X: Paid $1,025 including tax. Will cost another $300 or so for labor (to include tuning).

300 for labor is a rip, even with a full alignment...and what tuning needs to be done?

The tuner shop I use estimated up to four hours for installation and tuning. The V2 are height adjustable and the rebound is adjustable. My tuner's labor rate is $75/hour.

Full alignment will cost another $125.

damn.. you could have gotten some teins for that price...and when i do installs on coilovers only take me an hour.. and we only charge $80 for install

KWs are supposed to be better than Teins. And before anyone responds to this...I know that opinions vary. Don't know how you could install coilovers, adjust ride height evenly and adjust dampers in an hour.

sounds like someone's questioning your work.

i didnt say i could do all of that.. i just said installs in an hour..i can install coilovers and adjust ride hieght evenly in an hour and half.... its not hard to adjust ride height...as for dampers i leave that up to the customer on how they want it

Not hard to adjust ride height, but time consuming right? Dont you have to adjust the collars, lower the car, make sure it sits even, raise the car and adjust the collars as necessary until the car is completely even? This is the process as it has been told to me. If it is correct, I can see how this would be time consuming.

I am sure a number of customers, like myself, have no clue (initially) how to tune dampers. This is why people like myself pay experts to do this type of stuff for us.

If you can do the install correctly in 1 1/2 hours, more power to you. I, on the other hand, have no problem in paying the best tuner in San Diego to do the job right no matter how long it takes them. I pay for excellence, not half azz jobs.

You do pay for excellence, but that doesn't mean you learn anything about your car. I would rather put parts on myself and learn rather than paying someone to do it. The KWs are good coilovers and you have the V2's not the v3's. Even if he does what he has to do in one day, I will bet you they will still be uneven. Springs don't settle in one day. You have to put them on, wait awhile, adjust them, wait awhile, adjust them, etc. I took me 4 months to get mine at least halfway decent. Then you pay for alignment and if you are really hardcore, get them corner balanced. That is where you should spend your money. Spend on tuning the coils, not installing them. But if he will do the install and FULL tuning, not just alignment and height, but corner balance too, then $300 is a pretty good price.

^^^.. what he said

04-05 Civic T1 Tsunami Kit. Around 635.00 shipped.

http://www.nopionline.com/nopistore/...20Civic%202004

Robb: Thanks for your inputs. I am not interested in learning how to work on cars. I make enough money to pay other people to do what I want. Regarding the variant, I believe I stated that I purchased V2s, not V3s. They don't make V3s for my car. Undertand about having to re-tune the coilovers. The $300 I am initially paying covers the installation of the coilovers, height adjustment and damper adjustment. I have to take the car to another shop for the full alignment. I will inquire about corner balancing...never heard of it.

Damper adjustment? Dude, seriously, if you pay someone to turn a knob for you then that is just ridiculous. YOU do the dampening adjustment. You change it around depending on the type of racing you want to do. I change mine everytime I have an autox and all it requires is you to turn a little knob. If you make enough money to throw it away on some guy to install them and adjust the height for $300, then go ahead, but that is just a rip off.

its real easy to adjust ride height...all you gotta do is use a ruler and that simplifies the process.. as for what robbclark said about dampening...save a few hundred bucks... drive the car.. if you feel you want it harder turn the tiny litttle dial on the shock with a small screwdriver.. and vice versa

Understand about tuning the damper...and I plan on doing that myself when I get to the track. However, I am going to pay my tuner to make the initial adjustments.

About rip offs...I would rather pay someone to do the work right the first time around then do it myself and screw something up. Here is something funny for ya: I bought some Momo pedals for my car. I thought they would be simple enough to install myself, but it turns out you have to drill holes into the pedal mounts. I am not about to attempt to do this myself, so I am going to pay my tuner to do it. Pretty funny huh?

Ha ha, I used to be like this till I realized how much labour was costing me. I then started doing my mod installs myself, then eventually guys started asking me to help them out Thanks to people like you, I've been able to pay for:
- coilovers
- trip to blue mountain
- 3 months' rent
- CF front splitter
- many many pairs of shoes
- xmas presents to family

And that's only since I started keeping track this spring '04!

THANKS!:2pimp:

No problem! Got some work that needs to be done to my house (interior painting, pluming, etc.)...wanna earn some money? LOL!

^^that's the smart way to do it.

I just finished helping my dad lay down wood flooring and paint the entire main level of his house. Cars are so much easier....lol. No thanks, I'd rather get high on fuel and WD-40 fumes than paint or that crazy ABS pipe cement.

telly you seem like a jack of all trades. hopefully one day i'll know my car inside out.

Don't be afraid to break it while learning how to fix it. My motto is "I can find the part number". That way if I break something (and I've broken plenty) I can go out and replace it, and the next time I have to mod, I'll know how to do it....
Jack of all trades, master of the world....soon...

All I need is another 8 LED center consoles and I can buy that carputer I want....

Break and replace? Been there, done that. My previous car was a Lexus and I tried replacing one of the oxygen sensors on the engine. When loosening it, I broke the sensor next to it! I knew right then that I had no business working on engines.

LOL that's nothing, don't let that stop you.

man...i gotta move back to san diego and work in a shop there. it's true, people out there would rather pay someone then work on their car themselves.

that's where the big bucks are.

I would rather pay people to do a lot of things than do it myself. I think people get this sort of mentality when they start making a decent salary.

i love the 04 stock tails....personally i dont think they look gay? my friend has an 02 coupe, got tired of the altezza look, and got some stock 04's on. look real clean. i wouldnt change my stock tails for the world. but i am gonna black out the fronts though.

ok back to before.. where can we get 04 body kitslol.. mainly the front

theres lotsa crap for the back and sides.. but im hurtin and i dont know if i like the tsunami front end. ermm.. anyone? even just a lip kit for now!! :)

there are some fronts out but i don't like them too much.

I was looking for a bodykit also and found a couple sites- import-showoff.com visionautodynamics.com i'll list more as i find them

I really like the Octane front bumper here...

http://www.visionautodynamics.com/interface.htm