[ironduke2010]

Bilstein B14's just arrived, and i'm thinking about how to protect them, since they will experience midwest winters, likely complete with brine.

i plan on clearcoating the bodies at least, but potentially some other portions as well (like the unthreaded sections of the threaded part). i also plan on putting a coat of cosmoline rp-342 on the threads, and maybe the bodies too. people on other forums have reported good results with the cosmoline over threads for extended periods. all of that will be covered with neoprene (or similar) coilover covers. hopefully all of that will give me a fighting chance against winter driving.

questions:
1. the perch rings that spin up and down are aluminum, right? they are not magnetic, so i presume they won't rust, and i won't need to clearcoat/cosmoline them.
2. can/should i stuff the bottoms of those blue accordion bellows on the front coilovers under the spring bottoms if possible? it seems like work to get them there, but if they go there, they cover the threads (above the perch anyway).
3. when i size the coilover covers, can i use the unsprung length of the springs and the full perch as my target length? i'm not sure if that will result in bunching of the covers under compression.

thanks!