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280ZX "shakotan style"


CGreene

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Hello Z lovers,

I have owned my ZX for about 4 years and only ever did maintenance to it just to keep it all up to date (still not finished though). I've always been a huge fan of Japanese shakotan cars and I noticed an abundance of S30 Z's in this culture, but very few S130's. I guess this sparked a fire inside me to build a fine example of a shakotan 280zx, and so now 4 years later, this is where I stand!

My plans for this car are simple, I will lower the car via coilovers as soon as I have the money to do so. I'm going to do an s13 coilover conversion in the rear, and buy technotoy coilovers for the front to save time and hassle. To any of you who know about shakotan style, you know there are 3 main things that are involved: 

1. It usually involves older Japanese coupes/sedans and the car has to sit VERY low to the ground.

2. The car has to sport very aggressive wheels that are usually 16" or smaller

3: the car has to show a little slice of your personality through the modifications of your choice. 

So the first picture is how I got the car. Bone stock, 108,000 original documented miles. 5 speed, slick top, leather interior. 

The first thing I did, is I removed all 4 struts from the car to prepare the springs to be cut for temporary low. I don't have any pictures of this, but I do how pictures of how the car sits afterwards. 

I then bought some wheels. The wheels I chose measure 15x10.5 -32 on all four corners. These are some beefy wheels, exactly what I was looking for! As I was installing them, I realized the center bore was much too small for the wheels to fit in the front, along with the actual inner barrel of the wheel contacting the strut. My quick fix is to buy some of the smallest bolt on spacers I can find until I want to replace the lug studs with longer units and buy slide on spacers. The smallest ones I could find that were all the correct sizes were 1.25in wide.

 

I will come back and post a full parts list and build sheet soon, for now, here's a couple pictures of how the car looks as of today!

 

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im guessing you need more than 1/4in spacers but they do sell 1/4in so you know. also might gain room with the t3 coilovers in the front. the strut tube is same dia. but the coil is obviously much smaller dia than stock. welcome to the oddball club of s130's. the weird tire/rim combo isn't quite my style but whatever floats your boat. the front will only go couple inches down before the stock strut tube bottoms out (you may already know) and the rear starts toeing inward as you get 3in or more down. when you do rear tire fitment keep in mind the tire moves forward as the car squats so you will rub in the front of the rear wheel well first. which brings up a good point that the s130's like to squat when you launch hard. it scrubs some horsepower but it alows our cars to "hook in dirt" if you know what i mean. anyway, good luck. looks like you have a good base to start with. lots of questions can be answered on this site.

6654289591575725366795194343306295o.jpg

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I like the direction that the car is headed. I really love the Shakotan/Boso style, but I'm not extreme enough to pull it off. It seems like you have a really nice base to start with as well, that makes all of the difference as far as being able to allocate funds to stylistic/performance mods instead of rust repair, body work, or general maintenance. 

I see you're in Morristown, I'm just a little ways south in Knoxville. If you need parts or a hand let me know. There is also a facebook group called "East TN Z Club" that you might be interested in joining if you aren't already a member.

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20 minutes ago, G-Tech said:

im guessing you need more than 1/4in spacers but they do sell 1/4in so you know. also might gain room with the t3 coilovers in the front. the strut tube is same dia. but the coil is obviously much smaller dia than stock. welcome to the oddball club of s130's. the weird tire/rim combo isn't quite my style but whatever floats your boat. the front will only go couple inches down before the stock strut tube bottoms out (you may already know) and the rear starts toeing inward as you get 3in or more down. when you do rear tire fitment keep in mind the tire moves forward as the car squats so you will rub in the front of the rear wheel well first. which brings up a good point that the s130's like to squat when you launch hard. it scrubs some horsepower but it alows our cars to "hook in dirt" if you know what i mean. anyway, good luck. looks like you have a good base to start with. lots of questions can be answered on this site.

6654289591575725366795194343306295o.jpg

Thank you for the advice and compliments!

 

7 minutes ago, lowrider said:

I like the direction that the car is headed. I really love the Shakotan/Boso style, but I'm not extreme enough to pull it off. It seems like you have a really nice base to start with as well, that makes all of the difference as far as being able to allocate funds to stylistic/performance mods instead of rust repair, body work, or general maintenance. 

I see you're in Morristown, I'm just a little ways south in Knoxville. If you need parts or a hand let me know. There is also a facebook group called "East TN Z Club" that you might be interested in joining if you aren't already a member.

Okay awesome thank you for the positivity. I've been wanting to do this to my Z for several years now so I'm so excited to get it on its feet and give it some love. Yeah I'm in Morristown, I'm in and around Knoxville about once a month or so we could meet up at a cars and coffee sometime or something!

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Okay so after getting some stuff done to my other car, I'm gonna put some focus towards the ol Z again. I have a few things ordered for the car right now that I'm waiting on. I bought a new airdam, headlight covers, and some side skirt splitters that I'm going to try and see if I can make them fit. From the measuring I've done it looks like they'll be a near perfect fit so I'm thinking I'll be okay. 

 

Ive lowered the car a little bit more since the last time I posted here so I'll attach some pictures. When the new parts come in I'll post them up here and some before/after pictures as well. 

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Edited by CGreene
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4 minutes ago, G-Tech said:

looking good. now you gotta get some spray tint and black out the blinkers. unless you have good mental brakes and are able to stop at some point. my brakes are horrible, i never know how to stop.post-24014-0-51490500-1497888505_thumb.jpgpost-24014-0-48510500-1479049041_thumb.jpg

 

Funny you say that, I have some spray tint waiting for a warmer day...

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