how I installed them?
Went over to a buddy's place who has done suspensions before and who has an air wrench. (without a pass-through wrench, an air wrench is the best way to get the strut tops off of the struts)
Jacked the car up, yanked the tires off. pull the speed sensor off the front struts, then cut the brake line brackets to avoid messing with the brakes, then pulled the two bolts from the bottom of the strut and the 3 nuts from the top. after pulling the strut/spring assemblies out, ran the top nut off with the air gun, cleaned the boot up, cleaned the upper perch up, cleaned the rubber pads up, and assembled the new springs on the v5 struts with STi top mounts. Used the air wrench to run the top nuts on, and then put everything back together. Oh, we notched the brake brackets on the new struts too. Then I took it in for an alignment.
What's the ride like?
It's more like a go-kart than before. It's a little on the bouncy side, but that might be either the fat on my ass or the springs in the seat.
It's a LOT more connected with the road. It used to sorta float over expansion joints on the freeway, now it's glued down. Of course it's a little louder too, due to road noise coming through the STi mounts. But whatever. I don't really care. I'm building the car for the grin-factor, not for the luxury. If I wanted luxury I would have bought a used Lexus.
