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I'm having a hell of a time achieving the perfect ride height myself, ostensibly due to my car being one of the "oddballs", as described and reported in @Therock88's lowering threads that some may recall.
I started with the recommended VEL-004 VAP springs, which didn't lower the car at all. Weird. So, I switched to the VEL-003 VAP springs, which were provided and installed by VAP at no extra cost (great guys ).
Frustratingly, the car is now sitting lower than expected and wanted, particularly in the rear.
So I'm looking into pursuing a solution like the one you were planning.
I got the springs installed onto the strut assemblies using the spacers as I described, but have not installed them on the car. Time seems to be my scarcest commodity now. I still have a P7 grille sitting in the garage .
Are the springs "fully captive" when you jack it up so the wheels are off the ground or do they rattle around a bit? If not, you could try putting some 1/2" thickness material between the bottom of the spring and the lower perch then lowering it again to see if that gets you closer to what you want. I suspect that there might be more than one version of the lower spring perch, which is a stamped piece, located by ring around the shock body. Just a guess though.
I can dig up a part number for the material I used if you'd like. I chose it for impact resistance, but it's a form of HDPE. I took some pictures of the pieces I fabricated but didn't post them because they're not pretty. I used two different hole saws and they are a little rough. If I had a lathe they'd be pretty, but pretty is not required here.
I got the springs installed onto the strut assemblies using the spacers as I described, but have not installed them on the car. Time seems to be my scarcest commodity now. I still have a P7 grille sitting in the garage .
Are the springs "fully captive" when you jack it up so the wheels are off the ground or do they rattle around a bit? If not, you could try putting some 1/2" thickness material between the bottom of the spring and the lower perch then lowering it again to see if that gets you closer to what you want. I suspect that there might be more than one version of the lower spring perch, which is a stamped piece, located by ring around the shock body. Just a guess though.
I can dig up a part number for the material I used if you'd like. I chose it for impact resistance, but it's a form of HDPE. I took some pictures of the pieces I fabricated but didn't post them because they're not pretty. I used two different hole saws and they are a little rough. If I had a lathe they'd be pretty, but pretty is not required here.
Would you mind sharing the dimensions of the pieces you made? ID, OD, width.
I'd like to raise the rear on mine about 3/4".
Haven't gone out to check if there's a gap when I jack the car up, but I expect that there will be, since the spring was already loose on the strut when I had the 290mm springs installed (these are 255).
I made some pretty rough sketches and don't think I saved them, but here are some pictures.
First, the spacers. I would have liked them to be better finished, but not for any practical reason. Unfortunately, I don't have machine shop access any more.
Here is one, sitting on the lower spring perch. It needs to be an easy sliding fit on the inside, and the outside needs to only be as big as the perch itself.
Finally, the complete assembly.
I'll follow up with dimensions. The only one I'm sure of is the thickness. I selected that so that there is no play in the spring when assembled off the car. I have an angled driveway and was concerned about clunking, and with speed bumps also had worries over clearance. Some day I'll get them installed.
The 1/2" thickness won't translate exactly to the change in ride height because it's adjusting preload, and also there is a leverage ratio in the suspension. That is, I don't know what 1" of shock travel correlates to in actual wheel travel, but I'm sure it's greater than 1".
I ordered the material and the hole saws from McMaster-Carr. Yes, I used hole saws. The material came in 12" x 12" sheets. One sheet was enough for four spacers. It comes in other thicknesses, but that was exactly enough to eliminate movement of the spring in the rear. The fronts were not floating, but I put spacers there to balance things. How balanced? I have yet to find out.
My McMaster order:
Impact- and Moisture-Resistant HDPE - 12" x 12", 1/2" Thick: 5865N122
I wonder if something like this exists and is sufficiently robust to do the job:
Not this item exactly, but something more robust of similar design.
Goal would be easier installation.
I was thinking that you might get the hole saws and some plywood of different thicknesses to do just that: make some split rings to determine what thickness you'd want for the final installation. I would never drive with something like that, but maybe move back and forth a few times to settle things before measuring the effect. Once you've got that, you would only be doing the full installation once.
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