.

There is very little you need to do to make these work. I think the only thing "custom" I did was enlarge the hole in the bumpstops, cut them to a shorter length, and reuse the metal sleeve out of the OEM top hats.


Here is a GC top compared to the Clubsport top. You can immediately see how much taller it is. That's where you're getting the extra travel.



First thing you'll need to do is disassemble your OEM tops to get the metal sleeve you see in the center of the mount. You could also order this part new from Honda and they are around $0.75 a piece.



Next thing you'll need to do is modify the bumpstops. I really wish you could reuse the KW bumpstops but they are just too large in diameter to fit up into the GC tops. Biggest reason for this is they have the nice built in dust shield. My car isn't a daily driver so I'm not as worried about not having any dust shield and it's something I might try to see if I can retrofit another day.

There are two things I did: 1) Cut the bump stop to the same height as KW stop 2)Enlarge the center hole to fit the KW shock shaft





At this point you've done all the modifying you need and can put everything back together. The springs are a little bit of a tight fit on the spring cushion as the GC tops are meant for a 2.5" ID spring and the KWs use a 60mm ID spring. It doesn't take much effort though and I don't see any problems here. I found it easiest to get the black cushion onto the spring first and then push the top hat in last.

Here are the three parts assembled



Here is a picture of a completely assembled shock




The total length from bottom of spring perch to bottom of shock did end up being a little bit shorter compared to using the Clubsport tops so I had to raise the perches several turns to get back to the exact same ride height.


Completely assembled on the car you can close the hood without any problems. There is the tiniest indentation in the mat that's on the underside of the hood but not enough to actually get close enough to dent the hood. The hardest part was the driver rear as it's already a tight fit back there. I probably would have been fine leaving it completely alone but threw some foam tape on top so that there was no chance it might rub a hole in the rubber boot near the gas fill neck (honestly not even sure what purpose that bit black boot serves )

berny2435

do you think that the shock will bottom out on the mount now though? It doesn't look like the shock body will fit into the top hat. I'm under the impression that the shocks these were designed for would actually go up into them. you'd want to keep that bump stop long enough so that it will compress just enough to keep the shock body from hitting the top hat. http://www.ground-control-store.com/...p/II=825/CA=73

I would think on the front of the car, just cutting a 1/2 to 3/4" off of the clubsport bumpstops would be okay. On the rear, I already cut 1/2" off the clubsport bump stops but that doesn't allow you drop more than 1" either. If these extended top hats will get me a 1.5" drop without risk of hitting bump stops too much, I might do it. gotta buy some new springs and test those out first though. I think I'm goin 700/650 and I'll be buying 5.5" long 650s.

clarkster009

Good stuff Steve! You'll have to let us know how it rides now compared to the solid mounts.

//steve\\

I'll be completely honest and say I didn't even think about that in regards to the total shock diameter and the possibility of the top hat hitting the shock body. I guess when I get my upgraded springs I'll have to check it all out. Very good point though. Unfortunately I have no idea how big the bumpstop is when it's full compressed so I couldn't tell you if it's long enough to prevent that from happening. I do know that out of the box the bumpstops are a good 3/4-1" taller so it should rule out that very ever happening but when you start to cut them shorter I don't know how much that changes things. I do know that with the drive I recently did I hit some really big bumps and never heard or felt anything funny. The top hat base is also tapered inside so that the farther up the tighter it gets. It might just be enough that you never have a problem. I'm very anxious to know that answer now though.

Driven

a lot of Civic/CRX guys have been running extended top hats for years and years in the road racing community until people started going the shortened shock body route.

Not sure how applicable it is for S2000s... seems a bit much.

And I'm pretty sure that you never have to worry about the shock body going into the top hat. The spring, bump stop, and washers won't compress enough to allow the shock to touch the top hat. If they do... you shouldn't rally jump your car

//steve\\

I think the tops being worthwhile completely depend on which coilover your are running. If you want to run a Bilstein, KW, Koni and also run the car low I think these are almost a must if you don't want to be on bumpstops all the time. I know if you are willing to spend enough you can get Konis in a shortened shock body as well as any other high end shock but I think these help those of us not willing to cough up lots of cash.

berny2435

Good point, the solid height of the spring(s) would need calculated to determine how far it would actually allow the shock body to go. (total coils) x diameter of the coils should get you pretty close to the solid height. Once you have the solid height, measure from the base of the spring to the top of the shock body and compare the two #s. If the shock # is higher, then you could have an issue.

berny2435

one of these days I'll post some pictures up to show people how limited the KWs actually are with respect to total travel.

//steve\\

^I truly believe it. At my ride height (probably 1/2" tire to fender gap) I only have a little over an inch of travel I'd say before I'm on the bumpstops and that's after installing these new tops. I can only imagine that before I did this I must have been right on the verge bumpstops all the time. KW must have really nice bumpstops because I never got the feel that I was deep enough in them for my spring rates to go to infinity. If the KWs were a shortened shock body coilover then I think none of this would be an issue.

Driven

also depend on what you planning on doing with the car. Want to slam the car... do it properly and get shortened shock bodies. Want a moderate ride height, you should be fine without extended top hats.

The top hats are a fix for buying the wrong parts for the application. Mind you, I had these with koni sports on a CRX. Then I bought the SPSS konis and didn't need them cause I got proper shocks for what I was doing.