hey guys

does anyone have any pictures or a walk through or how to shorten struts? read up on it a bit here but dont ant anything to go wrong.

i will be using
- 1200 coupe struts
- rear bluebird springs
- what ever shocks you guys say will work.

cheers
J

The first question is "Why shorten 1200 Coupe struts???" Just get some lower springs.

If I'm clueless and missing something then here is the method anyway.

I'll try to summarise this without being too confusing-

Put the two struts next to each other and measure how much you need to cut out of the struts to achieve the height you're trying to get.
Work out what the closest matching strut insert is to your intended height. What I mean by this is that if your intended ride height requires your strut to have 70mm taken out then you would choose the Escort insert as per my table below. These inserts are all a direct match to the Stanza strut so it may pay to check if the same applies to the 1200 strut. There are about 5 different bottoms on the insert so make sure it's correct before cutting or buying new inserts.

Mitsubishi Sigma 77-80 407 25mm lower
Ford Escort 70-74 369 69mm lower
Toyota Celica 70-75 378 60mm lower
Toyota Camry 87-92 332 106mm lower
R31 Skyline 362 76mm lower
VW Passat 73-78 364 78mm lower

You also need to take into consideration if the new insert will be retained differently by the gland nut (insert retaining nut). There may be a few mm difference in the top of the inserts or the underside of the nut.
Once you've calculated the right amount to be removed, cut it off (preferably with a drop saw as this will cut a lot squarer. You're better off cutting a few mm too much off than too little as too little will cause the insert to not be captive inside the tube.
Put the two halves together with the nut done up and make sure the insert will be held down. There should be half a mm gap at least between the two sections of the tube if there is enough downforce on the insert.
Put a slight chamfer on the ends of the tubes to allow for good penetration.
Get a piece of angle iron (vee section) which you can sit both halves in and it holds both sections at right angles to each other. Clamp them down to prevent warpage when welding them up.
Weld 4 spot welds at even spaces around the tube then when that's cooled a bit fill in the gaps. Make sure you're getting good penetration and don't be afraid to put a fair bit of heat and wire in to get a good strong weld.
Grind the weld down to flush with the tube.
Paint with weld through primer so there is some sort of paint under the spring seat. Weld up the spring seat and you're done!
Basically....
Does that help?

And if the insert Is slightly to short in the strut tube- you could pack it out with a couple of washers

Don't forget that 1200 struts are the smaller tube diameter (45mm?) than just about everything else (50mm?) and there is F'all in the way of inserts to fit them. Most people use early VW golf inserts (approx 100mm shorter) or I have heard S1 or 2 RX7 inserts also fit..