Fixing Chopped Springs

[Trigger Jack]

When I bought my car, I realized pretty quickly that rather than buy a suspension kit of any type, the previous owner simply chopped the springs. Awesome. Now, if you're the type of person who wants to go the cheap way and do this to your car, by all means, do so. But after lots of bouncing around, I want something better. Yes, I've read about 100 posts or so on suspension and what not, and have gotten a general idea of what's going on, except for the most basic question. Taking Tanabe's Sustec Pro S-OC Type II's for this example, it's ride height adjustments is stated as: +3/4~-1 1/4in / +1/4~-1 3/4in
Now. Is that saying that if I adjust it to the very top, that it will actually raise my vehicle .75inch front, .25 inch rear? Then lower it a max of 1.25 inch, 1.75 inch respectively? Like wise, if I look at TEIN, and they state a min of 1.5, is that saying that my car automatically gets lowered at least 1.5 inch, with adjustment of more?
Granted, a lot of this is subjective opinions on how well it rides and whatever. Which is why I'm not asking which is best for road, autocross, etc. I just don't want to throw a kit on there that drops my car any lower than it is, so I bottom out when I take speed bumps at 3 miles an hour. And before someone says anything, that's going at the speed bump sideways, at an angle, straight on, doesn't matter. Avoiding them is good advice, but there's just some places I have no choice. Struts are probably gone too, if they're making me bounce so much....which is why I'm not asking about just replacing springs.
If this has been answered definitively somewhere, and I missed it, please point it out.
Thanks in advance.

 

[DragonKnight]

So in the end, what do you want? If you just want a better, more comfortable ride, then go buy someone's stock suspension. If you want a little bit of lowering or a lot, please state how much you're thinking of going for (or how much of a 'look' you want since you state that you have no interest in autocrossing or road racing). You can probably find some stock shocks in good condition and then slap some lowering springs. Don't forget to trim the bumpstops down.

 

[Trigger Jack]

Slightly lowered, really only about an inch, inch and a half from stock. In the terms of road racing, I meant track, rather than just racing around on the streets, which is basically all I'll be doing. Going to be switching out the stock 16"s with 17s, wanting to make sure I keep the wheel gap reasonable....but I don't have trouble with the wheel issue. Mainly confused by the ride height data given by different companies. Wrote to tanabe and Tein, still waiting on responses from them. Money isn't really an issue, so I figured if I'm thinking of replacing the suspension I have now, might as well upgrade, and I'm not really a big fan of mix/matching springs and shocks. Personal preference, no real basis behind it.....I also just don't see a point in getting something like JIC's.....kind of overkill.

 

[Trigger Jack]

So no one can just tell me what those numbers are telling me?